Team
Sandra has over 25 years’ experience of facilitation, and programme management within many diverse contexts, and in particular within theatre and the arts. Sandra is the Programme Manager for The Forgiveness Project’s prison programme, RESTORE and a lead facilitator of this work for over nine years. Sandra is a creative artist working within performance, dance, visual arts, poetry and photography and is passionate about embedding all her practice within RESTORE.
Rachel Bird was appointed Director in May 2017, starting with The Forgiveness Project as Project Co-ordinator in 2011 and having served as Operations Director (in effect Acting Director) since April 2016. She has almost 20 years’ experience working with community organisations and co-ordinating refugee and peace groups.
Marina is an award-winning journalist who has worked for most British mainstream publications including The Guardian, The Telegraph and Hello magazine. In 2003, in response to the invasion of Iraq, she embarked on a personal project collecting stories of people who had lived through trauma and injustice, and sought forgiveness rather than revenge. As a result Marina founded The Forgiveness Project and started speaking widely about forgiveness and restorative storytelling.
Georgia is a current MA Human Rights student at University College London. Georgia initially joined The Forgiveness Project after having been exposed to our work during her time studying a BA in Sociology with Criminology at the University of York. Georgia’s interests are far-reaching, and she has volunteered with a variety of different charitable organisations, but she has a keen curiosity in the way in which the modern criminal justice system intersects with other contemporary social issues.
Katalin is a BA Photography and MSc Development Studies graduate who is passionate about enabling organisations to realise their vision while fostering an open, safe and productive work environment. Besides having worked in the creative industries since 2010, Katalin immersed herself in studying economic and social power dynamics both at a global and micro scale at SOAS, London. This has led her to discover The Forgiveness Project, where she has enjoyed managing the charity’s website and social media accounts, and leading awareness raising campaigns to amplify the organisation’s voice across the world.
Eliyes has enjoyed maths since his childhood. He is a mathematics graduate and has a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) in Mathematics. He also holds a Level 3 Advanced Diploma in IT, and a Level 3 Diploma in Accounting (AAT).
Trustees
Anna is Director of School of System Change and Head of System Innovation Lab at Forum for the Future, a sustainable development charity where she works with people and organisations to create wide scale change. For over 8 years she worked with the education system both at Forum and as the Education Programme Manager at WWF-UK. Find Anna on LinkedIn.
Matthew is a lawyer who has spent over 20 years working for international law firms Clifford Chance and Sidley Austin. During the course of his career he has lived and worked in London, Tokyo and Abu Dhabi. He is currently a partner with William Fry, an Irish law firm. Matthew has been involved with The Forgiveness Project, helping with fundraising and other matters, since 2016.
Tony is a physics graduate who qualified as a chartered accountant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Following a period in the financial services practice he transferred to a major European banking group where he ultimately specialised in Private Equity. He is currently the Chief Financial Officer for Indigo Capital.
Ann is a retired Psychotherapist and Paediatric Physiotherapist. Following her retirement she worked with NGO’s in Israel supporting peace projects between Israelis and Palestinians as well as medical care for Palestinians. Her involvement with TFP began in the early 2000’s introducing South Hams communities and secondary schools to the organisations concepts and focus.
Sally is a professionally qualified Learning and Organisation Development specialist, with an Msc in Organisational Behaviour and over 20 years’ experience of leading and managing organisational change projects within public sector, not for profit and commercial organisations. Sally is passionate about finding ways to build relationships across difference and divide and is in the process of training to become an accredited facilitator with the Compassionate Listening Project.
Primarily trained in the arts, Liz is a past Board member of Hampshire Probation Trust and a previous Executive member of the National Association for Approved Premises in the UK. Liz has held roles of Branch Director and national Vice Chair at Samaritans and was Chair of the Befrienders Worldwide Steering Group. A member of the Selborne Landscape Partnership (SLP) a Farmer Cluster, working collectively to enhance the landscape for the benefit of wildlife. Liz organises the expert volunteer surveyors who work tirelessly to record and monitor wildlife across the landscape of North East Hampshire. Liz’s main focus is an arable reversion and rewilding project, which she actively undertakes with her partner and they advise on similar schemes within Hampshire and surrounding areas.
Chris is a retired business consultant. After a career in sales and marketing in the IT industry, Chris spent the next 25 years as a business consultant, helping clients manage programmes of organisational change. Chris believes passionately in developing peace and reconciliation rather than conflict and revenge. He has been involved with The Forgiveness Project in one form or another since 2012.
Jo has a wealth of experience from over 20 years co-ordinating projects in the non-governmental sector. She is Programme Manager of People of the Earth, a people on the move project at St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace. She holds a Diploma in group facilitation, conflict resolution and counselling initiated by The Forgiveness Project and is a graduate of the International School of Storytelling.
Founding Patrons
The late Dame Anita Roddick, DBE was a British businesswoman, human rights activist and environmental campaigner, best known as the founder of The Body Shop, a cosmetics company producing and retailing natural beauty products that shaped ethical consumerism.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu was the chairman of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The TRC was established to investigate the violations that took place between 1960 and 1994, to provide support and reparation to victims and their families, and to compile a full and objective record of the effects of apartheid on South African society.