Paul Woodhouse
Chairman
Paul is an Associate of Corbett Keeling, a Corporate Finance firm, within their Financial Institutions Practice and Associate of Meridian Risk Solutions Ltd, a Lloyds Broking firm.
He started in the Insurance industry in London 1968 and enjoyed senior roles as a Reinsurance Intermediary with leading firms until 1999 with responsibility for larger clients in UK, North America, Bermuda and Australasia.
In 2000, Paul became a volunteer through Sevenoaks Volunteer Bureau (now incorporated into Imago), working on specific projects with individuals. He became Trustee Treasurer and subsequently Chairman of VSU Youth in Action (now also incorporated into Imago) and has always taken a keen interest in the development and delivery of Youth Volunteering.
Paul became Chairman of Imago in 2010, encouraged by the very talented management team and staff and has a particular interest in attracting alternative funding, including innovative Social Enterprise projects.
Andy Barrow
Director
Andy is a triple Paralympian and three-time European gold medallist. He was a professional Wheelchair Rugby player for Great Britain for over a decade, captaining the team for five years spanning the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing. Andy competed at London 2012 Paralympic Games before retiring internationally to pursue a career as an inspirational speaker and mentor. His key topics include Teamwork, Motivation, Overcoming Adversity, Leadership, Equality/Diversity and Managing Change.
Andy is full member of the Professional Speaking Association and is also a “Team London” ambassador for whom he regularly speaks and has delivered to a crowd of 12,000 people at Wembley Arena.
In addition to being an inspirational speaker and mentor, Andy runs two large projects working with young people. The first, with long-term client Chaucer Syndicates, sees him create volunteering opportunities for employees, who help him run team-building days for young people with challenges. Andy runs days across London and Kent based on his “3 C’s” (confidence, communication and compromise). The second project is the “Athlete Inspiration Programme”, where series of workshops regarding wellbeing, nutrition, resilience and teamwork are held for the schools in his home borough of Greenwich.
Andy supports many different charities and initiatives in an ambassadorial capacity by appearing at fundraising events, giving prizes at award ceremonies or speaking at dinners. These include Right to Play, Charlton Athletic Community Trust, the RFU Injured Players Foundation, OCS and Greenwich Starting Blocks among others.
As someone who has overcome great adversity, Andy has shown that success is achieved through hard work and perseverance. He also believes that in life, nothing will change unless you change it.
His motto is simply….take the opportunity!
John Cheesman
Director
John is an agile legal leader with significant financial services experience in the private sector, in-house and in regulatory enforcement at the FCA, PRA and Bank of England. He has investigated international and domestic banks and insurers for failings in governance, risk management and internal controls, and held to account those in senior management positions.
He is currently the Head of Strategy & COO for the Bank of England’s 200-strong Legal Directorate (LD), reporting to the General Counsel, and a member of her senior leadership team. In this role, John leads LD’s Strategy & Operations team working closely with the General Counsel’s Office to maximise the impact of LD and ensure the smooth delivery of LD’s strategic and business plans, new initiatives and operational matters, including budget management, risk management, annual performance and salary reviews, Directorate-wide communications, technology and business continuity. He is passionate about responsible leadership, completing an Executive MBA with Distinction in 2022, and champions a data-driven approach to improving diversity, equity and inclusion.
Immediately prior to this role, John was part of a legal leadership team providing advice to all of the UK central bank’s financial stability functions, including its Financial Policy Committee. In this role he supported the Bank’s General Counsel to coordinate the Legal Directorate’s support to senior decision-makers operating to stabilise failing banks in 2023, including Silicon Valley Bank UK.
John lives in Hildenborough, Tonbridge with his wife, Esther, a GP in Sevenoaks, and their children. He loves reading, live music, attending the theatre, swimming with his kids, and making time to catch up with friends! He enjoys the gym, plays racket sports when he can, and occasionally suffers through a spin class.
Laura Ellis
Director
Laura is the BBC’s Head of Technology Forecasting, working in the corporation’s Research and Development team. A technologist and journalist who specialises in machine learning, disinformation, and data, she focuses on ensuring the BBC is best placed to take advantage of new and emerging technology. Laura has worked on news teams in radio, TV, and online and led two regional news and current affairs teams thorough significant technology change, establishing the BBC’s first end-to-end digital newsroom.
Laura is married with a grown-up son and lives on the Kent/Surrey border with Eddie, her husky/German Shepherd cross. In her spare time, she enjoys running, reading and learning Mandarin.
Chris Hare
Director
Chris is the Executive Director for Employers and Corporate Services at MidKent College where he has the responsibilities of Human Resources, Payroll, ICT, Apprenticeships, Marketing and Data Protection.
He originally worked at MidKent College between 1994 and 2005, where he progressed from IT Trainer through to senior management, leading and establishing the commercial training arm for the College. He returned to MidKent in 2015 as Director for Enterprise and Employer Engagement.
Outside of the College, Chris is the Chairman at Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce, where he leads on the skills portfolio and the promotion of business investment in developing the workforce for economic development and growth.
Elizabeth Rogula
Director
Elizabeth was involved in the Lloyd’s insurance market for more than 25 years and held several senior positions during that time, including Operations Director for Lloyd’s Japan for 11 years.
She worked as an insurance consultant and was also elected to the City of London Corporation in 2008 as a Member representing the Ward of Lime Street until 2022, when she did not stand for re-election.
She is currently a Trustee and Chair of Housing the Homeless Central Fund.
Danielle Swanson
Director
Danielle graduated from the University of Kent in 2006 with a Law degree. Whilst at University Danielle had a number of voluntary roles within Kent Union, through which she completed the KSCV Gold and Millennium Volunteers accreditations. This prompted her to take up a role supporting the FE Students’ Union of Canterbury College after she graduated. It was at this point that she became more aware of VSU Youth in Action, becoming an Adult Volunteer with the Youth Action Team in Canterbury.
In 2008 Danielle became one of the five Youth Volunteer Advisors with VSU, prior to the merger with Imago. She was part of the county-wide team tasked with brokering volunteering opportunities to 16-25 year old as part of the Involved initiative.
After completing her LPC at The College of Law in 2010, Danielle worked in a number of legal support roles before moving back into the world of students' unions in the Advice sector. Danielle has been at Students’ Union UCL since 2018 where she is now the Head of Advice and Wellbeing, overseeing the Advice Service as well as the Union’s Equity and Inclusion Unit and other wellbeing projects.
Danielle remains passionate about the voluntary sector, with particular focus on the opportunities available to young people. She believes that her previous experience both as a volunteer and staff member allow her to bring a unique perspective to the Trustee board.
Edward Weeks
Director
Ed is a solicitor and partner in Cripps LLP, the largest law firm in Kent, which is based in Tunbridge Wells. He is a commercial lawyer who specialises in the resolution of boardroom and shareholder disputes and complex contractual disputes.
Graduating from Lancaster University in 1988 with a degree in History, Ed worked for a year for the Worldwide Fund for Nature at their UK headquarters in the regional fundraising section. He then worked as a general clerk for a law firm in London before returning to law college and ultimately qualifying as a solicitor in 1994 with Penningtons Solicitors.
Ed moved to Cripps in 1997 and became a partner with the firm in 2001.
Ed always retained an interest in the voluntary sector and was put in charge of the firm’s corporate social responsibility programme in 2007 which he ran for many years.