Alison Wallace | CEO
Alison has been CEO of SOS Children’s Villages UK since January 2018. Prior to joining she was CEO of the European Council on Foreign Relations and global relief organisation at ShelterBox. She has held senior positions at Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth, and the Refugee Council, and has overseen relief operations for emergencies including Typhoon Haiyan and the Nepal earthquakes. She is also a trustee of Crisis.
Susanne Owers | Director of Development
Susanne joined SOS Children’s Villages UK in 2018. Prior to that she held similar senior positions at The Willow Foundation, Red Balloon Learner Centres, a leading NHS Charitable Trust, Camfed and Fauna & Flora International. She has worked in the non-profit sector at other leading UK charities for over 20 years, including WaterAid, Plan International, Crisis and other organisations. She is currently a trustee at Centre33, a charity supporting children and young people with their mental health.
Craig Mullaly | Director of Individual Giving
Craig joined SOS Children’s Villages UK in May 2018. He has over 20 years of professional fundraising experience, half of which at senior levels. As staff member or consultant, he has extensive experience of developing Individual Giving fundraising and setting up new fundraising programmes around the world including at EveryChild UK, Family for Every Child New Zealand, and the Lebanese Red Cross. He has previously served as a board director for 4 years at the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association in the UK, and chaired its Communications & Engagement Committee.
Sarah Bradford | Director of Communication and Brand
Sarah joined SOS Children’s Villages UK in February 2023 as Director of Communications and Brand. She has 20 years’ senior experience in internationally-focused communications and marketing roles, including for Conciliation Resources, RedR UK and Projects Abroad. Sarah has also spent periods of time working overseas, including leading a team in Berlin, and as a journalist in Shanghai. Sarah previously Chaired the Branding and Communications Working Group of the +Peace coalition.
Andrew Grieve | Director of Finance and IT
Andrew joined SOS Children’s Villages UK in October 2023. He is a Chartered Management Accountant with extensive financial management experience in both public and private sector organisations, advocating strong financial management and governance. Previous roles have involved leading Finance and IT functions in Higher Education as well as various manufacturing sectors. Andrew holds an MBA and is also a Parent Governor at a local primary school.
Our Trustees
Our Board of Trustees are vital to the work that we do at SOS Children’s Villages UK. They share our core values and work hard to help us maintain complete transparency with our partners and our supporters.
Dame Mary Richardson | President
Dame Mary is a former regular officer in the Women’s Royal Army Corps and later became a Headteacher of a secondary school in London. She was then invited to be the CE of HSBC’s Global Education Trust where the Trust supported SOS Children’s Villages. She was Chairman of the English Speaking Union, continues on the board of many charities and foundations, is deputy chairman of Richmond University board and Vice President of the Marine Society and Sea Cadets.
Harpinder Collacott | Chair of Trustees
Harpinder (Pin) is the Executive Director for Mercy Corps Europe. Prior to joining Mercy Corps in October 2022, she was Chief Executive of Development Initiatives. As well as being Chair of SOS Children’s Villages UK, she is Vice-Chair of UK umbrella body, BOND, and until October 2022 a Board Trustee of WaterAid UK. Harpinder has a diverse background in development and international affairs. Over the last 25 years, she has held a variety of roles including the Political Advisor to the Prosecutor with the War Crimes Tribunal for Sierra Leone, Human Rights Programme Officer for the Oak Foundation, and South Asia Researcher for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Harpinder holds an undergraduate from Cambridge University and a post-graduate in international relations from London School of Economics.
Kim Bowden
Kim has worked in senior finance positions for many years, with some large International Charities, such as Care International, Marie Stopes International and World Animal Protection. In these organisations she led the Finance functions, with responsibility for overseas staff, working with country offices and partners to ensure systems and processes are robust and compliant. She is passionate about the difference financial insight can make to an organisation and is motivated by working in organisations which make a difference hence the interest in the work of SOS Children’s Villages UK.
Adelise Baha
Adelise is from Côte d’Ivoire. She is Head of Programs and Advocacy at SOS Children’s Villages International, regional office based in Dakar (Senegal). Adelise holds a Master’s degree in Project Management and Humanitarian Logistics from CHAIRE UNESCO Abidjan and a University Diploma in Humanitarian Law from the University of Côte d’Azur (France). In addition, she holds several certificates including in Refugee Rights and Internally Displaced Persons, Migration Law from the International Institute of Human Rights (IIDH), in Advocacy from Philanthropy University (USA) in partnership with University of California (USA). Adelise has over 10 years of experience in international NGOs promoting and protecting children’s and women’s rights and in humanitarian project coordination and advocacy strategy development. She loves to work on child rights protection issues. She enjoys reading and discovering new cultures.
Ian Briggs
Ian has over 20 years’ experience as a finance professional in the charity and public sector having worked for national and international organisations. These include the International Red Cross, Save the Children, International Planned Parenthood Federation, and RNIB. He is currently the Director of Corporate Services at Wood Green, the Animals Charity.
Graham Budd
Graham has recently retired after 28 years of leadership at one of the UK’s most successful technology companies, where he was President and Chief Operating Officer and a member of the Board. He serves as a trustee of a number of charities. He has supported SOS Children’s Villages for 10 years.
Suli Hampson
Suli brings over 20 years’ experience in financial services and management consulting, and several years as a charity Trustee. She has held senior roles at Lloyds Banking Group, PwC and KPMG and her experience includes business operations, strategy & planning, transformation, mergers & acquisitions, and more recently ESG and FinTech advisory.
Solava Ibrahim
Solava Ibrahim is affiliated lecturer at the Centre of Development Studies at the University of Cambridge and director of the MA in International Relations at Anglia Ruskin University. For five years, Solava was Director of the MSc in Poverty, Inequality and Development at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. She previously worked for Brooks World Poverty Institute, the Chronic Poverty Research Centre and held positions in Egypt at the American University in Cairo and UNDP. Her research focuses on wellbeing of vulnerable groups, poverty reduction and inequality, as well as the role of NGOs and grassroots organisations in development.
Louise McDonald
Louise has a career spanning over 20 years working in both national not-for-profits and international organisations. She is currently the Director of People & Culture for MAG (Mines Advisory Group) International. She has held both operational and strategic HR roles for Australian Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent. Louise has also worked for Oxfam International leading culture, diversity and inclusion, and employee relations at a global level. She holds an MBA (Change Management).
Janet Reilly
Janet is the Director of People & Culture for Development Initiatives, a global organisation that harnesses the power of data to end poverty, reduce inequality and increase resilience. Janet champions an inclusive culture through talent acquisition, talent management and talent operation strategies and leads on safeguarding and the organisaional risk register. Janet is Chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and has 30+ years’ experience acquired from a variety of sectors including international development, education, housing and blue-chip professional services. Janet has previous board experience with a housing association, and has strong governance experience, being also the Company Secretary at Development Initiatives.
Jon Steinback
Jon has over two decades’ leadership experience at tech companies – including DeepMind, Facebook, and Google – focusing on the impact of cutting-edge technologies and overseeing teams in product, marketing, design, policy, and research. He has been a long-time supporter of the SOS Children’s Villages mission, spending a summer volunteering at an SOS Children’s Village in Swaziland (now Eswatini) over 20 years ago.
