Our Trustees
The Trustees at Toynbee Hall have ultimate Governance responsibility for the organisation. They have legal responsibility for the charity’s work, guide strategy, support the Senior Management Team and ensure the objectives of Toynbee Hall are realised. All Toynbee Hall Trustees are volunteers.
Julian Corner
Chair
Julian is chief executive of Lankelly Chase Foundation, which he joined in 2011 from the Home Office where he had been head of its crime strategy unit. Until recently Julian was a long term resident of Tower Hamlets and remains passionate about our role in improving lives in the borough.
Husna Mortuza
Trustee
Husna grew up locally to Toynbee Hall and has strong connections to the area. Beyond Toynbee Hall, she advocates for policy changes in areas of social justice and welfare reform and is currently the Deputy Director of Advocacy and Public Engagement at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. She is a former civil servant and Head of Policy Campaigns for the pan disability charity, Leonard Cheshire. Husna has extensive experience of Policy Development, Strategy and Campaigns with Governments and the not-for-profit sector.
Maysam Rizvi
Trustee
Founder and CEO, Elifinity. Maysam’s career is defined by problem solving and tapping fruitful new areas of opportunity. He is a keen advocate for the fair use of technology in finance and is a thought leader on open banking and artificial intelligence.
Tahera Rouf
Trustee
Tahera is an Associate at RCKa Architects and has extensive experience in the residential, community and education sectors. She has led and delivered award winning projects including PegasusLife retirement living scheme, Brentwood School new-build and refurbishment project and Westborough Primary School zero carbon remodelling and research project, looking into ways to refurbish primary schools to be meet zero carbon standards.
Sarah Squires
Member of the Finance Committee
Sarah is a lawyer, and her connections with Toynbee Hall began when, as a junior lawyer, she volunteered in Toynbee Hall’s free legal advice centre. Several years on, in 2012, Sarah became a trustee. Sarah maintains her interest in the legal advice centre’s work as chair of the recently formed Legal Capability Steering Group.
David Warner
Chair of the Finance Committee
Former chief executive of London Funders and before that Homeless Link, with a huge knowledge of civil society inside and outside London.
Kawsar Zaman
Trustee
Kawsar Zaman is a barrister specialising in public, regulatory and employment law. He is also a qualified solicitor having practiced at Clifford Chance LLP and Allen & Overy LLP, specialising in financial services regulatory law. Kawsar is a governor at Morpeth Secondary School in Bethnal Green, and is particularly active in supporting Toynbee’s Free Legal Advice Centre. He is a lifelong resident of Tower Hamlets.
Halima Begum
Trustee
Halima is the Director of the Runnymede Trust, the UK’s leading race equality think tank. Halima also has extensive expertise in environment and experience in international development: during a 20-year career with the UK government, she was First Secretary in a variety of overseas postings covering education, human rights, inclusive growth, public health and post-conflict recovery. She subsequently served as a director of the British Council in Asia.
Laura Ratling
Trustee
Laura is a Creative Producer who specialises in large-scale socially-active arts and cultural projects, which explore and build the relationship between communities and the space around them. She has led programmes in both the UK and Uganda, for organisations including the Big Issue Foundation, the British Council and Emergency Exit Arts. She currently works as a Project Manager/Events and Engagement Officer for the City of London, and leads on community engagement strategies and programmes around Aldgate and surrounds. Laura has completed a Masters in Art and Politics at Goldsmiths College, in which she focussed on the notions of the ‘right to the city’ and the ‘right to culture’, both of which underpin her work.
Dee O Connell
Trustee
Dee is the Deputy Director for the Building Safety Programme at the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government. She is highly experienced in policy and strategy and has worked for the government in various other departments and policy areas, including crime and policing at The Home Office, children and young people, inclusion and domestic violence. She is also the founder of Dalston Partnership.
Gemma Woznicki
Trustee
Gemma currently works as a Programme Manager for the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime at City Hall. Her professional focus is around strategy and policy development for London. She has extensive experience of working to achieve improved outcomes for victims and survivors of crime, specifically those affected by Violence Against Women and Girls and young people. She also has a keen personal interest in local history and heritage that helps support her role as Trustee.
Ali Hussein
Trustee
Ali has worked for JP Morgan in various roles over the last 22 years and is now an Executive Director in the Asset Management division. In his career he has worked on various finance roles and is currently the CFO for the Global Equities team.
Sam Thomas
Trustee
Sam is a senior research fellow at the Institute for Social Policy, Housing and Equalities Research (I-SPHERE) at Heriot-Watt University. In previous roles, he managed major grant funding programmes at the Health Foundation and led policy work for the Making Every Adult Matter coalition, working across the national charities Clinks, Mind, and Homeless Link to address multiple disadvantage.
