Our people

Melissa has committed her career, spanning nearly two decades, to supporting and empowering victim-survivors through roles in the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) sector. Melissa brings her passion and dedication to leading the Specialist Team who work with frontline professionals and the financial services sector to raise awareness and improve responses to economic abuse. Also part of Melissa’s role is to amplify the voices of SEA’s Expert’s By Experience Group and to ensure they truly influence the work of SEA to make meaningful change and improve the lives of victim-survivors.

Helen’s background is in the health and disability charity sector. She has more than 20 years experience in operational management and service development, most recently working in partnership with the NHS in developing services for cancer patients, their carers and families. Helen is responsible for strengthening SEA’s operational capability to ensure it can continue to raise awareness of economic abuse and support women to survive and thrive.

Shelagh provides the overall strategic and operational leadership for the development and fundraising function within SEA. She is an experienced fundraiser, having spent the last twelve years managing complex relationships with corporate partners, major donors, trusts and foundations at a senior level . Her marketing and events management knowledge also contributes towards shaping SEA’s future fundraising plans and programmes.

Rosa has spent most of her career so far in the international development sector. She previously worked for Oxfam, developing strategy, programmes and partnerships for women’s rights, and has worked in a range of programme quality roles with a focus on monitoring, evaluation and learning. She supported a victim-survivor focus in safeguarding roles and worked for over a decade in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States.

Cathy is an HR professional who has held HR Director roles in UK & International organisations leading significant multi-channel and multi-market transformational change programmes. Now running her own business as an Independent Consultant focusing on Strategic HR, Executive Coaching & Training.

Since leaving the Treasury in 2011, Sue has held a number of Board and advisory roles. She currently chairs the Financial Services Consumer Panel; and is a Trustee of the People’s Pension; and of StepChange debt charity. Sue also sits as a consumer representative on several financial services industry bodies. She also advises overseas clients on financial education, financial inclusion and consumer protection regulation.

Sue spent most of her career as a senior civil servant, advising government ministers on policy issues including financial services, early years, children and young people, and gender equality.

Janqui Mehta has 13 years’ experience in media and communications. She has developed large scale, national awareness campaigns on a range of social issues, most recently at Smart Energy GB, where she is responsible for media relations for the largest single consumer engagement and behaviour change campaign of this decade – the nationwide smart meter rollout. She worked on national awareness campaigns for national domestic violence charity Refuge for four years.

Penny is a partner at Simmons & Simmons, one of the largest global law firms. She has worked for more than 27 years in regulatory financial services matters. Her work includes individual accountability matters for senior managers, and managing related conduct risk and culture issues across the financial institutions sector. Penny is a member of the firm’s Governance and Culture Advisory Team, which advises on all aspects of corporate governance, culture, remuneration and risk.

Katie has 19+ years experiences working in the Financial Sector as an experienced Director and leader of strategic initiatives across global organisations. Her experience covers business transformation, target operating model, operations strategy and strategic cost reduction programmes and has delivered large scale complex portfolio of projects from offshoring and cost reduction programmes through to regulatory change.

Jonathan has extensive experience over 25+ years at COO Level within the Financial Services Industry working globally in UK, Singapore, Oman, Germany, Hong Kong, Thailand and Mexico, with broad exposure in a range of management roles covering Trade Finance, Risk, Internal Control, Relationship Management, Debt Restructuring, Human Resources and Compliance. His experience covers managing geographically dispersed and international teams to support and deliver cost savings, efficiencies, strategic change, execution of programmes, as well as build revenue and deal pipelines.

Richard Walsh has worked in the Banking sector in a variety of roles for international banks over the past 16 years. His current day to day role in the restructuring team of a Canadian bank involves managing a portfolio of distressed credits with a view to minimising loan losses and maximising recoveries, in addition to recommending the Collective Provision for the UK division over the past 3 years.

Sarah has over 25 years business experience across a variety of sectors, in stakeholder relationships, comms & marketing and government affairs. Most recently Sarah was a founding member of Starling Bank where she developed an interest in Financial Inclusion. Proud to have led on initiatives to create financial inclusion via empowerment such as the creation of the “Gambling Block” which gave freedom for customers to customise and control their spending. Having undertaken several CEO roles, Sarah is currently the CEO at Hope for Children.

Before joining Reprieve in January 2016, Anna worked in Government and Parliament for 15 years including working for the former Leader of the Labour Party, Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP as his Director of Political Relations. Prior to this, she worked as the Assistant Political Secretary to the former Prime Minister, Rt Hon Gordon Brown, in No 10 Downing Street

In 2016 Anna was awarded the New Executive Fellowship from the Open Society Foundation and in 2021 she was awarded an OBE for services to human rights in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Kirsty has significant safeguarding experience with 18+ years working within the social work sector. Having held a diversity of roles within the fields of child protection, youth justice and domestic abuse, both for local authorities and non-governmental organisations Kirsty has a breadth of safeguarding knowledge.

Currently Kirsty enjoys a varied portfolio of work with her main roles being professional case examiner with the social work regulator, Social Work England, and safeguarding lead for WWiN Domestic Abuse Service. In addition, Kirsty undertakes independent social work roles including panel member and chair of safeguarding review panels in national sport, university academic tutor and social work practice educator. Kirsty has a keen interest in social work education, contributing content for domestic abuse national eLearning modules, delivering training to social work professionals, and recently contributing to the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s response to the regulator’s consultation on social work education. 

In a voluntary capacity Kirsty sits as a Magistrate, is a panel member on safeguarding case management groups for two national governing bodies in sport and undertakes home assessments for a national refugee charity.

Shaun has over 15 years’ experience in the charity sector specialising in accounting and finance. He has worked for various cause-based charities, most recently at Mencap, and has lead various strategic projects including the development of business strategies, restructuring and new business development. 

He currently works for Smart Energy GB which is delivering the largest single consumer engagement and behaviour change campaign of the decade – the Smart Meter rollout. Shaun runs their finance and operations function across England, Wales, and Scotland.

Shaun is also qualified in Human Resources and is a qualified Psychotherapist. 

Sam Beckinsale is an actor, writer and producer. She’s also a survivor of domestic abuse, and her journey has led her to activism and advocacy. She became a Patron of Broxtowe Women’s Project, took part in Allie Crewe and Safelives I AM Photographic Exhibition and was part of the global release of a docudrama LOVE?, a film highlighting coercive and controlling behaviour. None of this would have been possible had Sam not come across Surviving Economic Abuse who helped her realise a key thing – she wasn’t mad. She wasn’t imagining it. Economic and financial abuse, along with all the other coercive control behaviours, is real. Sam hopes to do all she can to help others not get caught out as she did and is honoured to be a SEA Ambassador.

Miranda is a multi-sector board advisor, senior visiting fellow at Oxford University, and the Founder, President and CEO of The Miranda Brawn Diversity Leadership Foundation. She is an international public speaker with a background as a lawyer, senior financial executive and a leading business expert. Her experience spans sectors including financial services, law and public policy. Miranda advises on boardroom-level strategy, corporate governance and innovation, with a particular focus on diversity, inclusion and sustainability as part of The Brawn Review at Oxford University. Miranda is passionate about helping others to become economically independent while thriving after experiencing economic abuse.

Norma is a money management consultant with over 20 years’ experience of working in the financial services sector. She is also a qualified psychotherapist with experience of working in women and girls network settings, victim support and addiction services. Norma is the Founder and CEO of Think Like A Bank – an approach to money management – and the author of a self-help money management book of the same name. She specialises in combining financial education with the psychology of money and has supported hundreds of people to improve their financial independence. She is passionate about raising awareness of economic abuse to support victim-survivors.

Bijna has led strategy, digital transformation and innovation within the financial services sector across the UK, EMEA, the Americas and Asia over two decades. Working for large global financial services firms, she has been dedicated to advancing diversity and inclusion in financial services to encourage better opportunities for all. In 2020, she was made MBE for her services to diversity and inclusion in the sector. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Bijna spearheaded global campaigns about mental health and socio-economic inequalities, and launched and ran the first ever Global Domestic Violence Month campaign at Morgan Stanley. Bijna’s leadership in technology and financial services saw her named Global Icon by World Association for Small and Medium Enterprises in 2022.

Selina is the founder of financial coaching and training company Black Girl Finance. She hosts a weekly podcast of the same name, is the author of the personal-finance book ‘Black Girl Finance – Let’s talk money’ and creator of the event Black Girl Finance Festival. She is on a mission to make money conversations more inclusive and won the award for ‘Online Financial Influencer’ at the 2021 British Bank Awards. After a 15-year career in business development, she decided to follow her passion for finance and launch a safe space for women, particularly Black women and women of colour, to talk about money.

Gemma is a non-executive director, business advisor and consumer champion. She is on the boards of several publicly-listed international companies across sustainable energy, financial services and technology. The former FinTech Founder/CEO, whose company was acquired by a global insurer, went on to launch a digital media business and advised the UK government. A boardroom adviser on ‘The Apprentice’, Gemma is a go-to financial expert on TV. As a SEA Ambassador, Gemma is committed to raising awareness of economic abuse and supporting campaigns to change policy for the better.

Francesca has worked in responsible business and sustainability roles over the last ten years, developing programmes that support local community and charitable partners, and encourage employee advocacy for tackling societal issues. Throughout her career she has been a supporter of gender equality and creating a fairer world for women and girls. She is Head of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) and I&D (Inclusion and Diversity) for insurance, risk management and consultancy firm Gallagher EMEA.

Yasmine is a partner at capital markets think tank New Financial, leading its diversity and culture programme. She has been a driving force behind the strategic development of the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter, which aims to increase female representation in senior management in the financial services industry, since it launched in 2016. She was awarded an OBE in 2020 for her work on the Charter. Her research covers multiple aspects of diversity, equity and inclusion, and she firmly believes that diversity is a fundamental part of addressing cultural change across the finance sector.

Geraldine is the Head of Safe Practice at a leading UK youth membership charity and is responsible for creating a safe environment for its members, ensuring they are protected from harm, abuse and exploitation. She has extensive safeguarding experience having worked with the Metropolitan Police for 31 years. During this time, she was dedicated to protecting vulnerable groups, with specific experience focused on domestic abuse, protecting adults and children at risk, managing violent and sex offenders and working with communities. She is committed to driving improvements in safeguarding standards and practice across charity sectors and government as a panel member for Department of Education, England Netball and as a Safeguarding school governor.

Annabel is a solicitor with a broad-based practice which covers public and private law Children Act 1989, Domestic Violence, Community Care and Court of Protection. Annabel has particular expertise in representing victims of domestic and sexual violence, forced marriage and so called ‘honour based’ violence. Annabel is also a CAADA qualified Independent Domestic Violence Advocate and has a thorough knowledge of the dynamics of controlling and abusive behaviours.

Imogen is a civil servant with experience working across a range of government departments, including the Home Office, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Ministry of Defence. Currently a policy manager, Imogen worked on the Domestic Abuse Act and also has a background in research, analysis and communications, working extensively across a number of national and international issues. She also worked on the introduction of the Sexual Violence Bill for the New Zealand Ministry of Justice and on education reform for New Zealand’s Ministry for Education.

Sarah joined Royal London in 2020. Her role as Consumer Finance Specialist involves acting as a spokesperson on a range of consumer finance issues, from pensions and retirement to budgeting and debt. Sarah also leads on consumer campaigning, and acts as a consumer advocate and expert on key strategic areas, such as support and guidance for customers.

Jane is a portfolio director, having spent 30 years in the big 4 as a Financial Services partner. She advised clients on risk and regulation, including outcomes for vulnerable customers. In 2016, Jane co-founded Insuring Women’s Futures – a voluntary, market-led programme to improve women’s financial resilience. Jane is the creator of ‘6 Moments That Matter’ – a framework for identifying financial Risks in Life to enable individuals, businesses, regulators and policy-makers to improve people’s Financial Life Journeys. She is also a member of Women’s Business Council and sits on the Global Advisory Board of the Insurance Supper Club.

Ian has over 25 years’ experience in the financial services industry. His background is in frontline, customer-facing roles, which has given him practical experience into the real-word challenges facing customers and colleagues. Moving into senior roles, he oversaw the vulnerable consumer strategy at Lloyd’s Banking Group before joining Stepchange, the UKs largest free debt advice provider. Ian is also a lead for the UK Finance Vulnerability Academy, which helps financial services firms to embed support for vulnerable customers into their organisations.

Johnny Timpson has over 40 years’ experience in the insurance and banking sectors in leadership and business development roles. He is committed to financial inclusion, where financial services are accessible and easy to use, and is a Financial Inclusion Commissioner. As a champion of consumer rights, he is also a member of the Financial Services Consumer Panel, which represents the interests of consumers in the development of financial services policy and regulation. In previous roles, Johnny was the inaugural Cabinet Office Disability and Access Ambassador for the Insurance and Banking Sectors, and Chair of the Consumer Protection Policy Council for The Investing and Saving Alliance.

Nick is a former BBC editor and multi-award-winning journalist turned corporate communications and media specialist. Advising on major campaigns and executive communication initiatives, Nick’s work has been seen (and its impact felt) across the world. He is passionate about getting the SEA message out and supporting the charity through the next chapter of its incredible story.