It takes an incredible team to make it work

Our team

We have teams based from our Sheffield office and hybrid working in London and across the UK . Our Board of Trustees come from around the UK and meet regularly in Sheffield. We work with a wide range of partners to achieve our aims. Our full list of partners can be seen below.

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Senior Leadership

Laura D'Henin
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Laura  is primarily responsible for setting the overall direction and vision of Hope for the Future, making key strategic decisions, and ensuring effective implementation against our strategy.

laura.dhenin@hftf.org.uk

Anne Dargue
Director of Operations

Anne is responsible for Hope for the Future’s HR  function and oversees our finance function.  With years of experience in charity administration, she ensures the smooth running of our operations.

anne.dargue@hftf.org.uk

Jess Parish
Director of Income Generation

Jess oversees all aspects of HFTF’s fundraising and income generation as well as our marketing and communications activities. Jess is an experienced bid writer and communications professional.

jessica.parish@hftf.org.uk

Nicola Sansom
Director of Delivery

Nicola leads our team of Policy and Engagement Officers and  oversees all aspects of HFTF’s constituent engagement and training delivery. Nicola is an experienced campaigner, project manager and trainer in a UK and global context.

nicola.sansom@hftf.org.uk

Delivery and Operations

Vacancy
Policy & Engagement Officer

Our policy and engagement officers support constituents to build a relationship with their political representatives.

applications@hftf.org.uk

Alfie Prothero
Research & Policy Officer

Alfie provides research support to our team and supports constituents in building a relationship with their political representatives and engaging them on climate change. Contact Alfie if you or your organisation is looking for support in contacting and working with your MP or council.

alfie.prothero@hftf.org.uk

Charlie Fox
Political Lead

Charlie provides research support to our team of Policy and Engagement Officers,and works with our partners and other climate and nature organisations to develop and implement grassroots advocacy strategies to influence political decision-makers on climate change policies.
charlie.fox@hftf.org.uk

Fergus Lamb
Policy & Engagement Officer

Fergus supports constituents to engage their political representatives to take action on climate change. Contact Fergus if you, your community group or organisation is looking for support engaging your MP, council or mayor.

fergus.lamb@hftf.org.uk

Joe Gascoyne-Thompson
Policy & Engagement Officer

Joe has a background in arts management and theatre administration. He supports constituents to engage with their local and national politicians. Contact Joe if you, your community group or organisation is looking for support in engaging with your MP or councillors.

joe.thompson@hftf.org.uk

Finance

Bashkim Muca
Finance Coordinator

Bash supports HFTF's financial activities, including budgeting, financial reporting, and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.

bashkim.muca@hftf.org.uk

Fundraising

Naomi Lawson
Partnership Manager

Info coming soon

naomi.lawson@hftf.org.uk

Trustees

Jonny Exon
Chair

Jonny's background is in charity and higher education leadership. Currently CEO of the University of York's Graduate Student Association, Jonny has served as a trustee of six charities, most recently as the Vice Chair of St Nicks, an environmental charity in York.  Jonny's growing concern about political inaction on climate issues led him to Hope for the Future - drawn to the charity's positive, inclusive, and impactful approach to creating change.

James Pilley
Treasurer

James brings over 10 years of experience in finance roles, with expertise in accounting, audit, risk management, and strategic financial planning including working with charities.

Cristina Leston Bandeira

Cristina is a professor of politics at the University of Leeds and has worked on parliament and public engagement for 20 years. She is passionate about empowering people to enable change and she wanted to work with Hope for the Future to help achieve meaningful action on climate and the environment.

Uday Vartak

Uday has well-rounded experience of Investment Oversight, Risk Assurance, and Governance within the Financial Services industry. He believes that climate risk is investment risk and is passionate about transitioning away from the present scale of climate risk.

Rodolfo Barradas

Rodolfo’s background is in policy and communications with a career that spans central Government and the charity sector. He is Vice Chair of East Street Arts in Leeds and former Ambassador for Young Trustees Movement. Rodolfo joined HFTF to better support civil society and local communities to make their voice heard in how we address the climate emergency.

Jacob Ohrvik-Stott

Jacob is currently a researcher at a community-interest consultancy, where he is Co-Director of a research centre exploring future trends. He has a broad range of research, policy and public engagement experience across energy and technology areas, having previously worked for charities, a think tank, and a regulator.

Sam Karslake

Sam brings over eight years of experience of working in climate change policy and analysis in the public sector, including within the team delivering the UK's COP26 Presidency, as well as time at a regulator and in his current role at the Climate Change Committee, the UK's independent statutory climate advisors.

Dr Richard Axelby

Richard is a social anthropologist  and senior research fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.  He has worked  on political engagement and communication projects in the UK, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Ethiopia.

Dr Xihui Haviour Chen

Xihui Haviour Chen is an Associate Professor at the Keele Business School. Her expertise lies in climate governance, green innovation, environmental management and sustainability. She has showcased her research at prestigious international conferences and has contributed to esteemed academic journals. Her  work has also featured in Financial Management Magazine, Scottish Left Review, and on Tunisia TV. She is Associate Editor of the Journal of Environmental Management and Review of Accounting and Finance.

Adam Berman

Adam is Director of Policy and Advocacy at Energy UK, the industry body for the energy sector. He leads the organisation’s policy and advocacy work which focusses on speeding up the UK’s journey to Net Zero by enabling a low carbon energy future. From wind turbines to heat pumps, and hydrogen to EVs, Energy UK’s advocacy programme spans the breadth of low carbon technology.  

Cassa Townsend

As a charity engagement specialist with extensive experience in supporting people to become active citizens through volunteering, Cassa has worked with a range of local, regional and national environmental/heritage charities.
She brings experience in charity finance and fundraising, HR and volunteering management; impact monitoring and evaluation and marketing/communications to support Hope for the Future.