Our Trustees
Our Trustees have responsibility for strategy, quality, compliance, governance and oversight of management. They make sure we comply with legislation and all relevant regulations, as well as being our advocates and ambassadors.
Paul Coulson – Chair
Paul is an employment law and employee relations consultant, providing pragmatic and achievement-oriented solutions for his clients. He has significant legal, employee relations, commercial and leadership experience in both private practice and industry. Paul is a passionate coach and mentor who enjoys unlocking potential and problem-solving which is focused on equity and inclusion.
Paul brings to Working Families his experiences of having been brought up in a single-parent household on a Council estate in the north of England and of becoming a single parent himself when his three children (now in their late teens and early twenties) were in primary education.
Neha Kulkarni – Treasurer
Neha is a Partner at Deloitte and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. During her professional career that spans 18 years across Mumbai and London, alongside her fee-earning work, Neha has held several internal leadership roles in the areas of finance and operations, people management, business development and diversity and inclusion. Neha is passionate about facilitating equal opportunity for success for women, people of minority backgrounds, those with caring responsibilities and health conditions and other under-represented groups and champions this through her professional and personal lives and volunteer roles.
Prajakta Datar
Prajakta works at Adobe UK where she manages the pre sales team for Adobe’s content & work management business. Praj has worked in MarTech and Digital Marketing for over 12 years and has supported several organisations on their digital transformation journeys, especially focussing on data and insights. Praj is an advocate for establishing a culture of trust & transparency within her teams and organisations which enables people to do their best and make an impact.
Praj has always been involved in the charity sector from being part of “Leo club” in her teenage years to more recently organising several volunteering events at Adobe. Praj is part of a tri-lingual, multi-cultural, trans-continental family. She and her husband live in London and have 2 sons, affording her first hand experience of what it means to be a working family and what is needed for working families to thrive!
Saira Demmer
Saira is CEO at SF Recruitment, a recruitment firm specialising in Finance, Technology & Engineering. Saira joined in 2020 having previously been UK CEO and CFO at Ignata where she played a key role in building the group to over £50m of Turnover. Before entering the recruitment sector, Saira spent six years spent in Deloitte’s M&A strategy team, where she was involved in over 40 buy side and sell side transactions.
Saira is passionate about employee engagement and since joining SF has transformed the business through a new people-centric business model, tripling the size of the business in 3 years and increasing employee productivity and reward by over 60%.
Outside of the boardroom, Saira is also a dedicated adventurer, she previously climbed half of Mount Everest and loves to travel the world to pursue her love of open-water diving.
Michael Dunson-Odusanya
Michael is currently a Director of Cloud Engineering at S&P Global and has 24 years of experience working within Technology across various vertical industry sectors. Often tasked with improving the technology landscape, driving cloud adoption and digital transformation efforts. Passionate about people development and an advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion within the workplace and society at large.
Michael has two adult children, and two younger children in primary education. He is intimately familiar with the challenges of balancing work responsibilities with the flexibility required to remain an active father across blended families, while also having a perspective on managing work-life balance at various career stages. Additionally, Michael also acted as the primary carer to his elderly mother post being diagnosed with a terminal illness.
Mandy Garner
Mandy is a seasoned journalist and has worked for a range of organisations and publications, including the BBC, Times Higher Education and University World News. She now works as a communications officer at the University of Cambridge, but was managing editor of WM People [workingmums.co.uk, workingdads.co.uk and workingwise.co.uk] for 18 years until 2024.
She hopes to bring all that experience to the wonderful work of Working Families. Mandy is also a mum of four and has recently set up Talk2Nish.com, a charity for mental health peer mentors in honour of her daughter Anisha.
Anna Homewood
Anna is a qualified accountant with extensive leadership experience in the Banking industry. She is currently a Finance director at Aldermore Bank, where she leads a high performing Financial Planning and Analytics team – overseeing strategic planning, forecasting, pricing governance and executive reporting. Anna is passionate about Diversity and Inclusion, and founded and co-chairs the bank’s first Family & Carer’s Network, winning the “Family Friendly Champion of the Year” Working Families award in 2024.
Her advocacy for working parents stems from lived experience – as a senior leader and mother of two young boys she understands first-hand the critical role flexible, supportive, work environments play in enabling parents to thrive at work and at home.
Rebecca McGowan
Becky is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and has 20 years’ experience advising pension scheme trustees. She is a Partner at Aon, where as well as working with clients she has a number of internal leadership roles and people management responsibilities. Her clients include a number of large companies as well as a charity giving her a broad experience of different types of organisations. Becky has Chaired the Board of Governors of a local secondary school for six years through a desire to be more active in her local community. She has two primary school aged children and is very aware of the challenges that come with working motherhood.
Steven Toft
Steven is a business writer and consultant with twenty-five years experience of managing change in organisations. Before starting his own business he worked in the OD consulting practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers and in HR roles for NatWest, British Gas and RAC Motoring Services. He has worked with organisations throughout Europe and the Middle-East in private, public and not-for-profit sectors.
Steven writes on employment and the future of work both publicly and for clients. He has written for the Guardian, the New Statesman and Prospect and featured on People Management’s list of the Top 20 social media influencers.
Charlotte Wayne
Charlotte has extensive experience steering complex, regulated organisations through transformational change. A leader in operations leadership, strategic planning, and change management, she is known for her innovative approach and ability to inspire diverse teams and foster inclusive cultures through her effective communication skills.
As a trustee for Working Families, Charlotte brings her expertise in governance, strategic development, and community engagement to support the charity’s mission of promoting work-life balance and helping working parents and carers achieve their goals.
In addition to her professional achievements, Charlotte is a dedicated mother with a young family. She understands firsthand the challenges faced by working parents and is deeply committed to advocating for practices that create a supportive and balanced environment for families.
Gordon Whyte
Gordon is CEO of BIE, an executive recruitment firm, having played a crucial part in its growth and success over the past decade.
Gordon is passionate about leading a team at BIE wedded to their values of collaboration, providing a high touch agile service within a supportive work environment. He plays a key role in driving BIE’s social purpose, linking their community impact through supporting charities dedicated to improving the lives and social mobility for ‘care experienced’ young adults looking to start and develop their careers.
Born in Scotland, Gordon has lived in both the UK and Asia Pacific. Gordon now lives in Hackney with his husband Colin and their terrier Frank and enjoys spending time between home in London and their friends & family in Glasgow.
Laura Wyatt-Smith
Laura is an International Coaching Federation coach who helps ambitious parents find calm and clarity by balancing their career, kids and health. Laura is also author of ‘Screensaver: A judgement-free guide to your child’s first smartphone’ (published with Profile Books, March 2026).
Laura has twenty years’ experience in strategy and leadership at some of the UK’s foremost children and youth charities in both executive and board roles. She is also a qualified teacher, a certified digital wellness educator, and an adventure-loving Mum-of-two. Connect with Laura @laurawyattsmith on Instagram