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.
We recruit trustees through an open application process usually twice a year. Our aim is for the Board to:
- be diverse and gender-balanced
- reflect the professional skills and lived experience we need to operate effectively and sustainably.
We actively encourage people with a passion for supporting and advocating for working parents and carers, especially those who are disadvantaged. Lived experiences of these issues is an advantage.
Interested in joining our board of trustees? Find out more.
Helen Humphreys – Chair
Helen is an experienced strategic change communication director with extensive leadership experience in culture and behaviour change. She has advised and supported many large, global organisations with their employee communication and engagement as they go through significant change…more
Rebecca McGowan – Treasurer
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…more
Clare Corbett
Clare is Director of External Affairs at the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, responsible for the charity’s information and support services, marketing, communications, policy and public affairs activity. She was previously Director of External Affairs at RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects)…more
Paul Coulson
Paul is a pragmatic and achievement-oriented employment solicitor and ER leader. He has significant legal, employee relations, commercial and leadership experience in both private practice and industry with a passion for fairness and equality….more
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…more
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…more
Tessa MacArthur
Tessa has a professional background in international development and worked for 20 years on issues around governance, transparency, civil service reform and accountability…more
David Robson
Having started a sports and toy company as a result of being made redundant during the 2009 recession, David was fortunate to exit and license out his brand in 2016. Since then, David has spent much time helping to grow start-ups ranging from the FinTech space as a commercial director to food companies, FMCG companies and education tech businesses…more
Kate Shaw
Kate has advocated for many years that although you may not always be able to have it all – you can work at having the best bits of most of it. So much so that she recently took the decision to get creative with her career….more
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… more
Helen is an experienced strategic change communication director with extensive leadership experience in culture and behaviour change. She has advised and supported many large, global organisations with their employee communication and engagement as they go through significant change.
Helen has been a strong advocate for ensuring the employee voice is heard – and listened to – especially at times of uncertainty and change. To help with this, Helen provides mentor support and advice to senior business and communication leaders and teams to help them engage their employees during periods of transformation and change.
Outside of her work environment, Helen has been active in the voluntary and charitable sector for many years. Helen spent seven years as a community governor in a local primary school, after which she joined the board of Drinkaware, and served six years as a trustee.
Helen’s experience improving employee communication and engagement, has given her a good understanding of the issues faced in the workplace as employees try to balance their home and work commitments. She has been the value of the services provided by Working Families – to businesses and to individuals.
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.
Clare is Director of External Affairs at the Cystic Fibrosis Trust, responsible for the charity’s information and support services, marketing, communications, policy and public affairs activity. She was previously Director of External Affairs at RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) and before that worked at organisations including Mind, The National Autistic Society and Which?. Clare has worked four days a week for the last ten years and is a strong advocate of the benefits of flexible working for individuals and organisations. Having spent a decade as a trustee for anti-poverty charity Toynbee Hall, she was delighted to have join the Working Families Board in 2019.
Paul is a pragmatic and achievement-oriented employment solicitor and ER leader. He has significant legal, employee relations, commercial and leadership experience in both private practice and industry with a passion for fairness and equality. Paul is also passionate about helping everyone identify and reach their full potential and he provides formal mentoring through various organisations.
Paul has three children, all of whom are still in formal education, and fully understands the challenges of being a working parent.
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!
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 acts as the primary carer to his elderly mother post being diagnosed with a terminal illness.
Tessa has a professional background in international development and worked for 20 years on issues around governance, transparency, civil service reform and accountability. She was based overseas for six years in Tanzania, Rwanda and the Caribbean.
She is currently a Deputy Director in the Cabinet Office supporting the National Leadership Centre, which aims to help the country’s most senior public service leaders to develop the skills, knowledge and networks required to address society’s most complex strategic challenges. Tessa has also worked on Diversity & Inclusion issues. She led the cross Civil Service disability inclusion programme in 2020 and has spent several years promoting an inclusive workplace for parents, for example as founder and co-Chair of DFID’s Parent Network from 2016-19 and as the lead of the Cross Government Parent Network during the first eight months of the pandemic in 2020.
She has two children and lots of experience juggling work and childcare and trying different forms of flexible working.
Having started a sports and toy company as a result of being made redundant during the 2009 recession, David was fortunate to exit and license out his brand in 2016. Since then, David has spent much time helping to grow start-ups ranging from the FinTech space as a commercial director to food companies, FMCG companies and education tech businesses.
In his spare time, David enjoys an early round of golf normally followed by a nice lunch and read of the paper. He loves to swim, cycle and play tennis and squash, as well as the odd game of cricket (weather permitting).
Kate has advocated for many years that although you may not always be able to have it all – you can work at having the best bits of most of it. So much so that she recently took the decision to get creative with her career.
Having qualified as an accountant (CIMA) working mainly in finance roles for most of her early career, Kate made the switch to more operational roles due to her love of combining process improvement, people engagement and financial management.
Her passion for operation effectiveness through employee engagement is born from seeing the impact of how teams perform when their personal lives are valued.
A lack of flexible working and zero maternity rights saw Kate return to work full time when her daughter was just six weeks old, her lived experience both of those early years and more recently juggling the needs of teenagers and elderly parents has driven her to want the best possible experience for all working families.
She believes that with the right tools and desire all organisations can deliver an environment that enables everyone to bring their best self to work while having the work life balance that just 20 years ago seemed impossible.
This belief has culminated in her holding two Chief Operating Officer Roles. Not wanting to give up a job she loved but with LEPs moving toward close down Kate, the COO at the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership made the decision to go part time and take on a second part time role as COO at Entrust—The Environmental Trust Scheme Regulatory Body, who regulate the Landfill Communities Fund. A creative solution that works for both employers and for Kate and her family.
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.