GLOBAL IMPACT
Some of the most important work of my life has had nothing to do with business.
For over two decades, alongside building companies and infrastructure, I have been engaged in a parallel life — travelling to some of the world’s most extraordinary and humbling places, working alongside people facing poverty, environmental collapse and chronic under-investment.
HOPE WORLDWIDE
International development across four continents
From 2007 to 2020 I worked with HOPE Worldwide, serving over a million people annually across 120 cities and 60 countries. I served as a Board Member of HOPE Worldwide UK, contributing to the governance and strategic direction of their international programmes. But the work I am most proud of was not boardroom work.
EIGHT BOOKS
Stories that needed to be told
The idea started with a simple question: could we use the tools and thinking of the corporate world to create genuine awareness — and raise significant funding — for international development programmes?
The people working in the field do extraordinary, selfless work day in and day out. But they rarely get to tell their stories. We believed we could change that — beautifully produced, weighty, glossy books with real photography, real narratives and real impact on the page. Books that corporate donors, CSR teams and institutional funders would actually want to read and share.
The books reached Coca-Cola, the Rotary clubs fighting AIDS across Africa, and Manpower — who had already donated millions to build schools in Tamil Nadu following the 2004 tsunami. A complete set is held in the White House Congressional Library in Washington DC.
This is what the combination of business thinking and genuine field presence can produce: not awareness for its own sake, but awareness that moves people to act.
01
INDIA
Community development and recovery
02
AFGHANISTAN
Education and relief programmes
03
PHILIPPINES
Community health and poverty programmes
04
CAMBODIA
Children, education and public free healthcare
05
Côte d’Ivoire
Community programmes in West Africa
06
USA
Urban poverty and community rebuilding
07
NIGERIA
Development programmes — HOPE Worldwide
08
NIGERIA – LAGOS STATE
A Better Day in Lagos — commissioned by Lagos State Government
How a book launch changed everything
“You are not allowed to leave the country before we can talk to you.”
Lagos State Government officials — after the Nigeria book launch at a Shell Corporate CSR Summit, in front of 350 dignitaries
The Nigeria book was presented at a Corporate CSR Summit hosted by Shell in Lagos, in front of 350 dignitaries, government officials and business leaders. At the end of the event, Lagos State Government officials approached us with that message.
What followed was six years of sustained engagement with the Nigerian people and with local and federal government — the Lagos State waste management programme, the environmental agency reform, the federal power generation masterplan, and community development programmes for half a million residents of Ebute-Metta. None of it would have happened without the book.
COMMUNITY
Fifteen years in Reading
From 2004 to 2019, I served as a facilitator and group leader for Thames Valley Churches of Christ in Reading, UK — running local services and community activities for fifteen years.
During that time I also served on the board of Reading Forum, an umbrella organisation coordinating over 650 registered charities across the Reading Borough. The work involved facilitating joint initiatives where multiple charities were working on the same themes — homelessness, support for senior citizens, afternoon community clubs, and financial guidance and support for vulnerable residents.
It is easy to overlook sustained local commitment in favour of more dramatic international work, but it matters. Showing up consistently, year after year, for your immediate neighbourhood is its own discipline — and its own reward.
ESG
Why this matters for boards
The global challenges that drive ESG frameworks — climate, waste, energy access, environmental governance, community impact — are not abstract to me. I have worked on them directly: in the field, in government consultancy, in the design of renewable energy systems for communities without reliable power, and in the governance of international development organisations.
For any board that takes ESG seriously as a strategic question rather than a reporting obligation, this background is relevant.