Jon Huggett - Chair
Jon Huggett first volunteered for Khulisa while he was living in South Africa. Stanford Business published an article on his experience teaching business in prison http://www.huggett.com/offerings/publication.php?article=5
He has supported Khulisa since then in both South Africa and the UK. His interest in reducing reoffending came from spending a week behind bars at Huntercombe near Oxford in 1977.
In his day job he advises CEOs of global organizations. He has 25 years of experience leading enterprises and advising leaders in both private and social sectors around the world.
Jon spent four years as a Partner with The Bridgespan Group in San Francisco and New York, where he helped open the office. Prior, he spent four years as a Partner with Bain & Company in Johannesburg and Toronto. Earlier in his career, he worked for The Boston Consulting Group in San Francisco and New York.
Jon has run three companies: a $75M health care operation on four continents; Bannock Consulting, a London-based firm focused on economic development in emerging countries; and PlanetOut, a lesbian and gay web company.
Jon served as a community organiser and the board President of the STOP AIDS Project in San Francisco, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing HIV infection. He currently serves on three charity boards: the Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration; One Inspire; and Khulisa.
Jon has taught at the Centre for Social Impact at the University of New South Wales, where he was International Visiting Fellow, and at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He taught business as a guest lecturer at the American Graduate School of International Management in Phoenix, at the University of Southern California, and as a volunteer at Leeuwkop Prison near Johannesburg.
His latest article is "The pub test, the radio test, and the grandmother test", published in Third Sector Magazine in Australia. Other articles have been carried by Nonprofit Quarterly and Stanford Business in the USA, NetWork in the UK, Business Day in South Africa, and The Globe and Mail in Canada.
Jon began his career at Procter & Gamble, after receiving his BA and MA from Oxford University, and went on to earn his MBA from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, where he graduated as an Arjay Miller Scholar.
Robin Peile - Secretary
Robin Peile was a corporate lawyer with Penningtons until his retirement in 2007. Until recently he was a member of the committee responsible for selecting magistrates for South West London. He teaches literacy at Feltham YOI. He is a group leader for a restorative justice programme delivered at various London prisons, a churchwarden at his local parish church and a governor of his local primary school.
Peter Babudu
Peter’s interest in criminal justice stems from his childhood growing up in South London, having lost friends and family to knife and gun crime and seen many classmates go to prison. He first worked directly with youth offenders during his time at university and has continued to mentor young people from disadvantaged backgrounds ever since.
Peter is Senior Manager at The Social Innovation Partnership, a social consultancy that delivers a number of projects in the youth and criminal justice sectors. He is also Vice Chair of an inner city comprehensive secondary school. Peter previously worked as a junior economist at the Bank of England and as a corporate solicitor at Clifford Chance, before deciding to focus his energies on helping bring about positive social change through work in the social sector. Peter holds degrees from the University of Oxford and Birkbeck College, and is an On Purpose Fellow. He is currently learning how to be an effective community organiser.
Mat Ilic
Mat is Policy and Research Director at Only Connect London, a creative arts company which specialises in crime prevention (see www.onlyconnectuk.org). He was previously Senior Policy and Projects Officer in the Violent and Youth Crime Team at Greater London Authority, where, amongst other responsibilities, he was tasked with the delivery of Project Oracle, a programme that is looking at understanding and sharing which interventions aimed at supporting young Londonders are truly effective. Mat has recently published an article with NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) in a wider debate on Evidence for Social Policy and Practice, looking at how evidence can positively influence decision-making. Mat has a background in evaluation and project management having worked in a large public sector consultancy. He holds degrees from the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics.
Link to NESTA paper - http://www.nesta.org.uk/blogs/assets/features/evidence_for_social_policy_and_practice_report
Rosanda McGrath
After nearly 20 years of doing a broad range of roles in an energy company, Rosanda is now an independent consultant focusing on behaviour change. She is currently working in a variety of arenas including; chairing a junior hockey club, and a parent staff association at a local primary school, consulting to a bank as well as trustee for Khulisa. Her particular interest is in bringing diverse people together for authentic, passionate conversations that invite others to make connections and discover new possibilities.
I also experiment with what makes a difference to the quality of being present and influencing others, whether working with young offenders in prison or managers in corporate offices. My involvement with Khulisa started in South Africa when I joined a workshop in a medium term male prison. There I met a young man, Jacob, who was serving 10 years for carjacking. I was very moved by his account of his life and how Khulisa programmes were helping him to lead a different life on release. It was clear that Khulisa's work was making a difference to Jacob's and indeed many criminals' lives. With my interest in behaviour change, I then pursued Lesley-Ann to find out more about the programmes and in due course was invited to be a trustee of the UK organisation.
Stuart Pickles
Stuart has 25 years experience in the food and drinks industry with blue chip companies such as Kraft, Unilever and Foster’s Group, including at Director of Finance and Commercial Sales Director levels. In 2011 he became a qualified coach and he now runs the leadership coaching consultancy, Aim Higher Leadership Ltd. Stuart works with leaders across all sectors, focusing on improving their personal and organisational performance with a specialism in coaching finance leaders to develop their leadership capability, non-finance leaders to develop their financial and strategic edge, and leaders working across cultural boundaries. Stuart visited Khulisa’s programmes in South African townships in 2012 and was deeply moved by his experience. “When peoples’ lives have been ruined by such extreme adversity, violence and crime, it is extraordinary to see them pick themselves up and rebuild their lives and make a huge positive contribution to their communities”. Stuart was invited to be a Trustee of Khulisa UK as much because of his financial expertise as his passion to help more people make the kind of change he saw possible in South Africa.
Peter White
Peter became involved and helped to create Khulisa UK because of his interest and work for many years as a magistrate. In addition he has experience in several business fields including all aspects of the motor trade, coach hire and car rental, printing, the investment and development of commercial property, the residential care industry, and the manufacture of dental instruments.
Owing to his father's poor health, after graduating from Cambridge University and a short time in the Royal Navy, he joined his family business in 1963. His grandfather started the business in 1908, and was followed by his three sons. Within a few years Peter became the chief executive and chairman. He took some time out to graduate from the Harvard Business School, and he has now passed the group of companies on to the family's fourth generation.
He has served as a school governor and worked for the Make-a-Wish Foundation. He became the UK chairman for three years before being elected chairman of their worldwide organization – Make-a-Wish International. He has always been a keen and active sportsman. With his wife, Ann, they travel whenever they can. They now have 6 grandchildren.
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Khulisa Founder and Managing Director of Khulisa Social Solutions (South Africa)
Lesley Ann van Selm
Lesley Ann van Selm is a social entrepreneur with a big vision, boundless energy and huge heart. Armed with her marketing expertise, experience in building companies for a new South Africa and a genuine belief in the importance of inter-cultural dialogue, she established the not-for-profit Khulisa Crime Prevention Initiative in 1997. The principle aim was to break down the barriers that prevent ex-offenders from full rehabilitation and re-entering mainstream life.
Lesley-Ann quickly came to the realization that criminal activity is very often the symptom of a much larger social ill – that of poverty leading to the lack of hope and access to opportunities, a reality many people live with. This deeper understanding of the cycle of crime has spurred her to create social solutions that are more sustainable because they address the root causes of violence with programmes that involve moral regeneration, skills training, access to opportunities and ultimately, economic empowerment.
Today, 16 years on, Khulisa is a glowing reflection of the dedicated woman at the helm and has demonstrated the huge successes that can be achieved when a vision is applied practically and effectively to those in greatest need. Apart from her passion to help marginalized and impoverished people, Lesley Ann had a very personal and difficult experience which fuels her work and vision........
I always wanted my children to believe in the possibility of rehabilitation. My daughter was shot in a hijacking a few years ago (she survived). It was traumatic, but I couldn't be both victim and crusader, so I chose to forgive and move on.
In spite of the challenges of gaining respect in a very different cultural landscape, Lesley-Ann's tenacity, charisma and belief ultimately opened the necessary doors in the UK and the Khulisa UK arm was established in London in 2007.
Lesley Ann has been elected an Ashoka Fellow and won the Southern African Social Entrepreneurship Pinnacle Award for Khulisa's work. In July 2010 she was awarded a Shoprite Checkers Women of the Year award in South Africa.