Healthy Planet's key teams include our trustees, our
Conservation Advisory Board (CAB), our priceless volunteers and our
founder. They all have one thing in common: They are passionate
about the future of our children and our planet.
Our Trustees
- Nevil Kapadia (also chair of Health Advisory Board)
- Katherine Simmonds (Trustee, Property Division)
- David Wood
- Vanessa Guthrie, Mighten Consultancy (Director)
- Stuart Blake (Creative Director)
Our Conservation Advisory Board (CAB)
This board is chaired by King's College's Dr Mark Mulligan,
developer of the Land Adoption concept. Find out more about
the CAB here.
Our General Advisory Board
The members are:
- Scott J King, Marketing Consultant
- Adrian Gosling, Third Sector Education Consultant
- Roger Hamilton, Business Patron
What about the rest of the team?
As we are mainly online and new, we are a very lean team and
expect to stay that way. We do a lot of the work ourselves and have
simple offices we share with other businesses to keep costs low -
this ensures that almost all of your money goes where you want it
to.
There are a lot of people in our team who provide us with
voluntary (pro-bono) help, for example in book-keeping, design,
research, translation and legal advice. If you have time and skills
to offer that can help us achieve our goals please get in touch at
headgardener@healthyplanet.org.
+ Our
Founder
Finance Manager
Simi Sangha
| | As the Finance Manager, my job involves managing the financial daily operations as well as planning the budget for future operations. When I first joined Healthy Planet it was a small charity and had only begun establishing itself. However today it’s the same company associated with a number of well-known companies and growing day by day. Due to our explosive growth, it is my responsibility to produce key reports so costs can be monitored closely to evaluate the outcome of cost making decisions in the long term and to improve best practice overall. In summary, finance has developed a way for the charity sector (which is very different to commercial and property sectors) to work together to benefit all stakeholders. I love being part of such an active, innovative, quirky team and of course our very ad-hoc approach to the initiatives we deliver, that have quite surprisingly won us awards/publicity! |
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Conservation Co-ordinator
Olivia Couchman
| | As the conservation co-ordinator I run the adopt-a-plot programme. This involves building good relationships with our project partners around the world, collating information on the work that Healthy Planet funds and looking for new conservation initiatives that would be of interest to our supporters. I also run the Healthy Learning initiative which helps schools develop and fundraise their own conservation projects from their classroom, be it a new allotment, garden or wormery! Previously working abroad doing conservation research, I like to bring new ideas to my role in making conservation a fun and engaging experience. I really enjoy being part of a charity that is innovatively funding both conservation projects around the world as well as local projects on our doorstep.
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Logistics Manager
Chin Cheng
| | As the logistics manager I am responsible for the strategic planning and day-to-day operations of all Healthy Spaces around the country, focusing on using best business practice to improve efficiency, by reducing operating costs while increasing productivity. Management of services and processes that support the core business activities, as well as facilities in relation to the buildings and premises.
Supporting the innovative activities that Healthy Planet undertakes by providing a central service that links to all departments in the Healthy Planet organisation, ensuring that our initiatives are able to run smoothly and continuance to go from strength to strength. This role is extremely rewarding and full of surprises, I love working with an organisation that is constantly growing and changing.
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Project Co-ordinator
David Sharman
| | As Project Co-ordinator I am responsible for co-ordinating volunteers in our Books for Free shops around the country and ensuring that the initiative continues to grow and works well. I also co-ordinate the Healthy Spaces initiative, in which we work with other charities, social enterprises and like-minded organisations to facilitate the running of their projects from one of our empty spaces, in collaboration with Healthy Planet and in accordance with our goals.I have always had a passion for the environment and sustainability and have previously worked as Project Co-ordinator for the BBC Wildlife Fund, as well as working with the environmental events enterprise Talk Action, and the think tank Green Alliance.
This role is never dull and allows me to test myself in a range of tasks, whilst working for a truly innovative environmental charity.
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Operations Manager
Camen Gupta
| | My role is to manage the day to day operations of Healthy Planet, supporting the innovative activities our charity undertakes, by working with both the Healthy Planet team and collaborating with many different partners.
Born in Texas, I studied Sociology at the University of Texas. After many years in the New York finance world, I was keen to get more involved in environmental and community activism. After moving to London with my husband in 2009 and undertaking a Masters in Environmental Policy and Regulation at the LSE, I was lucky enough to win internships at London Sustainability Exchange and Sustain, which helped to solidify my interest in sustainable community building.
Inspired by friends, family and Mother Nature, I’m passionate about working to preserve the earth’s rich treasures and to making sustainable living a no-brainer for individuals and communities alike. Healthy Planet is an exemplary outlet for that work, and there is much to do. When I'm not in the office plate twirling and working out ways to put all of our Founder's ideas into action, you will find me getting creative in the kitchen, desperately trying to convince my patio garden to stay green or exploring the great city of London. |
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Logistics Executive
Richard Wigley
| | Living next to a main road for most of my life taught me to respect the great outdoors, so I always appreciated and enjoyed wild excursions, camping and learning about flora and fauna. After leaving college I went through 8 years of working in an eclectic array of jobs in the theatre, hospitality and bar industries. I then decided on a career change and spoke to a Careers Guidance Counsellor who reminded me of my love for the great outdoors. I then decided to pursue a job in conservation.
I have worked at Healthy Planet since November 2011 as a logistics executive. I deal with booking the deliveries for daily requests of books for our stores, requests from other independent organisations, ordering stock, setting up fire risk assessments, ordering the necessary fire equipment for each store, organising access, liaising and catching up with our dedicated volunteers, collecting quotes, stock taking and most importantly, making tea.
I love the attention to detail involved in this role, the budgeting of resources, when a delivery comes together and working with such a helpful and happy team. I am grateful for each day I come into the office and always with a smile on my face, unless someone has “borrowed” my pens. Or my chair.
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Marketing Executive
Dawn Newton
| | In my role I look after all of our Marketing from our bookmarks to our social media. Working for a charity which is focused on solutions is so refreshing, especially when looking after the health of our planet is so crucial. One of the best things for me is encouraging everyone to do something however small to improve life for the planet and themselves, something I really believe in. I volunteered with Healthy Planet back in 2008 and have been a fan ever since. I previously worked at Volunteer Centre Westminster on an employee volunteering project and hope to encourage more companies to work with us at Healthy Planet in partnership. My favourite colour is purple and I love yoga & adventures in the countryside. |
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