Spotlight on Andrea
Andrea joined the Lucent team in March 2024, bringing deep experience from his Chief Executive, chair and advisory roles.
He is passionate about building collaborative partnerships and movements and supporting civic engagement, leadership and narrative power. His work has focused on migration, inclusion, diversity, equality and social justice.
Here, Andrea shares more about his work with Lucent.
What was your journey to becoming a consultant?
After 20 years in the humanitarian and human rights sector – mostly working on refugee and migrant issues – I decided to focus on supporting the whole of the social impact sector. Thinking and acting strategically is more important than even in the face of multiple, global challenges. I’ve worked both sides of the fence, both in the philanthropic sector and with frontline charities dealing with wicked issues.
Now you’ve joined the Lucent team, what are you looking forward to?
I am looking forward to supporting clients who are doing extremely important work, under pressure and during very challenging times. I am excited to ease that pressure and create a safe space for reflection.
What is it about the approach at Lucent that you find most interesting?
Lucent is the kind of organisation I wish had existed when the organisations I worked for were grappling with fundamental questions about their impact. In my past senior leadership roles and advising philanthropic foundations, I had the opportunity to know many consultancies, and I can confidently say Lucent is unique in the strategic consultancy sector. Having first-hand experience is invaluable in building trust. The Strategy Ship framework is an effective tool in understanding the distinctive role social impact organisations can play.
What is your wish for the sector right now?
More strategic collaboration at scale. No individual organization or donor can tackle societal challenges alone. We need to have deep and meaningful conversations about the kind of collaborations needed to make systems change happen and to able to better influence decision makers. Organisations are so much more powerful if they acted in a more strategic and coordinated way, beautiful things could happen also overnight.
I know this might be difficult, but my motto is ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way’. One of the things I am most proud of is having been able to build collaborative initiatives by creating a sense of shared ownership about the process and the goals. Framing is key. Instead of focusing on positions I was able to shift the focus to common interests and turn conflicting positions into win-win solutions.
The scale of the challenges is huge, but we should remind ourselves that those who fought slavery, inequality, segregation and other big societal challenges did not have an easier ride.
Who or what inspires you?
Young people fighting for climate justice. They are taking things in their own hands without asking for permission. The best social change humanity has achieved in the past was made possible by this kind of people.
What are you reading right now?
Atlas of AI by Kate Crawford and The Way Out: How to Overcome Toxic Polarization by Peter T. Coleman. Fascinating reading about some of the most pressing issues of our time.
Meet the rest of the Lucent team here.