Meet the team

Katherine Rake is an experienced chief executive and trustee who has worked across the charity and public sectors, including leading women’s rights campaigner the Fawcett Society and setting up consumer champion Healthwatch England. At Lucent, she is particularly focused on strategy, supporting boards and senior leadership teams, and on creating partnerships across charities, trusts and foundations. She is currently supporting the Foundations for Social Justice network in the UK and direct grant maker Buttle UK.

Talk to me about:

• Strategy

• Governance and health relationships with your board

• Membership organisations

Charlotte Ravenscroft consults with charities and philanthropic foundations. Her client portfolio includes supporting the Irish Sea Network (11 Wildlife Trusts and partners), Oxford University’s community engagement team, and Contact, a children’s disability charity. Previously, Charlotte helped design the Association of Charitable Foundations’ Stronger Foundations initiative, and worked with the Department for Education, NCVO and National Lottery Community Fund. She builds partnerships that create a momentum for change, especially in the field of climate action.

Talk to me about:

• Climate change and sustainability

• Responsible approaches to endowments

• Policy

Lakshmi Sundaram was the first Executive Director of Girls Not Brides, which she grew into a thriving partnership of 1,200 civil society organisations in 100 countries. She has been in leadership roles at openDemocracy in the UK, with AIDS programmes in Rwanda, and at the World Economic Forum and is currently on the Advisory Board to Co-Impact’s Gender Fund.

Her consultancy portfolio includes Rosa: the Fund for Women and Girls, Become and Friends Provident Foundation.

Talk to me about:

• Funding for change

• Organisations with a global reach

• Partnerships

Andrea Menapace was executive director of the Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights (CILD) in Italy a platform of more than 40 organisations and was founder and chair of Liberties, a network of 11 organisations based in Berlin. He has expertise in supporting civic engagement, with a particular focus on migration, inclusion, diversity, equity and social justice. He currently supports place-based funder The Talbot Village Trust and Buttle UK and is helping refresh the innovation strategy at Oxford University.

Talk to me about:

• Human rights

• Migration

• Developing new initiatives

Katy Panter manages our powerful project management system and coordinates our projects.

With a background in audit and project management, Katy pays close attention to administrative “hygiene factors” and helps us to maintain agility through projects. She solicits feedback throughout our projects, so that we can lean into what works best for the teams we work with.

Talk to me about:

• How to get the most value from your work with Lucent

• How to approach a strategy review or refresh

• Project health and progress

David Kane is a data scientist and researcher, specialising in analysis and visualisation for charities and organisations with a social purpose. He brings deep experience in using publicly available data including from the Charity Commission, 36OGiving and statutory funding sources. David has worked to help funders understand the sectors they operate in and make smart data-driven decisions about their work. David supports the analysis and development of our strategy survey tool the Lucent Compass.

Talk to me about:

• Lucent’s Compass survey

• The other charities working in your field

• The funding landscape

Adrienne Fresko

Adrienne brings rich experience to Lucent as a non-executive director and advisor for public service and charity boards. Adrienne has served as chair, vice chair, and committee chair on a multitude of boards with particular expertise in health and higher education.

Her focus is on how Lucent delivers public service values and inclusion.

Sanchia Alasia

Sanchia is an expert advisor to senior teams as they develop bold, sector leading policies for human resource management. She has achieved national recognition for new approaches to mentoring and coaching.

Sanchia supports Lucent with larger, more complex clients and in developing its integrated approach to strategy, inclusion, equity and diversity.

Colette Dunn

Colette is a non-executive director, trustee, strategic adviser and professional coach with over 30 years’ experience in financial services. Colette has deep experience of strategic evaluations and designing and delivering growth strategies.

Colette offers support to Lucent in responding to the charity and philanthropy market and in delivering best value to clients.

Juliet Taylor

Juliet specialises in executive and non-executive leadership appointments within public policy, charities and socially responsible business. She delivers Board capability and effectiveness reviews, with a focus on diversity.

As a fellow business owner, her focus is on Lucent’s growth, resilience and ability to deliver high-quality support to clients.