Our Trustees
Ali F. Jabeen (Board member)
Ali Jabeen currently serving as the Women’s Association for Networking and Development (WAND UK) Chief Executive Officer. She has over 20 years’ experience in trustee and director positions, working for several charities that support vulnerable families and their children. Ali has worked as Deputy Chair for Home-start Camden & Islington and is also one of the founding members of the board of trustees of Home-start London. Ali has held the post of Operations Manager for the Elfrida society parents project (ESPP) for over 8 years. She is also a member of the ‘Camden Partnership for Educational Excellence’ decision making team and the Chair of the strategy group for the ‘Camden Parent Council’. Ali specialises in Parenting Support and has run her own practice to ensure support for families with learning disabilities broadens within communities. She also has extensive knowledge of human rights and the rights of the child and family law.
Anjna Khurana (Board Member)
Anjna has lived in north London for over 30 years. Since 2018, she has been a councillor for the Tollington Ward in Islington. She currently chairs the Council’s Employment Sub Committee, and in 2024/25 served as the Mayor of Islington. In that role, she established The Mayor’s Award for Outstanding Service to Islington, as part of the Mayor’s Annual Civic Awards. She also spent a year as a council-nominated trustee at the Cripplegate Foundation. Prior to her political career, Anjna volunteered with numerous charities – including providing organisational support to the Stress Project and the Stuart Low Trust, supporting creative writing with the Ministry of Stories, and helping young people ready via Beanstalk’s programme in local Islington schools. She also participated in and helped deliver Talk for Health’s programmes to aid mental health in the borough. For the six years before her election as Mayor of Islington, Anjna was a trustee for her local community centre in Crouch Hill, the Brickworks (Hanley Crouch Community Association), where she developed a strong relationship with staff and users. During the Covid pandemic, she volunteered with the Brickworks’ food bank, where she unpacked and sorted donations of aid, delivered food parcels with Mutual Aid partners, and collected food donations from supermarkets. The Brickworks was the Mayor’s Charity of the Year in 2024/24, as their underlying ethos embodied her message that everyone is welcome in Islington.
Craig Burgess (Chair)
Craig Burgess, currently serving as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for a youth-focused volunteering charity working in schools, brings 30 years of experience working within the UK and Australia’s not-for-profit sectors. His wide Operations management expertise includes the key areas of finance, human resources, ITC and facilities/property management. He is passionate about LGBTQI+ equality and young people’s opportunities to advance themselves, both personally and professionally, regardless of their socio-economic backgrounds. Having worked in Islington for over ten years, he is keen to give back to the area he loves. He joined Voluntary Action Islington as a Trustee in December 2023.
Daniel Belay Gessesse (Board Member)
Daniel is an Islington resident who began his journey with VAI in 2023 as a digital communications volunteer before joining the board of trustees in 2025. As a Project Management Degree Apprentice in the consulting sector, he brings fresh perspective and practical project experience. Previously, he worked at PPCP, an IT social enterprise training young people and supporting community centres across the borough. During this time, he got involved in social action programmes that brought him closer to local residents and their challenges, strengthening his commitment to the community. Drawing on his lived experience, Daniel champions apprenticeships and advocates for young people pursuing non-linear paths. In his downtime, he enjoys exploring his passion for photography.
Jorge Llorens (Treasurer)
Jorge Llorens joined Voluntary Action Islington as Treasurer and Trustee in December 2019. He has worked for more than 20 years in the finance sector, in London and Madrid. Throughout his career in investment and corporate banking, he has held senior management roles in international organisations including Goldman Sachs, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and BBVA, in areas such as Mergers & Acquisitions advisory, Financing and Client Coverage. Jorge is passionate about contributing his experience in finance to benefit the broader community, working with organisations that help people achieve better outcomes. He is currently an Investment Director at Social and Sustainable Capital, one of the UK’s first fund managers specialising in social impact investing. Jorge is also a Treasurer and Trustee at the Poetry Translation Centre.
Kiran Prasad (Board Member)
At the heart of Kiran’s professional and personal journey is her role as a practitioner, catalyst, and creative thinker, driving commercial and non-for-profit ventures by building collaborative cultures, championing equality, and creating social value and community wealth. With over 20 years’ senior management experience, she has worked as a trusted practitioner and advisor in business development, strategic planning, programme management, integrated marketing communications, and stakeholder engagement across multiple markets. Her career spans global multinationals, start-ups, and SMEs, giving her a unique perspective on growth and innovation. Kiran has a proven track record in delivering award-winning marketing programmes and scaling complex global and digital businesses. She has worked with leading international consultancies, including Omnicom, Bozell Worldwide, and WPP. She holds a degree in Marketing & Product Management from Cranfield University and a Master’s (with Distinction) in Interactive Marketing Communications from Boston University. At City University’s Professional Development & Innovation division, she created and delivered CPD programmes designed for today’s digital workforce. bA passionate advocate for lifelong learning, Kiran champions education, skills, and volunteering as powerful pathways into employment, wellbeing, and sustainable community regeneration.
Ken Hettiarchi (Board Member)
Ken the founding director of Freedom Works UK, a coaching and mentoring organisation based in Islington (11+ years). He is also a coach/employment specialist at Camden Job Hub (Regent’s Park area). Ken has been providing leadership coaching for local residents for over 10 years and has experience of youth work from the late 80s and early 90s. Ken has lived in Islington since 1984 (apart from 3 weeks in Stoke Newington in autumn 1984).
Ken Penton (Board Member)
Ken is a political campaigner and political media relations adviser with over 30 years’ experience, including twice being a Political Adviser for the UK Labour Party, serving as Head of Politics and Media for a UK trade union, and providing political and communications advice at boardroom level for large businesses and not-for-profit organisations. In recent years he has focused on environment and climate change campaigning, particularly on phasing out fossil fuel dependency. He was formerly UK Oil and Gas Campaigner for Global Witness, and currently works for Stamp Out Poverty, acting as the UK Advisor to the Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative. He has also served as a Councillor in the London Borough of Newham. He was Co-Chair of Labour’s affiliated environment and climate campaign, SERA, and devised and led the 2025 SERA General Election campaign which resulted in over 100 SERA members being elected to Parliament.
Kevin Turner (Board member)
From October 2025 Kevin now leads Enhance Redcar and Cleveland, a new infrastructure support service in the North East. Previously Kevin worked for Cloudesley, an Islington place-based independent charitable trust that makes grants to people, organisations and churches within the London Borough of Islington. Kevin has nearly thirty years’ experience of working in the charity and statutory sectors. He worked in Islington from 2017, initially for Islington Council in the Voluntary and Community Sector team where he supported the voluntary sector across Islington. Kevin previously volunteered for Hornsey Lane Community Association during lockdown, delivering food parcels.
Madeleine Gascoigne (Board member)
Maddie works within the Investor Relations team of a global private equity firm, having begun her career at Goldman Sachs. She moved to Islington in the summer of 2019 and volunteers with several local charities, including ActionTutoring (an education charity assisting disadvantaged young people) and Achilles International (as a guide for blind and visually impaired runners). She has a BA in History from the University of Warwick and joined Voluntary Action Islington as a Trustee in February 2023.
Santa Gascoigne (Board member)
Santa is a Strategic Account Director, working for RSA Insurance. She has been with RSA for over ten years in various strategy, account management and data analytics roles. Prior to that Santa was a Strategy Consultant working for OC&C. She has been involved in various pro bono projects supporting international development and local community charities, as well as mentoring teenagers in North London schools. Santa has always been passionate about gender equality in the workplace and was on the Board of the City Women’s Network. She joined Voluntary Action Islington as a Trustee in September 2020. Santa lives in Islington with her husband and two young children.