Executive team | Who we are | Esmée Fairbairn

Dawn Austwick OBE, Chief Executive

Chief Executive since 2005, Dawn was formerly Deputy Director of the British Museum and Project Director of Tate Modern from 1995 to 2000. Before that, Dawn was a Principal Consultant at KPMG, Theatre Manager of the Half Moon Theatre, London, and Projects Co-ordinator at Arts & Business. She has an MBA from the London Business School and an honorary doctorate from London Metropolitan University. Dawn is also a Trustee at the Historic Royal Palaces, chairs the Foundations Forum and is a Director of Big Society Capital. Dawn is a companion of the Chartered Institute of Management.

Dawn will leave the Foundation at the end of September to become Chief Executive of The Big Lottery Fund.

Grant-making team

Our grants managers have a mixed portfolio of work in addition to the specialist areas listed below - therefore their range of work spans our areas of interest for funding. Each grants manager also takes a lead on one or more UK country or English region, with London shared by sector. All grant applications should be made through our application process see our Guide to applying. Please do not send initial applications directly to grants managers.

John Mulligan, Senior Grants Manager

Specialist area: social change (lead), Northern Ireland Development Programme
Country/regional responsibility: Northern Ireland
Prior to joining the Foundation in 2006 John worked in a social research and consultancy firm. Before that he spent almost all his career in the voluntary sector. He initially worked at a law centre and then at FIAC (now Advice UK), a national organisation with a membership made up of independent advice agencies. John has also been a Trustee for a learning disability organisation.

Sharon Shea, Senior Grants Manager

Specialist area: social change
Country/regional responsibility: national organisations and Greater London
Sharons career has been spent mostly in the charitable sector and prior to joining the Foundation in 1998, she worked for Tudor Trust. Sharon is also a Justice of the Peace.

Derek Bardowell, Grants Manager

Specialist area: education and learning (lead)
Country/regional responsibility: North West and Wales
Before joining the Foundation in 2009, Derek was Director of Education at the Stephen Lawrence Trust and prior to that he was a print and broadcast journalist.

Jenny Dadd, Grants Manager

Specialist area: natural environment, marine and built heritage
Country/regional responsibility: Yorkshire and the Humber
Prior to joining the Foundation in 2008, Jenny worked in Yorkshire and the South East in a variety of heritage and grant-making roles in the third and public sectors.

Annabel Durling, Grants Manager

Specialist area: social change, Female Genital Mutilation Initiative
Country/regional responsibility:
Before joining the Foundation in 2006, Annabel held a variety of roles in the third and public sectors. She is a member of the government-led FGM forum group as well as the Association of Charitable Foundations network groups covering domestic abuse, asylum, refugee and migration issues and gypsy and traveller communities.

Alison Holdom, Grants Manager

Specialist area: arts and heritage (lead), the Esmee Fairbairn Collections Fund
Prior to joining the Foundation in 2001, Alison had a variety of roles in the theatre sector.

Marcella Kelshaw, Grants Manager

Specialist area: arts
Country/regional responsibility: East Midlands and Scotland (shared)
Prior to joining the Foundation in 2012 Marcella worked as Head of Taking Part at the Young Vic, was an officer for Arts Council England and Education Manager at The Bell Shakespeare Company, Sydney, Australia.

Marette Kroonenberg, Acting Grants Manager(February - August 2013)

Specialist area: social change
Country/regional responsibility: Eastern and the North East
Prior to joining the Foundation in 2010, Marette worked at the Dutch Victim Support Foundation as a Policy and Grants Officer.

Jo Rideal, Grants Manager

Specialist area: education and learning
Country/regional responsibility: Scotland
Prior to starting work at the Foundation in 2002, Jo worked in the medical grant-making sector, having previously held posts at RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) and worked as a teacher and researcher both in London and abroad.

Laurence Scott, Grants Manager

Specialist area: social change, Community Land Trusts and the Food Strand
Country/regional responsibility: West Midlands Laurence, who has been at the Foundation since 2001, has a background in working with people with learning difficulties and he maintains a strong interest in disability issues.

Joanna Watson, Grants Manager

Specialist area: environment (lead)
Country/regional responsibility: South East and South West.
Prior to Joining the Foundation in 2012, Joanna worked for Natural England and the Heritage Lottery Fund. She has experience of working with projects across a range of sectors, with a particular interest in the natural environment and heritage.

Finance and investment team

Claire Brown, Finance and Investment Director

Claire joined the Foundation in 2008 and is responsible for overall finance and investment management and strategy. Prior to that, her career was in the financial services sector working particularly with hedge funds and private equity. Claire represents the interests of charities within the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and is a member of the management committee of the Charity Tax Group.

Josephine Cannizzaro, Investment Operations Manager

Josephine is responsible for the smooth running of the Foundation's investment due diligence, execution and performance reporting. Prior to joining the Foundation Josephine worked as a Senior Advisor at Perpetual Ltd, an Australian asset manager that provides investment advice to private and institutional clients.

Bharat Naygandhi, Finance Assistant

Bharat supports the Foundation’s finance and investment function. Before joining in 2005, he worked in the educational and commercial sectors.

Trupti Patel, Social Investment Fund Manager

Trupti leads on the Finance Fund, the Foundation’s social investment fund. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2013, Trupti worked at Social Finance, an intermediary that provides a range of financial advisory services to help build the social investment market.

Danyal Sattar, Social Investment Manager

Danyal leads on the Foundation's approach to social investment. Before joining in 2004 Danyal worked in social investment for organisations including Charity Bank, INAISE (International Association of Investors in the Social Economy), UKSIF (Sustainable Investment and Finance Association) and Aston Reinvestment Trust, a community development finance institution. This followed early work at the New Economics Foundation think tank. Danyal is a Trustee at the Ethical Investment Research Services Foundation.

Marie-Mathilde Suberbère, Finance Manager

Marie-Mathilde is responsible for the financial management, audit and legal reporting. Before joining the Foundation in 2012, Marie-Math worked in various financial management roles in industry and banking, before joining Panos London as Director of Finance and Resources.

Resources team

James Wragg, Director of Operations

James manages the operation of the Foundation’s support services including the administration of governance, grant-making systems, information systems, human resources, facilities, communications, planning and policy. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2002, James worked for the Lloyds TSB Foundation for England and Wales.

Gina Crane, Impact and Learning Officer

Gina leads on the Foundation’s work to achieve the greatest impact across all our operations. Before joining the Foundation in 2007 Gina held various PA and Office Manager roles in the corporate and public sectors and was alumni officer at a Cambridge college.

Miranda Dalrymple, Impact and Learning Officer (maternity cover)

Miranda leads on the Foundation’s work to achieve the greatest impact across all our operations. Before joining the Foundation in 2013 Miranda worked at the Leonard Cheshire Centre for Conflict Recovery as a Project Officer and Researcher.

Tania Joseph, Administrator

Tania provides PA support to the Finance and Investment Director as well as a range of other administrative support to the finance team and Foundation as a whole. Before joining the Foundation in 2001, Tania worked at the Millennium Commission which oversaw the distribution of millennium lottery funding until 2006.

Sonja Heaslip, Administrator

Sonja provides administrative support to the Foundation’s grant-making and oversees grant-making processes. She administers the Foundation’s applications and small applications committees. Her background is in marketing and events in the corporate sector and made the change into the voluntary sector by project managing an NHS mental health film and art festival which then became an independent working charity, Happy Soul Festival Trust.

Laura Lines, Administrator - Communications and Resources

Laura provides a range of communications and resources support for the Foundation. This includes our website, annual report, liaising with grantees about communications issues as well as project work. She also provides support to the Director of Operations, governance administration, support for the Finance Fund and Female Genital Mutilation Initiative. Laura worked in fundraising as Project Manager for the Aplastic Anaemia Trust before joining the Foundation in 2007.

Matt Mayer, ICT and Facilities Officer

Matt leads on the provision of the Foundation’s information and technology systems including maintenance, management and contributing to future strategy. He also deals with issues relating to the management of the Foundation’s office. Prior to joining Esmée Fairbairn, Matt worked in management for various hotel groups such as Mandarin Oriental, Hilton and Rocco Forte Hotels. In 2007, he decided on a change of career to the charity sector, started work with Esmée Fairbairn and is studying for a Masters in Social and Political Theory.

Jennie Pfeffer, PA to Chief Executive

Jennie joined the Foundation in 2012. Prior to this she worked in various PA roles in the corporate sector, during which time she was a committee member and Trustee for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce Children’s Miracle Foundation.

Tereasa Robinson, Administrator - Reception

Tereasa is the Foundation’s Receptionist, dealing with guests and all initial contact whether it be letter, phone, email or in person. Tereasa also administrates our web based application system, handling first stage applications, and the Foundation’s meeting room hire services for grantees. Having previously worked in the music and events industries, she joined the Foundation in 2004 after working as an NHS Physiotherapy Assistant at two special needs schools in London.

Swee Tsang, Administrator - Grant-making

Swee provides a wide range of administrative support to the grant-making programmes, dealing in particular with first-stage grant applications and TASK grants. Swee joined the Foundation in 2006 and before this she worked for the Big Lottery Awards for All Programme. She is also studying for a doctorate in Counselling Psychology and Integrative Psychotherapy, and is interested in mental health issues.