LONDON TRUSTEES
Rebecca Byrne
Rebecca is one of the initial founders of the Launch It Trust. She also previously volunteered as a Business Advisor and Mentor at The Prince’s Trust.
She is also member of the NY State Bar/NY City Bar, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) and Chairman of the Byrne Charitable Trust.
Joanna Rowelle
Joanna is the Chief Officer for Business and Markets in the UKIMEA, sits on the Region Executive and leads Arup’s business in London.
She works on projects linked to economic growth, delivery vehicles and funding and finance, on transport and city planning projects. She advises city and national governments on topics including infrastructure investment, regeneration, and economic policy.
Joanna has authored reports on subjects including competitiveness, innovation, funding models including land value capture, and growth. She is on the Board of the Major Projects Association, the Cambridge School of Land Economics, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Member of the Institute of Economic Development.
Leone McKinley
Leone is an experienced corporate banker BNP Paribas where she has been based for the past ten years having started her banking career at Bank of Ireland in London. She holds a Diploma in Corporate Treasury.
Gabrielle Boyle
Gabrielle has worked in the financial services industry for over 30 years. She is currently an Investment Director and Head of Research at Troy Asset Management.
Gabrielle is also a Non-Executive Director of Witan Investment Trust.
Sarah Kong
Sarah is Head of Finance and Business Strategy at CRUX Asset Management and has worked in the asset management industry for 10 years.
She graduated with a First Class BSc (Hons) in Economics from the University of Bristol in 2014 and has been a CFA Charterholder since 2019. She also volunteers for Shelter from the Storm and the Trussell Trust.
Abhay Varma
Abhay co-founded Tarchon Capital Management, a multi-billion dollar fund hedge fund, serving initially as COO and then as Portfolio Manager (1998-2013). Since 2013, he has founded and served as Managing Partner of Vahnea Marolda Investments, a property business focusing on student, elderly and commercial properties.
Abhay is married with three children and loves playing tennis. He also volunteers at his local hospital and also serves as a Founder and Trustee of St. Clare's Foundation.
Philip Howard
The Chair, Philip Howard helped to found the Launch It Trust in 2000. He worked in Investment Banking for 25 years and was a board and panel member for The Prince’s Trust.
He is currently Executive Chairman at CRUX Asset Management.
Michael St. Aldwyn
Michael is an experienced Chairperson with a distinguished track record in the investment management industry.
He spent 15 years with the Man Group and has extensive expertise in philanthropy, hedge funds, financial markets, education, and alternative investments.
Alongside his business leadership experience, Michael serves as a Director of the Rank Foundation, a Governor of St Paul’s School, and a Patron of the Seven Springs Foundation. He holds a Master of Arts (MA) in Brazil in Global Perspective from King’s College London and is recognized for his strong strategic, governance, and business development capabilities.
Rachel Stockey
Rachel leads entrepreneurial skills development at King’s College London, where she designs and delivers programs that support students, staff, and alumni to build real-world skills and ventures.
She is the founder of The Disruptive Realm, a coaching practice focused on inclusive entrepreneurship, founder well-being, and mindset development. A certified coach with the International Coaching Federation, Rachel has been coaching for over eight years and is also a qualified Mental Health First Aid instructor.
Her work is grounded in the belief that entrepreneurship should be accessible, sustainable, and human-centered. She brings experience across education, coaching, and mental health to support the next generation of founders.
Jan Pethick
Jan has had many years of experience of financial services including as Chairman of Merrill Lynch International, Debt Capital Markets, Europe and as a Managing Director at Lehman Brothers.
He has recently stepped down as Chairman of Troy Asset Management and currently Chairs The Foundation and Friends of RBG, Kew.
DUNDEE TRUSTEES
Vivien Buchan
Vivien, who is the chair of our board of trustees, was Finance & Governance Director with Insights until 2018. She is now Director of the Insights Foundation, a charity established to manifest the charitable and social responsibility activities of the Insights Group.
Vivien is passionate about empowering individuals to understand themselves and others better, inspiring them to make a positive difference in everything they do.
Jillian Elizabeth
Jillian started her first business at age 17 and ran it successfully until she was 30 when she decided to have a career change and opened The Little Green Larder - Dundee's first sustainable shop.
Jillian is passionate about young people in business and is keen to empower others to start their dream business.
David Milne
David is a partner at Thorntons Law LLP and is a trustee of several charities focused on youth employment and training.
David is passionate about all things property and has been a board member at a number of Registered Social Landlords.
Danielle du Plooy
Danielle started her first official business at age 21, though her entrepreneurial journey began much earlier, selling handmade bookmarks in the school playground at 9 and attending markets by 10.
She now runs a charity, a city-wide project, and social enterprise arms, and is passionate about supporting young people to step into their creative entrepreneurial selves.
Amber Wright
Amber joined Launch It as an Enterprise Manager in Tottenham. Throughout her time with the organisation, she has developed her expertise in fundraising and has since progressed into the role of Development Director. In this position, she plays a key role in delivering the organisation’s strategic vision of establishing more charities and enterprise centres across the UK. In Jun 2026, Amber stepped up as CEO of Launch It.
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With a longstanding interest in enterprise, she previously ran her own crew catering business, gaining valuable firsthand experience of entrepreneurship. In 2006, she began working with the Princes’ Trust, where she discovered a strong passion for supporting young people. Since then, she has been dedicated to empowering young people to build successful, fulfilling lives and realise their full potential.
Simon Rolfe
Simon is the Commercial Development Director at Zudu, an award-winning global digital agency.
Zudu provides profitable development and marketing solutions to clients, and aims to bring the world’s markets closer together by breaking digital boundaries.
PAISLEY TRUSTEES
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Will Sinclair
Will Sinclair is a fractional Sales Director with Sales Geek Scotland, where he specialises in sales strategy, training and leadership. He works with growing businesses to identify the real barriers to sales performance and build clear, practical systems that drive consistent growth.
Alongside this, Will is the founder of Chapeau Collective, a growth marketing company focused on GTM engineering, user acquisition, and full-funnel brand and social growth. He also brings additional technical and commercial experience through his role as a director at Roswell IT.
With a background spanning sales, marketing and technology, Will takes a full-systems approach to business growth, looking across marketing, lead generation, sales execution, CRM usage, and team behaviours to uncover what is truly driving or limiting performance. He is known for his direct, analytical approach and focus on building scalable, repeatable growth systems.
Janet Brown
Janet’s experience includes working for for Scottish Enterprise (SE) heading up their activities in technology and innovation, with her last role being Managing Director for Industries. She then became CEO of the Scottish Qualification Agency from 2007 until her recent retirement.
Janet has lived in Paisley for 20 years and will use her experience in business and economic development to help guide the charity.
Amber Wright
Amber joined Launch It as an Enterprise Manager in Tottenham. Throughout her time with the organisation, she has developed her expertise in fundraising and has since progressed into the role of Development Director. In this position, she plays a key role in delivering the organisation’s strategic vision of establishing more charities and enterprise centres across the UK. In Jun 2026, Amber stepped up as CEO of Launch It.
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With a longstanding interest in enterprise, she previously ran her own crew catering business, gaining valuable firsthand experience of entrepreneurship. In 2006, she began working with the Princes’ Trust, where she discovered a strong passion for supporting young people. Since then, she has been dedicated to empowering young people to build successful, fulfilling lives and realise their full potential.
Misty Cowin
Misty Cowin is Director of Finance and Commercial at Scottish Renewables, where she leads financial strategy and commercial operations to support the growth of Scotland’s renewable energy sector.
She brings extensive experience in finance and management, having worked across a range of senior roles delivering strategic insight, financial leadership, and organisational development.
As a trustee of Launch It Paisley, Misty is passionate about supporting young entrepreneurs and helping to create opportunities for enterprise and innovation within local communities.”
KENT TRUSTEES
Alison Robinson
Alison has been working with Launch It since 2017, responsible for all of the financial management of the charity and also assisting with advice on general business management to the Trust and their young entrepreneurs.
She also currently runs the Money Matters Training for the Trust and provide on-going support to the businesses related to their accounting systems. A Chartered Management Accountant, she has worked in the industry for over 20 years. For the last 15 years, she has been running her own accountancy practice and dealing with many different types of business and assisting many new businesses in their first years.
When not working, she enjoys cooking and traveling as well as spending time with her family of six men (including her husband and the cat!).
Chris Pieroni
Chris was born in Yorkshire, and educated in Wimbledon. After university, he had a career in corporate finance and commercial real estate. He retired in 2021 from a company called Workspace which specialised in providing business accommodation to small businesses from 65 buildings (4 million sq. ft) in London.
Chris got to know Launch It whilst at Workspace as they had one of their own centres in one of the buildings. A few years before retiring, he was involved in helping Launch It explore an opportunity in Sheerness.
Tony Hughes
Tony Hughes was born and raised on the Isle of Sheppey and has built a successful career in the waste management and recycling industry.
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Throughout his career, Tony has held senior leadership roles, including General Manager for a major corporate waste management company across the South East and Managing Director of a family-run recycling business in Sittingbourne. His experience in business leadership, operations, team development, and strategic growth has given him a strong understanding of building successful organisations and helping people reach their potential.
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A passionate advocate for young people at the start of their careers, Tony has provided opportunities, guidance, and mentorship to many individuals who have gone on to build successful careers. He takes great pride in helping others develop their skills, confidence, and ambitions.
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Tony is delighted to join Launch It as a trustee and looks forward to using his experience, knowledge, and passion for supporting young people to help the organisation continue making a positive difference in the lives of aspiring entrepreneurs and future business leaders.
STOKE-ON-TRENT TRUSTEES
Andrew Heaward
Originally from the South West Andrew has lived in the Staffordshire Moorlands for almost 25 years. Today he is the Founder and Managing Director of successful Blythe Bridge based purpose led, fundraising, strategy and impact consultancy Heaward Solutions.
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He is a graduate of Bradford University having completed his first degree in Community Studies. More recently he completed an MBA (Senior Leadership) at Keele University.
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Andrew worked in the sales and retail sectors before becoming a youth worker and later moving into sport and leisure within the public sector. He has led large teams, managed multi-site operations and been responsible for securing over £38m of grants and other external funding. Andrew is a specialist in fundraising, strategy development, marketing, monitoring and evaluation.
Andrew is a Chartered Manager and Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, and also a full member of both the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity and the Chartered Institute of Fundraising.
Mark Proctor
Born and raised in North Staffordshire, Mark began his sales career in Stoke-on-Trent and graduated from Staffordshire University’s Law School.
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In 2009 he founded and served as Managing Director of Stafford-based EU Automation, leading its growth from a start-up to more than £120m in global revenue across five international locations.
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Since stepping away from day-to-day management of EU Automation in 2019, he has led Quatrefoil Investments, with its investment strategy supporting new and growing businesses.
Julian Allen
A proactive and resourceful problem-solver, Julian, enterprise manager for Launch It Neasden, thrives under pressure and excels at prioritising tasks effectively. Organised, creative, and highly self-motivated, he firmly believes that “what can be done today should not be put off until tomorrow.”
His determination and commitment ensure that every task is seen through to completion. Personal achievement serves as a strong source of motivation, continually driving him to set higher goals and pursue new opportunities.
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Following voluntary redundancy from the local authority after more than ten years as a Youth Development Officer, he embarked on several successful business ventures. These have included establishing and managing an Alternative Schools Provision, contributing to a voluntary-sector Educational Welfare company, and growing his own logistics business.
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Equally passionate about supporting young people and fostering entrepreneurship, he values creating opportunities that empower others to succeed. His involvement with Launch IT has provided the ideal platform to combine these interests, allowing him to inspire and support young people while promoting enterprise and innovation.
Alastair Dawes
Alastair was born and raised in Staffordshire. Following a brief period in Bristol, he returned to Staffordshire to pursue an MSc in Computing for Business at Staffordshire University's Stoke-On-Trent campus.
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Alastair is an expert in digital innovation, knowledge exchange, and intellectual property (IP) development. He dedicated 26.5 years to academic and management roles at Staffordshire University, during which he garnered extensive expertise in areas such as innovation strategy, programming, data analysis, mobile product development, SEO, e-marketing, IT and web strategy, and digital product commercialisation. Throughout his career he has used his knowledge and experience to support and mentor start-up companies.
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At the University of Staffordshire Alastair initiated several regional projects aimed at supporting Staffordshire businesses and contributed to regional growth through innovation.
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In 2024, he moved to Harper Adams University, taking on the role of Director of Business Development and Knowledge Exchange.