Meet our board

Richard is a co-founder of Impact Hub Kings Cross and has served as a director since 2011. He has also chaired the board of the global Impact Hub Association. Prior to this, he worked for 20+ years in the FMCG/drinks industry with P&G, Whitbread, and InBev.

Richard has co-founded and partnered with other social businesses and is the chair of trustees at a London-based children’s education charity.

Dermot is a co-founder of Impact Hub Kings Cross and Cork St Studios in Dublin, a community of start-ups and freelancers from the tech and creative industries. He co-founded Studio TILT, developing it into an award-winning global leader in the design of coworking spaces and collaborative work environments.

Dermot has written about social and creative businesses for numerous publications including The Guardian.

Gaby has a track-record of award-winning growth and creative campaigns. She co-founded and led a marketing communications agency for 16 years with clients such as Nike, Coca Cola, Nokia, Selfridges and M.I.T.

Gaby’s focus and passion is linking PR & audience engagement with customer acquisition. In 2021 she launched The Prospect Society, providing flexible and cost-effective marketing growth support.

Oliver‘s career began at Savills where he qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 2014 specialising in office leasing, development and investment. Oliver Co-Founded RE-DEFINED, an agile workspace business in 2020. He led the business through the start-up phase, securing a place in the Natwest Start-Up Accelerator programme, and subsequently securing seed funding from London-based VC Spire Capital. More recently he negotiated a part acquisition from MAPP, a national Property Management business employing over 600 people across the UK. Oliver remains an Equity Partner of the business, guiding the strategic direction and holding key client relationships.

Soumya is a versatile leader with extensive experience in leadership and management across high-profile UK organisations. Currently, she serves as Deputy Director of People at Smart Energy GB, the communications body driving the smart meter roll-out across Great Britain, where she is part of the senior leadership team. Soumya’s career spans leadership and operational management roles in public, private and charity sectors, with organisations in marketing, science & technology and professional services. Soumya has worked with prestigious institutions like The Royal Society and leading start-ups, leveraging her passion for people management and commercial acumen to deliver tangible results. Beyond her role, Soumya is a visiting faculty member at Kingston Business School, delivering postgraduate and undergraduate programmes in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour. She has also taught internationally at Ranepa University, Moscow, and business schools in India, bringing practical industry insights to her teaching. Soumya holds several governance roles. She is a trustee at Anti-Slavery International and a co-opted member of the Nominations, Remuneration and Governance Committee at UnLtd. In the past, she has served as a trustee at the Independent Film Trust and as Board Director of IFT Studios. A champion of diversity and inclusion, she actively works to address unconscious bias and remove barriers, enabling people to thrive in their careers and organisations.

Grace is a Critical Friend, Consultant, and Founder of urlifebusiness. She is passionate about using her professional and lived experience to support organisations to move beyond the tick box approach to Diversity & Inclusion. She achieves this by designing creative, interactive interventions that support change.

Her mission is to help organisations create equitable workplace cultures of belonging where all employees are empowered to thrive.

After six years working as a lawyer, Hannah moved into the commercial world, motivated by a desire to work with entrepreneurially-minded businesses. She founded her own magazine on education and child development.

As a former Business and Operations Director of a communications agency and, more recently, Business Advisor for organisations including a children’s mental health charity, she helps structure and optimise business growth and potential.

Video games shaped his childhood, studying mathematics developed his discipline and his passion for storytelling blossomed into a 3 year career in marketing, before he became obsessed with wanting to impact people’s lives through technology.

Mercurius is the founder of Tutorbloc, a company which helps educators launch, manage and grow their business with the purpose of turning their knowledge into income.

Dr Mike Thompson is the Global Head of Governance and Ethics at Anthesis with 25 years of experience in corporate sustainability and ethics. He leads the board and offers upskilling programmes on sustainability and ethics, and he co-chairs the Anthesis ethics board.

Mike has served on several UK company boards in the retail and social enterprise sectors including GoodBrand, the sustainable innovation company that joined Anthesis in 2019. He is also a business academic specializing in responsible leadership. He is a senior research fellow at the Business Ethics Centre Corvinus University, Budapest. From 2013-2023, he is an adjunct professor and international board member at the Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria.

From 2009-13 Mike was a professor of management practice at the China Europe International Business School, Shanghai he taught MBA and exec-ed programmes on governance and responsible leadership. He has co-edited several books and authored book chapters on business ethics and wise management.

Stephanie is a senior business executive with 20 years of experience in international sales, customer engagement, and loyalty marketing for luxury retail. She has worked in a range of roles for companies including Chanel, Net-A-Porter, and Selfridges.

Stephanie now plans to use the rest of her career to have a positive impact on the world. She is a strong believer that entrepreneurship and innovation play a major role in solving today’s challenges.