Our Board

From 2017 to 2018, and between 2010 and 2012, Shahanaz worked for Tower Hamlets Council as a Strategy, Policy and Performance Officer and as a Diversity and Equality Coordinator. Prior to 2012, she managed the Prevent strategy roll out across all London boroughs and contributed to the development of national policy on Prevent as the Regional Prevent Manager for the Government Office for London.

Shahanaz is currently the Chair of the Camden Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education and is a part of the only co-educational training programme for Muslim scholars at Ebrahim College in Whitechapel. She has also taught for Rashidun, an Islamic supplementary school based in Whitechapel, as well as developing and managing its Camden branch.

Aziz is Chair of the Spitalfields Small Business Association, with whom he has worked for over 30 years. In the 1980s and 1990s he was Finance Director at Spitalfields Housing Association.

He formed the Spitalfelds Business Club, ran the local business newspaper, East End Enterprise, and has been involved in the governance of many local community projects: East London Small Business Centre; ELBA; Bangla Housing Association and Consortium of Bengali Associations.

He was a Director of the Montefiore Centre until August 2016. Aziz also founded Jalalpur Degree College in Sylhet, and is General Secretary of the ROSAE Trust, which helps hospitals in Bangladesh.

Rob has served as a school governor in Tower Hamlets for over ten years, including as a member of the Interim Executive Board of a school in special measures.

He is also a partner at Clifford Chance LLP and was a member of THE Partnership Steering Group , which was key in the development of THE Partnership from its earliest beginnings.

Michael first became a school governor in 1986, serving several local schools and Tower Hamlets College. From 1994 to 2002 he was a councillor and served as Chair of the Education Committee and Lead Member for Education.

He later worked as a senior council officer with responsibilities including scrutiny, equality, cohesion and partnerships.

Michael is currently supporting the development of integrated health and social care in Tower Hamlets and has been chairing the Advisory Council of THE Partnership.

Zafrin has a 15+ year track record of delivering success in the housing, development, statutory and non-profit sectors. As Development Finance Director she currently oversees 30+ skilled professionals responsible for financial reporting and business partnering for a multi-billion pound sales and development pipeline. She works extensively with external stakeholders, as a member of multiple joint venture and partnership boards. She champions equality and diversity within L&Q, and is a member of the gender equality network, Inspire.

Zafrin is a published thought leader on housing matters, and in 2018 was awarded Finance Professional of the Year at the Women in Housing awards. She is a born and bred East Londoner, and a 3rd generation immigrant, with continuing family ties to Tower Hamlets.

Alasdair was Headteacher of Morpeth School for 21 years until 2013, a school which was one of 12 schools nationally recognised by Ofsted as ‘Achieving against the odds’.

Alasdair has also worked in Malawi and Papua New Guinea, was a member of the DfE’s Headteacher Reference Group and led a national review of PSHE. He is currently working for the Welsh Government on their Schools Challenge programme and as Advocate for their Pupil Premium initiative.

Nessa is currently Head of Finance at British Airways and is responsible for the Strategic and Reporting finance functions of the company, as well as being a member of the Finance Leadership Team.

She is a KPMG-trained Chartered Accountant, and prior to being appointed at British Airways, she held several Finance Leadership roles in the Banking and Fintech sectors both in the UK (Temenos) and Australia (Westpac Banking Corporation, Commonwealth Bank of Australia).

Nessa chairs the Board’s Finance and Operations Committee.

Since 2015, Owen has served as Headteacher at Lansbury Lawrence Primary School, having previously been impressed with collaborative leadership in Tower Hamlets when helping establish the LETTA initial teacher training programme. He is particularly interested in how THEP collaboratively delivers high quality professional development linked to pupil outcomes.

Jon is Principal of George Green’s School. He is proud to have worked in Tower Hamlets for almost 20 years in various roles.

In his early career he worked in the voluntary sector, adult education and the local authority school attendance and inclusion team. He then trained as a teacher at Bow School and went on to leadership positions at schools in Edmonton and Redbridge.

Jon was appointed as Deputy Headteacher at George Green’s School on the Isle of Dogs in 2014 and he became Principal in 2019.

James is the Corporate Director for Children & Culture for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, and the National and London lead for ADCS on Safeguarding - sitting on the cross government Safeguarding Children Reform Implementation Board and the London Safeguarding Children's Partnership.

His previous role was as Interim Chief Executive for the formative Children’s Trust for Northamptonshire, and before that Interim DCS for Richmond-Upon-Thames. James was the Director of Children's Services and Community Neighbourhoods for the London Borough of Newham up to August 2017.

James has a professional background as a qualified Social Worker with 30 years child protection experience as a practitioner, manager and latterly as a strategic leader.

Bukky Yusuf has undertaken a number of leadership roles within mainstream and special schools and is also an ambassador for Leadership Matters. Furthermore, Bukky is also a Network Leader for WomenEd and a BAMEEd coach.

Bukky has a variety of EdTech experiences that includes participating as a judge for The EdTech50 Schools and BETT Awards. She is co-chair of the EdTech Leadership Group to support the Government’s EdTech strategy.