Our team

  • Nick has built a portfolio career across a wide field of voluntary, public and private organisations, following on from a successful career in the IT sector. He has chaired one of the largest UK universities and currently chairs three state schools, an independent school and an FE college. 

    Describing himself as recovering mathematician, he graduated with a BSc in maths from the University of Bath, is a Fellow of a number of professional institutions and is a Chartered Engineer, Manager and Information Technology Professional.

    He has always believed that providing young people with easy access to role models and mentors is a way to help them make the most of their talents and allowing them to develop their potential to the full, hence his delight at being the chair of Future First.

  • Milly is CEO at The Institute for Turnaround (The IFT), the UK’s leading membership organisation for turnaround experts. IFT members are accredited to the highest standards and together with their corporate partner organisations, help underperforming businesses avoid unnecessary insolvencies. 

    Prior to joining the IFT as CEO, Milly enjoyed a successful career in Board level roles in complex organisations, leading large-scale, public facing operations and strategic functions, notably stakeholder relations, spanning from senior politicians, to regulators and corporates.  In consultancy, she has advised organisations at board and executive level and delivered transformational change in national organisations and large service providers, including local authorities, NDPBs and charities.

  • Rhian currently works at Dallaglio Rugbyworks where she leads on new business, individual and high net worth giving. She previously worked at the Mayor's Fund for London where she led on Trust & Foundations fundraising alongside growing their individual giving portfolio, and prior to that at social mobility charity the Sutton Trust. She studied History at Exeter. Rhian is passionate about helping young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds have access to opportunities and is thrilled to join Future First as a young trustee. Rhian is from South Wales, speaks Welsh as her first language and is a big rugby fan.

Our Trustees

  • Lindsey founded Pollen Street in 2013 after leading the spin out from RBS. She has been investing in private equity and credit for over 25 years with a particular focus on the financial services sector. Prior to founding Pollen Street, Lindsey led the team managing the Special Opportunities Fund within Royal Bank of Scotland and spent six years as a Partner at Cabot Square Capital, focusing on investments across Financial Services, real estate and other asset-backed investments. Born and raised in Glasgow, Lindsey has a First-Class Honours degree in Accounting and Finance and studied for an MPhil in Finance from Strathclyde University.

  • Michael is CEO of Thomson Screening, a Med/Ed tech company focusing on Child Health, that he co-founded in 2012 with City, University of London. His background includes running UCL’s most successful Spin Out company, Chairing the University of Liverpool’s Commercial Board (tech commercialisation) managing and investing in Ed tech, education services (careers, international schools and colleges) risk-based analytics and data applications and offshore software development. Michael has an MSc and Sloan Fellowship from London Business School.

  • Sarah is a London-based Director in Marlin's Operations Group, where she works closely with the leadership teams of technology businesses to drive operational performance and long-term value. Before joining Marlin, she was a technology CFO across a range of businesses from seed-stage through to private equity-owned, and earlier worked on the investment teams of two special situations funds and in KPMG's restructuring practice.

    Sarah holds a Master's degree in Mathematics from the University of Bath and is an ACA Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

    As a trustee of Future First, and State School alumni, Sarah is committed to improving social mobility for young people in state schools, drawing on her experience to support the charity's strategy.

  • Chief Technology Officer

    With 20 years of experience in the technology industry, Andrew has held diverse roles in different sectors and businesses, where he has gained a comprehensive understanding of software development across various domains. This extensive experience has equipped Andrew with a deep knowledge of the industry and the ability to adapt to new challenges. Having previously held senior leadership positions at CEMAR, Thinkproject and Orka Technology Group where he worked on a number of world class technology teams and products, he is currently serving as a Chief Technology Officer (CTO) with a purpose of driving technological innovation and guiding strategic decision-making within the organization.

Our Advisory Group

  • CEO, IDPE

    Louise is CEO of the Institute of Development Professionals in Education (IDPE), which supports schools to develop successful fundraising and engagement programmes, through providing training, guidance, support, benchmarking and partnership work across the schools’ sector.

    With over 20 years’ experience of working across fundraising disciplines, she has previously held senior fundraising roles at The Stroke Association and Shelter Cymru. Louise has also volunteered for a number of organisations, from being Chair of Trustees for Cardiff Women’s Aid to being a Board member for the Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA) and more recently, supporting the PTA at her children’s primary school.

    Lou is passionate about fundraising, and as such has found herself hiking across Iceland, running a marathon and cycling from Cardiff to Dublin, to raise money for good causes.

  • Head of Alumni Engagement, Sutton Trust

    With over 10 years’ experience across communications and alumni relations at different UK HE institutions, Marie-Rose then moved into digital fundraising with a tech start-up, before returning to head up the alumni relations function for education/social mobility charity the Sutton Trust in 2021. 

     In her current role Marie-Rose oversees a team managing a programme of alumni bursaries, volunteering, communications and career support for the Sutton Trust's alumni community of over 50,000, along with a small portfolio of alumni donors. In her spare time, Marie-Rose volunteers for the charity Streetlink – a phone and web service connecting rough-sleepers with support and services in their local areas, and has recently made the move out of London to the seaside!