England committee

Committee Chair

John Mothersole has held senior local government posts in UK cities including London, most recently as Chief Executive of Sheffield City Council. Since standing down from that post in December 2019 after 11 years, John has taken on a series of non-executive roles which now include Chair-Designate of The Sheffield College, trustee of a community care charity, membership of the Advisory Board of the Sheffield University Management School and Chair of Meadowhall Education Centre. Prior to being selected as Chair of the National Lottery Community Fund England Committee John was a member of that committee.

John has been heavily involved in the policy agenda for UK cities through the Core Cities network, the Northern Powerhouse initiative and with Government in securing city and city region devolution deals and participating in trade missions.

His early career was in the arts, primarily in London and the North-East, and he sees a highlight of that part of his career being the reopening of the Roundhouse in London which enabled its subsequent redevelopment.

John lives in Sheffield although his roots are in the North-West. Having only recently stood down from being Chief Executive he is still trying to work out what his hobbies are!

Ray is an executive director of Oxford Hub, a community charity, and was previously CEO of Auticon, a social enterprise and IT consultancy employing autistic adults as consultants. Prior to joining Auticon, he was a legal director at Osborne Clarke, where he specialised in impact investing and social enterprise.

Ray chairs the Small Charity Advisory Panel at the NCVO, is a director of the Oxfordshire Social Enterprise Partnership and is a founding trustee of TREEZ, an environmental charity operating in Malawi. Ray has been recognised by the Social Entrepreneur Index as one of the top ten social entrepreneurs in the UK.

Halima Khan has worked as a policymaker in national, regional and local government and at Nesta, the UK’s innovation foundation for social good. Halima now works independently with a focus on people-powered approaches to public service innovation, which incorporate the insights of citizens and frontline staff.

Previously, Halima was Executive Director for Communities and Skills at the Greater London Authority, where she was responsible for adult skills, social policy, civil society, children and young people, and public health during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Prior to joining City Hall, Halima was in the leadership team at Nesta where she led work on people powered health, and supported frontline staff in public services to rapidly experiment with new ways of working. Before that Halima was Deputy Director at the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, Cabinet Office, providing policy advice to No.10 and Cabinet Office ministers on a range of domestic policy issues. Halima has also worked in local government at Camden Council, focusing on strategy, policy and research, including the Council's citizens' panel.

Halima holds non-executive roles at the Royal Society for Public Health and the Mayday Trust and is a member of the Public Policy Committee at the British Academy. In 2015, Halima was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Health Sciences by Anglia Ruskin University.

Kamran is founder and CEO of Impact Hub Bradford CIC, a locally rooted, globally connected social innovation hub and coworking space based in the historic area of Little Germany, Bradford. Impact Hub Bradford inspires, connects and supports changemakers, social entrepreneurs, businesses and start-ups to build solutions that create positive social impact. Impact Hub has worked alongside brands such as Red Bull, Channel 4, TEDx, PWC and successfully led a partnership to secure a £6.6 million social Investment fund for Bradford District which Kamran now chairs.

Kamran was appointed a non-executive Director of the Leeds Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP – Feb’ 2020) and of Bradford City of Culture 2025 Trust (Nov’ 2019). Kamran holds a Masters in International Politics, undergraduate degree in Youth and Community work and has over twenty years’ sector experience. Prior to setting up his own social enterprise, Kamran worked for Unltd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs. Kamran is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Common Purpose Graduate and is trained in both the Art of Hosting and unconscious bias and intersectionality.

Karin Woodley CBE is Chief Executive of Cambridge House, a London-based charity tackling poverty, social inequity and injustice. Karin has over 35 years’ leadership experience in social action charities specialising in the development of social policy and practice, diversity and inclusion and the delivery of community empowerment services.

Awarded a CBE in the Queen’s 2021 Birthday Honours for services to social justice, and the Lifetime Achiever Award at the 2016 Excellence in Diversity Awards, Karin is currently Chair of the Race Equality Foundation, a trustee of the Felix Project, a non-executive director and audit and risk committee member of the Ministry of Justice’s Office of the Public Guardian, and a core member of the Better Way Network.

Previously, Karin held roles as the Chief Executive of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, the Tabernacle Centre for Arts and Learning and the Minorities Arts Advisory Service.

Past non-executive roles include parliamentary appointments to the Economic and Social Research Council and the Legal Services Board Consumer Panel, she was the UK representative on the Global Social Economy Forum, a member of the Wellcome Trust’s Understanding Patient Data Advisory Committee, Vice Chair of Locality and Community Southwark, the founding Chair of Kensington and Chelsea’s Race Equality Partnership, Chair of an MPS Independent Advisory Panel on Race and Chair of the Black Art Gallery.

Recent published articles include ‘Listening to each other’; ‘Radical Listening’; ‘Insights from a black veteran chief executive’; ‘Heart of the Community’ and ‘Diversity, Migration and Urban Multiculture’.