Our people
Meet our skilled team, expert partners, and influential trustees.
Emma Newbury
Head of Participatory Research
Emma’s expertise is in designing, leading and implementing participatory research to drive understanding of social justice. She has worked internationally with governments, institutions and charities.
Felicia Barrow
Finance Services and Business Support Manager
Felicia is passionate about our organisation and a gifted communicator, with expertise in operations, policy development and implementation, change management and frontline service delivery for the private, public, and charity and not-for-profit sectors. She is a Foundation Chartered Manager (fCMgr) in Management and Leadership.
Gary Fawdrey
Innovation Practitioner
Gary joined The Young Foundation in 2023, having previously supported social innovators and designed innovation funding programmes through roles with Elrha’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund and Nesta’s Challenge Works. As an Innovation Practitioner Gary works across the Young Foundation’s social innovation portfolio.
Helen Goulden OBE
Chief Executive Officer
Helen leads our multi-disciplinary team of researchers and innovators to support stronger communities across the UK. Previous roles were at Nesta, in the private sector, and in government. She was awarded an OBE for services to development of sustainable communities in the 2023 New Year Honours List.
Iqra Farooq
HR Manager
Iqra manages the HR department and provides support across the organisation. Prior to joining The Young Foundation in 2017, she worked at AEG Europe, based at the O2, in a similar capacity. Iqra has more than five years’ HR experience and is CIPD-qualified.
Jack Layton
Senior Researcher
Jack is passionate about making our towns and cities better places to live. As part of the team at the Institute for Community Studies, he works to ensure people’s voices across the country are heard and their needs prioritised.
Jacob Coburn
Knowledge Exchange Manager
Joining the Institute for Community Studies in 2023, Jacob leads work focused on supporting anchor institutions to develop deeper more integrated relationships, aimed at enabling greater knowledge-sharing and strategic thinking.
Jasper Morvaridi
Innovation Practitioner
Jasper joined The Young Foundation in 2023 after 10 years managing and producing projects across the creative industries. As part of our Innovation and Practice team, he supports the development and delivery of ambitious and fast-paced social innovation programmes
Jem Hai
Research Officer
Jem joined The Young Foundation in 2023 after having worked as a Research Assistant for a charity supporting children living in deprivation.
Jennifer Clayton
Innovation Practitioner
Jen’s background is in designing and delivering support and scaling initiatives for social innovators and entrepreneurs. Before joining The Young Foundation, she held integral roles in grant management delivery, challenge prize design, and business mentor brokering at UnLtd and Nesta.
Jessica Moore
Director of Communications and External Affairs
Joining in September 2021, Jess drives thought leadership and shares our creative ideas with diverse audiences. Passionate about communicating the needs of people in our communities, she works to extend The Young Foundation’s reach and impact.
Jessica Redmond
Senior Researcher
Jess works to ensure community voices are reflected in research and policy design. They were a policymaker at the Bank of England, held roles in government, policy research, and education, and explored youth unemployment and educational inequality as part of the Year Here Social Innovation Fellowship.