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Our team

Refugees at Home is a community made up of hosts, home visitors, guests and the organisations who refer them to us – all brought together by our staff and Trustees.

Our Outreach team work with hosts, organise home visits and provide guidance and advice before any hosting begins. Our Placement team work with refugees, people seeking asylum and the organisations who refer these potential guests to us. We are led by our Senior Management team and overseen by an experienced board of independent Trustees.

TRUSTEES

DANIEL GERRING

DANIEL GERRING

Chair of Trustees

Daniel is our Chair of Trustees, taking the lead on ensuring that we are well governed and act in the best interest of our beneficiaries. He helped set up Refugees at Home in 2015 and has been actively involved in running the charity ever since.  He is a senior equity partner at leading law firm, Travers Smith and an expert in corporate governance and diversity and inclusion.  Daniel is an experienced charity trustee and his other appointments include serving as Trustee Chair of Just Like Us, the LGBT+ Young People’s Charity.  He has hosted a number of our guests and can frequently be found encouraging others to get involved.

OLIVER BETHELL

OLIVER BETHELL

Trustee/IT

IT Trustee at Refugees at Home since November 2019, supporting the charity with technology oversight and support. Chief Technology Officer at Travers Smith with overall responsibility for all technology operations at the firm. Previously at Freshfields in programme delivery and technology strategy roles – background in technology, leading tech teams and delivering large programmes at law firms.

Matt Blacker

Matt Blacker

Trustee

Matt Blacker is the Chief Executive of Hope for the Young, a charity supporting young refugees in the UK through mentoring, advocacy, and financial support. For the past 12 years, he has also worked for the British Red Cross, delivering their Young Refugee and Befriending Programme in London. He has a background in operations, project management, peer training, and business development within the charity sector.

REBECCA DEL TUFO

REBECCA DEL TUFO

Trustee

Rebecca is a former solicitor who worked in corporate litigation. She has subsequently worked for the University of Cambridge and has set up, run and programmed an independent cinema.

She has served on the boards of various small charities.

Magid el-Amin

Magid el-Amin

Trustee

Magid has over a decade of experience in the non-profit sector, specialising in data analytics, insights and strategic decision-making. As the Director of Evidence & Insights at Catch22, Magid leads an enterprise-wide data transformation programme and on the applied use of machine learning (ML) and wider AI use cases to amplify frontline impact, within ethical and secure frameworks.  Previously, Magid led on data intelligence, impact measurement and predictive analytics at Comic Relief, NSPCC and The Children’s Society respectively. Magid’s work centres on making data accessible and straightforward. He excels at delivering the right information, with the appropriate detail, to the right audience, transforming complex datasets into rich, actionable insights. Magid was born in Khartoum, Sudan and is deeply interested in migration, international aid and resettlement. He is also a long-suffering Arsenal fan and a dad to his two children.

LUKE HOLMES

LUKE HOLMES

Trustee

Luke has been in the charity sector for five years after a career in the private sector in both retail and recruitment. After 4 years at Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, Luke now heads up a relationship fundraising team for a children’s charity.  Having led on some truly transformational fundraising projects, he will be particuarly focused on supporting Refugees at Home’s fundraising efforts and ensuring the organisation has a sustainable future. Luke is a keen cyclist and swimmer and will even partake in a tough mudder or two!

Jon Hughes

Jon Hughes

Treasurer

Jon found the experience of hosting a Syrian asylum seeker so rewarding he decided to join the organisation. After a career in finance and risk management Jon’s focus as our treasurer is on our finance and risk management. Jon is driven by making life fair – for everyone

SARA NATHAN OBE

SARA NATHAN OBE

Trustee/Co-Founder

Sara was a co-founder of Refugees At Home in 2015 and has been actively engaged ever since. She has hosted almost 40 guests who’ve fled many places from Balochistan to Ukraine. Guests have stayed from a night or two, up to nearly two years. Her key responsibilities are operations, media and social media, and she is active in our fundraising team.

Alongside Refugees At Home – which absorbs much of her energy – Sara volunteers at two asylum-seeker drop-ins and has a portfolio career in the public sector as a broadcast journalist and regulator. Her OBE is for fairness in broadcasting.

EMILY REYNOLDS

EMILY REYNOLDS

Trustee

Emily brings her 13 years of experience as a social worker and manager in children’s social care to her role as safeguarding trustee. Emily has had a life long commitment to social justice and has previously been a host and a home visitor for Refugees at Home. Emily currently manages a  looked after children and leaving care service and has 9 years experience working with Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children.

SENIOR STAFF

Lauren Scott MBE

Lauren Scott MBE

Chief Executive Officer

Lauren is our Chief Executive Officer and has been part of the team since 2018. Working closely with our Trustees and placement team, Lauren is responsible for the effective delivery of our day to day operations and development of our projects. After graduating from the University of Dundee with a Masters in International Criminal Justice and Human Rights, Lauren developed her frontline and managerial experience working with charities across London. This includes frontline experience of working with families in crisis and managing a winter night shelter, which supported asylum seekers and refugees with temporary accommodation.

Carly Whyborn

Carly Whyborn

Chief Operating Officer

Carly joined Refugees at Home in autumn 2022 and is currently covering for Lauren whilst she is on maternity leave. Carly oversees the operational work of Refugees at Home and works with the Board of Trustees on strategy and management of the charity. She has extensive experience of working in charities, and particularly in the refugee and asylum sector.

Areej Osman

Areej Osman

Placement Team Manager

Areej comes from a Science background with an MSc in Environmental Management. She is originally from Sudan. Areej has worked in the social justice and migrant integration sector for the past 8 years. She joined the Refugees at Home team in 2018, her role now is Placement Team Manager focusing on working closely with our referral organisations as well as training and supporting the placement team.

Tiffany Cole

Tiffany Cole

Volunteer and Engagement Manager

Tiffany is the Volunteer and Engagement Manager at Refugees at Home and is responsible for identifying and improving our volunteer experience. She joined the placement team in June 2022, and recently started her new role. Tiffany previously worked in Corporate Events for over 10 years for Barclays Wealth, EYG and Deutsche Bank and after taking a break with her family, volunteered with several refugee charities before joining Refugees at Home.

Rossana Tumbarello

Rossana Tumbarello

Senior Outreach Coordinator

Rossana is our Senior Outreach Coordinator. She is from Italy with an academic background in Japanese studies. In 2015, she moved to London looking for a new life experience and job opportunities. She joined R@H in 2022, after graduating from SOAS University of London with a Masters in “International Politics” developing a strong interest in migration & diaspora politics. As Senior Outreach Coordinator, she is leading on the day-to-day activities relating to  host approval, identifying trends and resolve challenges around host availability, and engaging with hosts and Home Visitors.

PATRONS & AMBASSADORS

Lord Dubs

Lord Dubs

Alf Dubs came to the UK on the Kindertransport from Czechoslovakia aged just 6. He grew up to become Labour MP for Wandsworth and is now a peer and a figure-head for the Safe Passage campaign to bring unaccompanied refugee children – like he was – to safety in the UK.

Shappi Khorsandi

Shappi Khorsandi

Our other patron is Shappi Khorsandi, the fabulous comedian and author who also came here as a child refugee from Iran – but with her family, unlike Alf, because her father had to flee after he fell out with the regime there.

Ahmad al-Rashid

Ahmad al-Rashid

Ambassador

Ahmad Al-Rashid was born in Aleppo, Syria. He studied English literature before fleeing the country due to the conflict to the Kurdistan region of Iraq late 2012. Ahmad worked there as a volunteer teaching English in the Syrian refugee camps.

Since his arrival in the UK mid-2015, Ahmad has been working with various groups and organizations raising awareness about the Syrian crisis and the plight of refugees in the region. In 2017, Ahmad graduated from SOAS – University of London.