Gerry Power

Partner & Managing Director

Dr. Gerry Power is Partner and Managing Director at Purpose, based in London. For more than 25 years, he has designed and directed multi-country global impact, measurement and learning studies on narrative change, campaigns, communication strategy, creative execution, and public opinion for multi-laterals (British Council, UNICEF, UN Women, WHO), foundations (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Democracy Fund, Luminate, Wellcome Trust) and NGOs (BRAC, HIVOS, SightSavers).

His work has had a particular focus on prejudice, equality and social justice.

Gerry was formerly Chief Research Officer at M&C Saatchi World Services. He also served as Director of Research and Learning at BBC Media Action, establishing an award-winning global research network across Africa, Asia and the Middle East. He was Vice President with Magid Associates, the media research and consulting firm in New York and London. Gerry has also served on the faculties at UCLA, UDLAP (Mexico), the University of Texas and the London School of Economics.

He has received the Communication Research as Collaborative Practice Award from the International Communication Association and the Global Reith Award for Professional Services from the BBC Global News Division. He is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Melbourne. He is an invited member of the UK Market Research Society Delphi Group and is a Trustee of the Refugee Council UK and the Thomson Foundation.

Gerry holds a PhD in Communication Theory and Research from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California. He has also participated in the Social Impact Investing programme at the Said Business School at Oxford University. Gerry is an avid traveller and especially to Ardmore, in County Waterford, in his native Ireland.

Daniel Hale

Senior Campaign Director

As Senior Campaign Director, and co-lead of the Purpose Climate Lab, Daniel drives our climate work across the world.

With a background in community-based and faith-based campaigning, as well as non-profit management and leadership, he makes sure Purpose’s climate campaigns deliver across the political spectrum from hyper liberal to deeply conservative.

Daniel’s campaigning with Purpose includes our work with Catholics in Poland and Brazil, Evangelical Christians in Brazil and Australia and Muslims in Indonesia and the UK. He led our work with communities of colour in London, nature friendly farmers in Cornwall, rural women in Poland, and even renewable first-movers in Bulgaria.

His portfolio includes leading the development of a major global campaign for Bloomberg Philanthropies, election-focused campaigning for Environmental Defense Fund, and climate disinformation campaigning for the KR Foundation. His private sector clients include IKEA and Capgemini.

Before arriving at Purpose, Daniel led the campaigning at Catholic development agency CAFOD, driving action on net zero and refugee rights by reaching a younger and more diverse audience. He ran ActionAid UK’s successful women’s rights campaign. Daniel also co-founded a youth empowerment non-profit.

Daniel holds a PhD in geography from the University of Leeds and an MBA from the Open University. He’s a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Pope Francis once met Daniel at the Vatican. And despite living in Central London he’s surprisingly outdoorsy.

Nicolas Goudy

Head of Office, France

Nicolas is the Head of Purpose France. Earlier in his career, Nicolas was the Managing Director of the McKinsey France Foundation, specialized in the socio-professional integration of young people coming from disadvantaged areas. Nicolas then joined the Cabinet of the High Commissioner for Employment and Business Engagement as Business, Inclusion & Social Impact Minister Advisor,  alongside French Ministers of Labor, Employment and Insertion. He thus had the opportunity to lead both the French President Macron program Les entreprises s'engagent and the territorial deployment of the French government economic recovery plan. 

Before that, the subjects of social impact and entrepreneurship were already the main drivers of Nicolas' commitments, first as a social entrepreneur, founder of Hacktiv.org, a web platform for citizen engagement, and then close to the President of the Groupe SOS, to develop projects aiming at building an inclusive, just and sustainable society. Throughout all these experiences, he had the chance to work with many structures and people, from the public, private and associative sectors, who defend the rights of the most fragile for a better society.

Nicolas is the recipient of several prizes throughout his career, such as La France s’engage Laureate, from the former French President Hollande, named as Les 30 Glorieux (30 under 30) from Europe 1 and had the opportunity to speak about youth and civic engagement in a French TED Talk.

Nicolas is passionate about social entrepreneurship, public mobilization and, more broadly, the development of social impact projects. He is particularly attached to the themes of equal opportunities, territorial development, and access for all to culture.

Nicolas has a double education in both public and private management, at Pantheon University in Paris and then at EDHEC, a top-ranking French Business school diploma, including two years abroad in Sweden & Thailand.

Nicolas grew up in a small village of 300 inhabitants in the countryside of southern France and comes from a large Portuguese immigrant family of 35 cousins. He loves theater, cinema, writing, traveling, and is interested as an amateur in making short films/ documentaries.

Sara El Dabi

Head of Office, Europe & Senior Creative Director

As Head of Purpose's Europe Office and Senior Creative Director, Sara El Dabi brings together her experience in creating impactful campaigns with team management and development. Sara oversees human resources, staff welfare & culture, office management, and diversity, equity  & inclusion for Purpose's Europe team.

In her creative role, Sara takes on multi-dimensional responsibilities within the creative team as an art director, graphic designer, creative strategist and producer, merging attention to detail and innovative execution. She is passionate about delivering conceptual reasoning and in-depth research, working right from the inception of a project to its completion. Working as lead creative, Sara brings a pioneering and entrepreneurial spirit to tell stories and solve problems. At Girl Effect, Sara launched a number of youth-led brands and digital platforms, whilst nurturing and empowering other creatives in Malawi, Ethiopia and India.

Sara received her MA in graphic design from Central St Martins and previously ran her own company and creative collective for 10 years, working with clients like Nike, BBC, Vans and Urban Outfitters. This diverse and talented creative network continue to inspire her.

Alexandra Callaway

Senior Project Manager

Alexandra is a Senior Project Manager at Purpose, helping lead her teams to success through the oversight of project goals, details and trajectories. At Purpose, Alexandra acts as the day-to-day point of contact for her team, external vendors and clients. She manages project workload, all schedules and financial implications. She knows she has done her job well when everyone is feeling happy and proud to be making a societal impact together. 

Alexandra is well-established in client and project management, having worked in both the social impact and entertainment industries. In the social impact space, Alexandra has worked with corporations, government agencies and nonprofits to help oversee the successful and timely completion of projects. Alexandra has become a specialist in many different social sectors, including but not limited to financial literacy, food insecurity, civic engagement and mental health awareness. As the day-to-day contact, she is focused on helping both client and project teams stay aligned on long-term goals and have a clear understanding of the project schedule and next steps.

Outside of work, Alexandra volunteers and raises funds for organizations close to her heart, such as The Make-A-Wish Foundation, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Special Olympics. She is an alumna of the University of Colorado at Boulder and was a dancer prior to beginning her career in project management. She loves to travel, eat, cheer on her favorite sports teams and listen to people’s stories.

Amanjeet Oberai

Associate Director, Financial Planning & Analysis

Aman is a Associate Director of Financial Planning & Analysis at Purpose and is the Finance Lead for the EMEA region.

Prior to joining Purpose, Aman worked his way up in his finance journey initially from the construction industry with Lendlease, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant. With a keen interest in data analytics, he then went on to specialise in business partnering roles- most recently for The General Council of the Bar, where he took charge of financial modelling and monthly reporting processes as well as external and internal audits.

Aman has a First Class Honours in Accounting and Finance from the University of Hertfordshire and has gone on to achieve his Chartered Accounting qualification from ICAEW.

Amy Rennie

Associate Digital Campaign Manager

As a digital campaigner, Amy leads on the development of digital strategies, campaign plans, partner management and assists in the reporting, measurement and evaluation of campaigns. She enjoys finding innovative ways of engaging new audiences through various digital tactics.

Amy has a background in paid media and marketing, having studied a Business Science in Marketing at the University of Cape Town. Prior to joining Purpose, she built up skills in ad operations and implementation, digital strategy, reporting, and measurement and evaluation.

When she’s not at work, Amy enjoys walking around new pockets of London, and dog-spotting in the park.

Annelise Carling

Senior Project Manager

Annelise is a Senior Project Manager at Purpose, working across both agency and labs projects.

Annelise has nearly 10 years of experience in project management in creative and advertising agencies, working with clients from fashion brands, healthcare, FMCG, arts & culture, charities and government bodies.

With a degree in Graphic Design, Annelise has always been interested in creative and strategic processes, and loves working end-to-end on multi-channel campaigns with creative thinkers.

Outside of work, Annelise loves exploring. She is particularly interested in history, eating delicious things and cycling or walking her way around new places.

Charlotte Wood

Global Head of Strategy

At Purpose, Charlotte leads the global strategy team of bright and curious minds, and is responsible for their learning, growth and strategic output. A staunch believer that strategy teams should be diverse in gender, race, class, sexuality and identity, she takes pride in building a strategy team that reflects that and invites all brilliant minds to apply, whatever their background.

Charlotte’s career started in advertising - crafting the creative strategy for John Lewis, Habitat and Unilever's ice cream portfolio. Her growing social consciousness and gravitation towards ethically minded clients led her to move into social impact. She feels strongly that the social impact space deserves the rigor and provocative creativity that is so often seen in the corporate world.

Whilst in advertising, Charlotte authored 4 award winning effectiveness papers, winning both a gold IPA effectiveness award and a silver Cannes Lion for her writing. Her papers demonstrated the undeniable impact of creativity on brand building, and defined how the creative process - that intangible, ethereal thing - can be honed and finessed to deliver huge business results for brands. She has spoken at Most Contagious around the world on the same topic and is a huge champion of strong relationships between strategists and creatives, in order to make good work, great.

Corina Kwami

Strategy Director

Corina Kwami is a Director of Strategy at Purpose, bringing her globally recognized expertise in infrastructure, sustainability and cities to our strategy work. Since joining Purpose, she has led the development of a narrative change curriculum for practitioners across different sectors (Voices Incubator), contributing her subject-matter expertise on business development for our climate portfolio and collaborating with partner organizations in designing for the planet.

With a decade of experience in over 20 countries across Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia, Corina’s career includes systems analyses and stakeholder engagement in global health, infrastructure policy and environmental, social & governance (ESG) initiatives. She has extensive experience in systems thinking, problem-framing and facilitating spaces for collaboration through the arts. Prior to joining Purpose, Corina led the ‘Sustainable living places’ portfolio at the Royal Academy of Engineering which applied a systems approach to decarbonizing housing in partnership with the Infrastructure Projects Authority, a part of the UK Treasury that oversees major infrastructure projects.

Corina holds a bachelors from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, masters from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and a doctorate from University College London.

As a former competitive swimmer for nearly 12 years at the national / collegiate level, Corina credits her values of 'caring for the whole person' and being 'people for others' to many hours in the pool with teammates from all over the world. Often described as a 'Renaissance woman', Corina is also jazz musician often found performing in London and around the globe and has been recognised for her impressive grasp of what jazz can teach us about leadership, partnerships, and innovative thinking at the UNLEASH Innovation Lab.

Gabrielle Choo

Creative Director

As Creative Director at Purpose, Gabrielle takes on a number of responsibilities across the creative team: copywriter, art director, creative strategist and producer. Merging her multi-hyphenate background with a passion for craft, Gabrielle spearheads conceptually led, thought provoking creative across multiple channels. With a background in London’s leading advertising, creative and digital agencies, Gabrielle brings her wealth of experience to Purpose to help solve problems and champion creative excellence.

Ilinca Balan

Global Program Manager, Purpose Climate Lab

As Global Program Manager, Ilinca is responsible for managing the Climate Lab’s global portfolio of work. In close collaboration with the Lab’s leadership and in-country teams, she ensures that Purpose Climate Lab's projects deliver high impact through high-quality project design, timely and on-budget implementation, accurate measurement and reporting.

Prior to joining Purpose, Ilinca worked at the global think-tank ODI, where she led the operational, financial and project management coordination of its research programmes, including oversight of the Project Management team. She has experience with policy work as well, notably on energy for the European Commission in Brussels and on EU affairs at the British Embassy in Bucharest, alongside hands-on experience in project design and delivery at the EU Delegation in Nigeria.

Ilinca has a BA in International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, and a MA in European Studies from the College of Europe.

Ilinca loves swing dancing, baking and crime series. She bought a bike during the first lockdown and has been recently using it to explore the West Sussex countryside.   

Isobel Bruce

Digital Campaigns Director

Isobel is the  Digital Campaign Director at Purpose London, who specialises in digital communications and content. She brings a wealth of knowledge from nearly a decade working in digital roles across the private and public sector. At Purpose she has worked on a range of clients, including LEGO Foundation, Freedom From Torture and as part of Purpose Climate Lab, finding innovative ways to connect with audiences with engaging content and messages.

Previous to her role at Purpose, she worked as a Creative & Digital Strategist at WPP agencies, such as VMLY&R and Ogilvy, with clients like Baileys and Alpro, launched Mental Health at Work, a digital initiative with Mind and The Royal Foundation, and spent three years devising ways to immerse the great British public in the cinematic worlds of Secret Cinema through social media and digital as a pre-narrative producer. In a past life, she lived in New York for five years, working to bring theatre in development to unusual locations across Brooklyn. The thread that connects this broad experience is a passion for story-telling and connecting with people in a meaningful way.

Isobel has a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Liverpool, an MA in Theatre from LIPA, and a diploma in Psychoanalysis from the Tavistock and Portman Trust. In her free time she sings in a chamber choir, consumes media and writes; she has written two TV pilots and has just started her first novel.

Jack Steadman

Campaign Director

Jack is Campaign Director & Campaign Lead EMEA at Purpose. With over ten years of experience in communications, campaigns, and digital engagement, Jack leads on designing and executing campaigns that harness people power to create sustainable, systemic change.

Prior to joining Purpose, Jack was Head of Digital & Campaigns at Freedom from Torture, where he led a team of campaigners to win several high-profile campaigns, including forcing airlines to back out of the UK's plan to fly refugees to Rwanda. As a consultant, Jack has advised a number of international NGOs in their campaign strategies and coached teams from around the world. He is currently a trustee of Safe Passage International. 

Jack's journey in campaigns started when he left his job as a digital editor in the UK to go to Calais - and stayed for over a year. He was a founding Calais volunteer and Head of Digital at Choose Love, leading on the digital delivery of the ‘Choose Love’ online store.

In his spare time, Jack enjoys cooking vegan food, playing along to music from around the world, and watching his beloved Crystal Palace FC.

Jana Petterson

Associate Director of Project Management

Jana is an Associate Director of Project Management and Project Management Lead at Purpose EMEA, working on the UN Verified programme. She brings her expertise in project management and love of leading teams, ensuring the delivery of high quality projects whilst building a strong and positive team culture.

She has 15 years industry experience and has led many multidisciplinary teams delivering a wide range of successful projects from campaigns, platforms, websites, apps, OOH, videos, product design. Her career started at VCCP followed by Isobar and Tag Worldwide, where she delivered work for global brands such as SONY, HP, Unilever and Asus. After that she spent 7 years in a start up tech agency working alongside the owner in growing the business.

Her personal life is all about her 2 year old daughter and they have lots of fun together going out and about and meeting up with other families. In another life she enjoyed travelling the world and sampling the latest craft beers around London.

Kate Norgrove

Diretora, Laboratório de Mudanças Climáticas da Purpose

Kate Norgrove é diretora do Laboratório de Mudanças Climáticas da Purpose, liderando uma equipe global e trabalhando com parceiros para acelerar a transição rumo a um planeta mais limpo e sustentável. Kate passou os últimos quinze anos trabalhando em campanhas voltadas a questões que vão do controle internacional de armas à União Europeia, com particular interesse e expertise no apoio ao desenvolvimento de organizações de impacto que trabalham para fazer a diferença no mundo.

Antes de entrar para a Purpose, Kate trabalhou como chefe global de campanhas na WaterAid, onde conduziu iniciativas para atingir uma meta de desenvolvimento sustentável para água e saneamento (que fora acordada entre 192 países na ONU em setembro de 2015). Antes disso, viveu e trabalhou em Dakar, no Senegal, onde coordenou as campanhas e o trabalho político da Oxfam na África Ocidental, cobrindo oito países – entre os quais Nigéria e Gana –, realizando trabalho relacionado ao conflito no Chade e à segurança alimentar em Níger e Mali. Kate também trabalhou com a Save the Children, a UNICEF e a Plan International, entre outras, e realizou ações de mídia em frente à sede da ONU, se vestiu de cocô na Quinta Avenida em Nova Iorque, recriou uma rua vitoriana em frente às Casas do Parlamento em Londres, inaugurou banheiros em Delhi, organizou um show imenso em Joanesburgo e coordenou a “Lesson for life”, campanha que atingiu 12 milhões de crianças no mundo todo.

Kate se formou na Cambridge University, obtendo seu diploma em literatura inglesa. É londrina de coração e hoje vive com seu marido e três filhos. Quando não está aproveitando o tempo com eles, geralmente pode ser encontrada correndo ou podando as rosas no seu quintal pequenino mas jeitoso em Londres.

Kieran Todd

Creative Associate Manager

Kieran joins Purpose as a Creative with 5 years design experience. He’s a passionate problem solver with specialisms in brand & identity, ideation and UX.

Prior to joining Purpose, Kieran has worked with large scale global brands, such as Unilever & Disney, start ups, and everything in between. Through a variety of mediums and data where possible, he loves crafting beautiful and engaging concepts.

Out of hours you’ll more than likely find Kieran immersed in an in-depth conversation about music or at the driving range, working on his ever so shaky swing.

Lee Stobbs

Creative Staffing Manager

As a seasoned industry professional with a proven track record in creative services management, Lee brings substantial industry experience, having working integrally with some of the worlds biggest brands. Lee is passionate about working efficiently and has a resolute desire to succeed. His instinctive ability to map a logistical route to success has allowed him to devise innovative workflow soilutions proving demonstrable efficiency gains throughout his career.

Prior to joining Purpose, he has helped amongst others, both Jaywing and IMAHome improve utilisation by creating and continually refining processes.

Away from work, Lee can usually be found enjoying hiking, mountain biking, the gym or rugby-sadly, only watching these days!. He has also been a volunteer ranger of Sustrans for over 20 years, and regularly spends time maintaining a small section of the 12,000+ miles of signed routes across the UK.

Manuela Mürrle

Strategy Director

Manuela works at the intersection of strategy and creativity, with a focus on brand development and sustainable business models. At Purpose, she helps shape campaigns, brands, and organisational models from an analytical standpoint. She has worked on campaigns in Kenya, India and the EU across avoidable blindness, youth participation in governance, and freedom of expression. 

Before joining Purpose, Manuela contributed to the  development of a citizen engagement hub in Colombia for post-conflict integration. Prior to entering the world of social impact, she worked as a brand strategy consultant for major Latin American corporations, identifying stakeholder insights and integrating compelling narratives into corporate strategies, in order to better connect brands to target audiences.

When not at Purpose, she can be found advancing her personal project to transform civic spaces in Colombian territories that are affected by violence. 

Manuela holds a Masters in Strategic Design and Management from Parsons – The New School and a Bachelor in Service Design with a focus on Business and Social Psychology. She has lived in Bogota, New York City and London, and speaks English, Spanish and German.

Maria Sidawi

Associate Project Manager

Maria is an Associate Project Manager at Purpose. She delivers projects for the world's leading nonprofits, philanthropies, and companies — managing the day-to-day communication and operational aspects of Purpose’s projects and COVID-19 Lab. With a background in marketing, Maria combines her 3 years of project management experience working for a digital marketing agency and a not-for-profit to her role. 

Covid-19 highlighted pre-existing inequities and social issues which  gave Maria the push to pursue a career change into social impact. Based on her lived experience as a first generation British Syrian, when the pandemic hit Maria knew she wanted to make a difference to address social issues, inequality and catalyse systemic change using her skills for social good. 

Before joining Purpose, Maria worked in the Communications, Operations and Recruitment & Inclusion Services teams for an award-winning not-for-profit empowering young people from under-represented communities and supporting employers to diversify their workforce and build inclusive work environments. Prior to this, Maria worked in the Client Services team for a digital marketing agency working on projects for gaming and technology clients including Logitech, NVIDIA and Blue Microphones.

Maria has lived most of her life in the UK but has also lived in Saudi Arabia for 7 years and loves travelling. In her spare time Maria loves to visit art exhibitions.

Nathan Lewis

Digital Campaign Manager

Nathan Lewis is a Digital Campaign Manager here at Purpose based in the London office. He has extensive experience building, maintaining and running successful digital campaigns for a range of clients. Nathan uses a data-driven approach to better understand audience behaviour and in turn optimise campaigns for maximum ROI.

Before joining Purpose, Nathan worked with a range of organisations primarily focusing on health, from disability charities like Whizz-Kidz to global healthcare providers like Ramsay Health Care.

He has a BA in Marketing alongside additional digital marketing qualifications and has a particular interest in Behavioural Economics.

When he’s not spending his time online, he likes to get out amongst nature, hiking and kayaking. He also volunteers locally teaching children debating and public speaking skills.

Nnamdi Odiwe

Associate Digital Campaigns Director

As an Associate Digital Campaigns Director, Nnamdi brings digital campaigning experience, marketing and communications expertise and a passion for innovation. With a background in marketing communications and digital strategy in both the profit and non-profit sectors, he delivers movement and campaign strategies tailored to digital habits and media consumption patterns but prioritises best practices and data protection.

Before joining Purpose, Nnamdi managed marketing in several organisations like Scarborough Borough Council, Etisalat telecommunications and the British Council, where he worked on the Climate connections programme for COP 26 in 60+ countries and led the marketing function in West Africa. He also has a rich agency background working with Saatchi and Saatchi, Mediacom and Initiative media working on brands like Guinness, Unilever and Cadbury in West Africa.

Nnamdi holds an MSc in Marketing Communications from Pan-Atlantic University and a BSc in Marketing from Covenant University. He’s a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing London.

Nnamdi grew up in a town in Lagos that was purpose-built for the Festival of Arts and culture called FESTAC. He loves combat sports and taking long walks.

Petra Said

Associate Manager, Impact, Measurement & Learning

Ravneet Bains

Associate Creative Manager

Ravneet is an Associate Creative Manager that has a passion for ‘design for change’ and focuses on exploring creative solutions in which we can tackle important issues. She specialises in editorial design, UX design, brand & identity and animation, which she has implemented across various campaigns at Purpose.

Before joining Purpose, Ravneet studied at the Arts University Bournemouth where she graduated with a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design. As a designer she focused on creating work which is both striking and is able to evoke numerous emotions of the public to create a lasting impression.

When Ravneet is not working she enjoys being outdoors and exploring new surroundings on her bicycle! She also be found creating makeup looks in her bedroom. Follow her on Instagram to see more @Ravneetbains. 

Rickie Marsden

Associate Creative Director

Rickie is an Associate Creative Director at Purpose EMEA working with the creative teams to bolster creative ideation and campaign thinking paired with a passion for craft. He specialises in copywriting and behavioural change campaigns. 

Prior to joining Purpose, Rickie worked his way through top London advertising agencies and helped turn around the reputation of smaller independent shops. 

His thought provoking work for charities such as NSPCC/Childline, LGBT Foundation and Papyrus have seen him win numerous industry awards from Cannes Lions through to D&AD pencils.

Rickie graduated from the University of Central Lancashire with a B.A. in Advertising. When not at work, you’ll often find Rickie baking, painting, starting a new hobby or hating coriander. 

Sadiq Ali

People Experience Lead

Sadiq Ali joins Purpose as a HR Lead for EMEA with a decade of experience across Africa & Europe accruing a wealth of knowledge in difference spaces whether in governments, local authorities and social enterprises.

He's a people-centric leader who delivers Talent Acquisition, Retention, Learning and Development, and holistic solutions that help companies harness the full power of one of their most valuable assets - their people.

A strong believer in lifelong learning, Sadiq has studied Bsc Psychology at Goldsmiths College, University of London and Bsc Economics & Social Policy at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Away from work, Sadiq juggles between family time, passionately promoting initiatives to mitigate climate change and following the chronicles of Arsenal FC.

Sam Jackson

Global Paid Media Associate Director

Sarah Barr

Associate Director of Impact, Measurement & Learning

Sarah is an Associate Manager for Impact, Measurement and Learning based in London.

Sarah leads the development and execution of impact frameworks, to help Purpose understand the impact their campaigns have in the world. Her focus is on working with teams to develop practical and insightful approaches gathering and analysing data from our projects, and supporting colleagues to develop their evaluation skills.

Prior to Purpose, Sarah’s background is in the humanitarian sector. Her previous focus was on building the evidence base for humanitarian interventions initiated using forecasts, evaluating the difference this made on people vulnerable to floods, droughts and heatwaves.

Sarah graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a degree in Social Anthropology and Politic, and from SOAS with a Masters in the Political Economy of Violence, Conflict and Development.

Sarah Byers

Senior Program Manager

Before joining Purpose, Sarah worked for Her Majesty's Government (Civil Service) in the UK. Sarah was instrumental in the successful passage of the Charities and Social Investment Bill in the House of Lords. And for the two years prior, she worked within the coalition Government for the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg. 

In her Senior Program Manager role at Purpose, Sarah uses her varied and deep skills in project management, event planning, and administration. Sarah carries a BA degree in International Relations and Modern History from the University of East Anglia, which served in spurring on her interest for international and humanitarian development. 

Sarah is a strong believer in recognizing mental health as a global issue and tries to champion this message as much as possible. Sarah has run the Brighton Marathon 2016 and a half marathon in order to raise money for Mind, a mental health charity in the UK, and she also worked with mentally and physically disabled children in a respite centre in New York in 2011. 

Seemab Zafar-Agha

Global Director Culture & Experience

With over 15 years of extensive experience in Change, Culture, DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), Leadership, and Human Resources, Seemab has consistently demonstrated her ability to lead and execute improvement initiatives across a wide range of HR areas. Her expertise encompasses leadership coaching, strategic organizational design, talent and performance management, change management, recruitment, and culture.

At Purpose, Seemab plays a pivotal role as the leader of the Culture and Experience team, driving the vision to transform Purpose into a workplace where exceptional talents are drawn to build impactful careers driven by purpose. Her focus lies in creating an environment that fosters accountability and commitment, serving the advancement of meaningful movements and causes that resonate with our values. The Culture and Experience team diligently strives to ensure that every individual at Purpose concludes each day feeling "fulfilled," which entails:

- Experiencing a profound and meaningful impact through their work.
- Cultivating meaningful relationships with their colleagues.
- Nurturing personal growth as leaders and within their respective fields.

Prior to joining Purpose, Seemab held pivotal positions at renowned media agencies such as Publicis Sapient, Havas Media Group, and Omnicom, where she excelled as the Global Director of People and Culture. Her approach revolved around building strong relationships across all levels of the organization, delivering results-oriented solutions, and employing practical tools tailored to meet specific needs. Seemab firmly believes in working collaboratively with both hearts and minds, forging a partnership that maximizes individual and business performance while creating value through people.

Currently pursuing her Masters in HR and Organizational Development at Birkbeck College, Seemab maintains a commitment to continuous learning and professional growth. In her leisure time, she embraces her passion for exploring diverse cultures and cuisines by traveling the world.

Simon Burt

Strategy Director

Simon is a Strategy Director & Strategy Lead at Purpose EMEA, and has over 9 years experience in advertising, marketing and strategic communications working across private and public sector clients. His breadth of experience covers creative and media strategies whilst tackling some of the biggest issues facing humanity today. In his time at Purpose, Simon has managed to reposition a well-known global health brand in need of a refresh, create a holistic and innovative approach to employee and customer engagement with IKEA and build a highly targeted public mobilisation campaign to encourage adherence to public health guidelines in South Africa & the Middle East.

Simon's previous role was as a strategist at M&C Saatchi World Services, a strategic and creative consultancy (part of the M&C Saatchi network agency). Here he focused on work in the Middle East and North Africa tackling issues around extremism, violent extremism and counter-terrorism. Projects included communications interventions around deradicalisation in the Sahel and the securitization of young Iraqi men vulnerable to the divisive narratives of violent extremism by leveraging the influence of community gatekeepers.

Simon started out working at Publicis' agency Starcom as a media planner and junior strategist. Here he learnt the intricacies (and pitfalls) of strategy working across primary research, audience insights generation to campaign delivery. He's worked across some of the biggest commercial clients such as Samsung, Yahoo & Royal London.

When away from work Simon, much like the family dog Otis, can be found chasing a ball around a playing field whether it be football, basketball, golf or cricket!

Sofia Mutinelli

Strategy Manager

As a Strategy Manager at Purpose, Sofia Mutinelli brings together life sciences expertise, branding & innovation experience and her commitment to sustainable development. With a background in psychology, she taps into human truths to decode society and craft compelling strategies that advance social and environmental purpose.

Before joining Purpose, Sofia journeyed her way through unconventional research methods to study how people and businesses perform. She specialised in the Psychology of Waste and worked on social research projects, which have been featured in scientific publications. In her previous role as Senior Strategist & Sustainability Lead for a brand and innovation consultancy, she led large-scale innovation and cultural projects and launched strategies within Health & Wellness, Tech, Food & DEI with global brands. Fusing mindfulness for the emergent culture with passion for social impact, she led the initiative of integrating the UN SDGs as a strategic framework and business proposition.

Sofia, originally from Italy, holds a Bachelor in Psychology with Behavioural Economics and a Master’s degree in Psychology of Economic Life. In her spare time, Sofia loves writing and sipping coffee with friends - loyally to her Italian self.

Sonia Sheta

Partnerships Director, Europe

As Partnership Director, Sonia Sheta brings a wealth of communications experience from a creative, business and social impact perspective.   At Purpose she leads the development of relationships with potential partners and clients and is a member of the London Leadership team

Previously Sonia had a successful career in advertising where she became the first person of colour to join the Board of a large London agency.  She spearheaded campaigns for government and businesses alike, building long-term relationships with clients along the way, as well as heading up the department, training and mentoring staff.   She went on to set up her own consultancy working in that middle ground between business and good causes.

Sonia graduated from Southampton University with a BA in Classics and studied Integrative Psychotherapy at The Minster Centre.

 
She is passionate about ancient civilisations and fancies herself as a bit of an intrepid explorer.

Sophie Hollows

Director of Impact, Measurement & Learning

Based in Berlin, Sophie is a Director of Impact, Measurement & Learning (IML) and IML Lead at Purpose EMEA, and works on projects in Germany, France and the UK. Focusing on campaign strategy, she has participated in projects for the Gates Foundation and the UN, among others, and has helped to set up the Purpose Climate Lab in France. 

Prior to joining Purpose, Sophie worked in the development sector, concentrating on evidence-based programme design; monitoring and evaluation; and thought-leadership strategies. With the British Council she spent two years in Mexico City and a further two in Islamabad, and subsequently consulted for a range of organisations in the arts and education sectors, including UNESCO, Save the Children and Arts Council England. 

She has a BA (Hons) in Politics, Psychology and Sociology from the University of Cambridge and a MSc in Education (International and Comparative) from the University of Oxford. She speaks English and French fluently, and good Spanish. 

Outside of work, Sophie loves trawling Berlin’s flea markets and vintage stores. She has a growing collection of Risograph, silkscreen and lithograph prints from around the world.

Suma Balaram Schippers

Design Manager

Based in Amsterdam, Suma is a Design Manager at Purpose working on projects across EMEA and India. She combines her skills in branding, communication and human-centered design to build impactful campaigns on pressing global issues. As a part of Purpose Climate Lab, she has designed multiple campaigns such as Biodiversity by the Bay, We the Change and Help Delhi Breathe. 

As someone who cares deeply about nature and its relationship with people, she has designed campaigns that advocate for climate action, protecting biodiversity, marine conservation, clean energy transition and equitable health care. Prior to joining Purpose, she worked with a diverse range of brands and organisations like L’Oréal, Neutrogena, Parley for the Oceans and The 5 Gyres Institute.

She holds a Masters in Strategic Design & Management from Parsons School of Design and a Bachelors in Design Communication from LASALLE College of the Arts. Her concern for marine conservation has deeply influenced her choice of academic projects and volunteer work.  When Suma is not designing, she is usually sitting in a corner somewhere drawing animals in her sketchbook. She’s a water baby! She loves scuba diving, hiking and taking photos of wildlife @suminthewild