MeetOur Team

Baillie began Spark Inside in 2012, after previously founding a US charity teaching entrepreneurship to people in prison. With degrees from Harvard and Cambridge, she also qualified as a Life Coach in 2014 with the Coaches Training Institute. Baillie was appointed a Ministry of Justice Policy Fellow in 2016 and is a member of the World Economic Forum community of Global Shapers, a Global Good Fellow, and a Women of the Future finalist. You can read more about Baillie’s founder story here.

Follow Baillie: @baillieaaron

Josie has extensive experience of setting up and developing services for vulnerable people — including significant work in the criminal justice and homeless sectors. At Spark Inside, Josie will be piloting a project to see how Hero’s Journey can reach a wider audience across the UK.

After gaining several years of administrative experience, Charlie joined Spark Inside to use her skills to have a social impact. Charlie is on hand to support all staff and is open to any challenge that may be thrown her way. Her favourite part of her role is the exposure to our innovative work. 

Indy oversees the communications strategy for Spark Inside, bringing with her almost 15 years’ experience in marketing communications. With an MSc in Marketing and as a qualified project manager, Indy has built a varied career that includes central government comms; heading-up the marketing communications activity for entrepreneur and Dragons’ Den star Peter Jones’ charity; and marketing the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the London 2012 Festival and Cultural Olympiad. Indy​’s focus is raising the profile of Spark Inside​’s vital work.

Indy is currently on maternity leave.

David is a Chartered Certified Accountant with 20 years’ experience in the charity sector, including eight years leading a criminal justice charity in Manchester. David helps ensure Spark Inside makes the most of every penny it receives through robust financial management. He particularly loves helping to shape the organisation’s future through financial planning, and is known for drinking gallons of tea! 

Ihona has extensive experience developing innovative services for various non-profits across the criminal justice and social sectors. At Spark Inside, Ihona is responsible for the implementation, management and infrastructure of our programmes, and their evaluation. She ensures our programmes’ quality standards, and that they remain in line with best practice models. Ihona holds qualifications in Youth and Community Work, and Training and Adult Learning.

Corinna leads on the development & delivery of a number of key communications and policy projects for Spark Inside. Corinna has over 20 years’ marketing & communications experience including BBC Campaigns Director for social action programming and Global Head of Communications for a Royal youth charity across 140 countries. Corinna is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an experienced Board Trustee. As a qualified life/​executive coach, Corinna knows first-hand how transformational coaching can be and greatly admires the valuable impact that Spark Inside delivers.

With over 20 years of experience of providing HR management and services to the public and not-for-profit sectors, Omar is the interim Head of HR pending the appointment of a permanent Head of Finance and Resources. Omar is passionate about working in organisations that have a positive social impact and contribute to building a more inclusive society.

After delivering frontline youth work programmes for over 8 years, Christopher joins our programme team as a Service Delivery Manager. Working across prisons in London, Chris liaises between our coaches, prison staff and the people we work with to ensure that our programmes are delivered to the highest standard. Chris holds a degree in Youth Work, and has always been passionate about empowering young people to achieve their full potential.

Nicola is our research assistant, and oversees the internal evaluation and monitoring of our programmes. A trained psychotherapist, who worked mainly with the victims of sexual violence, Nicola holds a MSc in Early Interventions in Psychosis at King’s College London. More recently, she has been working on a large-scale EU funded research project, looking at resilience and adolescent mental health within deprived areas of South London.

Bob is a Master Youth Coach, having worked with and for young people, parents, teachers and youth workers for over 21 years. He is an expert at engaging, coaching and building rapports with young people and supporting those who work with and for them to do the same. Bob co-founded the Youth Coaching Academy in 2001, where he designed and delivered the world’s first fully accredited youth coaching courses. He has worked as a coaching consultant for many organisations including central government, various London Councils, Coreplan UK, Magnificent Generation and Coram. He is currently the CEO/Director of Coaching of the Community Coaching Academy. 

Charlotte is responsible for communicating the story of our work and its impact, both online and in print. With over eight years of experience in communications for the public and voluntary sector, she is passionate about using her knowledge to help Spark Inside expand its reach and potential. Charlotte’s experience includes working for the NHS, campaigning organisations and a social welfare charity.

Simone is a qualified youth worker, with a degree in Youth and Community Work. She has been working with young people, including in the criminal justice system, for more than 10 years. Simone works across London prisons, managing our coaches and making our programmes happen. Her favourite part of her job is seeing the journey young people make: from their initial introduction to life coaching, through to the growth they make whilst in prison, and on their release. 

Tiwa is an investment professional and Vice President at 8 Miles LLP. She was formerly a Senior Associate at PWC. Tiwa holds a first class degree in accounting and finance from Warwick University and is an Associate of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Mike has worked in prisons for 40 years in both public and private sectors, from prison officer to prison governor, from Director of Operations to Director of Strategy and Corporate Change. Mike is also a qualified coach and helps run his company’s coaching programme. He is married with three children, and loves cycling and kayaking.

Tom worked for 15 years designing and delivering experiential personal development training, culture change programmes and practice innovation workshops for corporate, statutory and community clients. Then, in 2006 a tragic stabbing on his doorstep motivated him to focus on his local community. He delivered community cohesion and youth engagement projects for his local authority before landing the first of a number of management roles in youth charities. Over the next 12 years he gained a solid grounding in programme design, impact assessment, project management and leading quality processes in education, prison and community settings. Tom is committed to addressing the systemic and cultural issues that cause inequality. He believes in social justice and everybody’s potential to lead a fulfilling and valuable life. He is thrilled to serve as trustee leading on Monitoring and Evaluation. 

Stephanie works in the policy team at the Equality and Human Rights Commission. She previously worked at the Howard League for Penal Reform and Boston Consulting Group. Stephanie has a Philosophy degree from Cambridge, a management qualification from Judge Business School and a master’s in Gender Studies from UCL.

Rob is a financial technology executive and board member with significant corporate governance experience. He was formerly a finance partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, a leading international law firm. Rob has a law degree from Oxford and a business degree from London Business School.

Roma is the founder of the Prison Radio Association and is also their chair, as well as being the chair for Clinks. She is a criminal justice advisor and was the founder of the Make Justice Work campaign. She has worked extensively in the criminal justice sector for over 25 years in a wide variety of different roles. She is currently chair of Spark Inside as well as on the board of the Comedy School. Roma was awarded an OBE in 2016 for services to prisons.

Kenny is the co-founder & Managing Director of ClearView Research Ltd, a leading edge research company that specialises in research focussing on millennials and social impact evaluation. Kenny is also a campaigner and has been described by Huffington Post UK as a ​“young rising star making waves in UK politics.” His work in both the worlds of research and politics has taken him around the world to countries such as the United States, Brazil, Austria, Tunisia, Israel, and Hong Kong. 

Hamish is an an advisor to a range of companies. He was formerly a senior executive in investment banking. Hamish graduated from Cardiff with BSc (Hons) and recently completed a MSc at London Business School. In his spare time Hamish enjoys his bike, gigs and his family.

Sophie leads the delivery operations team at a tech start up, supporting 16 – 23 year olds to accelerate their careers through coaching and apprenticeships. Prior to that she worked in impact investment bringing an analytical and rigorous approach to developing sustainable and systemic outcomes based solutions to entrenched social problems. Sophie holds a degree in Political Science from Bristol. In her spare time, you can find her reading the latest best seller, exploring new corners of the globe or playing with her two dogs.

Edward holds under- and post-graduate degrees from the University of Durham, and is currently completing an MSc in Criminology & Criminal Justice at Oxford; his dissertation is on the topic of class and the lay magistracy. He is active in the criminal justice sphere, working with various organisations including Unlocked Graduates, Safe Ground, and the Welcome Directory. Edward has a particular research interest in the intersection of religious belief and criminal justice (particularly faith as expressed in the prison environment), and hopes to begin a PhD on this topic later in 2019.