Who we are

Board of Trustees

The Board meets regularly and is responsible for setting our strategic direction and governance, and overseeing management.

Our Director and leadership team are responsible for shaping our goals and ensuring we achieve them. They are guided by, and are accountable to, our Board of Trustees.

Cheryl Siddons Chair

Cheryl Siddons has worked in the public, private and voluntary sectors. She has worked extensively in establishing charities and businesses from concept to delivery. She values volunteers and has worked directly with them throughout her career.

Cheryl is a former Non-Executive Director of the Local Health Trust with Board level responsibility for Women and Children’s issues. Cheryl also works in Politics as an adviser.

Matthew Knight Deputy Chair

Until 2014 Matthew was the Human Resources Director at the University of Leeds, with previous senior level HR experience in both the private, public and voluntary sectors, including field work for a development charity in Africa.

Since retirement he has undertaken a number of international consultancy roles in Higher Education, and has chaired a furniture re-use charity operating across North Yorkshire.

He is currently the Chair of Older Citizens Advocacy York (OCAY), a Trustee of the York Centre for Voluntary Service and a Governor of the Leeds and York NHS Partnership Trust. Matthew is a Samaritans listening volunteer.

Martin Foy

Martin Foy has worked at several companies including small tech start-ups, commercial, public sector and numerous not for profit organisations, leading various teams in these sectors. He has degrees in Computer Science and a Masters Degree in Advanced Computer Science and continues to study for further qualifications in the fields of Humanitarian Aid, Business and Computing.

In his spare time, he likes to cycle and travel and volunteers with various charities. Martin is looking forward to working with Good Neighbours UK to make a positive difference in the lives of many children, families and communities around the world and the UK.

Victoria Wickenden

Victoria Wickenden is an aid worker.  She has worked in Africa, Latin America and In the Middle East.

Working for the UK government she started the UKAid office in Amman, Jordan at the start of the Arab Spring.  She went on the head up UK Aid in Libya.

She has worked for CARE International as director of programmes – leading a global portfolio of humanitarian and development projects.   She was director of safeguarding at CARE international and is the Safeguarding board member at Coach Core – a UK youth focused charity.

Victoria now leads relationships with donor governments on behalf of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development.

Haeun Seong

Dr. HaEun Seong (Marcellino) has 20 years’ experience in international human rights and humanitarian NGOs, with a particular focus on the United Nations advocacy and partnership in Geneva, Switzerland. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Graduate Institute of Geneva where he studied the impact of National Human Rights Institutions in the domestic implementation of international human rights norms.

His human rights activities centre on advocating and supporting human rights defenders from the global south to build awareness in the UN fora. He currently focuses on developing partnerships between Good Neighbours members and UN agencies in order to support refugees and host communities in Africa and Asia.

Natasha Kendrick

Natasha Kendrick is a Senior Lawyer in the Government Legal Department, specialising in public law and policy. As an experienced in-house lawyer, including as Legal Counsel to an international development NGO previously, Natasha is experienced in advising organisations on a variety of legal issues and on strategy, risk management and good governance.

She has a keen interest in human rights, international development and humanitarian relief and has volunteered on various development-related projects in the UK and overseas.

Meet the Team

Our Director and leadership team are responsible for shaping our goals and ensuring we achieve them. They are guided by, and are accountable to, our Board of Trustees.

Zarina Douglas-Sori Director

Zarina studied international development at the University of East Anglia and since 2001 has worked for charitable organisations in the United Kingdom and overseas in the fields of poverty alleviation, inclusion, food security and sustainability.

Zarina is passionate about community-led development and empowering minority and disadvantaged groups to lead positive and impactful development and social change. Prior to joining Good Neighbours UK, Zarina worked as a grant officer for Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Zarina has experience of leading and managing development programmes. She spent 13 years in West Africa supporting farming families to improve their subsistence and commercial agriculture. Zarina is bi-lingual in English and French and loves learning languages. In her free time Zarina enjoys crochet, karate and yoga.

David King Chief Operating Officer

David King has 25 years experience in the charity sector. He has an MSc in Business Process Management.

When David was an Executive Director at UBS, he became a mentor through the Prince’s Trust, Roots and Wings programme, supporting young people through the world of work experience from Deptford Green School.

For 10 years, as Head of Operations at Pilotlight, he  worked with hundreds of charities, helping them to develop their strategic capacity and capability by matching them with business executives through a variety of projects and programmes.

‘I am looking forward to the challenge of developing and growing Good Neighbours here in the UK.’

Andleeb Khan Principal Funding and Grants Officer

Andleeb Khan is international programme development and management expert with more than nine years of experience.

She holds a demonstrated history in managing a diverse portfolio of programmes including education, health, humanitarian, governance, conflict & stabilisation, policy & advocacy, private sector and civil society engagement.

She has worked with leading donors (including FCDO, UN, ECHO) and international NGOs to deliver multi-million programmes.

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