Meet the Together Initiative Trustees
/together is coordinated by a small charity called The Together Initiative, which is governed by a Board of Trustees.
Jane Gibson OBE
(Chair)
Jane, Lady Gibson OBE specialises in not-for-profit governance. She is a Historic England Commissioner and the chair of the Hadrian’s Wall UNESCO World Heritage Site Partnership Board. She also chairs the Stakeholder Action Group of York Central, one of the largest city centre regeneration schemes in the UK. She is a member of Newcastle University Court.
Until early 2026 she was chair of Spirit of 2012, a spend-out trust set up by the National Lottery Community Fund as the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic legacy funder with a £47million endowment. Until 2024 she was a Director of the York & North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership which is now part of the York & North Yorkshire Combined Authority. She was the founding chair of Make It York which incorporates Visit York and was previously an advisory board member of National Trust Yorkshire & North East. In 2022 she was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Jubilee Honours List for services to volunteering, heritage and the arts.
Tendai Bwanya
Tendai is a partner at Deloitte. Prior to settling in the UK, Tendai worked in Zimbabwe and the US, auditing and advising clients in Private Equity, Investment Management and Banking industries. Tendai qualified as a chartered accountant with Deloitte and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and in Zimbabwe. He is involved in diversity and inclusion initiatives and supports a number of voluntary causes, with current and past involvement with Compassion UK, KickStart Money, The Centre for Financial Capability and Love Your Neighbour initiative. Tendai was born and raised in a small rural village in Zimbabwe before he completed his Accountancy degree at the University of Zimbabwe
Emma Crookes
Emma is Managing Director and Lead mediator at EMC Mediation Services Ltd. She has exceptional corporate governance experience from her time with Standard Chartered bank where she held the roles of Global Head, HR, Conduct, Financial Crime & Compliance and Corporate Affairs & Brand and Marketing Head, HR, Mergers & Acquisitions, Regional Head, HR, Support Functions, Americas and Head, HR, Performance. Emma is a qualified Civil and Commercial mediator focused on employment, workplace and online dispute resolution and a Neuroscience based coach and mentor. Prior to joining Standard Chartered she was People Services & Development Director and Company Secretary at People 1st. She holds a Masters in HR and is a Fellow of Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Frances Hawkins
Frances is Head of Internal Audit for Global Markets and Operations for Goldman Sachs International. She is a Managing Director with a 20+ year history of success in risk identification and control enhancement across various industries including global financial services institutions, local government and retail. Focused on conduct, culture, enhancing operational systems and risk mitigation across multi-disciplinary teams.
Chris Hopson
Following 40 years of senior executive roles in the NHS, the Civil Service, the TV industry and party politics, Chris has built a portfolio of non-executive activity. This includes trustee/NED roles, mentoring and advisory work. Chris’s executive Board experience includes time at Granada Media, subsequently ITV plc; HM Revenue and Customs; and NHS England. Chris has also chaired a national homeless young people’s charity and served on the British Standards Institute’s Standards Policy and Strategy Committee which is responsible for overseeing BSI’s work as the UK’s national standards body. He is a graduate of the Civil Service High Potential Development Scheme, designed to identify the next generation of most senior civil service leaders and holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management.
Rt Revd Dr Toby Howarth, Bishop of Bradford
Toby Howarth was born in Kenya, grew up in London and studied Philosophy at Yale University. He worked as a research assistant before becoming a postman in the East End of London. After ordination training for the Church of England in Oxford, Birmingham and Uganda, combining Christian theology with Islamic Studies, he moved to India with his family where he did research in Islamic preaching for a PhD from the Free
University of Amsterdam. Returning to Europe, Toby worked in Rotterdam and taught in Birmingham before becoming vicar in a majority Muslim parish there while serving as the bishop’s adviser for interfaith relations. In 2011 he became Interreligious Affairs Secretary to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He was consecrated Bishop of Bradford in York Minster in 2014.
Sean Moore
Sean is a passionate leader with over 20 years of experience across the sport, physical activity, and education sectors. He has held senior roles including Commercial Director at RobolabX, Head of Education & Wellbeing at Junior Adventures Group, and Director of Projects at Sporting Equals. Sean brings deep expertise in strategic planning, operational leadership, and corporate funding. His work is driven by a commitment to creating opportunities for children and young people through sport and physical activity, aligning closely with the Together Coalition’s mission to build more connected and compassionate communities.
Vishal Oberoi
Vishal is Group Chief Compliance Officer at Nexi Group, a leading European payment services organisation listed on the Italian Stock Exchange and operating across 25 countries. He brings 20 years of global leadership experience in risk management and regulatory compliance, having held multiple executive roles at Standard Chartered Bank – most recently as Chief Risk Officer (Group Functions) based in London. He previously held roles at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citi across Asia, Europe and the Americas. A certified anti-money laundering specialist (CAMS) and Oxford-trained in AI Ethics and Regulation, Vishal is passionate about building compliance functions that genuinely enable organisations and communities to thrive. He lives in London with his wife and daughter.