Meet the Together Initiative Trustees

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 is an independent consultant and chartered accountant with over 25 years experience in the Financial Services industry. Most recently, he was a partner at Deloitte, where he led governance, risk, and regulation work for clients in the Investment Management and Private Equity sectors. Prior to settling in the UK, Tendai worked in Zimbabwe and the US, auditing and advising clients in the Financial Services industry.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.