MEET THE TEAM

IAN AGNEW

 

Ian is an entrepreneur and business owner with a background in the social sector. His early career was in social housing working in local authorities, housing associations and on community development projects. He lived and worked in Namibia for several years where he was a technical advisor to indigenous people's and rights organisations. It was on his return to the UK, that he became involved with the Lorna Young Foundation as its founding director in 2006. Over the next ten years, Ian was also involved in a number of social enterprise ventures, primarily focussed on supporting marginalised communities and young people. He has worked on numerous cross-cultural programmes and is a Fellow of the Ariane de Rothschild Fellowship. Ian is one of the three founding partners of Dark Woods Coffee, one of the UK's leading independent speciality coffee roasteries. He became Chairperson of the LYF in 2018, after twelve years as its Co-Director. 

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HANNAH CLARK

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Hannah is an experienced international development programme manager, fundraiser and bid writer. With over 14 years’ experience in the sector, she has spent the last few years supporting community radio projects in Sub-Saharan Africa. Hannah has an MSc in Global Health and is always very excited about the potential for using radio to inspire and galvanize people to improve their lives and communities.

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Hannah’s career started at BESO and VSO, where she met Hannah Davis – finding the perfect team mate! It was when she was working for CAFOD in the Brazilian Amazon that Hannah first realised how powerful participatory media could be in enabling indigenous groups to protect their land.

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Hannah then lived in rural Mozambique, where she managed a WFP food distribution programme and experienced first-hand the precarious situation of smallholders.  Most recently Hannah worked at the faith-based radio development agency, Feba, managing projects in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone. Hannah has a proven record in securing grants from large trusts and institutional donors.

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HANNAH DAVIS

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Hannah has a long background in international development management, focusing in recent years on sustainable and ethical supply chain development and the empowerment of smallholder farmers. She worked for a number of years for VSO, first supporting a broad portfolio of country programmes and subsequently managing a global value chain development project improving access to markets for a variety of small-scale producers from dairy farmers in Malawi to rattan weavers in Cambodia. It was at VSO’s forerunner, BESO, that Hannah met Hannah Clark and formed a life-long friendship that has resulted in them working together again at LYF.

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Most recently Hannah was Senior Programme Manager at Twin, where she worked with smallholder farmers growing cocoa, coffee and nuts across Africa and Latin America, providing capacity building support on organisational governance, business management, gender justice, climate change adaptation and facilitating commercial links to social enterprises and multi-national businesses. She also has a strong track record of securing grants and managing private sector funding relationships.

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CHRISTINA LONGDEN

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Christina has a background in community-based project development and management, as well as a range of managerial functions, including performance and quality measurement, voluntary sector research, business development, service planning and contractual delivery. She is an experienced third and private sector professional, and had a successful track record in the social housing and voluntary sectors before moving into providing consultancy and training services to the charity sector and to Whitehall. Christina lived and worked with marginalised communities and organisations in Southern Africa for several years. There she compiled and edited two oral history books with the Kalahari San Bushmen, as well as fundraising for rights and development programmes and leading on advocacy and PR.

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Christina is also involved with initiatives that focus on justice and supporting the rights of marginalised groups. She provides project management, organisational and media services to Farmers' Voice Radio.

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CRISTINA TALENS

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Formerly the Ethical Trading Manager for Taylors of Harrogate, Cris has years of experience working on social and environmental issues with tea, coffee and cocoa producers around the world.

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With a background in labour, human rights and rainforest protection, she ran a vast social and environmental monitoring programme with smallholder farmers and estates, identifying areas for improved sustainable agricultural practices, developing action plans with the farmers, and mobilising local partner organisations for collaboration. She has first-hand experience of designing and implementing capacity building projects, around issues such as quality, trading, credit, supply chain management and facilitating access to ethical markets through certification schemes such as Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance. Cris has been involved in the Farmers' Voice Radio initiative from its inception and continues to conduct Farmers' Voice Radio training. She is also Founder and Director of Source Climate Change Coffee.

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HELEN NICHOLS

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Helen is a fundraiser with over ten years experience working for non profits. She is a trustee of Heritage Crafts; a UK organization which works with traditional crafts people. She has worked in various fundraising roles including at Unicef, Concern Worldwide and for a small climate organization. She has first hand experience working and living internationally including volunteering in Honduras and South Africa.  She is passionate about the role of media in giving people a voice and alongside Farmers Voice Radio delivers training to charities on filmmaking. She is a keen cook and has always been fascinated by where our food comes from. Helen is excited to be part of the team at Farmers Voice Radio and to build relationships with some new fundraising partners.