The London office serves as a hub for both European and International projects including the See Now campaign to end avoidable blindness, the Help Britain Breathe initiative, and a European digital rights campaign.
We partner with some of the leading non-profits and foundations including the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, WaterAid, Oxfam, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Send us a note at london@purpose.com
Gautam Raju is passionate about how technology can be used to create social change. Gautam is a Partner & the Managing Director of Purpose Europe and leads a number of projects across Kenya, India, and the US. Gautam joined Purpose from Oxfam International, where as Head of Digital Campaigns he headed the digital worldwide influencing strategy – an ambitious agenda to build the digital campaigning capacity of Oxfam and partners. There, he took on campaigns from Europe, Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and Asia, working with in-country teams, partners, and coalitions to mobilize around issues on land, climate change, inequality, and humanitarian crises. Under Gautam's leadership, the digital worldwide influencing strategy has mobilized of 2.5 million supporters around the world and built tools and resources that were accessible to over 2,000 partners. Before joining Oxfam, Gautam co-founded OurSay.org – an independent organization started by a team of young people passionate about harnessing the power of social media to revitalize critical participation in democracy. He has also worked on public policy and external relations for Teach For Australia and in the Australian public service.
Gautam has a Master's in International Development and a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) and Arts (Advanced Chinese Mandarin). In his spare time, Gautam loves to cook, travel and play the bass guitar. He is a native of Melbourne, Australia and has lived in Shanghai, New Delhi and London.
Alaina Crystal is a committed feminist who has spent much of her career working on behalf of women and girls. Alaina is Global Head of Strategy at Purpose, uniting our diverse bunch of strategists across 6 offices and developing new processes and IP to help our partners create impact backed by strategic rigor.
Alaina joined Purpose from AMV BBDO, the UK’s largest advertising agency, where she served as Deputy Head of Strategy and led global strategic development across Guinness; Snickers; and Bodyform, where she helped to transform the way the world views periods and women’s health. Within her role, Alaina served on AMV’s Diversity & Inclusivity committee, the Omniwomen committee (a cross-Omnicom consortium designed to lift women up in business) and led a pro-bono campaign for Plan International UK in honour of International Day of the Girl. She was awarded a WACL Future Leader award in 2019.
Alaina previously worked at BBDO NY as the US strategist across Mars chocolate and on the Barbie business, which resulted in the successful repositioning for the brand as a tool for young girls’ imagination, turned around the declining brand, and won the Account Planning Group Grand Prix for excellence in strategy in 2017. In addition, Alaina led strategy on the globally recognised and creatively awarded “Evan” film for Sandy Hook Promise, which helped Americans learn the signs of a potential shooter in order to prevent potential future gun violence.
Hailing from Connecticut originally, Alaina has spent much of her adult life bouncing between New York and London and is proud to call both home. She has a Master’s in Music Business Management (just ask her about her love of David Bowie) and a Bachelor of Science in Arts Administration from Skidmore College. When she’s not drawing strategy shapes, Alaina enjoys all things Neil Gaiman, long countryside walks around the UK, and strategizing her next nail art.
Leila Deen is the Interim Executive Director of Purpose Climate Lab. She has been working on climate and environmental campaigns for 15 years. Leila started out campaigning on global trade rules and debt relief, before realising the risk of climate change to all humans everywhere. She has since dedicated her time to climate and energy campaigning with Greenpeace in the UK and USA, leading global campaigns to cancel new coal power stations, oil and gas drilling, as well as vehicle efficiency, biomass and green IT.
She was most recently at SumOfUs.org as the Program Director, running digital campaigns on everything from human rights to data privacy, before joining Purpose. Leila studied at Leeds University and completed a Masters in Global Political Economy at Sussex University, Great Britain.
Leila loves to bring together unlikely allies in a climate fight, and prove to the doubters that nothing is impossible. And she loves a sunny weekend full of yoga.
As Head of Purpose's Europe Office and Senior Creative Director, Sara El Dabi brings together her experience in creating impactful campaigns with team management and development. Sara oversees human resources, staff welfare & culture, office management, and diversity, equity & inclusion for Purpose's Europe team.
In her creative role, Sara takes on multi-dimensional responsibilities within the creative team as an art director, graphic designer, creative strategist and producer, merging attention to detail and innovative execution. She is passionate about delivering conceptual reasoning and in-depth research, working right from the inception of a project to its completion. Working as lead creative, Sara brings a pioneering and entrepreneurial spirit to tell stories and solve problems. At Girl Effect, Sara launched a number of youth-led brands and digital platforms, whilst nurturing and empowering other creatives in Malawi, Ethiopia and India.
Sara received her MA in graphic design from Central St Martins and previously ran her own company and creative collective for 10 years, working with clients like Nike, BBC, Vans and Urban Outfitters. This diverse and talented creative network continue to inspire her.
Aaron Parr is a Senior Campaigner at Purpose Europe in London. He is an expert in social media strategy and digital optimisation, specialising in video content for online distribution. Aaron joined Purpose in 2016, bringing to the team knowledge of young people's issues and passion for environmental and social justice campaigning.
In his time at Purpose, Aaron has ensured that campaigns worked on impacting the largest amount of people possible. He has been involved in the deployment of a range of social media platforms including See Now, the campaign to end avoidable blindness, and Help Britain Breathe, a campaign in partnering with environmental charities to combat air pollution in the UK. He has also produced and developed a range of social media optimised video content, with videos reaching and engaging millions of social media users online across the world.
Aaron carries a BA Honours degree in English Literature and Film Studies from Queen Mary, University of London. At the same establishment, he also holds an MA in Documentary Film Practice.
Before coming to Purpose, Aaron ran a viral meme page called mEUw, which produced cat memes to inspire Brits to vote remain the 2016 EU referendum. This evolved into a drag character that saw him impersonate the UK Prime Minister, an act called 'Theresa Gay'. In his spare time, Aaron volunteers with the Green Party of England and Wales, having previously sat on the executive committee of the Young Greens as well as the London Young Greens. He is a passionate advocate of animal liberation and vegan, always looking for the latest vegan food pop-up - like every foodie should!
Aleks is an energetic, people person who supports the Purpose Climate Lab team as a Project Manager. Aleks’ forte lies in networking, creativity and critical thinking. Her focus is set on the “big picture” and her life goal is to leave the world more sustainable than it is now. Aleks believes that by uniting people, this can be achieved.
With her early passion for the entrepreneurial ecosystem and technologies, she co-founded an event student organization START Warsaw and managed an innovation festival called Berlin TechON. Later, she reprioritized her values and chose to focus on projects that solve environmental issues. Before joining Purpose, she pinpointed the problem of smog in Poland and together with the START Warsaw team decided to organize STOP Smog event series, whose aim was to raise the entrepreneurial activity towards the problem of air pollution.
Currently, Aleks is also working on Projeks, a community blog, where she presents self-made sustainable products, alternatives to the industry. All projects are accompanied by a process walkthrough and open source data from research. The aim is to inspire more sustainable solutions and cradle-to-cradle mindsets.
Aleks graduated with a BA major in Animation from PJAIT in Warsaw, only to realize that 12 hours of daily screen time isn’t really her thing. She then decided to pursue her passion of entrepreneurship in Berlin. She graduated GEM with a MSc of Entrepreneurship in 2020.
Aleks has the energy to conquer all challenges, and will move mountains to reach her goal. Her strategy in forming bonds is openness, empathy and joke cracking. Aleks’ vocation is surfing (although she isn’t great at it.)
As Campaigner at Purpose Climate Lab, Anna works both strategically and creatively to support innovative climate and public mobilization campaigns in Poland. At work, she uses her professional experience from advertising, non-governmental organizations and marketing. Anna believes that creative communication and understanding of the audiences is a key to success in building social change.
Anna holds a BA in Media Management and an MA in Law from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. She also studied abroad in the Netherlands and Singapore. Anna gained experience as a long-term volunteer and intern, among others at Amnesty International and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Poland.
Prior to joining Purpose, Anna worked as a PR specialist and communication specialist focusing primarily on the digital world, cooperation with influencers and producing creative visual content. She spent 3 years building an engaged online community around one of the largest foundations in Poland dedicated to helping adults with intellectual disabilities.
Outside of work, Anna is an avid traveler with 70 visited countries on her list, using photography as a tool to capture the brightest moments and people on her way. Time between journeys she spends at home with her old doggo, the Beast.
As Creative Producer of Training & Learning at Purpose, Corina Kwami is responsible for the planning, management and execution of the Voices Incubator curriculum as it pertains to stakeholder learning sessions, community engagement, participant coaching, and other virtual touchpoints. Through her role, Corina works to build Purpose’s approach to curriculum-building and execution, particularly for future workshops and other interactive learning opportunities.
With a decade of experience in over 20 countries across Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia, Corina’s career includes stakeholder engagement and advocacy in global health, infrastructure policy and sustainability planning. She has extensive experience in systems thinking, human centered design and collaboration through the arts to cultivate meaningful engagement. Most recently, Corina spent the last 2 years at Royal Academy of Engineering as a Policy Advisor where she led the 'Sustainable living places' work that maps current challenges in creating sustainable homes and infrastructure.
Corina holds a bachelors from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, masters from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and a doctorate from University College London.
As a former competitive swimmer, Corina is never too far from water. Onstage, Corina is a jazz musician often found performing in London and around the globe (voice and tap) and has been recognised for her impressive grasp of what jazz can teach us about leadership, partnerships, and innovative thinking at the UNLEASH Innovation Lab.
As a Campaign Director, Faith Lead, UK Campaigns Lead, and member of the London leadership team, Daniel brings together campaigning flair and organisational development. With a background in community-based campaigning, as well as non-profit management and leadership, he makes sure Purpose’s campaigns deliver across the political spectrum from hyper liberal to deeply conservative. At Purpose, he’s worked across Labs and Agency, delivering campaigns on global health for the Gates Foundation and climate for the Ikea Foundation and Corporation.
Before arriving at Purpose, Daniel led the campaigning at Catholic development agency CAFOD, driving action on net zero and refugee rights by reaching a younger and more diverse audience. He ran ActionAid UK’s successful women’s rights campaign. Daniel also co-founded a youth empowerment non-profit.
Daniel holds a PhD in geography from the University of Leeds and an MBA from the Open University. He’s a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Pope Francis once met Daniel at the Vatican. And despite living in Central London he’s surprisingly outdoorsy.
As the London Operations and Culture Manager, Dani works to provide a comfortable and uplifting environment for her colleagues in Europe, while also collaborating with the global team to keep the Europe team connected and enable them to build impactful campaigns. Dani's background in production within the arts and a passion for people allows her to bring creativity to her management of Purpose Europe work spaces and experience.
Before joining Purpose, Dani worked within many of the leading Post Production houses in London producing fashion advertising campaigns and editorials. Outside of work she volunteers each year at Crisis at Christmas, which led her to make the move from fashion to social impact.
Dani graduated from Kingston University with a BA Hons in Illustration & Animation.
Outside of the office you’ll find Dani in the Tate Modern or Victoria & Albert Museum looking for inspiration for her next painting or print. And if not there, she’ll definitely be in one of the many restaurants of South London, ordering one of everything off the menu.
Ericka is a Senior Motion & Visual Designer who brings her expertise of audio and visual art to produce award-winning concepts that create long lasting impact.
In her role at Purpose, she supports the team through creative direction and production by reimagining new ways campaigns can drive people to engage in global issues. She has worked across country offices in agency and labs, from championing learning through play with the LEGO Foundation, mobilising European creators to speak to MEPs on digital copyright, empowering women to fight against period poverty, to amplifying the voices of torture survivors in vibrant campaigns and fundraising with Freedom from Torture, as well as working with the UN to tackle misinformation in the COVID-19 pandemic.
With an academic background in Film and Television, Ericka gained the fundamentals of filmmaking and through video production agencies is where she learnt the rigorous hustle of producing anything from scratch. Over the years, Ericka has directed short films, led art direction and motion design for animation, built digital and offline products spanning from AR filters, interactive games and out of home content.
As a creative coming from a Filipino and British upbringing, Ericka values equity, diversity and inclusion, especially in building campaigns that put people at the centre of storytelling and making sure we amplify the voices of minority groups clear and proud. Outside of the Purpose grind, Ericka is an avid craft and clay enthusiast as an attempt to break away from the long renders in front of the computer.
As Associate Creative Director at Purpose, Gabrielle takes on a number of responsibilities across the creative team: copywriter, art director, creative strategist and producer. Merging her multi-hyphenate background with a passion for craft, Gabrielle spearheads conceptually led, thought provoking creative across multiple channels. With a background in London’s leading advertising, creative and digital agencies, Gabrielle brings her wealth of experience to Purpose to help solve problems and champion creative excellence.
As a Data Scientist at Purpose, Guy supports online research and analysis projects. He is passionate about working to address challenges relating to trust in the digital age and using this knowledge to help tackle today’s challenging social issues.
Guy joined Purpose from Avaaz, where as an Anti-Disinformation Researcher he worked as part of the team responsible for a Europe-wide investigation into networks of disinformation online.
He is currently studying for an MA/MSc in Digital Journalism at Goldsmiths, University of London. When not at Purpose or studying, he loves to exercise but only the kind that takes him somewhere - long country cycles to the coast or a wild swim.
Hannah comes to campaigning from a background in the creative sector. As an Associate Campaign Director at Purpose, she combines these disciplines; collaborating with creative partners and practitioners to bring about culture change on social issues.
At Purpose, Hannah strives to test innovative campaigning approaches. These include sending a ‘censorship robot’ and flash mob choir to the European Parliament, coordinating an Internet blackout with a range of major global tech platforms, supporting the development of a digital artwork allowing children to advocate on climate, and commissioning a series of craft workshops on the most taboo menstrual health topics. Her campaigns have increased awareness of air pollution, changed behaviours to stop the spread of online misinformation, and contributed to legislative updates on period equity and digital rights.
Before Purpose, Hannah worked for over 10 years in non-profit arts organisations including charities, museums, galleries and publishers such as the Chisenhale Gallery, Art Monthly, Raven Row, Phaidon Press, Crafts Council and University of the Arts London. During her time in the southern hemisphere, she also worked for Macquarie University in Sydney to deliver vaccine communications. Hannah graduated from Byam Shaw School of Art and Central Saint Martin’s in Fine Art degrees.
Henna is a campaigner and movement builder with a background in political strategy and community organising. As a Campaign Manager she leads the Purpose Climate Lab’s work in the UK, with a focus on developing new narratives that can reach audiences across political divides.
Prior to joining Purpose, Henna was part of the team that launched the Make My Money Matter campaign, mobilising thousands of people around the issue of sustainable pensions. She has also worked in Labour party politics, at a policy thinktank, and for an educational social enterprise. She is also the co-founder of an award-winning campaign called #CharitySoWhite, which aims to tackle racism in the non-profit sector.
Henna graduated from the University of Oxford with a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
When she’s not training Labour party candidates and anti-racist organisers or in court, defending the right to protest as part of #ReclaimTheseStreets, you’ll find Henna cooking up a storm or listening to some classic Agatha Christie (often at the same time!)
As Global Program Manager, Ilinca is responsible for managing the Climate Lab’s global portfolio of work. In close collaboration with the Lab’s leadership and in-country teams, she ensures that Purpose Climate Lab's projects deliver high impact through high-quality project design, timely and on-budget implementation, accurate measurement and reporting.
Prior to joining Purpose, Ilinca worked at the global think-tank ODI, where she led the operational, financial and project management coordination of its research programmes, including oversight of the Project Management team. She has experience with policy work as well, notably on energy for the European Commission in Brussels and on EU affairs at the British Embassy in Bucharest, alongside hands-on experience in project design and delivery at the EU Delegation in Nigeria.
Ilinca has a BA in International Business and Economics from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, and a MA in European Studies from the College of Europe.
Ilinca loves swing dancing, baking and crime series. She bought a bike during the first lockdown and has been recently using it to explore the West Sussex countryside.
Isobel is the Associate Digital Campaign Director at Purpose London, who specialises in digital communications and content. She brings a wealth of knowledge from nearly a decade working in digital roles across the private and public sector. At Purpose she has worked on a range of clients, including LEGO Foundation, Freedom From Torture and as part of Purpose Climate Lab, finding innovative ways to connect with audiences with engaging content and messages.
Previous to her role at Purpose, she worked as a Creative & Digital Strategist at WPP agencies, such as VMLY&R and Ogilvy, with clients like Baileys and Alpro, launched Mental Health at Work, a digital initiative with Mind and The Royal Foundation, and spent three years devising ways to immerse the great British public in the cinematic worlds of Secret Cinema through social media and digital as a pre-narrative producer. In a past life, she lived in New York for five years, working to bring theatre in development to unusual locations across Brooklyn. The thread that connects this broad experience is a passion for story-telling and connecting with people in a meaningful way.
Isobel has a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Liverpool, an MA in Theatre from LIPA, and a diploma in Psychoanalysis from the Tavistock and Portman Trust. In her free time she sings in a chamber choir, consumes media and writes; she has written two TV pilots and has just started her first novel.
Jana is an Associate Director of Project Management, working on the UN Verified programme. She brings her expertise in project management and love of leading teams, ensuring the delivery of high quality projects whilst building a strong and positive team culture.
She has 15 years industry experience and has led many multidisciplinary teams delivering a wide range of successful projects from campaigns, platforms, websites, apps, OOH, videos, product design. Her career started at VCCP followed by Isobar and Tag Worldwide, where she delivered work for global brands such as SONY, HP, Unilever and Asus. After that she spent 7 years in a start up tech agency working alongside the owner in growing the business.
Her personal life is all about her 2 year old daughter and they have lots of fun together going out and about and meeting up with other families. In another life she enjoyed travelling the world and sampling the latest craft beers around London.
Jess Hines is a Senior Advisor at Purpose.
With over two decades of experience in fundraising and creative campaigns development, as well as the execution of celebrity-branded digital content across three continents, she has a deep understanding of best practice and cultural specificity. Her work has been focused in the UK, USA and India.
Jess Hines is an active contributor to India Today, with over 30 articles on design, film, travel, property and fashion published. She is the author of Looking for the Big B: Bollywood, Bachchan and Me about Indian megastar Amitabh Bachchan written about her years of lived experience in Bollywood.
Jess has a BA in Comparative Religion from SOAS, an MA from the BFI in Film and Television and is also a trained clown (the Pochinko school - Mump and Smoot). This unique combination allows her to see connections across disciplines and easily comprehend and translate complex information to different audiences. Jess is a firm believer that culture is the best path to creating lasting social change.
As Associate Director of Program Management, Jordan brings her expertise in project management and partnership building to the London office. She’s passionate about harnessing the collective potential of global teams and operationalising ambitious strategies.
At Purpose, she works across our teams to ensure projects are delivered on time and within scope and budget. Jordan has worked in the social innovation field for the past 8 years, working for a range of organisations and sectors including startups, nonprofits, a PR agency, and the UK's innovation foundation, Nesta. Most recently, she was the Chief Strategy Officer at a tech startup. Prior to that, she spent 5 years at the Social Innovation Exchange as Programme Director, developing their flagship programmes, which included supporting over 200 foundations to be more innovative in their approach and practice, and launching the Unusual Suspects Festival in 4 cities.
Her accent is hard to place - resulting from growing up in the US and living in the UK for the past 11 years. She received her MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and a BA in International Politics and Conflict Resolution from the Queen’s University in Belfast.
Outside of work, she enjoys traveling, hiking, yoga, and running off to join the circus every Tuesday night with aerial rope and silks.
Manuela works at the intersection of strategy and creativity, with a focus on brand development and sustainable business models. At Purpose, she helps shape campaigns, brands, and organisational models from an analytical standpoint. She has worked on campaigns in Kenya, India and the EU across avoidable blindness, youth participation in governance, and freedom of expression.
Before joining Purpose, Manuela contributed to the development of a citizen engagement hub in Colombia for post-conflict integration. Prior to entering the world of social impact, she worked as a brand strategy consultant for major Latin American corporations, identifying stakeholder insights and integrating compelling narratives into corporate strategies, in order to better connect brands to target audiences.
When not at Purpose, she can be found advancing her personal project to transform civic spaces in Colombian territories that are affected by violence.
Manuela holds a Masters in Strategic Design and Management from Parsons – The New School and a Bachelor in Service Design with a focus on Business and Social Psychology. She has lived in Bogota, New York City and London, and speaks English, Spanish and German.
Maria is an Associate Project Manager at Purpose. She delivers projects for the world's leading nonprofits, philanthropies, and companies — managing the day-to-day communication and operational aspects of Purpose’s projects and COVID-19 Lab. With a background in marketing, Maria combines her 3 years of project management experience working for a digital marketing agency and a not-for-profit to her role.
Covid-19 highlighted pre-existing inequities and social issues which gave Maria the push to pursue a career change into social impact. Based on her lived experience as a first generation British Syrian, when the pandemic hit Maria knew she wanted to make a difference to address social issues, inequality and catalyse systemic change using her skills for social good.
Before joining Purpose, Maria worked in the Communications, Operations and Recruitment & Inclusion Services teams for an award-winning not-for-profit empowering young people from under-represented communities and supporting employers to diversify their workforce and build inclusive work environments. Prior to this, Maria worked in the Client Services team for a digital marketing agency working on projects for gaming and technology clients including Logitech, NVIDIA and Blue Microphones.
Maria has lived most of her life in the UK but has also lived in Saudi Arabia for 7 years and loves travelling. In her spare time Maria loves to visit art exhibitions.
Ravneet is a Visual Designer that has a passion for ‘design for change’ and focuses on exploring creative solutions in which we can tackle important issues. She specialises in editorial design, UX design, brand & identity and animation, which she has implemented across various campaigns at Purpose.
Before joining Purpose, Ravneet studied at the Arts University Bournemouth where she graduated with a BA (Hons) in Graphic Design. As a designer she focused on creating work which is both striking and is able to evoke numerous emotions of the public to create a lasting impression.
When Ravneet is not working she enjoys being outdoors and exploring new surroundings on her bicycle! She also be found creating makeup looks in her bedroom. Follow her on Instagram to see more @Ravneetbains.
Sam's work as Global Paid Media Manager has him identifying where paid media approaches work best and how to implement them most effectively, leveraging a suite of web tools to research, operate and evaluate his campaigns. To support this work, Sam has a background in digital media and marketing and has spent seven years working at the intersection between digital communications and the social impact space.
Before Purpose, Sam coordinated digital media and communications efforts within the counter-misinformation space, helping projects within Eastern Europe for the UK and US Governments. Previous to that, Sam has led digitally-focussed petition-driving and fundraising projects for numerous charities, including Amnesty International UK and British Heart Foundation.
Sam graduated with a B.A. in Politics from University of Hull.
Out of hours, Sam spends his time planning his next backpacking trip, listening to some obscure jazz-hip hop fusion or possibly discussing - at great length - the best ways to brew filter coffee.
Before joining Purpose, Sarah worked for Her Majesty's Government (Civil Service) in the UK. Sarah was instrumental in the successful passage of the Charities and Social Investment Bill in the House of Lords. And for the two years prior, she worked within the coalition Government for the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg.
In her Senior Program Manager role at Purpose, Sarah uses her varied and deep skills in project management, event planning, and administration. Sarah carries a BA degree in International Relations and Modern History from the University of East Anglia, which served in spurring on her interest for international and humanitarian development.
Sarah is a strong believer in recognizing mental health as a global issue and tries to champion this message as much as possible. Sarah has run the Brighton Marathon 2016 and a half marathon in order to raise money for Mind, a mental health charity in the UK, and she also worked with mentally and physically disabled children in a respite centre in New York in 2011.
Simon has over 9 years experience in advertising, marketing and strategic communications working across both private and public sector clients. His breadth of experience covers creative and media strategies whilst tackling some of the biggest issues facing humanity today. In his time at Purpose, Simon has managed to reposition a well-known global health brand in need of a refresh, create a holistic and innovative approach to employee and customer engagement with IKEA and build a highly targeted public mobilisation campaign to encourage adherence to public health guidelines in South Africa.
Simon's previous role was as a strategist at M&C Saatchi World Services, a strategic and creative consultancy (part of the M&C Saatchi network agency). Here he focused on work in the Middle East and North Africa tackling issues around extremism, violent extremism and counter-terrorism. Projects included communications interventions around deradicalisation in the Sahel and the securitization of young Iraqi men vulnerable to the divisive narratives of violent extremism by leveraging the influence of community gatekeepers. His specific focus was on the planning and placement of communications products to reach desired audiences, a job made even more challenging in the closed and immature media markets the projects were operating in.
Simon started out working at Publicis' agency Starcom as a media planner and junior strategist. Here he learnt the intricacies (and pitfalls) of strategy from research to audience understanding to delivery. Clients such as Samsung and Yahoo helped sharpen his toolkit and accelerated his learning.
When away from work Simon, much like the family dog Otis, can be found chasing a ball around a playing field whether it be football, basketball, golf or cricket!
Based in Berlin, Sophie is Associate Director of Impact, Measurement & Learning, and works on projects in Germany, France and the UK. Focusing on campaign strategy, she has participated in projects for the Gates Foundation and the UN, among others, and has helped to set up the Purpose Climate Lab in France.
Prior to joining Purpose, Sophie worked in the development sector, concentrating on evidence-based programme design; monitoring and evaluation; and thought-leadership strategies. With the British Council she spent two years in Mexico City and a further two in Islamabad, and subsequently consulted for a range of organisations in the arts and education sectors, including UNESCO, Save the Children and Arts Council England.
She has a BA (Hons) in Politics, Psychology and Sociology from the University of Cambridge and a MSc in Education (International and Comparative) from the University of Oxford. She speaks English and French fluently, and good Spanish.
Outside of work, Sophie loves trawling Berlin’s flea markets and vintage stores. She has a growing collection of Risograph, silkscreen and lithograph prints from around the world.
As a Senior Strategist at Purpose, Taylor combines her background in international human rights and digital campaigning to work with cross-sector partners to find bold, creative solutions to today’s most pressing social issues. During her time at Purpose she has worked across a plethora of issues and geographies —from campaigning in New York on issues of climate change and sustainability, to working domestically in the UK on bringing an end to the use of torture, to campaigning internationally on youth empowerment.
Prior to coming to Purpose, Taylor held a number of positions in campaigning and fundraising at human and civil rights organisations. She has extensive experience in audience engagement and strategic communications, most recently serving as the Outreach Coordinator at Human Rights Watch where she helped to build the organisation’s digital campaigning capacities. Before that, she worked at the Brennan Center for Justice in New York City and People in Need’s Human Rights Center in Prague, Czech Republic.
She is currently based in London and serves as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Young Professionals Committee.
Victoria is the HR Business Partner for the Purpose EMEA team, coaching and supporting local leadership and staff members on all aspects of HR such as performance management and development, offering guidance on policy and process and supports the team generally to navigate their way through employment relations matters. She is the go-to person for all things people and believes in empowering employees to be better at what they do.
Before joining Purpose, Victoria’s journey spanned across financial services, technology and professional services companies, helping them to build out core HR functions by developing policies and processes, implementing reward and recognition strategies and working with teams to create OKR’s and career maps. She’s also worked to introduce new and enhanced benefits to different organizations in an effort to attract and retain great people.
Victoria graduated from Queen Mary University of London with a B.A in English literature and while her writing career didn’t take off, she loves working with her hands and dabbles in making wigs, styling hair and sewing.
As a Senior Strategist, Zoe has worked on an array of social change campaigns since arriving at Purpose. From research projects digging into audience insights, to branding and campaign exercises, she has really enjoyed the opportunity to work on important issues she cares about. Since at Purpose, she has worked with non-profit and private sector clients including Amnesty International, Ben & Jerry’s and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Before joining Purpose, Zoe worked at M&C Saatchi World Services where she helped handle a variety of charity and public sector accounts, including pro-bono work for More in Common. Here, she first became intrigued by strategic communications and the tactics surrounding behaviour change approaches. Prior to this, her experience lay in public sector communications and humanitarian policy research for Oxfam GB.
Zoe graduated from the University of Oxford with a BA in History. Outside of the office, you'll find Zoe listening to (basically any) podcast, cooking lots of pasta or looking forward to her next Cornish camping trip.
