Vanessa Longman
Projects Coordinator
With a background in education and information management, Vanessa joined the Cranfield Trust in 2006. She has experience both as a Chair and a trustee of charities, as well as running her own company.
Vanessa liaises with charity clients and volunteers to ensure the smooth delivery of services, working with charities to discern and co-ordinate their consultancy requirements.
Emilia Ufir-Kaparaboina
Mentoring Coordinator
Emilia’s background is in education and youth work. She worked for language schools, colleges and one of the National Citizen Service delivery partners. Emilia has a degree in literature & drama and you can often find her at the theatre. She joined the Cranfield Trust in 2022 as the Mentoring Programme Coordinator and her role is to liaise with volunteers (mentors) and charity clients who wish to benefit from our mentoring offer.
Jayne Kendall
Regional Manager (Wales)
Jayne has over 25 years of commercial experience working in both the public and private sectors across government, digital, healthcare, education, financial services and tourism. She has held senior roles with Welsh Government to raise the profile of Wales as a location for inward investment . She also managed her own marketing consultancy for over 10 years. Jayne has a track record of leading brand, product, marketing and communications campaigns in domestic and international markets. Jayne joined the Trust in April 2018 as Project Manager overseeing the projects for Wales. Follow @JayneKendall63 on Twitter.
Joanne Crebbin
Regional Manager (Yorkshire and Humber)
Jo has over 25 years’ experience in senior food industry roles working with family businesses through to multi nationals. With expertise in operations, strategy and change management. Jo holds an MBA from Durham University and also has her own consultancy working with food business clients. Jo joined the Trust as a volunteer in 2018.
Marie Langan
Regional Manager (South West)
Marie is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales ("ICAEW") with over 30 years of accounting and auditing experience in a variety of management roles in Big Four and Top 20 firms in the UK and US, most recently in global outsourcing in the technology sector. Marie has also specialised in project management, business development, risk management and corporate governance. She has audited charities and has acted as Treasurer and Vice Chair on the Board of Trustees of a law centre. Marie joined the Trust in April 2018 as Project Manager overseeing our projects in the South West of England. Follow @Marielan51 on Twitter.
Ian Williams
Regional Manager (South East & East of England)
In addition to his role with Cranfield Trust Ian works as an independent management consultant. He has worked on projects in the energy, health, education and not for profit sectors. Prior to this he worked for Santander Bank and for a project management consultancy. He has an MBA from Cranfield School of Management is a trustee of a charity supporting adults with learning disabilities.
Erik Rusis
Regional Manager (London)
Erik joined the team in January 2019, following 30 years of HR management, general management, training and consulting roles in the USA, throughout Europe and in Asia. The UK has been home for over a decade. Most of Erik’s work has been in the commercial world, but he also has experience in the non-profit sector. His work as a volunteer consultant led to a keen interest in becoming much more involved with the Cranfield Trust. Erik has an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management. He enjoys volunteering for the Sea Scouts.
Stephen Cahill
Regional Manager (Scotland)
Stephen has been active with Cranfield Trust for well over a decade, first as a volunteer before becoming Regional Manager for Scotland. Stephen has extensive senior experience across the public, private and charity sectors. He specialises in helping organisations to achieve rapid results by focusing on, “ the things that really matter”. He also helps to build the charity sector by writing ‘thought leadership’ articles. Stephen has an MBA from Warwick Business School.
Graham Russell
Regional Manager (North West)
Graham is creative and commercially savvy Senior Manager and Transformation consultant with 30 years of experience in delivering complex programmes, primarily focused on operational improvement, for both the public and the private sector. Since 2018, as a volunteer for the Cranfield Trust, he has used these skills and experience to advise the senior management teams of local charities, and help them to manage their assets and deliver better outcomes for their clients. As a direct result of one of those assignments he is now Chair of the Manchester based youth charity, N-Gage. Graham joined the Cranfield Trust as a Regional Manager in February 2023 with responsibility for overseeing projects in the North West of England
Adam Wilkins
Regional Manager (Midlands)
Adam joined Cranfield Trust in 2022 following a 32 year career in investment management where he advised charities and not-for-profit organisations, as well as private individuals, to make the best use of their funds. He has experience of leading teams in business, has held the positions of Chair and Treasurer at various charities and is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment. Adam enjoys helping charities be the best they can be and seeing them thrive. Outside of his work with Cranfield Trust, he enjoys going to the theatre and walking his dog.
Associate Regional Managers
Sue Elder
Associate Regional Manager
Sue first joined the Trust as a Project Manager in 2002, and “returned to the fold” in 2019 following a 10-year stint overseas as a Director of a large retail business in Italy. With > 30 years’ experience in the commercial sector, Sue has worked with a range of leading UK and international retailers to deliver significant business improvements by aligning strategy, people, processes and systems. Sue works as an independent Management Consultant and is passionate about the benefits of sharing business expertise from the commercial sector to help build successful charities.
Roger Watkins
Associate Regional Manager
With over twenty years’ experience of international assignments, Roger continues to act as a consultant to government and private sector projects, working on organisation and operations reviews, training and development in countries including Jordan, Afghanistan and Uganda.
Gareth Williams
Associate Regional Manager
Gareth joined Cranfield Trust as one of our London Regional Managers in 2022, having been a volunteer consultant with the Trust since 2016.
Gareth worked in the commercial sector as a marketing professional in the UK and abroad, before joining a consultancy building customer-focused capability in many industry sectors. He is a trained coach (through Henley Business School), is a trustee on the boards of several charities and enjoys cycling and gardening in his spare time.
Nicky Everett
Associate Regional Manager
Nicky started her volunteering journey as a Volunteer Consultant & Mentor with The Cranfield Trust in 2005, before becoming an Associate Regional Manager in 2022. FCIPD qualified with over 25 years Human Resources experience in the technology sector, Nicky is passionate about applying her talent and energy to help our charity clients better equip themselves for a positive future. When not working Nicky enjoys volunteering as a Co-opted Governor at a local primary school, family time, creative arts, and exploring West Sussex with a miniature schnauzer.
'Tomi Oni
Associate Regional Manager
‘Tomi started his volunteering journey as a volunteer consultant & mentor with Cranfield Trust in 2023, before becoming an Associate Regional Manager in February 2024. As a certified psychodynamics-systemic group coach and psychologist with three decades of HR experience in various sectors and countries, Tomi is passionate about talent management and leadership development; he sees his purpose as ‘to nurture talent and grow leaders'. Beyond his commitment to Cranfield Trust, he operates as an independent management consultant and holds a position as a Non-Executive Director (NED) for a healthcare charity.
Chris Gatman
Associate Regional Manager
Chris initially joined Cranfield Trust as the first regional manager for Yorkshire and Humber and returned in March 2024 as Associate Manager for Peer-to-Peer groups. Chris has a background in post16 education and as a strategic and change management consultant. She has experience as a Non-Executive Director, an advisory board member, a company director and as CEO of a national charity. Chris has supported organisations of all sizes across public, private and not for profit sectors and continues to run her own consultancy where her passion lies in working with growing SME’s and in the development of female leaders and managers. She has an MBA from Cranfield University, winning the first Aurora Scholarship for women.