Collective Steps Towards Strengthening ESG

Jo Land

Chief Executive, Avenues

Jo began her career as an HR professional in the private sector, before seeking a role where values are acknowledged as more important than driving profit. Having moved to the voluntary sector over twenty years ago, she is now an experienced senior leader in social care. 

Jo cares passionately about the sector and believes that, collectively, we can achieve great things for the people we support and their families, the people we employ and for the wider communities in which we operate, and that, as providers, our reach and influence is underestimated.  

As a member of the VODG board Jo will contribute to raising the profile of the sector and influencing policy, research and decision making at all levels, along with providing support to others to share knowledge, intelligence and experience. 

Jo is Chief Executive of Avenues Group, a specialist provider of support services to people with learning disabilities, autism and acquired brain injury. She also sits as a Non-Legal Member of the Employment Tribunal service.  

Andrea Wiggins

Chief Executive, Aurora Nexus

Andrea has spent her career working in not for profit organisations supporting people with Learning Disabilities.

Andrea has worked in a number of senior roles focusing on service development and transformation often working with people with more complex needs.

Starting as a support worker and working in various roles, including campaigning and advocacy roles until she took up the post of CEO at Nexus in 2018.

Mark Lumsdon-Taylor

Partner, MHA MacIntyre Hudson

Mark specialises in the rural business, agriculture, horticulture, food manufacture, education and healthcare industries as well as supporting organisations from a wide range of sectors to develop and deliver impactful sustainability and ESG strategies. 

As one of the authors of the firm's Dynamic ESG service suite, Mark is well placed to guide business leaders through the process of integrating environmental, social and governance considerations into their operations with an emphasis on measurable outcomes and RoI.  

Mark has worked in both the public sector and private enterprise, bringing a dedication and enthusiasm to the unique challenges each provides. With an auditor's eye for detail, he has become known for his sharp insights and capacity for business transformation. 

Mark has won numerous awards for his work including National Finance Director of the Year 2007, the ICAEW's National Accounting for Sustainability award in 2012, Finance Director magazine's National Business Finance Director 2014, the Institute for Fiscal Turnaround's Public Sector Award 2016 and the Institute of Directors' Blue Ribbon for Governance and Finance Excellence in 2018. 

He is also a trustee of a charity delivering education in Ethiopia, a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers, a Member of the Guild of Freemen and a Member of the CBI's South East Council. 

Mark re-joined MHA MacIntyre Hudson again in 2019 having originally trained here in 1997.

Emma Burrows

Partner, Trowers & Hamlins

Emma is a partner and head of the Trowers & Hamlins' Employment department which she founded.  Emma has specialised in employment law for over 30 years.

She is known for her practical approach and finding solutions. Emma advises mainly on sensitive issues, managing senior staff exits, board disputes, employment structures and governance issues. At any one time, she manages a few complicated employment tribunal claims, working with other members of the team.

She loves employment law and is an active member of the Employment Lawyers Association Legislative and Policy committee and on the Editorial Board of Employment Law Journal.

She contributes to leadership development in the affordable housing, charities and health and social care sectors, and has written and contributed to guidance over the years. She co-wrote "Board member pay- what housing associations need to know", and is currently involved in speaking and contributing to Leadership 2025, the leadership development programme available exclusively to senior leaders from BME backgrounds working in the housing sector. During her career she's spoken regularly for the NHF, CIOH and at other sector events. 

She works closely with Charities, and edits and contributes to Jordan's 'Employment Law for Charities – A Practice Guide to Employment Law and contributes the employment law section to ICSA's Charities Guide. Emma works closely with care providers and has worked closely with organisations providing social care in the last two years on sleep-ins, providing some advice to the No 10 Policy Unit as part of the discussion. She's been a member of the care team at Trowers since it started, about 20 years ago and works closely with VODG and its members.

Emma is ranked in Band 1 as a leading individual for employment advice to not for profit organisations in the 2021 edition of Chambers UK.  

: https://www.trowers.com/
: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-burrows-2a273b3
: @@EJ_Burrows

Naomi Roper

Partner, Trowers & Hamlins

Naomi Roper is a partner at Trowers & Hamlins LLP in the banking and finance team. 

. Naomi is the ESG lead for the social housing finance practice at Trowers working in the fields of green, social and sustainable finance and impact measurement. She was part of the original working groups for the Sustainability Reporting Standard and the Equity Impact Project (spearheaded by Big Society Capital and The Good Economy aimed at institutional investors in affordable housing). Most recently she was part of the working group for the LMA's Sustainability Linked Loan Principles for Real Estate Finance.

Naomi has over 18 years' experience acting for borrowers and lenders in the social housing finance sector with a deep focus on sustainability and social value-linked financing. She is a highly trusted advisor known for her commercial savvy and her no nonsense attitude to getting the job done. Naomi has extensive experience in all areas of social housing and development finance with a particular specialism in debt capital markets transactions.

Naomi has a very strong lender practice including acting for the main bond aggregators in the sector which includes The Housing Finance Corporation Limited on their £6 billion loan portfolio and bLEND Funding Plc on the implementation of their £3 billion EMTN social bond programme. 

Christoph Marr

Managing Director, Marr Procurement

Christoph started his procurement career with Marks & Spencer after they sponsored him at University and went onto spend six years as Buyer then Buying Manager at the M&S Head Office in London. In 2001 IBM recruited Christoph as Senior Consultant and he was seconded as Head of Procurement for IBM Europe Middle East and Africa to help build the IBM UK Procurement Consulting practice involving procurement projects across the private and public sector in the UK, Europe and the US.

In March 2008 Care UK Plc recruited Christoph to create a procurement function and two years later was invited to join a ten strong team involved in a ￡300m venture capitalist backed management buyout.

In 2013 he was appointed as a judge for the annual Management Consulting Association awards and in 2014 Christoph founded the UK Procurement Leader Care Network, a group consisting of 51 Health & Social Care Procurement Directors with aggregated spend of ￡1bn.

Christoph has a 1st Class BA Honours degree from the Aberdeen Business School where he specialised in supply chain quality and his career ambition has been to create a procurement business which operates with real integrity, which always puts clients first and which only employs extraordinary people who have a passion for procurement – this is what differentiates Marr Procurement.

: https://www.marrprocurement.com/
: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christoph-marr-2360a31
: @https://twitter.com/christoph_marr