Evolve Trustee Team 2021
Chair - Dr John May
John May MA, PhD, CMRS, MCMI has extensive experience of the charity sector. He has held two paid positions as a charity CEO. As a volunteer, he has been Chair or Vice Chair of two other charities and is currently Chair of the Finance Committe of a third. Prior to retiring, John worked in the local government, private and voluntary sectors, both as an employee and as an independent management consultant.
John believes his role as Chair of the Evolve Board is to help the charity to balance the twin elements of mission and management in fulfilling its charitable object of relieving distress by the provision of counselling to those who need it. A charity which does not use its resources for public benefit (mission) is a charity that has lost its way; but so is a charity that does not exercise prudent stewardship (management) of those resources.
HR - Nicki Mawby
Director of HR Your Business Matters Ltd since 2014, Nicki Mawby provides local businesses with people support services including HR and Recruitment as well as a range of Training Services that allow business owners to further drive performance by ensuring they have the right people in the right place at the right time, with the right knowledge, skills and behaviours.
Nicki is an active member of the CIPD and also the founding member of HR: Connect Over Coffee, a monthly CPD and networking event for HR professionals. Events are held locally and provide a learning environment as well as an opportunity to connect with other HR professionals, sharing knowledge, experience and resources.
Nicki is passionate about education and training. When not running her business, she teaches Apprentices along with Level 3 and 5 CIPD at Peterborough Regional College and University Centre Peterborough. She is actively involved in various initiatives which supports new start-ups, entrepreneurs and women in business. In 2019 she won the Peterborough Small Business Award for 'Best Professional Services', and is currently a finalist in the 2020 awards for ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’.
Counsellor - Francesca Amor
Francesca Amor is an accredited integrative counsellor with NCS, she runs her own private practice, and she is involved in the charity sector. She volunteers for Cruse, the bereavement charity, works for Grief chat and for Relate as a couples counsellor.
For 15 years she has been the director and founder of two Relocation companies, one in Italy and one in UK, an immigration consultant for well know world firms and previously she was a marketing and sales manager with a higher level diploma in Marketing and Sales from Luiss Business University in Rome.
Francesca is a counselling member of Evolve’s Hunts and Cambs branch. She believes that everybody should be able to access counselling when is needed, despite money, beliefs and walk of life. She values diversity and different cultural back grounds.
Nicole Horst
Nicole Horst is a Researcher Development Associate with the University of Cambridge Postdoc Academy and the Cambridge Centre for Teaching and Learning, where she helps manage a programme of professional development training and resources for researchers. Prior to her current job, she was educated and subsequently worked as a behavioural neuroscientist, most recently in the area of compulsive behaviours. She has chaired and served on a number of departmental, school, and university-level committees.
Nicole has a keen interest in making mental health and well-being support available to all who need it via as many means possible. She has recently trained as a Cruse Bereavement Support Volunteer and is an accredited Resilient Leaders Consultant.
Counsellor - Alicia Coates
Alicia Coates is an Accredited Integrative Therapist with the BACP. Since qualifying in 2015, Alicia previously worked for Peterborough Counselling Services providing counselling to NHS patients in GP practices across Peterborough and has set up her private practice.
Alicia has a degree in Business Management and her background is in Human Resources, having worked in this world for the past 25 years until very recently. Firstly in various corporate roles and latterly running her own HR consultancy business.
In her role as Counselling Trustee, Alicia hopes to represent the voice of her fellow counsellors and balance this with the best interests of the Charity.