Good governance

The Hackney CVS Board of Trustees recently became one of the first charities in England & Wales to adopt the Charity Governance Code which the Board is committed to implementing. Read more about our governance here.

Rola AinaTrustee | appointed 29.01.20

Rola is a management consultant and chartered accountant specialising in global transformation projects in the financial sector. She has established herself as a trusted advisor to a range of blue-chip organisations over the years. She is known for her sense of fun and is driven by an innate drive to create energised and empowered people, teams and communities who can achieve anything they set out to do. She is an East London resident and is passionate about ensuring that there is more equality of opportunity for all members of the community.

Jack GriffinTrustee | appointed 21.03.18

Jack is a chartered accountant and currently works for a charitable healthcare provider in London where he leads on commercial projects, strategy, pricing and costing, contracting and capital projects.

He previously worked in healthcare regulation at Monitor/NHS Improvement, focusing on M&A transactions, major capital investments and organisational performance improvement. Prior to this Jack worked at KPMG where he developed his interest in the voluntary and community sector. He was a member of their Corporate Social Responsibility team and worked with a number of not-for-profit clients.

Jack is a keen traveler, novice climber and mountaineer, and football fan.

Katie AstonCo-chair | appointed 27.03.24

Katie leads on partnerships for Crime Reduction at the Home Office. Her role brings her into contact with a lot of voluntary organisations including those working to combat serious violence and to safeguard the most vulnerable.

Katie is a trustee of the charity StreetDoctors, as well as Noel Buxton Trust and she also volunteers as a patient advocate for Lymphoma Action. Katie is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and is a Freeman of the City of London. Katie was awarded an OBE for services to charity and the voluntary sector in the Queen’s 2016 birthday honours list.

Katie lives between London and rural East Suffolk and spends her spare time enjoying cooking, restaurants, good friends, wine and lively conversation.

Jessica MullenTrustee | appointed 23.01.19

Jess Mullen lives and grew up in Hackney and is Chief Executive Officer at Collective Voice, the national charity working to improve the substance misuse treatment and recovery system and to champion the role of charities within it. She has a wealth of experience in strategic leadership, achieving policy change and working collaboratively across the voluntary sector and with the people it serves to amplify the voices of those often ignored. She was previously Director of Influence and Communications at Clinks, the national charity supporting the voluntary sector working in the criminal justice sector, where she led work, in partnership with organisations led by and focused on racially minoritised people, to advocate for race equality in the criminal justice system.
In this capacity Jess authored The Young Review’s report published in 2014 and has since led Clinks work advocating for all those working in criminal justice across statutory, private and voluntary sectors to play a part in tackling race inequality and to support and work in in partnership with BAME led organisations in the criminal justice sector. 

Tim VaughanTrustee and Treasurer | appointed 21.03.18

Tim is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and has a degree in Modern History. He has a substantial career in financial services as an internal auditor, including financial regulation, corporate governance and risk management. His career in banking included several management roles in global investment banks, and he has also worked for three years at the UK’s leading financial services regulator. From 2018 up to 2023 he worked in a variety of internal audit contracting roles and began a transition to voluntary work in the charity sector. Since 2018 he has been a trustee at two other charities, both based in east London. These are Gasworks Dock Project and Hoxton Hall, at the latter of which he also acts as Treasurer. In 2023 he became the Treasurer Trustee at a nationwide umbrella funder for community projects. Tim additionally volunteers on natural environment protection work with local charities where he lives in Hertfordshire, such as the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, and is starting to become active in the Ramblers Association in leading countryside walks for the public.
Apart from his voluntary work, for many years Tim has taken part in hiking trips in the UK and abroad and has a keen interest in a wide variety of live music and theatre.

Jess StockfordCo-chair | appointed 26.04.23

Jess is a governance and non-executive search Consultant with over 25 years of expertise across the cultural, social enterprise and beyond profit sectors. Previously, Jess led governance programmes for Business in the Community, responsible for leveraging business resource and commercial expertise into the voluntary sector. This built on her 7 years as Head of Board Development at Arts & Business where Jess lead a ‘Board Bank’ programme which placed over 5000 business people onto the Boards of arts organisations across the UK.

Her governance expertise includes devising and delivering training for Trustees and whole Boards, undertaking governance reviews, facilitating Away Days, and making Chair, Trustee and other non-executive appointments.

Jess is Chair of her local tenants and residents association in the borough. She has been a member of the Prince of Wales Good Governance Group, whilst also contributing to the NCVO’s ‘Governance and Leadership’ committee. She is a guest lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London and at Judge’s Business School, Cambridge.

Natalie Roast Trustee | appointed 05.05.23

Natalie grew up in East London and is currently the Chief Executive Officer of SkyWay Charity, a Hackney based charity that empowers young people, their families and communities. Having worked at SkyWay since 2017 she has considerable experience, skills and knowledge in governance, leadership, decision making and strategic development.

Having worked in Hackney for most of her adult life she understands the needs of the Hackney voluntary and community sector, and the communities they serve and is dedicated to advocating the needs of the young people and communities and supporting them to level up the playing field.

Natalie’s young family takes up lots of time but when possible she enjoys travelling and listening to music

Joyclen BuffongTrustee | appointed 14.05.23

Joyclen has spent over 20 years as the Youth Provision Manager at Hackney Marsh Partnership, commissioned through Young Hackney.

She is the founder and director of the renowned youth organisation Rise.365, which amplifies the voices of young people and challenges injustice and inequalities they may face.

Joyclen’s tireless efforts have been recognised, through various accolades, as the recipient of the Outstanding Positive Impact Award, 2020, Outstanding Service to The Lives of Young People 2021, the Best Youth and Community Organisation 2022 and the chair of the Child Q community response group.

Her leadership, experience and wealth of knowledge will only add value to the role of trustee at Hackney CVS.