Jenny Willott, OBE

CEO

Jenny Willott, OBE became our CEO on 8 Jan 2024. Prior to joining Re-engage she held positions across the education, voluntary and political sectors. She also served as a Member of Parliament from 2005 to 2015.

Jenny will be leading our ambitious growth plans outlined in our strategy, particularly in the areas of income generation, impact, innovation and external engagement.

Kitty Blackwell

director of fundraising and communications

Kitty Blackwell, director of fundraising and communications has marketing experience in both commercial and charity roles as well as 13 years’ experience as a fundraiser in domestic and international charities. Kitty has steered several multi-million pound fundraising teams and specialises in developing high-value partnerships.

Jess Doyle

interim head of impact

Jess Doyle, interim head of impact leads our impact strategy, using research, data insights and monitoring, evaluation and learning to inform service development, increase impact and deliver our mission. An experienced leader in the charity sector, Jess is passionate about advocating and amplifying the voices of those who are often let down or isolated by the societal infrastructures that surround them. Jess specialises in strategic planning, impact and horizon scanning, monitoring and evaluation, co-production methods and policy and inclusion.

Sally Flowers

head of service delivery

Sally Flowers, head of service delivery is responsible for providing a first-class experience to older people and volunteers and leads the team which welcomes and supports the thousands of older people and volunteers who join Re-engage each year.

Sally has 15 years’ experience designing and delivering frontline services to vulnerable, isolated people within the charity sector. Sally has worked for, and in partnership with, charities including Alzheimer’s Society, Whizz-Kidz, Mencap and Parkinson’s UK.

Gemma MacNulty

head of organisational effectiveness

Gemma MacNulty, head of organisational effectiveness oversees the whole charity’s processes for continuous improvement and ensures that Re-engage becomes more efficient, whilst enhancing the quality of experience that is offered to older people, volunteers, and staff. With 15 years in the charity sector, she has a deep understanding of the issues facing older people and the services offered by Re-engage.

Tom Oakes

head of growth

Tom Oakes, head of growth, focuses on the recruitment of older people via referral partnerships across the UK. He is responsible for scaling existing services by bringing thousands of older people and volunteers into the charity every year.

Tom has more than 12 years' team, sales and account management experience, honed across a diverse range of industries including live events and private healthcare. He has a proven track record of consistently supporting growth efforts and surpassing targets. Beyond his professional life, Tom, a qualified therapeutic counsellor, is passionate about volunteering and actively contributes to charity initiatives, ensuring accessible counselling for those in need of support with their mental health.

Our Trustees

Jonathan Upton

Chair

Jonathan joined the board of Trustees in May 2019 and was appointed chair of the board of trustees in February 2022. He began his career with Arthur Andersen as an auditor, followed by a two year stint in the city as a Financial Controller for Pradera AM-PLC living in London and Milan. Having left Pradera in 2005, he joined a university friend who had recently setup a business specialising in residential property data, which they sold together in 2014. More recently, he has setup and invested in other data businesses in property information and legal technology.

His Grandmother to whom he was very close, had Parkinson’s disease and Parkinsonian dementia and he hopes that through Re-engage, he can try to help more people enjoy the frequent social contact that she had.

Stewart Gilfillan OBE

Vice chair

After working in the both the Home Office and the Scottish Office for 20 years, Stewart Gilfillan joined the new Scottish Parliament at its inception in 1999, first as a Director then as Assistant Chief Executive.  As well as knowledge of the political and administrative landscape in Scotland, Stewart has extensive experience of public sector finance, human resources, strategic planning, risk management, organisational performance and change management.

Now retired, Stewart is a volunteer driver for Re-engage in Edinburgh. He was motivated to join following the death of his mother who, despite being fiercely independent and having a good deal of support from nearby relatives, found weekends difficult and looked forward to the companionship of being taken out for a drive or lunch on a Sunday. Stewart was appointed vice chair in February 2022.

Stewart hopes to be able to bring his experience of government and parliament to help Re-engage develop and expand its unique role in alleviating isolation among older people.

Sue Scholes

Treasurer

Sue became the Treasurer and a trustee of Re-engage in May 2019.

She has been a trustee of MAC Birmingham (the Midlands’ most visited arts centre) since November 2014 and sits on its Finance & Governance and HR committees. She is an Examiner and past Chair of the UK’s Investor Relations Society (a not-for-profit professional body representing the voice of its 800+ members and promoting best practice in investor relations).

Sue spent seven years as Director of Communications and member of the Executive Team at AMEC plc, during a period of significant and successful transformation. AMEC was then a FTSE 100 engineering, project management and consultancy company, with some 26,000 employees working in 40 countries.

A CIMA-qualified accountant, she started her working life at Cadbury Schweppes plc. She has held a number of senior finance roles and started working in investor relations at GKN plc. Prior to joining AMEC, she was Head of Investor Relations at Brambles Industries plc, an Anglo-Australian dual-listed company.

Dr Sally Fowler Davis

Sally began baking for and hosting tea-parties in 2015, with support from her family she was part of a new group who came together in Sheffield.  She became a trustee in 2020 and is looking forward to this further involvement with Re-engage.

Sally has a clinical background in the NHS and remains very involved in health and care services through her work as Professor of Allied Health – Anglia Ruskin University.  She has held senior programme lead roles at the Department of Health and enjoys contributing to Public Health Leadership education programmes across Europe.

She remains committed to the wellbeing of older adults and mainly undertakes research in care homes and investigations about new services and new ways of working in health and care systems.  With current interests and research activity associated with the recovery from Covid19 she is looking at health and rehabilitation outcomes for older people. 

Christian Grobel

Christian Grobel first volunteered for Re-engage as a driver in Westminster in 2001. He joined the Board of Trustees in 2004 as Hon. Treasurer, becoming Deputy Chair in 2014.

Christian began his career at KPMG, after which he worked at EMI Music and subsequently FremantleMedia, the global TV production company, in various positions in the UK and US. He is currently a director of the social media company Social Chain responsible for its media and marketing divisions.

Christian was chair of the board of trustees from July 2015 to February 2022. He also sits on the finance committee of The Passage, the charity for the homeless, and is co-founder and Chair of the London Choral Sinfonia.

Shamsah Lalji

Shamsah is the Owner and Director of Comfort Care At Home. She launched this home care business to provide high-quality care to those in need, helping them live safer, happier and more fulfilling lives in their own home. Shamshah has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and an MBA in Marketing.

She has worked for a number of years in the pharmaceutical industry, specialising in conditions and diseases many older people are living with, such as diabetes, nutrition disorders, cancer, and many more. Shamshah has always enjoyed being involved in the community, volunteering with multiple organisations and raising money for charities. She understands the importance of community support, which makes her a successful business owner.

Jonathan Waite KC

After Cambridge University, Jonathan was called to the Bar by the Inner Temple in 1978, joining Chambers at One Paper Buildings (later Crown Office Chambers) in 1979. Throughout his legal career he has specialised in most aspects of medico-legal work and associated insurance disputes. In the last 25 years, he has concentrated mainly on cases in which he was instructed on behalf of the manufacturers of pharmaceutical products (usually multi-Claimant cases concerning the side-effects of vaccines and drugs) and on behalf of the manufacturers of medical devices. He was appointed a QC in 2002 and since then, whilst concentrating on pharmaceutical and medical device cases, he has also acted in cases involving major property damage, usually arising from fires or floods. After 40 years practice at the Bar he retired in March 2019.

Since 2014 he has been a Trustee of the Marshall Hall Trust which provides financial assistance to needy members of the Inner Temple, and in particular students. He has been Chair of the Board of Trustees of that charity since 2016.

Contact us

We have teams across the UK.

Address

Re-engage
7 Bell Yard
London
WC2A 2JR

Freephone:

0800 716543

Office phone:

020 7240 0630