An experienced, multi-disciplinary team committed to contributing to positive social change in the UK and internationally.
Our Founders
Sarah Forster
CEO and co-Founder
Sarah is CEO and Co-Founder of The Good Economy. She has worked at the forefront of finance for positive impact for more than 25 years, working in the fields of sustainable economic development, development finance, and impact measurement and management both internationally and in the UK.
Sarah Forster
CEO and co-Founder
Skills and Experience
Sarah co-founded The Good Economy in 2015 to enhance the role of business and finance in inclusive and sustainable development. She acts as a trusted advisor to clients across the private, public and social sectors.
From 2007 to 2015, Sarah was Deputy CEO of Big Issue Invest (BII), the social investment arm of The Big Issue. She played a key role in growing BII from start-up to becoming one of the UK’s leading and most pioneering social impact investment intermediaries. Prior to this, Sarah worked for the New Economics Foundation, responsible for research and policy work to advance the fields of social investment, community development finance and measuring social returns on investment.
Sarah started her career in international development working for Afghanaid, a charity providing emergency aid and livelihoods support to war-torn communities in Afghanistan, based in Peshawar, Pakistan. From 1992 to 2001, she worked for the World Bank where she had a fast-track career from Young Professional to Senior Economist. She led the design of large-scale poverty alleviation investment projects in Africa, South Asia and the Balkans, with a focus on microfinance, municipal finance and community-led development.
Sarah developed expertise in post-conflict countries and spent four years living in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina working with the team responsible for managing the $5 billion post-war reconstruction and development programme. Achievements included leading the award-winning Local Initiatives Project, which established a national wholesale institution that successfully supported the development of sustainable microfinance institutions providing access to financial services to low-income entrepreneurs at scale. The project design was later replicated in several other countries.
Sarah has a BA from Queen’s College, Cambridge University, an MA in Economic and Political Development from the School of Public and International Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University, New York and in 2017, Sarah was recognised as one of the UK’s leading Women in Social Enterprise.
External Appointments
- Non-Executive Director, BioGuinea (Guinea-Bissau)
Mark Hepworth
co-Founder and Director, Research and Policy
Mark is a multidisciplinary economist and entrepreneur whose international career spans academia, public policy and business consulting. Mark’s work over 30 years has focused on innovation and new paradigms for economic development. He directs The Good Economy’s research and policy work on inclusive and sustainable development.
Mark Hepworth
co-Founder and Director, Research and Policy
Mark is a multidisciplinary economist and entrepreneur whose international career spans academia, public policy and business consultancy. As co-Founder of The Good Economy, he leads the firm’s Place-Based Impact Investing (PBII) work which includes research and policy thinking off the back of the ground breaking white paper Scaling Up Institutional Investment for Place-Based Impact, developed with the Impact Investing Institute (III) and Pensions for Purpose. Mark also led the creation of PBII Labs, TGE’s PBII strategy consultancy offering, and PBII Collaborations which includes PBII R&D and Knowledge Bank, and the PBII Network, a pioneering collaboration between institutional investors and local authorities, co-hosted by TGE, the Institute for Economic Development and the III. The overarching objective of the Network is to create a trusted environment where local authorities and private investors can meet for knowledge sharing, mutual learning and the development of innovative financing solutions to scale-up institutional investment as a force for good in helping places across the UK achieve local economic resilience, prosperity and sustainable development. Mark has deep knowledge of the UK economic development landscape through his research at the Universities of Newcastle and London and policy consultancy at the Local Futures Group, which he co-founded in 1997 (now part of Grant Thornton). Known for his seminal work on the IT revolution and the knowledge economy, he has taught at UK and overseas universities, acted as an expert adviser to the UN Economic Council, the OECD and the European Commission, and undertaken strategy consultancy for IBM, Microsoft, BT and other corporates. Prior to The Good Economy, Mark was a Visiting Professor at Birkbeck College London and Founding Director of Geoeconomics, a research and strategy consultancy which produced local economic strategies and impact assessments for infrastructure providers and private equity investors. As a consultant to Big Issue Invest, Mark co-created the social assessment methodologies underpinning the Threadneedle UK Social Bond Fund and Standard Life Investments’ UK Equity Impact Employment Opportunities Fund. Mark has a degree in economics from the University of Warwick and a doctorate in economic geography from the University of Toronto. Read Mark’s contributions to TGE’s blog here
Team
Ken Hart
Chief Financial Officer / Chief Operating Officer
Ken is The Good Economy’s CFO & COO. He brings 30 years of international experience across a wide range of professional services organisations within media and MedComs industries. He has worked in UK and abroad for both large listed groups and PE backed SMEs where his focus was on building high quality financial information for stakeholders, and supporting CEOs on all operational business issues.
Ken Hart
Chief Financial Officer / Chief Operating Officer
Ken joined The Good Economy in April 2024 as its first Chief Financial Officer / Chief Operating Officer. His focus at TGE is to build professional financial information ranging from cashflow and P&L forecasting to systems and processes. His mandate also includes instilling rigorous financial and operational expertise across all areas of the business, and to assist and advise the CEO and Board.
He brings significant experience in professional services, and in particular with SMEs through his other role as Financial Director for Atlantis Health UK, a medical communications agency which he joined in early 2023.
From 2000 to 2022, he worked in a number of finance roles at the marketing services group DDB, initially based in Paris before moving to London and later becoming Deputy CFO EMEA. Prior to DDB, he worked at Total Energies for six years, firstly in London then in Paris within the Corporate Finance team.
Ken started his career with Deloitte in Glasgow. He is a Chartered Accountant with a BA in Accounting and Economics.
Andy Smith
Head of Impact Services
Andy leads on impact services at The Good Economy, working with clients to design impact measurement and management systems and deliver independent impact reports. Andy also led the development of the Sustainability Reporting Standard criteria – now being used by over 100 housing providers and lenders.
Andy Smith
Head of Impact Services
Andy is an experienced project manager and impact measurement and management practitioner, specialising in social housing, real estate and impact investing. He also plays an operations management role managing and developing teams and business systems.
Andy manages many of the Impact Services we deliver for clients, particularly within the housing and real estate sector. He works collaboratively with clients to develop robust, practical impact measurement, management and reporting systems that help both prove and improve impact. Andy is actively involved in the development of TGE’s impact assessment methodologies drawing on international good practice and first-hand experience.
Andy helps build and manage collaborations with partners across the public, private and social sectors. He has led the development of a standard approach to ESG and Impact Reporting for Social and Affordable Housing working with a wide range of stakeholders, including housing associations, lenders and investors.
Andy joined The Good Economy in 2018 from Social Finance, a consulting firm focused on finding better ways to tackle social problems. He was project manager of Leaving Well, an innovative tech product enabling local authorities to better support young people leaving the care system. Prior to this, Andy spent six years at The Challenge, a charity set up to encourage social integration. Andy’s role was to scale up its National Citizen Service and lead on impact evaluation as well as the delivery of its apprenticeship programme Step Forward.
Andy completed the Teach First programme, spending two years as a maths teacher at an inner-city school in south east London.
Andy has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge.
Sam Monger
Head of PBII and Strategic Advisory
Sam is TGE’s Head of PBII and Strategic Advisory and brings 30 years of experience developing, reviewing and delivering investment solutions from both an advisory and investor/developer perspective.
Sam Monger
Head of PBII and Strategic Advisory
Sam played a leading role in delivering the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) UK Urban Futures Commission’s report ‘Unleashing the potential of the UK’s cities’ and wrote the Investment Playbook, designed as an introductory guide for local government on how to engage effectively with private finance in pursuit of place-based regeneration and social impact goals.
Prior to joining TGE, Sam worked for Grosvenor where he led financial analysis, research and strategy in the UK property business for several years, including playing a leading role in developing Grosvenor’s net zero and social impact strategies. He also led development of a sophisticated spatial modelling capability which used multiple datasets to understand drivers of value and risk across several real estate sectors from a place-based perspective. In addition, he led strategy development and implementation of Grosvenor Hart Homes, an innovative, impact-led social housing business.
Before that, Sam held senior advisory roles at PwC and IBM where he led teams advising on some of the largest and most complex public-private partnerships ever undertaken in the UK, including the DWP PRIME portfolio PFI transaction and securing a financing deal for Avon & Somerset Constabulary’s custody portfolio.
Sam Waples
Head of Analytics
Sam is a multidisciplinary geographer and highly experienced specialist in data and spatial analysis. Sam has worked in university and business schools and commercial companies. His innovative work on data analytics is integral to TGE’s impact services, economic strategy consultancy and Good Jobs analysis.
Sam Waples
Head of Analytics
Sam is a highly experienced specialist in data analysis and geographic information science with experience of working in the academic, private and public sectors. He specialises in spatial analysis, data modelling and visualisation techniques.
At The Good Economy, Sam is responsible for the data analysis underpinning all TGE’s impact assessment and reporting work. He has led the portfolio and business-level data analysis for TGE’s private equity and SME investor clients, focused on understanding to what extent investment supports sustainable business growth and job creation that benefit disadvantaged areas both in the UK and globally. Sam also leads the innovative technical work behind TGE’s Good Jobs Rating.
Sam began collaborating with Mark Hepworth on a range of economic development projects in 2007 as part of Geoeconomics and the Centre for Applied Economic Geography, Birkbeck College London. His work included assessing the economic impact of FTSE100 companies and the geographic analysis for local economic development strategies.
Sam has undertaken social policy research at Birkbeck, the Cass Business School and the University of Leicester. He worked on the national evaluation of the Sure Start programme for the department of education and CCTV for the Home Office. He also worked with the Commission for Rural Communities (now part of Defra), developing geographical socio-economic small town and rural area typologies.
Sam has a BSc from the University of Edinburgh and a Masters in Geographical Information Science from the University of Nottingham.
Jessica Whitcutt
Head of Marketing Communications
Jessica joined The Good Economy in 2023 as Head of Marketing Communications. She is an accomplished corporate communications and reputation professional with 20+ years of experience in helping both major multinational firms and high growth businesses deliver bottom line performance through enhanced reputational capital.
Jessica Whitcutt
Head of Marketing Communications
Jessica has 20+ years of experience working in both agencies and multinational corporates. She has a thorough understanding of both the commercial and reputational imperatives driving business performance. She has a number of award winning behaviour change campaigns to her name and is passionate about sustainability.
She holds a BA Law from the University of the Witwatersrand, is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and has been fortunate enough to participate in various executive development programmes both in South Africa and in the UK.
Born and bred in Johannesburg, South Africa, Jessica has travelled extensively, worked with clients all over the world, and recently moved with her family to Bath.
Amy Ingham
Senior Consultant
Amy has over a decade’s experience in impact measurement and management in the UK and internationally. Most recently Amy led a performance improvement initiative for Homes England to support its new strategy. Amy has joined the Housing and Real Estate Social Impact team as a Senior Consultant.
Amy Ingham
Senior Consultant
Amy is an impact measurement and management expert with over a decade’s experience in the UK and internationally.
Prior to joining TGE, Amy worked for Homes England, the UK government’s arms-length body sponsored by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. There, she led performance improvement initiatives across its development, investments, affordable housing and Help to Buy portfolios including the agency’s refresh of its Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to support its new strategy. She also developed performance reports and deep dive assessments for senior agency and government stakeholders.
Previously, she worked for the Commonwealth Secretariat, managing organisation-level performance reporting to the Board of Commonwealth High Commissioners and providing technical assistance to member government representatives to support the establishment of monitoring systems for newly developed policies and programmes.
Amy also worked as a Performance Advisor for the international NGO Christian Aid, where she established and managed community-led monitoring, evaluation and learning frameworks for large and complex / multi-country climate resilience, governance and health programmes.
Amy is passionate about supporting clients to collect, understand and use quality evidence to maximise their positive social and environmental impact and the achievement of priority outcomes for communities through their decisions.
Amy has a degree in Modern Languages (Spanish and Portuguese) from Oxford University, and a Masters in International Studies and Diplomacy from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, University of London).
Anna Haskins
Consultant
As a Consultant in impact services, Anna helps private equity and real asset clients understand, measure and improve their impact. She is passionate about the use of quality evidence to maximise positive social and environmental outcomes for local communities, and strongly advocates for transparency and accountability around investment decision making and impact performance.
Anna Haskins
Consultant
Anna has worked within TGE’s Housing and Real Estate team for several years as an Impact Analyst and Senior Analyst. In this time Anna has conducted impact assessments at the asset and product level, with responsibilities for the collection and analysis of data, the creation of impact measurement and management tools and processes, as well as the drafting of independent impact reports. Anna has also gained experience within TGE’s impact services work with SME funds, and also with Impact Assured, TGE’s impact assurance and verification service.
Anna holds the CFA Institute Certificate in ESG Investing and joined TGE having graduated with a MA in Development Studies at the Institute of Development Studies and a BA in Business Management and Anthropology at the University of Exeter. Her studies focused on the role of business as a development actor and the financialisation of public policy.
Astrid Pedersen
Impact Analyst
Astrid joined TGE following her graduation from the London School of Economics and Political Science with an MSc in Political Science and Political Economy. Her previous roles focused on developing resources for research and impact evaluation, and summarising evaluations and other evidence into digestible materials for policy makers. She mainly works within our housing team, providing analysis and writing reports for our clients.
Astrid Pedersen
Impact Analyst
Astrid joined TGE following her graduation from the London School of Economics and Political Science with an MSc in Political Science and Political Economy, complementing her BSc in Economics from Northeastern University. Her academic background focused on causal inference and how political and economic systems interact to create the society we live in.
Astrid previously provided consultancy for an employment programme targeting youth from lower socioeconomic backgrounds in the USA, supporting their transition to a hybrid delivery model and developing their use of data in informing decision making. Prior to this, she worked across the policy and research teams at J-PAL, a global research centre focused on reducing poverty through evidence-based policy by conducting randomised controlled trials. In this role, she advanced their catalogue of research resources and administrative data sets and made impact evaluations accessible to decision makers by summarising evaluations into digestible policy materials.
Astrid is passionate about improving the lives of disadvantaged populations and the climate by maximising the societal and environmental impact of investments. She is excited to support clients in improving their impact assessment capabilities, particularly through the use of comprehensive and quality data and robust evaluation methods.
Ben Rosoman
Consultant
Ben joined TGE having graduated with a first-class degree in International Development with Economics at the University of Bath. His degree also involved working at The Good Economy on a one-year student placement programme in 2017-18.
Ben Rosoman
Consultant
Ben is a consultant at The Good Economy (TGE). He joined TGE having graduated with a first-class degree in International Development with Economics at the University of Bath. His degree also involved working at The Good Economy on a one-year student placement programme in 2017-18.
Having completed his studies, Ben re-joined TGE as a full-time staff member in 2019. Ben now works across TGE’s impact services offer, supporting clients to integrate impact into their decision-making and reporting. This predominantly involves working in the Housing and Real Estate team, though Ben is also involved in TGE’s impact services work with SME funds and businesses, and also with Impact Assured, TGE’s impact assurance and verification service.
On a day-to-day basis, Ben is responsible for the design and implementation of TGE’s impact measurement, management and reporting systems with a range of UK and international clients from across the impact investing value chain. This involves undertaking company, and specific policy- or project-related research, as well as collection and analysis of data. He helps to prepare and draft written reports and presentations for clients, as well as running workshops, and is responsible for ongoing project management.
Ben holds the CFA Institute Certificate in ESG Investing.
Charlie Denney
Impact Analyst
Charlie has a background in international development and experience in designing development impact bonds focused on improving learning outcomes in developing economies. Charlie provides analysis and research for TGE’s clients.
Charlie Denney
Impact Analyst
Charlie has five years’ experience in the international development sector, supporting projects in health and education abroad and in the UK. She has a background in qualitative research, programme design and monitoring and evaluation.
Prior to joining TGE, Charlie worked as an analyst at a global fund to address the learning crisis through outcomes-based commissioning. There she gained experience in designing development impact bonds and creating data platforms to systematically evaluate the impact of development interventions. Charlie has also lived and worked in Amman, Jordan, where she gained experience in both research on longitudinal research studies and in project management at UNICEF.
Charlie holds a BA degree in International Relations from Durham University and a MA in Middle Eastern Studies and Intensive Arabic from SOAS, University of London. Charlie provides research, analysis and reporting for TGE’s clients.
Isobel Tan
Impact Analyst
Isobel has a background in international development and economics and is currently undertaking a part-time Masters in Urban Planning. Her placement with TGE as part of her undergraduate degree fuelled an interest in people, places and economic development.
Isobel Tan
Impact Analyst
Isobel is an Impact Analyst at The Good Economy (TGE), having graduated with a first-class degree in International Development with Economics at the University of Bath in 2022. The degree involved a year-long placement at TGE. Her academic background provides a grounding in economic development, social change and place-making.
She works across a range of impact services projects, including housing and real estate clients, providing day-to-day support with projects, analysis and research.
Isobel is currently undertaking a part-time Masters in Urban Planning, with specialist interest in the social impacts of planning and architecture. She has experience volunteering cross-culturally and in the UK with faith organisations and charities.
Jenni Zietch
Senior Consultant
Jenni has over five years’ experience working across the impact investing spectrum with specialist expertise in impact measurement and management. As a Senior Consultant in impact services, she helps private equity, debt and venture capital clients understand, measure and improve their impact.
Jenni Zietch
Senior Consultant
Jenni has over five years’ experience working across the impact investing spectrum with specialist expertise in impact measurement and management. As a Senior Consultant in impact services, she helps private equity, debt and venture capital clients understand, measure and improve their impact.
Jenni previously worked for Brightlight Impact, an Australian investment management firm delivering investment and impact returns for institutional investors. She led work on impact investing strategies, client engagement, due diligence and impact measurement and management systems across multiple themes including affordable housing, women’s empowerment and healthcare. She has experience of multiple product types including listed and unlisted funds, blended finance vehicles and social impact bonds.
Prior to that, Jenni worked as a Research Analyst for the Australian pension fund Christian Super, a leading impact investor. She wrote the first impact report for Christian Super analysing the impact and financial performance of 200 underlying investments.
Jenni is passionate about helping clients integrate impact considerations into their investment strategy and scaling-up the impact investment market to help transform lives and achieve inclusive and sustainable development globally.
She holds a Bachelor of Commerce (majoring in finance) and a Bachelor of Engineering with first class honours. Her honours thesis examined renewable energy options in Papua New Guinea.
Larissa Kirkpatrick
Consultant
Larissa has experience working with private market investors and social enterprises focused on improving social outcomes in emerging and frontier economies. Larissa is a Consultant in The Good Economy’s impact verification and assurance team.
Larissa Kirkpatrick
Consultant
Larissa joined The Good Economy in 2021 after gaining valuable experience at an impact advisory firm in the Channel Islands. As a Consultant in the Impact Services team, she delivers TGE’s impact verification and assurance services and works on TGE’s emerging markets and multi-year Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) engagements.
Larissa played a key role in developing TGE’s impact verification and assurance offerings and specialises in assessing impact management systems in line with the Impact Principles and assuring impact performance data against the AA1000 Assurance Standard. Her in-depth technical knowledge of global impact measurement and management practices informs her comprehensive research, development of impact measurement and management systems, custom evaluations, impact data analysis, and impact reporting for a diverse range of investors and enterprises.
Larissa is passionate about driving intentional impact creation, promoting transparency, and encouraging the adoption of best practices in the rapidly evolving impact investing sector. She holds a BA in Development Studies and Politics from SOAS, University of London, and a CFA Certificate in ESG Investing.
Mieke Dale-Harris
Senior Consultant
Mieke has a background in assessing the impact of charitable interventions on service users, as well as embedding high standards of data collection and management within growing organisations. She works primarily with our housing team, supporting clients to develop impact measurement and management systems, and driving best practices through collaborative projects.
Mieke Dale-Harris
Senior Consultant
Mieke is an impact specialist, with over seven years experience conducting research into vulnerable populations and embedding impact measurement and management systems within organisations.
Prior to joining the TGE team, Mieke spent five years at Breaking Barriers, an organisation that supports refugees into stable and secure employment, building their programmes, monitoring and evaluation systems, and thought leadership strategy. Prior to that she worked for Impact Initiatives in South Sudan and Jordan researching the needs of refugees and internally displaced persons.
Mieke has a MA in Development Economics and International Cooperation and a BSc in Psychology.
She works primarily with our housing team, supporting clients to develop impact measurement and management systems, and driving best practices through collaborative projects.
Sakshi Chaudhary
Impact Analyst
Sakshi is an Impact Analyst at The Good Economy. She has experience in evaluating the social impact of community-led charitable interventions, specialising in research and analysis in the housing sector. Sakshi has a background in economics and public policy and works primarily within our housing team.
Sakshi Chaudhary
Impact Analyst
Sakshi has over two years experience in the impact evaluation sector, with a particular focus in housing. She has a background in evaluating the social impact of community-led charitable interventions across a range of sectors, including housing, education and health.
Prior to joining TGE, Sakshi worked as a research analyst at a fast growing social impact evaluation company in New Zealand’s capital. There she gained expertise in consolidating multiple sources of evidence to gain the most robust representation of an organisation’s social impact. This included generating intervention logics, social return on investment (SROI) analysis and providing organisations with actionable insights to improve data collection and service delivery. She is interested in assisting organisations to not only measure their social impact but improve upon it.
Sakshi moved to the UK from New Zealand and joined TGE in October 2022, working primarily in our housing team to undertake analysis and provide written reports. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce (majoring in Economics) and Bachelor of Arts (majoring in International Relations) from Victoria University of Wellington.
Samantha Curtis
Senior Consultant
Samantha is a finance and impact professional with fifteen years of experience working in both asset management and impact investment industries in the UK and Kenya. Sam works with The Good Economy’s Global Funds clients, supporting them to improve and integrate their impact into reporting and decision-making.
Samantha Curtis
Senior Consultant
Samantha has fifteen years of experience working in both asset management and impact investment. She is a Senior Consultant at The Good Economy, working with Global Funds clients, supporting them to improve and integrate their impact into reporting and decision-making.
Samantha started her career in asset management, working with Baillie Gifford in their Clients Department, supporting global institutional investors on portfolio analysis and reporting, covering a variety of asset classes. She also worked on proposal writing, business development, marketing and investment writing.
In more recent years, Samantha has lived and worked in Nairobi, Kenya where she has experience consulting for impact investors such as LGT Impact, non-profits and ESG firms, working in various roles including project management, research, business development and portfolio impact reviews.
Samantha’s diverse career experience has developed her passion for commercially driven social and environmental impact, utilising investment to provide positive impact on people, place and planet.
She holds a first class BA (Hons) degree in Business Studies and an MBA from the University of Birmingham where she achieved honours with distinction. Her MBA dissertation focussed on the importance of transparency and accountability in the impact investment industry and whether existing industry metrics are sufficient in providing effective evaluation of impact.
Emma Rush
Operations Manager and Executive Assistant to CEO
Emma provides executive support whilst managing the daily operational needs of the business.
Emma Rush
Operations Manager and Executive Assistant to CEO
Emma is highly experienced within both small and large organisations, most recently supporting the leadership team of a large international NGO. Emma keenly supports all areas of sustainable development and enjoys being at the heart of a busy, dynamic, and forward-thinking business which drives a better future for people, places and planet.
Kathryn Jackson
Finance Manager
Kathryn helps The Good Economy with day-to-day financial management.
Kathryn Jackson
Finance Manager
Kathryn has worked in companies of all shapes and sizes applying strong business operations experience. She spent 10 years working for global software companies and, more recently, has helped small business start-ups to get their operations up and running.
Rupert Peach
Research and Project Management Assistant
Rupert joined The Good Economy as a Research and Project Management Assistant in August 2024 as part of a one-year placement programme whilst studying BSc Economics and Politics at the University of Bath.
Rupert Peach
Research and Project Management Assistant
At The Good Economy Rupert acts as an assistant to the team undertaking company research and researching specific policy or project-related topics. He is involved in the collection and analysis of project-related data, offers day-to-day project management support, and assists in the wider business development process, including the research of potential new clients.
Associates
Mark Hallett
Associate, Regeneration
Mark is a highly experienced regeneration and sustainability specialist. He holds several NED roles including two Local Authority Asset Backed Dev Co’s and a leading RSL, and sits on the Design Review Panel for the Design Commission for Wales. He also holds a number of Special Advisory roles with a variety of place-based impact investors and stakeholders.
Mark Hallett
Associate, Regeneration
Mark Hallett is a highly experienced Non-Executive Director, Chair and Special Advisor having previously been Development Director of igloo Regeneration for over 18 years. Igloo has been described by the United Nations as the world’s first sustainable property investor and is the only substantial socially responsible real estate vehicle in the UK. He is currently a Non-Executive Director of Goram Homes (a company controlled by Bristol City Council) and and Trivallis Housing Association. He also holds a number of Special Advisory roles with a variety of place-based impact investors and stakeholders.
Mark studied at the Welsh School of Architecture UWIST and obtained an MSc in Project Management at Reading University. He has worked for a variety of consultancies, contractors, developers and joint venture companies throughout the UK for over 30 years. His experience encompasses the full range of commercial, residential, retail, health and leisure projects with responsibility for identifying and unlocking value from major brownfield urban regeneration land holdings with a combined development value in excess of £2.5 billion. These projects have often been delivered in partnerships between public and private sectors with an ethos of collaborative working and customer centric objectives. He has held responsibility across the complete development cycle from market research, strategy formulation, financial appraisal, risk analysis, business case preparation, funding, acquisition, stakeholder engagement, brief preparation, design management, planning, marketing, sales, construction procurement and delivery, settlements, hand-over, property management, customer service, asset management and investment disposal.
Mark comments regularly in the media on urban design and regeneration issues and has been principal speaker and Chair of numerous conferences and events. Mark is a member of the editorial board for the International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development. Mark is a member of the Chartered Institute for Building, a member of the Association for Project Management, a Chartered Construction Manager and a Fellow of the Forum for the Built Environment. He was also a member (by Ministerial appointment) of the Task and Finish Group for the creation of a Centre of Regeneration Excellence Wales. He is a visiting critic at the Welsh School of Architecture and a visiting lecturer at Cardiff University School of Geography & Planning.
Sophie Taysom
Associate, Built Environment and Health
Sophie is an associate at The Good Economy, with experience working in central government, business and academia. She is the founder of specialist ESG Consultancy Keyah Consulting, bringing expertise in ESG within the fields of real estate, health and the built environment.
Sophie Taysom
Associate, Built Environment and Health
Sophie is the Director and Founder of Keyah Consulting. Her career spans central government, business and academia. Sophie’s work focuses on ESG in real estate, health and the built environment. She brings this expertise to her additional roles as a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s Healthcare Sector Executive, where she ran a webinar series on health and the built environment with engagement from 4,500+ people globally, and as a Trustee for Groundwork London.
Tamara Giltsoff
Associate, Natural Capital
Tamara is strategist and innovator in Climate, Nature based Solutions, Regenerative Agriculture Transitions and Innovative Finance.
Tamara Giltsoff
Associate, Natural Capital
Tamara co-founded two climate tech start-ups, has held a senior role in UK government as Head of Innovation for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and is a strategic advisor to corporate clients and SMEs. She has worked in impact investment, venture capital and development finance.
Most recently Tamara led the creation and implementation of an impact investment strategy for a leading venture capital group, responding to climate, nature, and inequality challenges, and the need for just transitions of our economies.
She has worked in Africa, Europe, South Asia, the UK, and the US, where she also lived, and holds an MSc in Sustainability and Business as well as an MA in Design, Strategy, and Innovation.
Tamara sits on the board of Ushahidi, a Kenyan-founded citizen-data platform for disaster response, climate impacts, election monitoring and humanitarian crisis.
Vivienne King
Associate, Commercial Real Estate
Vivienne has worked in leadership positions in real estate for more than 30 years, including leadership of ESG strategy, spearheading innovation in social and environmental strategy in real estate.
Vivienne King
Associate, Commercial Real Estate
Vivienne is a Senior Associate, Commercial Real Estate at The Good Economy. Vivienne has held leadership positions in real estate for more than 30 years working in urban development, regeneration and management, joint venture partnerships, strategy development and ESG where she has been at the forefront of integrating ESG as a strategic imperative.
As its CEO, Vivienne led Revo, the retail property trade association, through the pandemic in 2020, pivoting the business to handle the economic shock of lockdowns and working with Government to secure a fair deal for property owners out of political policy, whilst also leading development of tools to equip the industry to meet accelerating change, including Revo’s social value framework.
Between 2016-2020, Vivienne was CEO of niche Central London housing association Soho Housing and its commercial property business, Soho Ltd, investing, developing and managing commercial and residential portfolios to provide affordable quality homes in London’s West End. In her four years she led approximately £30m in urban investment and development transactions and played a key role shaping sustainable growth through stakeholder engagement at community level.
Over 20 years of Vivienne’s career was in £14bn institutional real estate investor, the Crown Estate where she was a member of the executive committee. Vivienne served as General Counsel and was promoted into leadership responsibility for HR, legal, marketing, corporate affairs, H&S, company secretarial, governance and ESG and she oversaw the Scottish business, leading its de-merger to the Scottish Government. Vivienne was a key contributor to the growth of the Crown’s indirect investment portfolio, now worth £1.3billion.
Vivienne is a solicitor. She has served as a pension trustee for the Crown Estate and as a board member on a number of boards and committees including London housing association, Women’s Pioneer Housing.
Paul Stanworth
Chair of the Board
Paul serves as Chair of the Board of Directors at The Good Economy alongside his other roles of Group Chief Investment Officer at Momentum Re and member of the Investment Committee at Lloyds. He also co-led the Place Based Impact Investing (PBII) Project, a collaboration between The Good Economy, the Impact Investing Institute and Pensions for Purpose, that aims to mobilise greater flows of institutional investment for more inclusive and sustainable development across the UK and provides strategic direction to the business.
Paul Stanworth
Chair of the Board
Appointed: December 2022
Skills and Experience
Paul has over 35 years’ experience in institutional investment and finance, covering a wide range of markets including private and public credit, venture capital, private equity and real estate. In addition, he built several successful start-up teams and businesses within corporate investment functions, treasury operations and sales environments.
Paul has acted as Chief Investment Officer on several major UK funds. His current position at Momentum Re was preceded by a role as CEO of Legal and General Capital which he led to provide early-stage investment to UK businesses and infrastructure. This unit pioneered the drive for socially useful investments by large institutions and is today one of the UK’s biggest investors in regeneration projects.
Paul co-authored PBII white paper, Scaling Up Institutional Investment for Place-Based Impact, and shares TGE’s passion for the need to address social and spatial inequality.
Paul holds a BSc from the University of London and professionally qualified as an actuary.
Current Positions
Group Chief Investment Officer, Monument Re Group
Member of Investment Committee, Lloyd’s
John-Paul Preston
Non-Executive Director
John-Paul is a trusted adviser to, and commercial negotiator for, entrepreneurs, private equity firms and listed companies. He previously held the post of Chief Operating Officer at Gresham House plc and prior to that, Investment Director and General Counsel at LDC.
John-Paul Preston
Non-Executive Director
Appointed: 2022
Skills and Experience
During his tenure as COO at Gresham House Plc, John-Paul was responsible for growing Assets Under Management from £17 million to £2.3 billion, expanding the team from eight to 95 people, the acquisition of four public companies, the listing of a clean energy fund and the creation of multiple private funds, including the sustainability-focused British Strategic Investment Fund.
Prior to that John-Paul was Investment Director and General Counsel at LDC, the mid-market private equity firm, and General Counsel at Coutts & Co, which he joined from Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
John-Paul provides The Good Economy with strategic counsel alongside his other varied business interests as well as both executive and non-executive roles.
He holds an MBA from London Business School and an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Current Positions
Commercial Director, Momenta Group Global
Chair, Selfless
Susan Hickey
Non-executive Director
Susan advises on strategies to influence flows of capital to social and affordable housing, including TGE’s work to enhance ESG and impact measurement and reporting for investors and housing associations. She has over 25 years of leadership in senior finance roles, including 10 years as CFO at Peabody Trust and now combines executive project work with several non-executive roles.
Susan Hickey
Non-executive Director
Appointed: 2022
Skills and Experience
Susan has over 25 years of experience in senior leadership roles in banking, long-term social and affordable housing management, specialist supported housing, investment and risk management. She spent 10 years as Chief Financial Officer at Peabody Trust, one of London’s oldest and largest affordable housing providers, developers and regeneration agents.
Susan regularly takes on interim executive roles and is currently Interim CFO at Notting Hill Genesis, one of the largest housing associations in London and the South East, providing affordable homes to all across a range of tenures. Prior to that she served as Interim CEO at Swan Housing where she was appointed following a serious non-compliant regulatory downgrade. Susan formulated and led a significant recovery plan, concluded in February 2023 with disposal to a large social housing group.
At The Good Economy, she advises on strategies to influence flows of socially responsible capital to social and affordable housing.
Susan is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Fellow of both the ICAEW and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.
Current Positions
- Interim CFO, Notting Hill Genesis
- Non-Executive Director, Saltaire
- Non-Executive Director, VSO International
- Non-Executive Director, LandAid
Isabelle Irani
Observer
Isabelle is the Co-Founder of Sumerian Partners, an impact investment firm that enables early-stage social enterprises to achieve viable growth and impact in their efforts to tackle different dimensions of social inequality in any part of the UK. She has 17 years of experience in investing in both private and public companies worldwide.
Isabelle Irani
Observer
Appointed: 2022
Skills and Experience
Isabelle founded Sumerian Partners in 2013 after she was approached by several close friends and philanthropists who recognised that her asset management experience – backing sound management teams, providing hands-on business support and structuring the appropriate financing – could help them achieve greater lasting impact.
Isabelle started her career at Lehman Brothers in equity research and was then a Principal at Advent Venture Partners, a venture capital firm focusing on technology in the UK / Europe. She was actively involved in sourcing, investing and sitting on the Boards of these companies, providing strategic advice with regards to overcoming challenges to growth, positioning them in the market and ensuring successful exits. After Advent, Isabelle was a portfolio manager at LK Advisers, the Mittal Family office, where she was one of three investment professionals responsible for investing in public equities and private companies, largely in developing markets.
Isabelle holds a BSc (Finance) from Lehigh University.
Current Positions
Founder, Sumerian Partners
Board Trustee, Sumerian Foundation
Advisor, Trafigura (Clean Energy Venture Capital Fund)
Board Trustee, Trafigura Foundation
Chair, South Lake Medical Services (Kenya)
Isabelle’s LinkedIn
Join The Team
The Good Economy is a fast growing company which has established itself as a trusted, specialist impact advisory firm working at the forefront of the impact investing industry in the UK and globally.
Our purpose is to create a Good Economy ecosystem that encourages the discovery of new commercial and institutional pathways to sustainable development.
If you are motivated by the chance to contribute to meaningful change and thrive in a collaborative environment, we want to hear from you!
Vacancies
We’re pleased to announce that The Good Economy (TGE) is looking to recruit passionate, talented professionals to join our dynamic team in either London or Bath (with hybrid working). We have three exciting roles open – see Vacancies below.
📧 How to Apply If you are excited about any of these roles and believe you have the right skills and passion, please take a look at the job descriptions below and send us your CV along with a motivational cover letter highlighting why you would be perfect for that role.
Applications close 28 June 2024
Current Vacancies
Senior Consultant
Do you want to help build a market in which institutional investment is deployed to deliver lasting benefits for communities across the UK? Are you a strategic thinker with experience in consulting and project management and an understanding of UK economic development? Join us to help build our growing Place-Based Impact Investing strategic advisory services and drive forward our mission of building a Good Economy.
Position Type: Permanent, Full-time, or potentially 4 days per week
Location: Bath or London (with flexible working) + UK travel
Salary: £60 – 70k depending on experience
Deadline: 28 June 2024
Data Analyst
Are you skilled in data handling, analysis, and visualisation? We are seeking a talented data analyst who can transform raw data into insightful, actionable information that supports our clients’ projects and initiatives as well as help The Good Economy to develop new data processes and products.
Position Type: Permanent, Full-time
Location: Bath preference, or London (with flexible working)
Salary: £30 – £45k depending on experience
Deadline: 28 June 2024
Impact Analyst
Do you have a knack for evaluating the social and environmental outcomes of investments and projects? We’re looking for an analyst who can measure and articulate the impact of our clients’ work with clarity and precision.
Position Type: Permanent, Full-time
Location: Bath or London (with flexible working) + UK travel
Salary: £30 – £35k per annum
Deadline: 28 June 2024
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