Central office staff
Meet the WE staff team
We are a small and determined team who work hard to achieve the aims of the Party. We consider ourselves lucky to work alongside an army of volunteers who support us with everything from video-editing and website development to branch building and election planning. Find out more about volunteering with central office.
Cath Smith, Head of Campaigns
Cath leads on our national campaigns and elections. She is passionate about getting WEP representatives elected and driving change at a local and national level.
Celia Wilson, Head of Members and Supporters
Celia leads on our members and supporters strategy. She's passionate about growing our movement and helping our members have a positive member journey. She first joined as a branchstarter in the early days of the Party and now builds on that experience to lead the development and support of our branches and hubs.
Eleanor Bull, Finance and Compliance Manager
Elly ensures the effective management of the Party’s finances and has lead responsibility for the Party’s compliance with electoral law and other regulations. She work with Branch Officers and suppliers to enable and ensure their actions in relation to the Party are compliant. She also oversees central office management, including systems, processes and administration. Even though most of her work is behind the scenes, she is always involved in the party's external campaigns and says "its great to be part of a team that values my opinions and feedback".
Erin Mansell, Political Researcher and Advisor
Erin provides support and advice to the leader of the Party and other spokespeople, oversees the Party's political engagement strategy, and researches developing policy areas.
Fariya Sharif, Members and Supporters Officer
Fariya is the members and supporters officer and is dedicated to growing and supporting our membership. She works on developing membership campaigns and ensuring our communications with members are the best they can be. A proud Scot living in London longer than she had planned, it seems that her passion for Women's Equality has prevailed.
Hannah Peaker, Chief of Staff
Hannah is responsible for operationalising the Party's strategy, managing the central office team and is the Leader's right-hand woman.
Mary Drysdale, Development Coordinator
Mary's time is devoted to creating new and innovative sources of income to fund the Women's quality Party campaigns and activities.
Lorraine Roberts, Interim Director of Finance and Operations.
Lorraine is an independent management consultant covering the post of Director of Finance and Operations at WE while conducting a series of organisational governance reviews for the party.
Chiara Martinelli, Events Manager
Chiara leads on all WE events, from putting on comedy shows with the party's MC Sandi Toksvig to holding crucial fundraising events to help finance our campaigns and activities.
Amy Killen, Election Coordinator
Amy has been involved with the Party since 2015, serving as the Lewisham Branch Leader for a year. She has now brought her expertise on running local elections to our central office, where she oversees elections across the party's branches.
Adela Ryle, Communications Coordinator
Adela works with Rebecca to develop the party's social media presence and its relationship with national and local press, as well as generating communications around the party's longer term policies and campaigns. She also works with local branches, providing communications support and advice.
Rebecca Mtsambiwa, Communications Coordinator
Rebecca works with Adela to develop the party's social media presence and its relationship with national and local press, as well as generating communications around the party's longer term policies and campaigns. She also works with local branches, providing communications support and advice.
Eleanor Leone, Administrative Officer
Eleanor is the front of house for the party, ensuring that visitors, enquiries and volunteers get to the right place. She also does finance and membership admin, handles bookings and travel and oversees the day to day running of the office to make sure the party's work goes as smoothly as possible.
Executive Committee
Bea Gare
Bea Gare is a former British Diplomat. In mid-career she undertook a PhD in biological sciences and rejoined the FCO after a short stint running her own Environmental Consultancy. Her work in the FCO concentrated on multilateral arms control including 5 years in Vienna at the British delegation to the OSCE.
Bea joined WEP in 2016. A lifetime of watching Westminster politics led her to the only party with policies on equality and PR as part of their manifesto.
Catherine Mayer, President
Catherine is a bestselling author and award-winning journalist with a career spanning The Economist, the German news weekly FOCUS and TIME magazine. Her most recent book 'Attack of the Fifty Foot Women: How Gender Equality Can Save the World!' includes the story of why in 2015 she co-founded the Women’s Equality Party. She served as elected president of the Foreign Press Association in London, is on the founding committee of WOW - The Women of the World Festival and was a judge for the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction. She is the Executive Director of the think tank, Datum Future.
Catherine is the President of the Women’s Equality Party.
Chris Paouros
Chris is a business and charity leader, specialising in the growth of small organisations. Chris is a Trustee of Just Like Us, an LGBT+ charity for young people; Non-Executive Director of Leaders Unlocked, a social enterprise giving young people a voice and has recently been appointed to the FA’s Inclusion Advisory Board.
Chris is of the firm belief that the Women's Equality Party is the only answer to our broken political system and a feminist analysis and solution-focus is the way to fix it.
Yvonne Thompson CBE
Yvonne is an entrepreneur working in the Communications, Marketing and PR industry. She has advised corporates, public sector, educational establishments and government, developing a reputation as an activist and a campaigner for supporting women and minorities in business.
In 2003 she received a CBE in Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Birthday Honours List for her work with small business, women and minorities. In 2005 she received a doctorate for her work with women and minorities in small businesses and supporting entrepreneurs from London Metropolitan University, and in 2015 she received her second doctorate for work in Global Diversity and Equality from Plymouth University. In 2015 she published her first book, “7 Traits of Highly Successful Women on Boards". A book promoting greater gender diversity in company boardrooms.
Annie Rickard
Annie Rickard spent most of her career in advertising and media. She was a co-founder of Posterscope in 1983 and left in March 2018. During that time, she built a global network with 57 offices in 34 countries.
Annie is passionate about gender equality; having developed multiple initiatives to mentor and teach women globally during her time as Posterscope's Global Executive, she is a champion of direct action as the only way to ensure women's voices are heard. Annie is also a keen learner and is dedicated to improving diversity within the party. She is a founding member of WEP and is also part of the WEP Development Committee. She lives in London with her two children, Thomas and Elizabeth, and (most importantly) their cat, Ida.
Francesca Pridding
Francesca Pridding is a lawyer and a town clerk from rural Mid-Wales hoping to change the world for women with the help of her twin 18-year-old daughters.
She is passionate about equality in every aspect but particularly politics, sport, and education.
Steering Committee
The Steering Committee is made up of the Party Leader, The Party’s Life President and Life M.C, ten members elected by Party Conference, five members recommended by the Steering Committee and appointed at Party conference, and five members randomly selected.
Your Steering Committee members, as of September 2018, are:
Sandi Toksvig
Co-founder
Sandi is a writer, comedian and broadcaster who co-founded the Women's Equality Party in 2016. She is the current Chancellor of Portsmouth University and is involved with many charities focusing on civil liberty, women’s rights and education. Sandi was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the British LGBT Awards in 2018.
Catherine Mayer
President
Catherine is a bestselling author and award-winning journalist with a career spanning The Economist, the German news weekly FOCUS and TIME magazine. Her most recent book 'Attack of the Fifty Foot Women: How Gender Equality Can Save the World!' includes the story of why in 2015 she co-founded the Women’s Equality Party. She served as elected president of the Foreign Press Association in London, is on the founding committee of WOW - The Women of the World Festival and was a judge for the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction. She is the Executive Director of the think tank, Datum Future.
Catherine is the President of the Women’s Equality Party.
Elected committee members
Ali Smith
Ali Smith was brought up in a highly political family who thought equality should be a given, and she's used this incredible privilege all her life to try and afford everyone else the same democratic freedoms. Ali is an editor and legal proof reader by trade, and has edited everything from academic journals to children's fiction.
Annie Rickard
Annie Rickard spent most of her career in advertising and media. She was a co-founder of Posterscope in 1983 and left in March 2018. During that time, she built a global network with 57 offices in 34 countries.
Annie is passionate about gender equality; having developed multiple initiatives to mentor and teach women globally during her time as Posterscope's Global Executive, she is a champion of direct action as the only way to ensure women's voices are heard. Annie is also a keen learner and is dedicated to improving diversity within the party. She is a founding member of WEP and is also part of the WEP Development Committee. She lives in London with her two children, Thomas and Elizabeth, and (most importantly) their cat, Ida.
Barbara Guest
Barbara Guest was brought up on a Council estate in Manchester and has been an activist since she was a teenager, becoming involved in the women's rights movement when she went to polytechnic in Coventry at the age of 18 years. She's a founding member of WEP and has been active in the Manchester branch since August 2015. Her professional background is in social welfare law - delivering and managing free legal advice services to help alleviate poverty and prevent homelessness.
Bea Gare
Bea Gare is a former British Diplomat. In mid-career she undertook a PhD in biological sciences and rejoined the FCO after a short stint running her own Environmental Consultancy. Her work in the FCO concentrated on multilateral arms control including 5 years in Vienna at the British delegation to the OSCE.
Bea joined WEP in 2016. A lifetime of watching Westminster politics led her to the only party with policies on equality and PR as part of their manifesto.
Chris Paouros
Chris is a highly strategic business and charity leader, specialising in the growth of small organisations on a global scale. Chris is a Trustee of Just Like Us, an LGBT+ charity for young people; Non-Executive Director of Leaders Unlocked, a social enterprise giving young people a voice and has recently been appointed to the FA’s Inclusion Advisory Board.
Chris is of the firm belief that the Women's Equality Party is the only answer to our broken political system and a feminist analysis and solution-focus is the way to fix it.
Francesca Pridding
Francesca Pridding is a lawyer and a town clerk from rural Mid-Wales hoping to change the world for women with the help of her twin 18-year-old daughters.
She is passionate about equality in every aspect but particularly politics, sport, and education.
Janet Baker
Janet Baker is a founding member of WEP and an active part of the Lambeth branch, running the communications for the past two and a half years. She stood for council elections in May 2018, lead the 'buffer zone' campaign in Lambeth, and will continue to learn, listen, and stand up in order to make a difference.
Leila Fazal
Leila is delighted to be a Steering Committee member and sharing her experience and skills from working the charity sector as Head of Funding, being the Lambeth branch leader, and a long-term feminist advocate. Being mixed race, from a deprived background and suffering from various chronic health conditions, including endometriosis, Leila hopes to apply race, social-economic and disability lenses to the role.
Rebecca Lammers
Rebecca Lammers has an entrepreneurial spirit running a business that specializes in music, entertainment and social media, all of which are sectors where women are underrepresented and underpaid. Rebecca has over a decade of experience working in predominantly male-dominated sectors with skills in account management, partner management and project management. She is keen to close the gender pay gap and has mentored women in the music industry over the last few years. She is proud to call the Women's Equality Party her political home.
Sian Godwin
Appointed committee members
Amika George
Athena Stevens
Athena is an acclaimed writer and actress having worked with such organisations as Channel 4, Shakespeare’s Globe, Finborough Theatre and BBC. She is passionate about increasing the breadth of stories told about women and minority groups in the media. Additionally, she was born with Cerebral Palsy and has acted as an independent transport consultant.
Athena joined the Party out of frustration when she found her own voice silenced and overlooked by every sector of society. Her hope is that women in politics will create a new form of power that liberates all members of society to be the best that they can be.
Iman Achara
Shola Mos-Shogbamimu
Yvonne Thompson CBE
Yvonne is an entrepreneur working in the Communications, Marketing and PR industry. She has advised corporates, public sector, educational establishments and government, developing a reputation as an activist and a campaigner for supporting women and minorities in business.
In 2003 she received a CBE in Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Birthday Honours List for her work with small business, women and minorities. In 2005 she received a doctorate for her work with women and minorities in small businesses and supporting entrepreneurs from London Metropolitan University, and in 2015 she received her second doctorate for work in Global Diversity and Equality from Plymouth University. In 2015 she published her first book, “7 Traits of Highly Successful Women on Boards". A book promoting greater gender diversity in company boardrooms.
Randomly selected committee members
Alison Holder
Alison Holder is Director of Equal Measures 2030, an independent civil society and private sector-led partnership that connects data and evidence with advocacy and action, helping to fuel progress towards gender equality.
Alison has nearly 20 years’ experience working in international development and the private sector, including leading policy, advocacy and campaigning work on issues ranging from inequality, tax justice, accountability, and corporate responsibility at Action Aid, Oxfam, and Save the Children. She has also worked on livelihoods projects with women’s groups in India and small business development in South Africa.
Beverly Chandler
Beverly Chandler is a managing editor who manages and curates social media, interviews, and news features on finance.
With experience of working in the journalism and finance industries, she has seen first-hand the inequalities in terms of both pay and career progression between the genders, igniting a profound desire to see equality achieved across personal and work environments.
Helen Mooney
Judith Curry
Judith has a Master's Degree in 'Shakespeare and Theatre' from the University of Birmingham as well as a BA (Hons) from the Open University in Literature. Her studies have enabled her to explore the language used towards women and femininity and how such language influences the perception of gender.
In her career, Judith has worked as a Project Manager overseeing the refurbishments of public libraries, and as a Development Librarian working in hard to reach social areas. Her library work has shown her the value women bring to communities in terms of education, mutual support, and a flexible approach to collective problem solving.
She believes that The Women's Equality Party is the optimal platform to challenge the current social narrative and collectively cause a seismic shift in order to establish a truly equal society.
Siobhan McKiernan