Leadership team
Sarah Vibert, Interim chief executive
Sarah joined NCVO in January 2020 as director of membership and engagement and is now interim chief executive. She has held a number of leadership roles in the voluntary sector, most recently as chief executive of the umbrella charity, The Neurological Alliance.
Sarah also spent time in her senior management roles at Epilepsy Society and In Kind Direct. She started her career in local government management, including working for the The Mayor of London.
Sarah is a trustee of National Voices, the health sector charity coalition, reflecting her strong interest in charity collaboration. She also volunteers as a committee member of her son's primary school Parent Teacher Association.
Laura Crandley, Director of finance and services
Laura joined NCVO in January 2021 as director of finance and services to look after our service delivery.
This includes training, consultancy, practical support and conferencing facilities, as well as our finance, and digital and technology teams. She is also our company secretary.
Laura is a qualified accountant and has an MBA from the Open University. She has worked across the private and voluntary sector in both finance and operational roles. This includes as Head of finance at RNIB and most recently as Executive director of partnerships at Leonard Cheshire. Laura is also a trustee of the Midlands disability charity, Enrych.
Jarina Choudhury, Strategic volunteering lead
Jarina advises organisations on the design and implementation of volunteer strategies, across all sectors. She provides consultancy, training and guidance. Previous clients include Sport England, Leonard Cheshire and The Parks Trust.
She brings hands-on experience in volunteer recruitment, support and coordination in a pan-London lottery funded volunteering programme for refugees and migrants at the Evelyn Oldfield Unit. Prior to this she chaired the national quality framework on safeguarding at the National Council of Voluntary Youth Services.
She started out volunteering in Uganda, in community development and local capacity building, and then brought this love home to work with a myriad of grassroots groups. She has served as a trustee of two charities, the Diaspora Volunteering Alliance and One World Action.
Alex Farrow, Head of networks and influencing
Alex joined NCVO in March 2017 as one of our lead consultants and is now head of networks and influencing.
Alex has worked extensively in the youth sector, particularly within international development, and worked with UNICEF, Youth Policy Labs, the National Youth Agency and the British Youth Council.
Alex was previously a trustee at Girlguiding UK and The Diana Award. He was also a member of an advisory committee at the CIVICUS World Alliance for Citizen Participation. Alex founded an LBGTQ+ organisation supporting youth activists around the world.
Tracy Kiernan, Head of central services
Tracy joined NCVO in 1979 and has enjoyed a varied career during her time with NCVO, including roles within the national and policy departments. She has found her niche as the facilities manager and team leader of central services.
Tracy has been instrumental in the successful completion of a significant number of projects during her time at NCVO. The first of such was relocating NCVO from Bedford Square into Society Building in 1992. Another major success was the creation of the NCVO conference suite which began with four meeting rooms and now has 19 rooms and welcomes over 50,000 visitors each year. A more recent huge project was to add an additional floor and undertake a complete refurbishment of Society Building whilst in full occupation.
Tracy is a founding member of the Charities Safety Group and a member of the Charities Facilities Management Group.
Rupa Kotecha-Smith, Interim head of communications, marketing and membership
Rupa joined NCVO in January 2018 as the marketing and events manager and she is now the interim head of communications, marketing, and membership.
Rupa has over 20 years’ experience in the voluntary, education, public and private sectors, and has worked in membership organisations since 2006. Rupa’s expertise spans across a number of disciplines, including brand strategy, planning, direct marketing, research and insights, digital marketing, press and PR.
Rupa is a strong advocate of working collaboratively and is passionate about building effective relationships and developing the people and teams that she works with.
Janu Miah, Head of people and culture
Janu joined NCVO in April 2021 to lead our people, governance and culture delivery and practice across the organisation.
Janu is an organisational development professional and has more than a decade of experience in the charity sector developing people, culture, leadership, strategy and best practice. She has worked across the private, arts and voluntary sector and has been a trustee on three boards.
Janu joined NCVO from the Liberal Democrats where she headed up the people team. Janu has partnered with multiple disciplines and specialists across the sectors. Her area of focus is campaigning, social justice and advocacy. Janu is a facilitator, leadership coach, mediator and behaviour specialist.
Sophie Raeburn, Head of digital, data and technology
Sophie joined NCVO in 2017 as digital programme manager, and now leads a team in designing and delivering internal and external services, through better use of technology and data.
Sophie has worked and volunteered extensively in the charity sector, with 15 years experience in digital, marketing and communications. She has worked at The Children’s Society, Save the Children, and NSPCC. She is passionate about driving change through digital innovation and is a champion of agile design. She focuses on developing relationships and processes that put users at the heart of our content and service delivery
Andrew Walkey, Head of support and services
Andrew joined NCVO’s membership team in 2008 and was instrumental to our growing membership of 16,000.
Having moved away from head of membership and enterprise, he now leads our support and services team. He focuses on developing cross sectoral relationships, for the benefit of civil society and strengthening collaboration within the sector, for the benefit of our members.
Throughout his 15-year career in the sector he’s worked and volunteered on the frontline for both local and international charities.
