Our team

Karim Amyuni

After taking a Masters in Chemical Engineering and an MBA at Columbia University, Karim has worked at large corporations for nearly 10 years, and is now a strategy consultant at Booz & Company. Besides enhancing his education, Business School established a passion for social enterprise: he helped entrepreneurs in Nicaragua launch businesses, and coached underprivileged Americans in interview skills.

At Booz & Company he has harvested the will-to-help of dozens of strategy consultants to offer children coaching on key skills like presenting and interviewing. Karim feels blessed by his seven years of higher education, and is committed to helping underprivileged children access top universities.

Karim is the treasurer of the board of trustees.

Catherine Clark

Catherine works at the global education charity, the Royal Commonwealth Society, running programmes to engage young people in international affairs.

She thoroughly enjoys working with teachers and young people from a range of different countries. She read History and French at Oxford, then spent four years as a city headhunter. Although not the right match for her long term, she learnt a great deal about people and their potential, experience which she puts to good use both at the RCS and The Access Project.

Edward Crosthwaite Eyre

Edward studied Biological Sciences at Oxford University, then trained as a lawyer before becoming a solicitor at Linklaters LLP in its Energy and Infrastructure Group. He has been involved in The Access Project since its inception, both as a 1-1 tutor and in the organisation of fundraising events.

He now has a leading role in developing TAP’s expansion strategy, and is particularly interested in helping TAP reach out to potential tutors among city professionals who are looking for a rewarding volunteering experience.

Jimmy Daboo

Jimmy is a chartered accountant working with large corporate clients mainly in the energy and natural resources sector. He is a member of the UK’s Financial Reporting Review Panel and is a member of the Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Jimmy studied mathematics at Cambridge University where he also coxed the Cambridge University Women’s crew. Jimmy is married and has two daughters, one studying medicine at Cambridge and the other in her last year at school.

“We owe it to all young people to open their eyes to the opportunities higher education provides, and to help each of them to aspire to receive the best possible education. For me that’s what the Access Project does and that’s why I am proud to be a part of it.”

Owain Mulligan

Owain studied Modern History at Oxford University. He is a captain in the British Army, serving in Afghanistan as a linguist mentoring Afghan forces, and providing cultural advice to UK commanders. He can’t really go into too much detail or they’d go spare…

As a failed teacher, he has enormous respect for those who are trying to make young people’s lives better.

Jane Newman

Jane is currently Director of Governance and Company Secretary at The Social Investment Business, which manages funds promoting sustainable investment into charities and social enterprises. She joined the not-for-profit sector after a long career as a senior corporate partner with an international law firm, Simmons & Simmons, where latterly she managed the firm’s businesses in Germany and Shanghai, China.

Jane was keen to join The Access Project because, she says:

“The best people I’ve worked with throughout my career are not those who went to the best schools, it’s the people who don’t take things for granted or expect others to give them the answers. The Access Project encourages young people to seek out opportunities for themselves and to work hard to do the best they can.”

Stephanie Williams

Stephanie has wide-ranging journalistic and business experience and has also served on charitable boards for more than thirty years. She is founder and former chair of Children’s Express UK (now Headliners) which works with marginalised young people, encouraging them to research and write journalistic stories for publication in the mainstream media. She is currently a member of the Advisory Council of the National Records and Archives. Her fourth book, Runnning the Show, on how Victorian governors ran the British Empire, was published early in 2011.

About being involved in The Access Project she says:

“Young people are our future. Every one of them deserves the chance to realise their full potential. I want to give them that opportunity.”

Stephanie is the chair of the board of trustees.

Alex Kelly

The Access Project’s Founder and Chief Executive

Alex first became interested in improving access to Higher Education while studying English at Oxford University.

Having attended a state comprehensive, he was aware of the strengths of the UK’s education system but also recognised its underlying inequalities.

Alex joined Teach First after graduating and became a teacher at Highbury Grove School. During the school holidays, he worked as a researcher for the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and for Michael Gove MP, then Shadow Secretary of State for Education.

Alex’s teaching was rated “outstanding” by Ofsted, and in 2006 he was appointed Head of Media Studies at Highbury Grove.

In 2008, Alex founded The Access Project, where he now works full-time. His long-term vision is for The Access Project to work in partnership with every school that stands to benefit from this type of scheme.

Olivia Ide

Project Manager and Development Officer

Olivia studied Early Civilizations of the Aegean and the Near East at the University of Cambridge. While at Cambridge she volunteered with Downing College’s widening participation programme and starred in the university-wide WP pub quiz team.

After graduating, she worked in marketing and online recruitment before deciding to return to widening participation. She joined The Access Project in April in 2011.

Olivia is leading the design of the online platform that will manage all of The Access Project’s activities, oversees the day-to-day details of TAP’s organisation, and works with Alex to plan the charity’s future expansion.

Shona McIntosh

Projects Officer

Shona studied English Literature at the University of Glasgow and went on to write a PhD on early modern drama. After teaching English at the University of Exeter for two years, she decided to make a career change. Having done some widening participation work as a postgraduate at Glasgow, she wanted to find work in this field, and joined The Access Project in July.

Shona co-ordinates press strategy and other publicity materials for TAP, keeping its social media presence active, and liaising with press contacts to raise the charity’s profile. She has also been responsible for various fundraising and awards bids, and for researching the policy background on university access to help formulate The Access Project’s ideas on future policy.

Deborah Joseph

Projects Officer

Deborah studied Biology with Science and Society at the University of Manchester and then Education at Oxford University. Having spent time working in secondary schools, Deborah became interested in the role of education in wider society and the problems caused by educational disadvantage.

Deborah joined The Access Project in June and coordinates the charity’s one-to-one tutoring provision across our partner schools. She is responsible for tutor recruitment and running tutor training. She also works closely with the Programme Manager to help match tutors with suitable students. She wrote and developed a new training programme for tutors, which was introduced in Autumn 2011. Debrorah is currently working on more in-depth training provision, aiming to make our volunteers excellent one-to-one teachers.

She has also developed and manages the charity’s tutor resources bank for use in tutorials, as well as line managing The Access Project’s central office volunteers.

Becky Sibson

Access Project Volunteer

Becky is a recent graduate from the University of Birmingham where she studied English Literature and Classical Civilization. Whilst at University Becky worked for the government outreach program ‘Aimhigher’ and participated as a volunteer for the children’s charity ‘Kids Adventure’.

These experiences encouraged her to follow her interest in education and she joined The Access Project team in November 2011. Her internship with The Access Project is for two months in which time she hopes to gain valuable experience of the charity sector.

Becky assists with the day-to-day running of the charity and conducts research.