Meet the team

Karen is a Chartered Accountant, worked as a tax adviser for almost 40 years and was a partner at Grant Thornton for 30 years until she retired at the end of December 2023. She was UK Head of Tax and a member of the Strategic Leadership Team (SLT) at Grant Thornton from 2019 and also spent four years on the Partnership Governance Board. Karen has been actively involved in EDI across all strands and was the SLT sponsor for social mobility at Grant Thornton - an area very close to her own heart given her working class roots growing up in Glasgow. Karen works with the Prince's Trust as a member of their North West Development Committee and is an Independent Visitor with Bolton Lads and Girls Club. She is also a trustee of the Grant Thornton Foundation and is a Non-Executive Director working with some start-ups and more established organisations. Karen is a wife, mum and grandma to an ever growing family and in her spare time loves to spend time with her family, go to the theatre, is a member of Rock Choir and she and her husband are learning ballroom and latin dancing.

Sir John Timpson is chairman and owner of Timpson, an advocate for upside-down management and children in care, a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and a prolific author. He was awarded a CBE in 2017 for his services to business and fostering and is WeMindTheGap’s first patron.

In July 2022 Ali took on the role of CEO, bringing 29yrs Public Sector, Community Sector, and Charity Trustee experience. Ali is an accomplished transformation and improvement leader across public and community sector organisations, with Board level experience in systems leadership, organisational and social system change. With a career history featuring the Police Service, NHS and Local Authority Transformational change and Directorships of her own businesses Ali is passionate about population health approaches, lived experience and intelligence led re-design of services which meet the needs of communities, supporting services and organisations to re-imagine ways of working. Ali also manages to be a supporter of the Scouting community, enjoys amateur theatre and is a choir member with Handbags of Harmonies.

Optimist, activist, speaker and entrepreneur: Rachel is all of these and more. After co-founding Moneypenny in 2000 with her brother Ed Reeves and growing the company to be the world leader in telephone answering services and one of the best companies to work for in the UK, Rachel established WeMindTheGap as her bit of ‘direct action’. As a regular speaker to national and international business audiences, she raises valuable funds for the charity.

Emma Degg is the Chief Executive of the North West Business Leadership Team (NWBLT). Emma has spent her career focused on bringing together business leaders and policymakers to make a tangible difference. Emma serves on the UK2070 independent House of Lords Commission that examines how to tackle the UK’s economic and social regional disparities. As well as being a Trustee of WeMindTheGap, she is a Board Member of Made Smarter North West.

Karen brings with her a valuable blend of commercial and charitable endeavours. Having trained as a Chartered Accountant with PwC, she moved into Corporate Finance with Ernst & Young and has since played a key part in the leadership teams of several ambitious and growing businesses. In addition, Karen is a mentor for UnLtd supporting social entrepreneurs, sits on the Board of a not-for-profit contemporary craft company, GNE and has been a school Governor for a number of years.

Kirsty is the Executive Partner for DWF's largest office in Manchester and is additionally the gender lead on DWF's Diversity Committee. As an employment practitioner, she is highly recommended for her client-focused approach to the delivery of legal services and a coordinated legal solution. Kirsty has been recognised by legal directories as a leader in her field for over 15 years and is in the Hall of Fame.

An ethical entrepreneur, who believes that every leader and organisation has the potential to create positive change towards a more sustainable, inclusive and equitable world, Louise is the founder and CEO of The Good Board, a purpose-led leadership advisory and executive search firm supporting responsible organisation to find, develop and connect leaders who will make this vision of positive change a reality.