Team
Sarah-Jayne Clifton
Sarah is an experienced civil society leader and strategist. Before joining ECU she was Director of Jubilee Debt Campaign (now Debt Justice), and prior to that she coordinated the climate justice and energy programme of Friends of the Earth International. She also helped establish Tax Justice UK, and served as a Trustee of anti-corruption organisation Transparency International. She has a BA in Geography from the University of Oxford, focused on international political economy, and a MSc in International Politics.
Louis Willis
Louis is an experienced policymaker and strategist. He leads ECU’s policy and programmes team, with responsibility for our campaigns and wider change-making work. He’s particularly interested in combining politics and economics to build coalitions for transformative change.
Louis joined ECU from the European Climate Foundation, where he oversaw a programme of grants to build the policy and political mandate for climate action in the UK. Before that, he spent most of his career working in the civil service, including leading the team responsible for aligning trade and climate policy.
Natasha Yorke-Edgell
Natasha is an experienced facilitator, campaigner and coalition-builder, whose career has focussed on cross-movement relationship building, strategy and collaboration. Before joining ECU in 2022, she was formerly Head of Campaigns at the RSPB and Head of Movement Building at The Climate Coalition in the lead up to COP26. A nature-nerd from Norfolk, she has a BA Hons in Philosophy and Literature from Exeter University.
Rachel Heilbron
Rachel joined ECU in 2023 after working for the Centre for London. She also offers consultancy to non-profits and charities on HR, finance and operations. She started her career as a Science Museum explainer and then progressed into management of learning programmes. She moved into organisational leadership at the Faith and Belief forum. She has a BSc in Psychology and a Masters in Culture, Language and Identity in Education. She loves a good excel formula or a well written policy.
Patrick Calver
Patrick is an experienced communications strategist and campaigner. He is responsible for ECU’s communications work, with a particular focus on press and strategic comms. He’s especially interested in the relationship between media, politics and public attitudes.
Before joining ECU Patrick spent 5 years at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, where he led JRF’s public affairs and campaigning on housing. Before that he was a press officer at HM Treasury, and started his career working in policy and communications at the Bank of England.
George Edwards
George is a political economist and has expertise in policy analysis, campaigning and communications. George became Programme Officer at ECU in January 2021 and Policy and Programme Lead in June 2023, having originally joined as an intern. George previously worked as a researcher for the Centre for Local Economic Strategies. Originally from the Wirral on Merseyside, George holds a first class BA in philosophy, politics and economics and an MA in social and political thought, both from the University of Leeds.
Board
Roger Harding
Roger is Director of Round Our Way, an innovative campaign focusing attention on those of us paying the price for climate change in the UK. Roger was previously CEO of working class youth charity RECLAIM and Director of Communications, Policy and Campaigns at Shelter. He has also worked at the JRF, NatCen on the British Social Attitudes report and a communications agency. He’s also on the board of the Future Governance Forum and was previously Vice Chair of Victim Support.
Ann Don Bosco
Ann is an innovator with expertise in health, policy, and systems change with experience at Public Health England, the Gates Foundation, and Google. She founded three mental health startups and has created health strategies benefiting millions worldwide. Ann is passionate about leveraging economic systems for public and mental health improvements in the UK, Ann is a current Trustee of the Friends Provident Foundation and formerly of Economy.
Rebecca Gowland
Rebecca is International Director for Patriotic Millionaires and established Patriotic Millionaires UK. She previously worked in international development, including most recently as Head of Inequality Campaigns at Oxfam. In this role, she led global campaigns on poverty and inequality, with notable success on tax reform in the UK and at the international level. Prior to this, Rebecca worked as a care worker and has always been heavily involved in work on progressive economies and community rights.
Ruby Sam-Kputu
Ruby is a solicitor specialising in finance law and is passionate about sustainable investment and infrastructure development. She previously worked on Plan International’s global legal team and with charities focusing on housing, education and socio-economic development. She holds a Bachelor of Business Science in economics with law specialisation, an LLB from the University of Cape Town and an MSc in Law, Business and Management from The University of Law.
Anna Fielding
Anna is a strategist, leadership coach and advisor to a range of organisations working for economic systems change. She is the Learning Partner for Barrow Cadbury Trust’s Economic Justice Programme, a Co-optee at the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, and an Associate of the Institute for Social Banking. A former CEO of the Finance Innovation Lab, Anna has served as a Trustee of the New Economics Foundation, the Just Finance Foundation and the New Economy Organisers Network.
Laurie Laybourn
Laurie is one of ECU’s co-founders and leads the Cohort 2040 project, which explores how future leaders can rise to the challenge of realising a better world as the consequences of the environmental crisis become more severe. He is a Visiting Fellow at Chatham House, an Associate Fellow at the IPPR, and a Visiting Fellow at the Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter.