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Meet our team

To get in touch with any of our team directly, please click on their photos for their email address.

Senior Leadership Team

Community Impact

Communications & Marketing

Finance

Food Team

Fundraising

People Team

Operations

Drivers

Volunteer Team

City Harvest presents “The Office”, our very own series spotlighting the incredible team behind our food rescue mission. 

OUR TRUSTEES

Paul Freeston, Chair

Paul Freeston, Chair

Trustee

Paul Freeston is Chair & CEO of apetito UK & North America and a main Board member of apetito AG the International holding company.  Over the last 25 years Paul has led the apetito team developing a highly successful business with a team of c. 2000  and driven by a social purpose to “make a real difference”  to the people the people they are so proud to serve.

Paul is also the immediate past Chair & President of the Food & Drink Federation and a past Chair & President of the British Frozen Food Federation.  Prior to this he was Treasurer of FDF and Chaired the FDF Pension Trustees.  He was also a co-founder of the Malnutrition Taskforce which campaigns to raise awareness of under nutrition amongst older people.

“I am thrilled to have been invited to serve as the new Chair of City Harvest and to support the next phase of development of this wonderful charity.  There is so much food poverty in our society today and City Harvest plays provides vital support as well as tackling the huge climate impact of food waste. I have been inspired by the team at City Harvest and look forward to supporting them and working with the rest of the Board.”

Rajesh Makwana

Rajesh Makwana

Trustee

Rajesh is the Director of Sufra NW London, a community food and support hub that provides emergency food aid and a range of holistic services to those experiencing poverty, homelessness and financial crisis. He is also a Trustee for both The Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) and CVS Brent. In 2022, Rajesh was awarded a British Empire Medal for services to the community. Prior to Sufra, Rajesh was the director of an NGO campaigning for a fairer distribution of the world’s wealth, power and resources, where he wrote numerous articles and reports on environmental issues and the need for systemic reform of the global economy.

Patrick Street BA, JD

Patrick Street BA, JD

Trustee

Trustee since June 2016 – Patrick is a partner at Goldman Sachs and is currently Co-Head of Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities Sales for Europe having held a variety of other roles since joining the firm in 1996. He has chaired a number of inclusivity initiatives at Goldman and was listed as a “Top 50 Advocate Executive Role Model” in the 2020 HERoes Women Role Model Executives List. Outside of Goldman, Patrick is actively engaged with social mobility organisations to support their mission of helping students from less-advantaged backgrounds to secure jobs. Patrick started his career as a solicitor working at the law firm of Cameron McKenna. Patrick graduated with a JD in Law from Oxford University and is also a member of the New York bar. Patrick sits on City Harvest’s Fundraising Steering Group.

Michelle Butler

Michelle Butler

Trustee

Michelle has more than 20 years’ extensive commercial and marketing experience across both private and public sectors working for global organisations such as Bord Bia – The Irish Food Board, GSK and Unilever.

She has first-hand experience of sustainability having worked on Origin Green – Ireland’s pioneering food and drink sustainability programme from its inception in 2012 and throughout her 7 years tenure as Bord Bia’s UK general manager.  

Michelle runs her own consultancy called Orchid Marketing where she has become a trusted adviser to c-suite executives, providing senior strategic counsel, particularly on issues such as commercial and marketing strategy, resourcing, and reputation management.

Michelle has been an active member of City Harvest food council before joining as trustee.

Todd Brooks Benjamin

Todd Brooks Benjamin

Trustee

Trustee since January 2019 – Todd Benjamin is well known to television audiences across the globe. For 26 years he worked as an anchor, correspondent, and financial editor for CNN and he now moderates conferences around the world. While at CNN, he was based in Washington DC, New York, Tokyo, and London. An award winning journalist, Todd has interviewed several of the world’s leading political figures and CEOs. For several years, Todd was a visiting lecturer in leadership at the London Business School Executive Education program. Todd sits on the City Harvest Fundraising Steering Group.

Shaun Browne

Shaun Browne

Trustee

Shaun is Co-Head of European Corporate Finance at Houlihan Lokey, working with all industry teams as well as the Financial Sponsors and Capital Markets groups. In addition, he is Co-Head of Houlihan Lokey’s Consumer, Food & Retail Group in Europe. His original area of expertise is in the food & beverage sector, where he has advised on more than 180 completed transactions.

He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers in London in 1988 and joined HSBC in 1992.

He chairs Front Row – the OE society for theatre, television and drama. He is a committee member of the Corporate Development Association. He is a member of the Food Council of City Harvest London.

Frank Bandura

Frank Bandura

Trustee

Trustee since July 2020 – Frank is an accomplished CFO with a stand out track record of results gained during a career spanning 30 years in hospitality and FMCG. After qualifying as a chartered accountant with KPMG London, he started his hospitality career with Pizza Hut in Warsaw, Poland. Several years later, after working for PepsiCo and Barilla UK, he was part of the founding team that grew Carluccio’s to 120 restaurants trading across 7 countries. This included several capital raises and a stint on the London Stock Exchange (AIM). Frank has been a key driving force behind major business change and strategic transormations throughout his career. Holding a Certificate in Insolvency, more recently he has steered several hospitality businesses through complex restructurings including Gaucho/CAU and most recently Gusto Restaurants. He now offers his services to leisure and hospitality clients on a short term project or consultancy basis through Walpole Advisory which he set up in 2019. Frank chairs both the City Harvest Finance and Audit Committee and the Operations Steering Group.

David Hirschmann

David Hirschmann

Trustee

Trustee since 2020 – David is the head of private credit at Permira Debt Managers, an independent debt management and advisory business which has loaned more than €2.4bn of debt capital to over 100 European businesses. He has provided financing to a wide range of industries including Consumer, Financial Services, Healthcare, Industrials and Technology. He has worked in leveraged finance at ABN Amro, UBS Warburg and Schroders Salomon Smith Barney. David is on the City Harvest Fundraising Steering Group.

Emma Danforth

Emma Danforth

Trustee

Emma is a Partner at A&O Shearman in their global funds and asset management practice focusing in the alternative investments space. Recognised by Legal 500 as a ‘Next Generation Partner’ she advises on fund establishments (including co-investments, joint ventures and other ‘fund like’ products), institutional investor matters and all asset management regulatory issues. Emma is a long term supporter of City Harvest having been part of the team at A&O Shearman LLP providing on-going pro bono advice to City Harvest since 2016. Emma is also trustee and chair of ColaLife Limited and one of A&O Shearman LLP’s Partner Pro Bono Champions. Emma graduated with a BA in Jurisprudence from Oxford University and completed her legal training at College of Law, London.

Duncan Everett

Duncan Everett

Trustee

Trustee since December 2023 – Duncan has more than 25 years’ experience in the food industry and is currently CEO of Noble Foods, a leading supplier of fresh food and animal feed. He is committed to growing the business but doing so in a manner which is aligned to the Noble Purpose ‘To better nourish people, animals and planet’. He was previously CEO at Kerry Foods, having joined its graduate programme in 1995 after studying economics. Duncan is also a founding member of the City Harvest Food Council.

Victoria Heffer

Victoria Heffer

Trustee

Trustee since June 2019 – Victoria has more than 25 years of financial services experience and is currently head of the institutional business at Artemis Investment Management LLP. As a trustee of the Artemis Charitable Foundation, she was instrumental in supporting City Harvest early on in the charity’s life. She is also a trustee of the environmental charity, Beaver Trust. Victoria is Chairman of the City Harvest Fundraising Steering Group.

Chris Ralph

Chris Ralph

Trustee

Chris Ralph has had long experience in a variety of roles in financial services: investment banking, fund management and wealth management.  He has fulfilled many executive functions that have required leadership, strategic planning, collaborative engagement, and recruitment in senior roles. As an investment leader in the UK’s largest wealth management company, he became particularly interested in the company’s charitable endeavours as well of seeking to participate in more local charities. This led him to find out more about the work of City Harvest and engage with members of the leadership team as well as enjoying delivering food to cooking projects and food banks.