The BUD Team.

Georgina is a leader, experienced facilitator and serial entrepreneur, who founded BUD Leaders in 2014.

BUD Leaders emerged from Georgina’s experience running a community café in Tulse Hill, South London. Recognising untapped potential within the community, she started engaging with individuals, helping them identify their next steps. This evolved into the creation of BUD Leaders, driven by a deep-seated resolve and belief in unleashing greatness within people. From this experience, BUD Leaders was born.

Mandy is our Chief Operating Officer and is focused on overseeing operational and strategic functions. Her extensive background in organisational development, coupled with her strong commitment to driving positive social impact, underpins her role.

Before joining BUD, Mandy played a key role in shaping Strategy, Impact, and Governance at a national women’s employability charity. Her contributions earned her ‘Highly Commended’ recognition at the Third Sector Awards in 2021. Furthermore, Mandy dedicates her expertise as a trustee for three prominent national charities within the criminal justice sector.

Mandy holds a degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE) from King’s College London and is certified in Charity Law & Governance by the Chartered Governance Institute UK.

Kadisha is a Portfolio Manager at BUD. In this role, she uses her creativity and pragmatism to explore new ways of working, problem solving and co-designing with the team. She is an expert facilitator and project manager who is passionate about wellness, community and fairness.

Before working at BUD, Kadisha worked in the youth sector for over 9 years. She is a JNC qualified youth worker and has a degree in Youth work and Theology. In her previous role, she specialised in youth involvement, participation and social action. She supported hundreds of youth organisations and young people across London to create more diverse, equitable and sustainable decision-making structures within their organisations and local communities.

Katherine is BUDs Portfolio Manager, responsible for managing and developing the BLOC platform where members can exchange skills and ideas for positive change. She has extensive experience in project management, primarily in theatre and film where she specialised in bringing artists together to collaborate around a social goal. In 2021 she created a film festival, The Motherhood Project, a ‘significant body of new work’ presented by Battersea Arts Centre that raised money for the charity Refuge and included contributions from artists such as Anya Reiss, Lemn Sissay OBE and Irenosen Okojie MBE.

Prior to that, Katherine was an actor, singer, director and a workshop facilitator with the Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation, a charity that equips young people with crucial life skills, confidence and self-esteem. A natural community builder, Katherine’s focus is to create an environment where people can access their inner strength, playfulness and creativity.

Tolu works for BUD as a Project/Officer Project Lead; co-ordinating the management of the project and team, and delivering sessions and training as a Facilitator.

Tolu has a qualification in Youth Work, Informal Education and Community Learning and development and has worked with young people, across schools in London, for 7 years and as a Youth Work Leader for 3 years; co-ordinating and leading projects and teams and planning programmes tailored to the needs of the participants. In this role she was awarded ‘Outstanding Leader’ by the Jack Petchey Foundation.

In her last role, Tolu supported the Diversity team in their initiative to promote inclusivity, equality and reduce racism in the school environment, creatively presenting information to young people and adults, and celebrating diverse cultures in a safe, educational and engaging way.

Tolu also has a background in creative arts and design and is passionate about using those skills to help provide solutions to challenges and drive positive change. She recently graduated with an MA in Fashion Design and Sustainability -using design as a tool to highlight and discuss the intersections between the environmental crisis, social issues and cultural heritage. Her work has been published, awarded and exhibited and is currently being exhibited at the online Horniman Museum exhibition.

Jen has moved from leading Operations and Admin in 2021/22 to leading the HR function at BUD in 2023. This role allows her to help create and maintain a diverse and inclusive culture, a robust and dynamic workforce and an environment that honours our core values.

In the past Jen has worn many different hats including Sales and Merchandising, but had spent a good portion of her working life as Training Coordinator both in the adult education sector and in construction. Jen graduated in Philosophy at UCL and is also a yoga teacher and a semi-retired musician, but her main passion is her little girl who she hopes will also grow up to have a variety of passions in life!

Chloe is the Executive Assistant to our CEO, Georgina Wilson. She works closely with Georgina to manage her diary, liaise with clients and members of the team on her behalf and supports her with various tasks on a day to day basis using her thorough organisational skills and attention to detail.

With a varied professional background ranging from estate agency to starting and successfully running her own heating company, Chloe has pulled from these experiences to provide an extensive range of skills as an EA. Personally, she enjoys spending time with her daughter, reading, swimming and drinking too much coffee.

“It’s a real pleasure to work for such a fantastic company and be part of the BUD team. Its fast paced and exciting and no 2 days are the same!”

Cristy’s natural habitat is numbers and spreadsheets. She works in the background, keeping the finance side of BUD running efficiently.

Cristy’s background is in logistics and operations management, with a dash of event planning thrown in for good measure. She grew up in South Africa and moved to the UK with her young family in 2018. She’s worked in bulk shipping, high-end jewellery production, and exhibition organisation, and learned that skills are often transferable across different industries.

“What excites me the most about working with BUD (and there is a lot that excites me!) is that I get to be part of bringing such positive change to the world. I’ve often looked at the heart-breakingly unacceptable levels of inequality that exist society and wanted to do something towards correcting it, but I’ve never had the first clue how to get involved. By working with BUD, I’m adding my little bit to an organisation that does such vital and excellent work with corporates and communities to build equity. Even playing a small part in bringing about change, is a legacy I can be proud to leave for my children and their future.”

Fi works with BUD Leaders on their Finance strategy, analytics and reporting.

Fi has extensive experience propelling start-ups on their business finance journey. She is passionate about supporting under-represented founders to facilitate growth and impact for ambitious micro businesses.

“I am most excited about being a part of the BUD team to assist in moving the needle on representation in leadership.”

Dr Carlton Brown is a seasoned management consultant, executive coach, entrepreneur, academic, and author with a wealth of experience spanning over three decades. With two published books and the notable Black Entrepreneur Report to his name, Dr. Brown dedicates himself to nurturing profitable growth in businesses.

His consultancy firm, Aspire, concentrates on supporting small and medium-sized businesses, helping them to maximise their true potential.

“I am passionate about seizing every chance to empower underrepresented communities by imparting knowledge and practical advice, aiming to cultivate a lasting legacy for all involved. “

Fancy is a social impact consultant / entrepreneur and maintains a portfolio of work focused on equity led social impact. She is an inaugural Non Executive Director for BUD Leaders; a Governor/Deputy Chair of Grants/EDI Lead of the education foundation and The Portal Trust.

For over 15 years she has been working to enhance the resources and impact of incredible organisations like TSIP, the Young Foundation, CityYear UK and ippr. She is laser focused on effectively moving resources to facilitate positive systemic change, for people and planet, for generations (thinking globally and acting locally).

Judith is the Founder of The BOSS Partner, a company specialising in projects and events management.

With over 15 years of experience, Judith is an accomplished project manager who has successfully led large-scale, complex projects from inception to completion. Her expertise spans the public and private sectors, having worked with organisations such as The Open University, Kier Group and the DfE. Some of her work included planning and project managing programs for organisational leaders; delivering annual corporate conferences/workshops and helping community-based organisations to deliver their events.

Judith now focuses her efforts on supporting SME’s and startups. Through The BOSS Partner, she helps companies such as BUD Leaders plan and deliver premium events and is currently working with BUD Leaders on their Maternal Health Programme.

Ivo initially joined BUD initially as administration support and is now a Project Officer. He has supported running workshops and helped coordinate between organisations and partners.

For over the last 10 years his work has been connecting with people and he can now use those skills to support BUD in further expanding its network and form even stronger relationships with their community and its leaders.