The Team

The Diversity Forum team comprises diverse individuals across the social investment sector committed to action and increasing the diversity in our organisations.

The Chair & Steering Group

Amir Rizwan - Chair

Relationship director – Big Society Capital

Amir is currently Relationship Director at Big Society Capital. Previously he was Senior Advisor at Comic Relief where he led on the foundation’s social investment strategy. Starting in 2018 he has been managing Comic Relief’s specialist pot of funding for social investment, Red Shed, and also working on embedding social investment into the wider organisation as part of Comic Relief’s funding strategy to support its social change agenda. The fund aims to invest into a wide range of social change organisations as well as look generating learning for the foundation through the way social investment can compliment its grant making activity in generating impact. Amir also sits on a number of groups within the social investment sector including the Social Impact Investing Group managed by the Association of Charitable Foundations, The Bond Impact Investing Working Group & the Fair By Design Steering Group.

Prior to joining Comic Relief he worked at the Charities Aid Foundation as an Investment Manager where he led on the successful management of its specialist community housing fund as well as numerous social investment deals for charities and social enterprises across the UK. Amir originally started his career working in the banking sector with RBS and BNP Paribas.

Sophie Hobson

Head of Communications, School for Social Entrepreneurs

Sophie is head of communications at the School for Social
Entrepreneurs (SSE). SSE helps 1,000 people a year develop the skills, strengths and networks they need to tackle society’s biggest problems. SSE runs learning programmes, grants £1m+ a year and created Match Trading® grants. The SSE network of schools spans the UK, India and Canada.

Sophie has spent more than a decade working in media and
communications. She began her career as a journalist, writing for ITV West and the Mirror. She joined the founding team of Smarta, which quickly became the UK’s leading advice brand for start-ups. She then became founding editor of LondonlovesBusiness.com, the online newspaper for London entrepreneurs, where she championed responsible business and diverse leadership.

Keen to transition into social enterprise, she completed
the On Purpose social leadership programme. During the programme, she worked at Mathematics Mastery (part of education charity Ark), and BeMORE (which she led through a full rebrand and rename in six months). She went on to manage Expert Impact, a charity that connects social entrepreneurs with mentoring from the UK’s most successful founders. She joined SSE in 2016.

Bonnie Chiu

Managing Director, The Social investment Consultancy

Bonnie is the Managing Director of The Social Investment Consultancy, an international consulting firm that advises clients on maximising their social impact, and with a twin focus on equality and diversity.

She is also the Founder and CEO of the award-winning non-profit social enterprise Lensational, which equips marginalised women with photography training and digital skills.

Bonnie was recently honoured as a Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur in Europe in 2017, and she is a regular speaker on issues relating to women’s empowerment, social investment and social entrepreneurship.

Patricia Keiko

Hamzahee FRSA

Founder/Director, Integriti Capital

Co-founder/Director, Extend Ventures

Twitter: @phamzahee

After some 20 years in investment banking and financial communications, Patricia now helps social enterprises attract private capital and advises companies on their responsible investment strategies with her consultancy Integriti Capital.  She is also working to diversify funding for startups and small businesses as co-founder of Extend Ventures. She is an advisor, impact investor and philanthropist.

Patricia is also co-founder of Black Funding Network, a community of individuals and institutions who come together to support small Black-led non-profit organisations.  She is a Trustee of Ballet Black, Theatre Royal Stratford East, NFL UK Foundation and Areté Network as well as a member of Women in Social Finance. She was previously a Trustee and chair of the Development Board of Black Cultural Archives.

Nick Temple

CEO, Social Investment Business

Nick joined Social Investment Business in January 2018. SIB helps charities and social enterprises get the money and support they need to improve people’s lives. Since 2002, SIB has provided over £400m worth of loans and grants to charities and social enterprises, and supported 700 organisations to become more resilient through business support programmes.

Previously, Nick was Deputy CEO at Social Enterprise UK, where he helped treble membership numbers, develop the Buy Social Corporate Challenge, and oversaw its research function, including the State of Social Enterprise report. Before that, he was Director of Policy & Communications at the School for Social Entrepreneurs, and led the expansion of their social franchise across the country.

Nick is on the board of Social Value UK, the UK National Advisory Board for Impact Investing, Charity Bank’s Social Sector Advisory Panel, Big Issue Invest’s Investment Committee, and the Diversity Forum for Social Investment.

Cathryn Chrimes

Head of Investments, GMCVO

Cathryn (Cat) has worked in Social Investment for over a decade working across the UK. She has been at GMCVO now for over a year in Greater Manchester. Prior to Social Investment, Cat worked in Social Enterprise Management and has been the founding Director of a few different social enterprises including a community swimming baths.

Cat has been seated on several boards and is currently the Treasurer of The Kirkgate Centre in Shipley and a Director of GM (Greater Manchester) Community Led Homes. Proudly neuro-diverse, Cat is especially interested in internal and external systems and processes within social investment for people who have hidden disabilities. Cat has previously sat on government advisory groups focused on the employment of Disabled people.

If you would like to join our Steering Group at the Diversity Forum please email info@diversityforum.org.uk