We’re delighted to introduce our newest Trustees Olivia Gillan-Bower, Dan Houghton, and Ben Summerskill. They bring with them a wealth of experience and skills, and they’re ready to help Switchback grow at this pivotal moment in our development. Here’s some more about them and what they had to say about joining Switchback’s board.
Olivia Gillan-Bower
Olivia joins our Board of Trustees after a successful career in strategy consulting, notably as a Partner at PwC. As well as sitting on several charity boards focused on social justice, she is a serving magistrate. This gives her a unique insight into the courts and the sentencing processes that our Trainees encounter, and how these can be improved.
‘I became a Trustee at Switchback because I believe in the approach they take. As someone with a coaching background, I know they are no quick fixes when dealing with real lives. Switchback is very open and honest about how much work is really involved.’
‘I’m particularly excited about Switchback’s plans to grow its advocacy work. From my experience as a magistrate, you can keep on helping the individuals caught in it, but a bigger impact can be made by also pursuing systemic change.’
Dan Houghton
Dan joins our Board of Trustees after a diverse career in management consulting and business development in high growth startups. He now works at Google where he helps to lead strategy for their cloud computing business. Dan’s interest in the criminal justice sector was first kindled by his mother who was a police officer in his home country of New Zealand, and this led to him working with inmates serving life sentences in San Quentin Prison when he moved to San Francisco.
‘The level of detail in Switchback’s Trainee data is very rare in the sector. There’s granular data at every level of the Trainee journey. With this solid platform of information, Switchback can confidently scale its impact without diminishing the quality of its work.’
‘I look forward to helping Switchback find untapped channels for expertise and funding, particularly among corporates.’
Ben Summerskill OBE
Ben Summerskill is former Director of the Criminal Justice Alliance after serving as CEO of LGBT rights charity Stonewall for 11 years. Ben brings to our Trustee board his extensive experience helping charities to grow successfully and scale their impact.
‘Switchback is very special in supporting people all the way ‘through the gate.’ That means not just offering assistance around employment or housing or education, but giving them help and advice on everything they need.’
‘The relationship between Switchback’s fantastic Mentors and Trainees is incredibly inspiring. That relationship, too often treated as a transaction by the prison and probation services, is one of the keys to the success of Switchback’s Trainees.’
