Sandeep Katwala – chair of the Board, Depaul UK

Sandeep Katwala is Chair of the Board of Trustees at Depaul UK. 

In his executive career Sandeep spent 25 years as a solicitor at Linklaters LLC, the global law firm. At Linklaters, in addition to his client practice which was mainly focused on emerging economies, he held various management roles including the India and EEMEA businesses. He also served on the firm’s Global Executive Committee. Prior to his legal career, Sandeep spent a number of years as a corporate financier. More recently, he has held a number of governance roles and is currently the Chair, Octavia Group, and Deputy Chair at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital Charity. He has been a Trustee of WaterAid and Bail for Immigration Detainees. Sandeep has also trained as an Executive Coach and supports leaders from the BAME community. 

Sandeep holds an MBA from Cass Business School and qualified as a solicitor in the UK. He joined the Depaul UK Council of Trustees as Chair in 2021. 

Urvashi Bhagat – Treasurer, Depaul UK

Urvashi is a Chief Executive Officer of Havering Heath GP Federation. Her leadership role supports the development of primary care networks in Havering. Urvashi has held several senior roles in Central Government. Her last position as Finance Director of National Savings & Investments. There, she played a crucial role in managing its £167bn funds and data analytics of its 25 million clients. She spent many years in the NHS in senior transformation roles and supporting the establishment of new services.

Urvashi has also held Trustee positions in charities and brings a vast amount of experience and expertise.

Urvashi joined the Council of Trustees at Depaul UK as Treasurer in 2022 and Chairs the Finance, Audit and Compliance Committee.

Ian Hellawell – Chair, Depaul Housing Services

Ian is Group Counsel at Places for People, where he has worked for the last 4 years. Previous to this, Ian was an associate at Womble Bond Dickinson, where he worked with various Registered Providers including Places for People, Bernicia and Karbon Homes, in matters including general landlord and tenant matters and property acquisitions and disposal.

Ian joined the Boards of Depaul UK and Depaul Housing Services as a Trustee in 2020. He sits on the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee and is currently the Chair of Depaul Housing Services.

Sister Maureen Tinkler

Sister Maureen is a Religious Sister belonging to the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul. She joined her congregation 50 years ago.

She initially trained as a Secondary Teacher, specialising in Science subjects, she also qualified as a teacher of hearing impaired children and taught at St John’s School for the Deaf in West Yorkshire. She has worked with young people in Birmingham, Port Glasgow and Hull. She currently works for DC Services as the Values Co-ordinator and trainer, and is a member of the Daughters of Charity Province Leadership Team.

Sister Maureen joined the Council of Trustees at Depaul UK in 2022 and sits on the Fundraising and Communications Committee.

Father Eugene Curran

Father Eugene is a Vincentian Priest, ordained in 1987. Much of his work has been in education, particularly with adults. He has also been involved in various groups focused on mental health and wellbeing.

Since 2019, he has been a Parish Priest in London. Father Eugene joined Depaul UK Council of Trustees in 2020 and sits on the Services and Business Development Committee.

Kyla Kirkpatrick

Kyla is the Director of the Drive Partnership, a partnership between SafeLives, Respect and Social Finance, that focus on transforming responses to the perpetrators of domestic abuse.

Kyla has worked in health and social care for 30 years, across the NHS and voluntary sector. Before joining SafeLives, Kyla spent 16 years working across homelessness and substance misuse organisations.

She currently sits on the Advisory Board of The Violence, Health and Society (VISION) Consortium.

Kyla joined Depaul UK as a committee member in 2023 and joined the Council of Trustees in 2024. She became Chair of the Services and Business Development Committee in Autumn 2024.

Allee Bonnard

Allee is the Managing Partner of Deloitte’s Audit & Assurance business in the UK and member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Her client responsibilities include auditing large multi-national corporations, but also government-backed and private entrepreneurial organisations.  She has also advised companies on governance and controls.

Allee joined Depaul UK’s Council of Trustees in 2024 and sits on the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee.

Liz Mickel

Liz is an accomplished fundraiser with 20 years’ experience in the charity sector. She has worked in a variety of roles at some of the UK’s biggest charities, including Cancer Research UK and Barnardo’s. Having recently acted as Co-Director of Fundraising at ActionAid UK, Liz now works on a consultancy basis with a portfolio of charities to share her significant experience and practical approach. 

As well as her passion for strategy and income generation, Liz is an expert on fundraising operations, systems and regulation. She thrives on simply making things work and is delighted to be joining the Board of Depaul UK to work with the exceptional team. 

Liz joined Depaul UK’s Council of Trustees in February 2025 and is the Chair of the Fundraising and Communications Committee. 

Mark Thompson

Mark has been a member of the St Vincent De Paul Society for 40 years and has served as President of the SVPs Manchester Central Council and as a National Trustee until 2025. Qualified as a town planner, he has been a member of both the Institutes of Housing, and Town Planning. He has also worked for a number of local authorities including serving as Director of Regeneration for Calderdale Council. Alongside place-based services his brief included homelessness, drug and alcohol services and youth offending. 

Mark has acted as Special Advisor on Housing to the Local Government Association and was chair of St Vincent’s Housing Association in Manchester. Mark lives in Rochdale with his family and has wide experience of working with communities across the North of England. 

He joined the Council of Trustees in April 2025

Charles Haresnape

Since 2017, Charles has been Chief Executive Officer of Gatehouse Bank PLC and prior to that was Group Managing Director of Aldermore Bank PLC. His experience was supplemented by 3 years as an Executive at Connells Group, a national estate agency and property management group.

Further back in his 40+ year career, Charles was a senior Executive at RBS Group and Nationwide Building Society. He takes a very keen interest in the quality of property with special reference to ESG effectiveness.

Charles joined the Council of Trustees at Depaul UK in 2025 and became a trustee of Depaul Housing Services in February 2026.

Mike McCall (Depaul housing services)

Mike is a housing and charity consultant, and draws on more than 30 years’ experience working in the supported housing sector. For 15 year’s he was the Executive Director of Operations at a major homelessness agency. He has served as board member of a number of London based housing associations and charities, and volunteers as a grant assessor for a major charitable trust. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Governance.

Mike joined Depaul Housing Services Board of Trustees in 2024.

Michael Jones (Depaul Housing services)

Michael has been supporter of Depaul for many years and joined the Depaul Housing Services Board in March 2020, having been a Depaul UK trustee and council member from 2014-2021. He was previously a Chief Executive of a UK power company, and has also worked in Iran, Hong Kong, Australia and Indonesia for a major UK civil engineering company.

Alexia Murphy

Alexia started her work in the homeless sector as an outreach and shelter worker under the Government’s Rough Sleeper Initiative in 1991.

Accruing significant operational experience in housing, mental health, outreach and developing prison services, she is educated to post-graduate level in business management and went on to become New Business Director at St Mungo’s for 10 years.

Before joining Depaul UK, Alexia led on the Rebuilding Shattered Lives campaign to improve services for homeless women in the UK.

She also supported an exchange programme to help the women’s homelessness sector in the Czech Republic become established.

Email Alexia on alexia.murphy@depaulcharity.org.uk

Nicola Harwood

Nicola Harwood is our Executive Director of Operations. She is responsible for our supported accommodation and prevention services. Nicola joined Depaul UK in 2015 to lead and scale up our prevention services, including leading the national Nightstop network. She also successfully delivered the social impact bond i-aspire using data to drive outcomes for young people.

Nicola has over 15 years of experience working in the youth sector, specialising in developing and delivering innovative programmes that reach those furthest from education or employment. She is passionate about delivering effective and dignified services that enable real change for young people. Before working at Depaul UK, she worked in service management roles at the King’s Trust and Young Citizens.

Email Nicola on Nicola.Harwood@depaulcharity.org.uk

Faye Puttock

Faye joined Depaul UK as our Executive Director of Finance and IT in October 2024. She is a CIMA qualified accountant with over 20 years post qualification experience across several sectors.

She moved into the charity sector in 2010 when she joined St Christopher’s Fellowship, a charity and housing association, where she was Director of Finance from 2018 until she moved to Depaul UK.

Kristina Hedderly-Perez

Kristina Hedderly-Perez is our Executive Director of Fundraising and Communications and joined Depaul UK in 2021. She is responsible for engaging Depaul UK’s supporters who generously give their money and time to give young people who are experiencing homelessness or at risk, a brighter future.

Kristina has worked in Communications and Fundraising roles over the past 18 years, specialising in digital fundraising and communications.

Before starting at Depaul UK, Kristina worked in the International Development sector with various INGOs including ActionAid International, Action Against Hunger and CAFOD. She also spent two years as operations manager of a social housing charity in Guatemala.

Helen Bullock

Helen Bullock is our Director of People. She joined Depaul in 2018 as the first HR Business Partner in the North, before moving on to be our Head of People and Learning managing our Business Partner and Learning and Development teams.

Helen holds a post-graduate diploma in Human Resource Management and has over 20 years post qualification experience from across the Local Authority, NHS and charity sectors. She is passionate about the difference that people can make, particularly when they are enabled to come together in a positive and impactful way.