Advisory Council
Our Advisory Council provides insight, advice and support as Our Common Good works through the process of registering as a charity, and the formation of the charity Board of Trustees.
Advisory Council members are volunteers. We are very grateful for their time and commitment to Our Common Good.
Sara Fernandez
Sara graduated from Merton College in 2009, where she studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics. After university, she stayed in Oxford and grew the Student Hubs network, which runs volunteering and social action programmes in the higher education sector.
She received a Cranfield Trust scholarship to complete an Executive MBA at Cranfield University, where she developed her vision to grow social action across Oxford City. She now leads the Oxford Hub, a place-based charity that brings people and organisations together to address inequality and build a better city.
Sara is passionate about diverse trustee boards and has served as a trustee at Student Minds and Age UK Oxfordshire.
Outside of work, she is involved in youth work volunteering and foster care.
Sara lives in Oxford and was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Oxfordshire in 2020.
Shani Newbold
Shani has over 20 years’ experience in executive search and talent management in the UK and US. She has delivered successful talent acquisition and diversity consulting assignments for not-for-profit, central and local government, and healthcare and other public sector organisations. Shani is on the race advisory board at the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO).
Mark Simms
Mark qualified as a Registered Mental Nurse in 1990. Prior to moving to the voluntary sector.
He held a number of Senior Management roles in the NHS and Private sector, specialising in Mental Health and Addiction services. He has been part of P3’s leadership team for the last 18 years and became CEO in 2016. He was named the Nat West SE100 Leadership Champion in 2020.
He leads a team of more than 750 staff and 300 volunteers across the P3 group which includes the West London charity Rugby PortobelloTrust in 2009 and youth organisation UFA (University of the First Age) as well as the social housing provider P3 Housing.
The organisations exist to work alongside people to build the life they want for themselves. Working with people in their communities through developing partnerships and delivering services with local authorities, local charities, enterprise partnerships and NHS Foundation Trusts.
Caroline Underwood OBE
Caroline has spent her professional career at the axis of commerce and community working to professionalise and integrate environmental, social and corporate governance and to connect funders with critical community needs. This focus has enabled her to work alongside world leading capital project developers; driven individual leaders and grassroots community organisations across commerce, academia, culture and community. Common threads through her work are a deep commitment to inclusion and diversity, passionate visionary leadership and a pragmatic ability to realise big projects.
She leads the Philanthropy Company, a national consultancy established in 2002. Over two decades working with philanthropists, boards and leaders it has delivered millions of philanthropic pounds into community, arts, education and charitable institutions. In 2017 her work was recognised with an OBE from HM The Queen.
Caroline lives in Oxfordshire and is a Governor of the Dragon School, Oxford and until recently was Vice Chair of Unicef UK.
Richard Harries
Richard is Associate Director of the Institute for Community Studies at The Young Foundation. He was previously a senior civil servant, deputy director of the independent think tank Reform, and Director of Research and Development at the Power to Change Trust
He has extensive experience of public policy making, particularly in criminal justice, local government and the not-for-profit sector.
He is a trustee of Caritas Social Action Network (CSAN) and the Forces in Mind Trust. He is also a member of the Advisory Councils of Volunteering Matters and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO).
He has advised governments in Australia, Japan, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. He has published on a wide range of topics, including crime and criminal justice, deregulation, fiscal sustainability, philanthropy and social investment.
Richard is a Visiting Senior Fellow at St Mary’s University.