Our trustees

Hephzibah Adeosun (Chair)
Hephzibah Adeosun is an Associate at Clifford Chance LLP, holds a BA in Law and Management from the University of Cambridge and a Masters in Commercial Legal Practice from BPP University. She sits on the steering committee of Clifford Chance's BAME network, co-leading the career development pillar, and is also an inclusion advocate at Clifford Chance. She was Head of Outreach for the Widening Access Network and was selected as a McKinsey Next Generation Women Leader in 2020.

While at Cambridge, she was access officer for Gonville and Caius College for two years and organised her college’s inaugural BAME conference to encourage students from underrepresented groups to apply to the university. She is also heavily involved in athletics, managing a team of athletes who will take part in a US Transatlantic Athletics Series against four Ivy League universities.

Deb Conner
Deb Conner was Chief Operating Officer at the Social Mobility Foundation for 7 years, beginning the period on secondment from KPMG. She continues to provide consultancy services for the organisation. Previously, her work at KPMG included the development of Access Accountancy, a profession-wide initiative to improve access to employment, and The School Leaver Programme, the first combined degree and professional qualification programme for the firm. She completed an MST in Sustainability Leadership at Cambridge University in 2016; her dissertation explored the connection between socio-economic background and access to training roles in professional services.

Deb served as trustee with Governors for Schools for 9 years, and was on the governing body at Elm Court School in Lambeth, a special school for pupils aged 9 to 19 years who have learning difficulties with associated social and communication needs for 8 years. She is currently a member of the board of The JLL Foundation, and a member of a local community enterprise investing in solar energy projects.

André Flemmings
André is a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Manager at Milbank LLP.  He has worked in financial services for almost twenty years and in Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) for over a decade. With a background in financial communications, André became the Head of Communications and a Deputy Director at diversity specialists, Rare. Whilst there, he worked with their financial services and strategy consulting clients to develop pipeline programmes for underrepresented and low-income candidates at the entry level. He also worked with Rare’s Founder to devise the launch of the Contextual Recruitment System, an industry-leading recruitment tool that assesses the socio-economic background of applicants in a process.

Over his career, André has worked in both recruitment and inclusion roles at Deutsche Bank, Macfarlanes (as a consultant) and Linklaters. At the latter, and as part of its early career team, he designed and launched the firm’s global social mobility and early careers D&I strategies. His last role, prior to joining Milbank, was as WH Smith PLC’s first Head of Diversity, Inclusion and Wellbeing. In this position, he shaped its sustainability and inclusion strategies, strengthened its inclusion infrastructure with respect to its people, and worked with commercial teams to create inclusive product lines.

Jude Heaton
Jude works at Teach For All, a global organisation supporting 54 independent, locally led and governed partner organisations across the world which aim to end education inequity in their communities. Jude's work involves trying to understand, and share insights, on educators who are doing inspiring work in diverse contexts across the globe, and to design learning experiences that grow collective leadership. Prior to his role at Teach For All, Jude served as the programme director at Teach For Malaysia, and led the work on access to higher education and employment at Teach First, UK.

Before joining the Teach For All network, Jude worked in the Deputy Prime Minister’s research and analysis unit with a focus on social mobility.  He served as Alan Milburn’s lead advisor on access to university. This work culminated in the publication of two reports, ‘Fair Access to Professional Careers: A progress report’, and ‘University Challenge: how higher education can advance social mobility’. Jude started his career working in Pakistan as a journalist at The Friday Times, and as an advisor to the CEO of the Beaconhouse School System on education reform.

Tim Smith
Tim Smith is a solicitor and partner in the London office of international law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP (BCLP).  He is co-head of BCLP’s “Social Inclusion” diversity group. Since the group launched in 2015, BCLP has regularly been ranked amongst the top 10 employers in the Social Mobility Foundation’s rankings. BCLP was also one of the first law firms to successfully embed contextual recruitment tools in its graduate recruitment and has won awards for its apprenticeship training programme.

Tim is also a former trustee of the Aspiring Solicitors Foundation and is a current Board member of the legal social mobility charity PRIME. In addition to his work as a solicitor, Tim has sat as a part-time Judge since 2013.

Ann Swampillai
Ann Swampillai is a Senior Civil Servant who joined the UK Diplomatic Service in 2004, and currently serves as Deputy Director, Transformation, a role that seeks to harness the diversity of the UK’s workforce to maintain the Civil Service’s cutting-edge capability.   She is an experienced international lawyer with over 10 years’ experience of advising FCO ministers on high-profile issues; and is passionate about equality, diversity and inclusion, having developed extensive cross-Whitehall and industry networks to help learn from and share best practice.  She is also involved in the Baytree Centre’s PEACH mentoring programme, helping girls and young women from less advantaged backgrounds through providing regular support with school work and advice around career opportunities.

Andrea Waugh
Andrea Waugh is a Trainee Solicitor at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and sits on the Freshfields’ Social Mobility Network committee. She holds a dual-qualifying law degree in Scots and English law from the University of Aberdeen. Andrea is a former Making Links Scholar and was elected as the voice of young carers in Scotland between 2014 and 2017. She also served on the Children's Panel, a form of Care and Justice tribunal, where decisions are made to protect children at risk.

Laura Yeates
Laura is currently Senior Manager of Staff Diversity & Inclusion at Latham & Watkins.

Previously, she spent 16 years as Head of Graduate Talent at International Law Firm Clifford Chance, overseeing the graduate recruitment and development teams, both of which won numerous awards for ground-breaking initiatives focused on improving access to the legal profession, innovation in the sector and tackling the stigma of mental health and sexual harassment in the workplace. She was also Co-Chair of the London Inclusion Committee.

In 2020 she founded the Sustainable Recruitment Alliance. She is a Fellow of the CIPD, an Opinion Leader for People in Law, Steering Committee member of GROW mentoring and a member of the National Student Pride Advisory Board. She was named LGBT+ Ally of the Year at the 2022 British LGBT+ awards and included in the Women of the Year awards 2022.She is also a former Board Director of the Institute of Student Employers and member of the Advisory Board of The Apples & Pears Foundation.