Independent Chair

Karen served as Member of Parliament for Westminster North for 27 years from 1997 to 2024. She previously served as a councillor at Westminster City Council and holds degrees in Economics and Social Policy and Administration from the London School of Economics.

Her national roles have included Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Transport and several shadow ministerial positions. She is widely respected for her legislative work on housing standards, poverty and community rights. Her Private Member’s Bill, now the Homes Act, has had lasting national impact. She was recently appointed by the Mayor of London as Chair of the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, reflecting her seniority in strategic planning and place leadership.

Karen brings deep policy expertise, long experience scrutinising complex public systems and a track record of championing children, families and communities.

Senior Independent Director and Vice Chair

Euan Wilmshurst is the Founder and Principal of KW Strategy, working globally across education, philanthropy and social impact with a strong focus on the early years. His career spans more than thirty years in senior roles at organisations including IBM, Pearson and the LEGO Foundation, where he led global advocacy and helped position Learning through Play within education transformation. He now advises foundations and NGOs such as HundrED, Street Child, Indaba Foundation, Education.org and the Roger Federer Foundation, and serves on the boards of STiR Education, Home-Start UK and Svitlo Education. Euan brings deep expertise in governance, partnerships and systems leadership, alongside a long-standing commitment to early childhood, play and equitable approaches to learning and development.

Independent Director

Catherine Eden is Managing Director of Eden & Partners, a consultancy that has worked for more than 20 years to support leadership development across health, higher education, the civil service, charities and local government. Her specialist expertise lies in helping leaders understand political systems and influence policy more effectively, including long-standing work with the NHS Leadership Academy and senior civil servants. Catherine brings deep experience in political systems, leadership development and sector influencing, grounded in a career spanning local, national and European politics.

Independent Director

Tom Raymond-Hill brings over 15 years of leadership experience in national sport, community participation and system change. As England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) Head of Core Game, Tom has overseen major investment programmes, volunteering initiatives and community partnerships that have significantly increased participation. He is known for his governance insight, strategic leadership and commitment to making activity more inclusive and accessible for all children and communities.

Elected Director

Amber Ogunsanya-William is an Inclusive Play Consultant and the inaugural NSPCC Champion of Childhood. With a background rooted in adventure playgrounds, she champions play as a powerful force for equity, joy and transformation in children’s lives.

Working across education, community and cultural sectors, Amber partners with organisations and brands to embed inclusive, child-led approaches that centre children’s rights and a strong sense of belonging. Her work spans grassroots initiatives through to national and global campaigns, consistently advocating for the importance of play in children’s everyday lives.

Recognised as a winner of the UK Playwork Sector Award, Amber brings both lived and professional experience of play, alongside a strong commitment to ensuring every child feels seen, heard and able to play.

Elected Director (Secretary)

Dr Helen Dodd is a Professor of Child Psychology at the University of Exeter Medical School. She is an expert in child mental health with a particular interest in the development of childhood anxiety disorders.

Helen’s research has been funded by the ESRC, Royal Society, British Academy and the Australian Research Council, amongst others. Helen has received awards for her research, most recently from the British Psychological Society for her outstanding contribution to developmental psychology. She was one of the first researchers to be awarded a prestigious UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, which funds a program of work examining the relationship between children's play and mental health.

Alongside her academic work, Helen is a strong advocate for children’s right to play; during the pandemic she led the playfirstUK campaign calling for children's play to be prioritised and she worked with Save the Children and Play England to campaign for a Summer of Play in 2021.

Elected Director (Treasurer)

Panash Shah is the owner of Cambridge Kids Club, a Cambridgeshire focused provider of Out of School settings and supplementary services. He has previously been a Management Consultant with the big-4 and has a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Cambridge, Judge Business School.  He has a strong skill set in areas of commercial and non-commercial enterprises and was previously an executive trustee for a national faith-based charity.

Elected Director

Richard Cocker is a Landscape & Playground Designer, trained to MLA in Landscape Architecture (Planning and Design) and has a proven record of using his passion and flare to create landscape & play spaces that not only look aesthetically pleasing but provide a positive user experience.

Working in the Sports & Play industry for the last 10 years has allowed him to build up an enviable knowledge bank of Natural Landscape Led Play Area Design, MUGA’s & 21st Century & Youth Play Provision such as Skate Parks and Parkour to bring back quality adult free play to the masses of children across the UK.

(Interim) Executive Director

Eugene Minogue is a highly experienced executive leader with significant expertise in play, physical activity, leisure, sport, parks, wellbeing, youth, culture, active travel, events & digital.

His executive career has included over 25 years working across Local Government in high-profile leadership roles, alongside a secondment to Sport England. Additionally, he had a ten-year tenure as Founder & CEO Parkour UK, the NGB for parkour/freerunning and two-years at Parkour Earth, the sports international federation.

Previously he spent ten years as a committee member at the British Standards Institution (BSi) working on various standards including, parkour equipment, children’s playground equipment, sports, playground, and recreational equipment, freely accessible exercise equipment, benefit-risk assessment, amongst others. More recently he was a commissioner on the Raising the Nation Play Commission.