Our Trustees
Rex Shah (Chair)
Rex was part of a group that trekked to Annapurna Base Camp in 2018 to raise funds for Sense International. The group of 27 trekkers raised over £450,000 for Sense International. Following this, Rex became a Trustee in 2019 and Chair in September 2022
Rex is an entrepreneur and has had a career in the insurance industry, owning and building a successful insurance brokerage which he sold and exited in June 2020. He is currently employed by Adler Fairways Insurance Brokers, within the management team, with a focus on business development.
Rex served Oshwal Association of the UK, the largest Jain community charity in the UK, from 2002 as a Trustee and then as President from 2012 to 2016. During his tenure, the community acquired 2 centres to serve members’ needs more locally. He encouraged volunteers to embrace professional standards in community work and fostered a strong spirit of collective team working. A firm believer in equality, he also championed inclusion for members with disabilities and special needs.
Nick Corby
With 20 years’ experience in international development, Nick has a strong track record in planning and project design, monitoring and evaluation, barriers analysis, inclusive organisational development, influencing and political analysis, strategy development, fund management, innovation and knowledge management. Nick also has a deep understanding of and expertise in multiple thematic areas, including education, health, livelihoods, infrastructure and child protection, including in fragile and emergency settings.
Nick has led multi-year, flagship projects for UNDP, DFID, Save the Children, UN Women and WHO. Nick utilizes his deep understanding of inclusive development, as well as strong links with key stakeholders across the international development sector to help shape flagship initiatives and foster strategic partnerships. While Nick has considerable experience of working with UN agencies, the private sector and governments to strengthen inclusion, his work remains rooted in and informed by his continuing work with civil society organisations at the global-, national- and local-level.
Richard Cooper
Richard Cooper is an International Equity Sales specialist and has spent over 20 years in the City of London. He has been a Trustee of Sense International since January 2018, and a member of the Sense International India Board since January 2021. Richard also has interests in motor sport and hospitality.
Richard first became involved with Sense International in 2004, after joining a trek in Romania. Since then, Richard has participated in a number of further treks for Sense International in Romania, Spain and Scotland.
In 2012, Richard was able to attain funding from the CLSA Chairman’s Trust which enabled the funding of three resource centres and a home visit programme in Jarkhand Province, India.
Richard is married, to Sieona, and they have three children, Christopher, Charles and Felicity. Richard’s other interests include financial and political history, cooking, wine and golf.
Sunil Shah
Sunil is a director of Urba-Life which develops and operates purpose-built student accommodation in the UK. He is also a director of St Katherine Group which is involved in property funding and developing.
Previously he was CEO of GBST Ltd until 2010 and COO of Wilco International Ltd until 2002, both of which provided mission critical, enterprise-wide transaction processing solutions to global investment banks and securities brokers.
Sunil qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Touche Ross & Co in 1984 and worked with them as a Management Consultant until 1988 when he left to become the Financial Controller at County NatWest Investment Management.
Sunil has supported Sense International since 2002. He became a Trustee in 2017 and has been Treasurer since 2019.
Kiran Virdee
Kiran is a Chartered Accountant, qualified with Deloitte in London, with over 35 years of experience in financial management, accounting, and audit. He has worked for several large multinational companies, gaining a strong commercial, strategic, and operational focus, including experience in complex matrixed organizational structures. Kiran’s expertise lies in business planning and analysis, project accounting and governance, financial reporting and commercial decision support and technology financial management.
He serves as a Governor and Vice-Chair of the Finance committee at the University of West London and as a Governor at Windsor Forest Colleges Group, a Further Education and Sixth Form College with campuses based in Egham, Langley, Maidenhead, and Windsor. In April 2023, he became a Trustee of Sense International.
Suzi Nandera
Suzi has over 14 years’ experience across the public, private and third sectors. Her research covering sustainable livelihoods and resilience, in Uganda, pushed her to work for several NGOs in London on civic action, education and advancing children’s rights. Suzi has worked on multi-year projects for The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNDP and the World Bank.
She has a strong track record in political analysis, project leadership and influencing policy at the international level, most recently as a representative at the UK Delegation to NATO. Suzi holds a BA in International Business and an MSc in International Development. Since 2021 she has been working on EU financial services policy, and has been based in Brussels since 2018.
Lisa Szucs
Lisa has 25 years experience in Financial Services, having worked across a variety of sectors including Banking, Technology and Big Four Consultancies. Her main focus has been on Business Development and helping organisations to grow and transform their businesses.
Lisa first became involved in Sense International a number of years ago, having joined a group that trekked to Montblanc and then subsequently the following year to Kilimanjaro. She also ran the London Marathon for Sense International in 2004.
Lisa’s interests include travelling and the Spanish language. She joined Sense International as a Trustee in 2023.
Lauren Watters
Lauren is a technical expert in disability-inclusive programming and disability inclusive safeguarding and has extensive experience working for small-medium sized international development charities in a senior role.
Lauren currently works as the Head of Programmes and Advocacy for Able Child Africa where she oversees a large portfolio of projects that ensure the inclusion of children with disabilities in East Africa. She is also the Co-Founder and Director of FACE Uganda, a small NGO working towards the empowerment of women in rural Uganda.
Lauren is interested in disability data and worked as an International Development Research Portfolio Manager for the FCDO and Economic and Social Research Council funded disability centre at UCL. She is also a Co-chair of the Bond Disability and Development Group, and the Co-coordinator of the disability inclusive safeguarding Task Group at the International Disability and Development Consortium.
