Staff

Director of operations

Robyn Phillips

Robyn has overall responsibility for the delivery of the Human Trafficking Foundation’s work to bring together the NGO anti-slavery sector, parliamentarians and statutory services to facilitate positive policy changes to better prevent slavery and support survivors.

Robyn joined the Human Trafficking Foundation in February 2021 from STOP THE TRAFFIK where she coordinated the partnership response to modern slavery across Central West London, developing the strategy, implementing referral pathways and strengthening the multi-agency response. Prior to this, Robyn worked for a homeless charity for five years, leading on national development as Partnership Manager and working with statutory and non-statutory agencies to bring empty properties back into use. Robyn has volunteered as a First Responder for The Salvation Army, supporting consenting adults to enter the National Referral Mechanism, and has also volunteered as a support worker for children seeking asylum and as a counsellor for ChildLine.

Email: robyn@humantraffickingfoundation.org

ACCOUNTANT

Susie Hook

Susie is a qualified book-keeper and accountant and holds full membership with the AAT and ICB. She loves all things digital and aims to save time and increase efficiency when working with her clients.

Susie has worked with the Foundation over a span of at least 10 years and has thoroughly enjoyed her time working alongside the team. Her hobbies include going to the gym, cooking and enjoying time with her grandchildren. She is a spiritual and holistic person and enjoys practices such as yoga and Pilates, and yoga breaks in the mountains, away from the hustle and bustle of daily life.

Email: susie@humantraffickingfoundation.org

TRUSTEES

chair

Lord Randall of Uxbridge Kt. PC

Prior to joining the House of Lords, Lord Randall was the Member of Parliament for Uxbridge and South Ruislip.  He was first elected in a by-election in July 1997 for the Uxbridge constituency.  He studied Serbo-Croat and Russian at London University before joining and running the family retail business in Uxbridge. He still maintained a day to day interest in the business until it was sold in 2012.

John was appointed an Opposition Whip and although he resigned his front bench position in order to vote against military action in Iraq he was reappointed a few months later and became Government Deputy Chief Whip in 2010. He stepped down from his ministerial position in October 2013 in order to give more time to issues such as the environment, conservation and modern slavery. In 2017, John was appointed special adviser on the environment to the Prime Minister.

Deputy chair

Rt Hon Baroness Butler-Sloss

Called to the Bar in 1955, Baroness Butler-Sloss was appointed a Registrar in the Registry Family Division in 1970 and subsequently a High Court Judge, Family Division (1979-1988). She was appointed to the Court of Appeal (1988–1999). From 1999 until her retirement in 2005, Lady Butler-Sloss was President of the Family Division. She was made Baroness Butler-Sloss of Marsh Green in 2006.

In 1987-88 she chaired the Cleveland Child Abuse Inquiry and was chairman of the Security Commission between 1994 and 2005. She has been the Chancellor of the University of the West of England since 1993 and holds a number of Honorary Fellowships including St Hilda’s College, Oxford, King’s College, London, the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal College of Paediatrics & Child Health. Baroness Butler-Sloss is also Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery.

Chairman Emeritus

Anthony Steen CBE

Anthony Steen began as a youth club leader and community worker at the Bernard Baron Settlement (East London) where Sir Basil Henriques, the former Chief London Magistrate, lived. From there he started Task Force which involved 15,000 young people helping London’s elderly and lonely. His second career was as a practicing Barrister (1964-1987) specialising in landlord and tenant and planning law in Sir John Foster QC MP Chambers in the Temple.

His third career began in 1968, when Harold Wilson, then Prime Minister, asked Mr Steen to establish a national counterpart to London’s Task Force. From 1974 to 1983 Mr Steen represented Liverpool Wavertree (the only Conservative MP in the city). In 1983, as a result of boundary changes, Wavertree disappeared as a constituency. Between 1983 and 2010, Mr Steen was returned as MP for South Hams and then Totnes. He was continually raised different social issues which he felt the Conservative Party should not neglect, and wrote a number of books recommending action on urban poverty and city decline. As a member of the European Scrutiny Select Committee, he discovered the extent of human trafficking from Eastern to Western Europe, particularly from Romania. It was this that prompted him to establish an All Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking and later the Human Trafficking Foundation along with the Rt Hon. Clare Short and Baroness Elizabeth Butler-Sloss.

In 2010, Mr Steen introduced a Private Member's Bill which resulted in Anti-Slavery Day Act, making 18th October each year an official Anti-Slavery Day. Theresa May, when Home Secretary, appointed Mr Steen as her Special Envoy on modern slavery as the Modern Slavery Act was going through Parliament. He acted as a Specialist Advisor to Yvette Cooper MP when she was Chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee and as one of the seven Specialist Advisors in the then Home Secretary's inquiry by bringing together NGOs and civil society to highlight the operational short-comings of the Modern Slavery Act and to make recommendations.

In 2015, Anthony was awarded CBE for his outstanding contribution to the fight against modern slavery.  

treasurer

Paul Jackson

Paul Jackson attended the University of St Andrews where he studied French Language and Literature. After graduation, he joined the Royal Navy in 1973 as a Supply and Secretariat Officer. He saw service at home and abroad in frigates and destroyers.   He was also ADC to the Governor of Gibraltar Sir David Williams and spent two years in the Royal Yacht Britannia. He served twice in the Ministry of Defence, in the fields of personnel and logistics. During his career he also attended the Royal Naval Staff College and the Joint Service Defence College.

On leaving the Royal Navy, he joined the United Kingdom Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, based at the Houses of Parliament. He organised parliamentary seminars, conferences and visits in support of the Association’s aim of promoting parliamentary democracy and good governance across the Commonwealth. 

When he retired from Westminster, Paul joined the Board of the Human Trafficking Foundation as trustee and treasurer. He was previously both Vice-Chair of Beating Bowel Cancer, a charity that raises awareness of the disease and offers support to patients, and Chair of the De Morgan Foundation, which runs a museum in South London dedicated to the ceramics of William De Morgan and the paintings of his wife Evelyn De Morgan.

Lord Vernon Coaker

Vernon Coaker served as MP for Gedling in Nottinghamshire 1997–2019 and was appointed a life peer in the House of Lords in 2021.

Vernon served in the Labour Shadow Cabinet, as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and then Shadow Secretary of State for Defence.  He was elected by the Parliamentary Labour Party to be Shadow Minister of State for Policing.  He also served as the Shadow Minister of State for Schools, continuing the role he had occupied in government since 2009.  Vernon has also worked as Minister of State in the Home Office.

Earlier in his parliamentary career Vernon held the positions of Government Whip, Parliamentary Private Secretary to Tessa Jowell (then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport) and Parliamentary Private Secretary to Estelle Morris (then Secretary of State for Education).  Vernon’s main policy interests are international development, foreign policy, education, animal welfare and the environment.

Before becoming a Minister, Vernon was one of the UNICEF’s “Special Friends” in Parliament.  In December 1998 he was part of a delegation that visited Kosovo to see UNICEF’s efforts in developing education.  In April 1999 he visited refugee camps in Macedonia, travelling out on a UNICEF cargo plane carrying emergency aid. In September 2001 he visited Angola to see the work of UNICEF projects providing housing, education and health programmes for children.

Before becoming an MP, Vernon was Deputy Head Teacher at Bigwood School, Nottingham.  He also taught at the Manvers Pierrepont, Arnold Hill and Bramcote Park schools.  During this time, Vernon pursued an active role in local politics as a Borough Councillor.

Vernon is married to Jackie and they have a daughter and a son.  His interests include sport – he is a keen Spurs fan – walking and current affairs.

Rt Hon Karen Bradley MP

Karen Bradley is the MP for Staffordshire Moorlands. She was first selected for her home seat of Staffordshire Moorlands in July 2006.

Shortly after she entered the House of Commons Karen was elected to the Select Committee on Work and Pensions and later to the Procedure Select Committee. She relinquished both these positions when she was appointed as a Minister in the Government Whips office in October 2012. In October 2013 Karen was promoted to be a Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury, as Senior Whip. In February 2014 she became Minister for Modern Slavery and Organised Crime at the Home Office, when she brought in the Serious Crime Act and secured the passing of the Modern Slavery Act in 2015. She also served as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport until 8th January 2018, and as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, from 8th January 2018 to 24th July 2019.

Karen studied BSc Maths at Imperial College London. After university she qualified as both a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser and spent nearly 20 years in business, working as an accountant for two of the major accounting firms and with a spell as a self-employed tax and economics consultant. Karen has advised businesses of all types from multinational electronics companies to small farms, and on issues from tax to commercial strategy.

In February 2020 Karen was elected Chair of the House of Commons Procedure Committee. She is also Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery and Chair of the APPG on Challenger Banks and Building Societies.

Lord Richard Harrington

Lord Harrington of Watford is a British politician and businessman. He published a report on Foreign Direct Investment into the UK for HM Treasury in November 2023. He was appointed to the Lords in 2022, becoming a joint Minister of State at the Home Office and DLUHC with responsibility for the resettlement of Ukrainian Refugees.  Richard retired as MP for Watford in 2019, having first been elected in 2010. As an MP he held a number of Ministerial roles including as Business and Industry Minister and Pensions Minister.

Prior to being elected, Richard built a substantial business career in hotels and leisure as well as wealth management, property and investing in start ups. He is on the Board of The Royal Albert Hall and Nesta, a large not-for-profit that invests in companies with a social purpose.