Volunteer Experience Programme Team

Jack is the UK Lead Volunteer for People. Before this he was a County Commissioner and Assistant County Commissioner (International) in Greater London North. Locally Jack is an Assistant Scout Leader in Cheshire. In his professional life, Jack is Assistant Principal at a large secondary school.

Andrew has been a Scouts Section Team Leader for 30 years. He was on the global digital leadership team of Mars, Inc for seven years. As a national volunteer for the last four years, alongside digital projects, he has worked on programme initiatives and the Covid restart.

To come

Matt is on the UK People Team and focuses on operations. Matt has previously been the Head of Volunteer Training as part of the People team where he led on the work developing and supporting training for volunteers nationally. Before taking on roles nationally he was a District Commissioner in Coventry and spent two years as the Assistant Programme Director at Kandersteg International Scout Centre.

Locally, Matt supports assessment of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award expeditions and delivering training as part of County and Regional Training teams.

In his professional life, Matt is the Head of Volunteering for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

Kester has been a Scout since the age of 18. She has held a wide variety of roles both locally and nationally, from locally as a Cub and Scout section leader, Group Scout Leader and group and district trustee, to headquarters roles including UK Commissioner for Adult Support, a member of the Safeguarding Committee and the Contingent Management Team for the WSJ25 to Korea. She was Deputy UK Chief Commissioner for a 5-year period, which included the Covid pandemic and navigating Scouting through the lockdowns. 

Professionally, Kester was previously a HR & Training Manager for a global brand, and currently works for her local authority in the Road Safety team. 

Hamish is on the UK People Team. He has had a number of Scouts roles, most recently as the Regional Commissioner for South West England and, prior to that, the County Commissioner for Berkshire.

Locally, Hamish is District Chair for the District in which he lives, having previously been a Group Chair.

Professionally, Hamish is a self-employed Management Consultant with a primary focus supporting strategy and change by scientific/medical research teams at major Universities inside and outside the UK.

Lara has worked in digital for more than 25 years at digital agencies, commercial organisations and in the charity sector for the last 13 years, firstly at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), then Age UK. As the Chief Digital Officer of Scouts, Lara oversees all the digital projects to make sure that Scouts truly is a digital-first organisation.

Sam has been in Scouting since the age of 6 joining as a Beaver Scout, progressing through the sections, including volunteering with Cubs as an Explorer Scout Young Leader. Sam started his adult volunteering as a leader in the Cub Scouts and then became Assistant County Commissioner supporting the Cub Scout section. He has experience in adult training both as a trainer and a training adviser. Sam has been a Deputy County Commissioner and served on a County Executive Committee. He has more recently been the Deputy Chief Commissioner of England for four years.

He is Chief Volunteering Officer for Scouts.

Katie’s the Head of Volunteering Transformation for the Scouts. She helps lead the team to understand where we can help to make volunteering with Scouts easier and the tools we need to support this. Katie came through Scouts as young person from Beavers to Explorers and has held various local volunteer roles.

Wulff is the Learning Design Manager at the Scouts. He was a Scout in Denmark for 20 years – joining at age 6, he went on to become a Scout leader for 10-23 years olds, a District Commissioner and many other roles. His best Scouting memory was leading a delegation of 50 Danish Scouts to participate in a Russian Jamboree.

Rebecca joined the Scouts as the Head of Digital Delivery in August 2022. Having spent 10 years delivering business change and transformation within the Civil Service, Rebecca made a decision to move into the charity sector, with a desire to deliver within an organisation more closely aligned to her personal values.

Rebecca provides leadership on all digital transformation initiatives at the Scouts, including the development and introduction of the three new digital systems within the Volunteer Experience Programme.

James has been Head of Portfolio Delivery & Change with Scouts since January 2022. He looks after the PMO and Change Team as well as having oversight of the Skills for Life Portfolio and Operational Projects.

Prior to this he worked for the charity Versus Arthritis facilitating the organisation through a merger, setting up its PMO, and more recently headed up its Strategic Planning & Portfolio function.