Meet our team

After a career in the commercial sector, Diane has worked in financial inclusion and community finance for more than two decades, including building and growing a community finance organisation that exclusively served people in financially vulnerable circumstances.

In her current role as Director of Innovation and Development at Fair4All Finance, Diane leads on the design and delivery of key programmes of work that collaborate with financial services providers, increasing access to financial products and services for people who are currently excluded or who struggle to find solutions that meet their needs, ultimately aiming to deliver positive impact on their financial resilience and wellbeing.

Emily is a grants and business development professional and currently serves as Grants Manager at the Fusion21 Foundation. She manages a diverse portfolio of funding programmes, working with VCSEs, housing associations and local authorities to support innovative projects and strengthen communities.

Before joining the Foundation in early 2026, Emily was Head of Business Development at HACT, where she led fundraising activity and built strategic partnerships across the social housing sector. Her career is shaped by a strong commitment to tackling poverty and inequality through collaboration and effective funding.

Emily holds an MA (Hons) from the University of Edinburgh and is an alumna of the Charityworks Graduate Scheme and the Common Purpose High Potential Leaders Programme. She brings expertise in fundraising, partnership development and bid strategy, alongside a deep understanding of working with vulnerable communities to drive positive social impact.

She is motivated by the opportunity to influence how credit markets operate so they work in the long-term interests of people and communities, helping to advance more equitable and inclusive financial systems.

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Niall is the Markets & Consumer Insights Manager at Fair4All Finance, joining in August 2021, having previously anchored their affordable credit programme at Carnegie UK from 2016-2021.

Niall spent the 1990’s in community development projects in the Craigmillar and Wester Hailes neighbourhoods of Edinburgh. His experience there of credit exclusion and its impacts led him to concentrate on the field of affordable credit.

Although he has held positions within Bank of Scotland, and Moneyline, most of Niall’s work has been as a freelance consultant supporting the establishment, or development, of community lenders; identifying the impact of a lack of access to products and services for some households; or monitoring high-cost credit lenders and their changing customer base.

Niall is also a Director of Right Way Credit Union and a member of Moneyline’s Impact Committee.

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Maria Booker, Head of Policy, Fair By Design - Fair By Design is a campaign dedicated to reshaping essential services so that they don’t cost more if you’re on a low income – also known as the poverty premium. Maria oversees policy across energy, credit, and payments, and serves as the organisation’s lived experience lead, ensuring insights from people directly affected shape Fair By Design’s approach.

Maria began her career in the Department for Business, working on consumer and energy issues. She later joined Which?, leading development of the Which? Birth Choice website. Before Fair By Design, she was Programmes Director at Birthrights, the human rights in childbirth charity.

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Ellie Lister is Chief Compliance and Operations Officer at Lendology CIC. She brings extensive experience across operations, compliance, risk, and governance, alongside a background in marketing and communications.

With over three years’ experience in senior operational leadership, Ellie focuses on embedding fair, transparent, and responsible lending practices into day‑to‑day operations. Her work centres on delivering strong governance, meeting Consumer Duty and regulatory expectations, and ensuring financial products are accessible, well‑designed, and aligned with the needs of underserved communities.

Ellie is committed to advancing inclusive finance in practice, translating regulatory standards into meaningful, real‑world outcomes for customers and communities.

Gemma Glass has over 15 years’ experience across housing, financial inclusion and digital inclusion, with a strong focus on supporting financially vulnerable households and communities. She is currently a social impact consultant, helping organisations strengthen service design, partnership working and ESG outcomes across housing and community services.

Previously a senior leader within a large housing association, Gemma led major organisational responses to welfare reform and the cost-of-living crisis. She also developed financial and digital inclusion strategies that delivered measurable improvements for residents. As Chair of G15 cost-of-living groups, she brought housing associations together to develop coordinated responses to financial hardship and tenant support.

Gemma has held a range of governance roles within the social impact sector, including serving as a Non-Executive Director of a research and policy organisation focused on social and economic inclusion. As a Trustee of the Centre for Responsible Credit, she brings deep expertise in financial inclusion, housing and partnership development to support CfRC’s work tackling financial exclusion and improving outcomes for people in debt.

Damon has more than thirty years’ experience of providing, designing, and commissioning services to meet the needs of disadvantaged groups and communities. He has also been involved in consumer campaigns at the national and international levels on issues of credit, debt, and financial exclusion for over two decades.

Prior to founding CfRC in 2010, Damon was co-chair of the Debt on our Doorstep campaign, which ran from 1999 onwards and campaigned for caps on the cost of credit; greater funding for affordable lenders, and for more effective responsible lending requirements.

During this period he worked in local government with responsibilities for advice and economic development, and between 2008 and 2010 as the Head of Policy for the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion.  However, his initial career was spent as a money and welfare rights adviser in the voluntary sector.  

Damon holds a BA(Hons) in Economics and Politics from the University of Warwick, and an MA (With Distinction) in Public Policy from the University of Nottingham.

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Carl has more than ten years experience researching the impacts that indebtedness has on poverty, and designing policy and new innovations around the needs of low income households in the UK.

They previously worked for Fair By Design - the advocacy and social investment initiative addressing the poverty premium, or the extra costs of being poor - from its inception up until December 2022. There, Carl focused on the consumer credit and household energy elements of the poverty premium and led a campaign calling for the national government to introduce a social tariff for low income households into the retail energy market.

Prior to working at Fair By Design, Carl worked at Toynbee Hall as a national research lead focusing on subjects such as the impact of national government-led savings initiatives to boost low income households’ savings rates, and how the regulatory cap on payday loan charges affected users of high cost credit.

Carl has written two books on the subject of poverty and debt: "Loan Sharks: the rise and rise of payday lending" (2012) and "Payday Lending: Global Growth of the High-Cost Credit Market (2014)". Carl is currently studying for a PhD looking at the social and financial exclusion of workers in the gig economy, at the University of Birmingham.

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Ana Rita has more than 5 years' experience of conducting research within the UK consumer credit industry, focusing on the use of machine learning (‘ML’) technologies and with a special interest in responsible finance solutions.

Prior to joining CfRC Ana Rita was a PhD researcher at the University of Nottingham, from 2019 to 2025, where her studies included an investigation of the impact for consumers of Privacy Enhancing Technologies in the credit industry.

During this period, she also worked as an Associate Data Scientist with Capital One UK and as a Research Assistant on a series of digital health projects as part of the Trustworthy Autonomous Hub.

Ana Rita holds an Msc (Hons) Mathematical Physics and a PhD in Social and Computer Science, both from the University of Nottingham.

Mark is a public affairs and campaigns expert with over 13 years’ experience of driving financial policy change. As Public Affairs Manager for StepChange, Mark built coalitions, grew political momentum, and achieved national-level policy impact on a range of credit, debt and social justice issues.

Mark’s campaigning with politicians, stakeholders and the debt advice sector has helped to bring about stronger regulation of the bailiff industry, a clamp down on high-cost lenders, a £65 million rent debt fund, and the Government’s Breathing Space guarantee.

His experience includes providing public affairs consultancy, relationship building and campaigns for social justice charity Nacro. Before this, Mark worked for a major political party press office for two years, building significant party profile in the run-up to the 2010 General Election.

Outside of his professional life, Mark leads his church’s hardship fund and volunteers as a money coach for Christians Against Poverty, where he helps individuals navigate a range of challenges as part of his community in East London.