People

Murray Hunt is the Director of the new Modern Slavery and Human Rights Policy and Evidence Centre, created to enhance understanding of modern slavery and transform the effectiveness of law and policies designed to overcome it.

From 2004 to 2017, Murray was Legal Adviser to the Joint Committee on Human Rights in the UK Parliament, and prior to that was a practising barrister at Matrix, which he helped to establish in 2000. He was also the Director of the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law until 2024.

Prof Alex Balch is a professor of politics at the University of Liverpool, with research interests in policies on immigration and modern slavery. He currently leads the Antislavery Knowledge Network, which seeks to apply innovative methods to tackle modern slavery across Sub-Saharan Africa. He is also associate director of the African Programming and Research Initiative To End Slavery (APRIES). He has over 10 years’ experience designing and implementing programmes in diverse international contexts. His approach is collaborative and interdisciplinary, with the aim to develop new methods and modes of partnership across national boundaries with government, business and civil society to meet the challenges in addressing modern slavery.

Olivia Hesketh joined the Modern Slavery PEC from the civil service. She began her career as a government analyst across crime and policing policy areas. For four years before she joined the Centre, Olivia was a policymaker in the Modern Slavery Unit in the UK Home Office, most recently leading the team that focuses on the Government’s international and prevention policies.

Jakub Sobik joined the Modern Slavery PEC from Anti-Slavery International, where he led the development and implementation of its communications strategy.

Liz Williams joined the Modern Slavery PEC from Asylum Research Centre which she co-founded in 2010. As co-Director, she led research and policy projects on asylum and refugee protection issues. Liz has acted as a consultant for UNHCR, the European Asylum Support Office, Amnesty International UK and the Independent Advisory Group on Country Information and has been a Senior Policy Advisor at Freedom from Torture.

Owain Johnstone joined the Modern Slavery PEC from the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), where he worked as Modern Slavery Advisor and Policy Advisor. While at ETI, he worked on establishing best practice in business modern slavery reporting, supporting the development of the Modern Slavery Statement Framework. He also coordinated engagement with a range of stakeholders on issues including state-imposed forced labour, the implementation and enforcement of the UK Modern Slavery Act and the emerging debate on mandatory human rights due diligence. Prior to working at ETI, Owain completed his PhD on the development of human trafficking law and policy in the UK.

Izzy Templer joined the Modern Slavery PEC from the University of Edinburgh, where she was the Project Manager for Rising from the Depths, a Global Challenges Research Fund Network Plus award. While working with Rising from the Depths she managed a portfolio of 27 Innovation Projects that researched the utilisation of Marine Cultural Heritage for sustainable development in Eastern Africa. Izzy’s background is in law, studying Law and European Law at the University of Nottingham.

Rose Fatherazi joined the Modern Slavery PEC from the Middle Eastern Women and Society organisation (MEWSo) where she was the Operations and Advice Manager overseeing cases related to domestic abuse, welfare issues and migrant rights. She has expertise in harmful practices in the UK, particularly centred around modern slavery and forced marriage, polygamy, and honour based abuse. Rose is a passionate campaigner and aided in the launch of the Ban Virginity Tests campaign and assisted in including the ban on virginity tests and hymen repair surgery in the Health and Care Bill 2022.

Olessya Glasson has extensive experience in creating spaces for survivors of modern slavery to feed directly into modern slavery policy, and in embedding lived experience within organisations working to address modern slavery, including in research, service delivery and NGOs.

Her role at the Modern Slavery PEC is to lead on the Modern Slavery PEC’s commitment to survivor inclusion, ensuring that everything the Centre does has survivor expertise woven through it. She oversees the governance of our lived experience engagement work, and founded the Modern Slavery PEC Lived Experience Advisory Panel, which is made up of six individuals who hold lived experience of modern slavery or human trafficking, and who advise on all aspects of the Centre’s work.

Jane Lasonder is a member of the PEC's Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP). She is also Vice Chair of ISTAC (International Survivors of Trafficking Advisory Council) of the ODIHR/OSCE and is Chair of Hope for Justice's International Survivor Council. She has contributed to the work of the European Parliament, the UN, OSCE/ODIHR, WHO and the media on human trafficking, amongst others.

Jane is also an author and has published three books, the latest called ‘Health and Slavery’ - a guide book for health care workers on awareness, published internationally by Springer publishers. She is an award-winning photographer too.

Jane is a member of the Interparliamentary Taskforce on Human Trafficking (ITHT), the first global consortium to convene leading lawmakers, government leaders, stakeholders and lived-experience experts committed to stopping the human suffering caused by human trafficking through partnership in policy solutions.

Jane is an international speaker. As a survivor of child trafficking, Jane shares her expertise with organisations and groups interested in increasing their knowledge of modern slavery and human trafficking, including school-age children, teens and medical students. She is also working with the British Embassy in Bucharest and partners in Romania, developing training material and providing training to health care workers. She has also given training to border force guards and the police.

Jane was awarded the Anti-Slavery Award for 'Outstanding Contribution to the fight against modern slavery' in the ‘Empowering survivor voices’ category by the The Human Trafficking Foundation in October 2024.

Ify is a Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP) member. Ify has a lived experience of modern slavery and human trafficking. She is determined to use the knowledge, skills, and expertise acquired from her experience to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking by co-creating and co-designing research background calls and advising on the research proposals to receive the funding, as well as advising the PEC on all aspects of its work. Ify is also committed to raising awareness and engaging in consultancy work on issues within her experience and expertise. Her background in social work has greatly enriched her knowledge and expertise to mitigate the risks of the long-term impact of trauma and abuse.

Prof Ruth Blakeley is a Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Sheffield. After completing an MSc and PhD in International Relations at the University of Bristol, she became a lecturer and then Professor in International Relations at the University of Kent, later becoming the Head of School of Politics and International Relations. She was the Director of the White Rose Social Sciences Doctoral Training Partnership at Sheffield. She is the Vice Chair of the British International Studies Association (BISA), and was lead Editor of the Review of International Studies from 2016 to 2020. Professor Blakeley’s research and teaching focus on international security, terrorism and political violence, and human rights.

Paul Bowden is a solicitor. He is former global corporate responsibility partner and leader of the business and human rights practice at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Paul teaches business and human rights law as honorary professor at the Nottingham Law School at Nottingham Trent University and is Chair of the National Justice Museum, the leading public legal education provider.

The Right Revd Dr Alastair Redfern is chair of the Clewer Initiative, a co-founder of the Global Sustainability Network, chair of the Advisory Panel for the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner, and vice-chair of the Anglican Alliance. He was a member of the Select Committee which drafted the modern slavery act for the UK. He was Bishop of Derby from 2005 to 2018.

Yuki Lo is the Head of Research & Evaluation at the Freedom Fund and has over ten years’ experience delivering evaluations of child protection, labour rights, women's economic empowerment and ending gender-based violence programs. She leads the Freedom Fund’s work on measuring the impact of its investments and is currently supervising research in Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Thailand on the topics of forced labour, child labour, debt bondage, sex trafficking and forced marriage.

Andrew Wallis is the CEO of anti-slavery organization Unseen, which provides safe housing and other services for survivors of trafficking, runs the UK’s Modern Slavery and Exploitation Helpline, and works with businesses and others in the eradication of slavery. Andrew chaired the landmark Centre for Social Justice report ‘It Happens Here’, widely acknowledged as the catalyst for the UK Modern Slavery Act of 2015, which he also advised on the development of. He was awarded an OBE that year. The job has presented him with challenges as diverse as building flat-pack furniture for Unseen’s first safe house, to advising global businesses on how to address slavery in supply chains. He has been described as ‘the loveliest disrupter you could hope to meet.’

Louise Waite is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Leeds, UK. Her research interests span migration and slavery; with a particular focus on discourses of ‘modern slavery’, unfree/forced labour and exploitative work among asylum seekers and refugees. Through her interdisciplinary and collaborative approach, she has published on these themes in a range of peer reviewed journals and in recent books: The modern slavery agenda: Politics, policy and practice in the UK (with G. Craig, A. Balch, H. Lewis, Policy Press, 2019) and Vulnerability, exploitation and migrants: Insecure work in a globalised economy (with H. Lewis, G. Craig & K. Skrivankova, Palgrave, 2015).

Dr Leona Vaughn is the Vulnerable Populations Lead for FAST (Finance Against Slavery & Trafficking) at United Nations University Centre for Policy Research. Dr Vaughn has over 25 years of experience working as an equalities and social justice expert, including as Chief Executive of the UK hate crime charity Anthony Walker Foundation and Non-Executive Director of the Liverpool FC Charitable Foundation. More recently, at the University of Liverpool (UK), Leona has worked as a Research Fellow on a number of interdisciplinary international projects researching risk, vulnerability and labour exploitation globally, and the impacts on racialised and minoritised populations, especially women and children.

Debbie Ariyo is Founder and Chief Executive of AFRUCA - Safeguarding Children. She is Founder and Chair of the UK BME Anti-Slavery Network. She is a specialist in forced migration and human trafficking and has vast experience of designing and implementing diaspora anti-trafficking engagement programmes and service provision for victims and survivors. She has served in many advisory and non-executive roles including as Trustee of the Africa Europe Diaspora Development Platform based in Brussels. She is also an Advisory Board Member of the Journal of Modern Slavery. A former UK civil servant, she holds an Executive Master degree in Public Administration from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Eric Anderson is a specialist in business and human rights, with over 20 years' experience including corporate strategy, policy development, business improvement and supply chain management. He currently leads the human rights team at Tesco and is a Trustee at Unseen, a leading anti-slavery charity. Previously, Eric led BT's global anti-slavery programme. During this time he helped set up the UK’s modern slavery helpline and co-founded Tech Against Trafficking, a coalition of tech companies working with global experts to combat modern slavery and human trafficking.

Catherine Turner is a committed and effective NGO advocate and strategist with a wealth of experience in the modern slavery and wider human rights field, as well as in international transparency and development. Notably, she was the Child Slavery Programme Coordinator at Anti-Slavery International for ten years, where, for example, she led a successful campaign to end the trafficking and use of children as camel jockeys in the UAE and beyond, and established frameworks for identifying forced child begging and when child marriage amounts to child slavery. Catherine has also led successful campaigns at Amnesty International, World Vision UK and latterly at Publish What You Fund, the international aid transparency campaign, where she was Advocacy Director and Acting CEO for a period. Her experience is underpinned by an LLM in International Human Rights Law from Essex University, an MSc in NGO Management from the London School of Business (formerly known as Cass Business School) and an MA in International Relations and European Studies from the Central European University in Budapest.

Dr Rose Broad is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester. Rose has conducted research on modern slavery and human trafficking, in collaboration with criminal justice agencies and non-government organisations, for over ten years. Her work has made use of quantitative and qualitative data in order to focus on those held responsible for these offences, adding to the limited literature in this area. Her work is closely rooted in the relationship between policy and practice and the importance of developing practice-focused outputs, having worked for over ten years in criminal justice and the voluntary sector.

Hannah Pooley is a Deputy Director in the Home Office. She is currently joint head of the Modern Slavery Unit, responsible for leading and implementing the Government’s modern slavery policy and strategy. The unit works closely with many different government departments, criminal justice and law enforcement bodies, local authorities, academia, business, charities and international bodies to collectively combat modern slavery and to support victims.

In her civil service career, Hannah has held various strategy and policy roles related to international trade, business, energy and public health. Hannah previously worked at the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, where appointments included Deputy Director for International Trade and Chief of Staff to the Permanent Secretary.

She holds a degree in International Relations from Durham University.

Professor Jennifer Rubin is the Director General for Science, Technology, Analysis and Research (STAR) and Home Office Chief Scientific Adviser.

As the director of STAR, Jennifer is responsible for bringing together research, analysis, science and international and data policy to support Home Office priorities. As Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA), she has an independent challenge function, ensuring that advice is robust, relevant and high quality, and that there are mechanisms in place to ensure that policy making is underpinned by science and evidence. In this capacity, Jennifer reports to the Government Chief Scientific Adviser.

Before joining the Home Office Professor Rubin was the Executive Chair of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the UK’s largest funder of economic and social research. Previously, Professor Rubin was Director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London, where she remains a professor. Before this, she was Executive Vice President and the Director of Communities, Safety & Justice at RAND's European offices in Brussels and Cambridge.

Marija is a human rights lawyer with a research interest in modern slavery and human trafficking, business and human rights, labour rights, migration and refugee law, and regional human rights regimes. She holds DPhil, MPhil, and Magister Juris degrees from the University of Oxford, and a law degree from Serbia. .

Marija is currently a Research Fellow in Business and Human Rights at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, the University of Oxford, and a Co-Investigator on behalf of the Bonavero Institute at the Modern Slavery and Human Rights PEC. She also holds a Senior Lectureship at the Essex Law School. She previously held a Research Fellowship at the Centre for International Law, the National University of Singapore, and a Lectureship in Law in Serbia.

She is the author of State Responsibility for ‘Modern Slavery’ in Human Rights Law (Oxford University Press, 2023) and her recent work includes a research project on the experiences of modern slavery survivors in the UK prisons and a legal analysis of compatibility of the UK’s Treaty with Rwanda and the Safety of Rwanda Bill 2024, Illegal Migration Act 2023, and Nationality and Borders Act 2022 with the UK’s international obligations towards victims of modern slavery.

Marija’s academic work seeks to contribute to both theory and practice of human rights law and is policy-oriented and impact-driven. Her legal consulting roles include collaborations with prominent international and civil society organisations in the human rights field.

Dr Alicia Heys is a Senior Lecturer in Modern Slavery at the Wilberforce Institute, part of the University of Hull, where she works on issues around modern slavery and organised crime. Alicia is interested in bridging the gap between academia and practice, and is the Chair of the Humber Modern Slavery Partnership. She led on the project developing interactive workshops for regional partnerships and is a Co-Investigator of the Modern Slavery and Human Rights PEC on behalf of the Wilberforce Institute.

Wendy Asquith is a Research Fellow in the Department of Politics at the University of Liverpool. In her recent work, Wendy has collaborated with colleagues in countries across sub-Saharan Africa to deliver the Antislavery Knowledge Network’s online exhibition. She is interested in how creative approaches can enable more equitable and inclusive partnerships and more effective policy interventions in international development.

Wendy enjoys working collaboratively and specializes in interdisciplinary research with interests in histories of humanitarianism, international institutions and postcolonial politics, which grew out of doctoral research on Haitian cultural diplomacy.

She is a Co-Investigator at the Modern Slavery and Human Rights PEC on Behalf of the University of Liverpool.

Dr Sofia Gonzalez is a Research Fellow in Business, ESG & Modern Slavery at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law. She leads the Modern Slavery PEC's research work on business and modern slavery. She is also developing a relevant research programme on Modern Slavery and businesses' ESG responsibilities for the Bingham Centre's Business Network.

Before joining the Bingham Centre she worked as a consultant for the Walk Free Foundation, looking at the garment and investor sectors reporting under the UK and Australian Modern Slavery Acts. Sofia has also undertaken research on modern slavery looking at FTSE100 companies and the UK construction sector.

Sofia holds a PhD in Business Ethics & Sustainability from King's College London. Her thesis looked at heterogenous business responses to CSR programmes in emerging markets. She also has teaching experience at King's College London leading seminars and delivering lectures in the Business School and the Department of International Development.