Claire Gouzouli, Chairman

Claire has a background in strategy consulting. She has advised clients in over 20 countries, in a variety of sectors ranging from manufacturing through marketing and advertising agencies to financial services. In 1990 she co-founded First Consulting. She is currently the senior outside advisor to one of the largest shipping families in Greece. Claire is an active angel investor. She chaired Vitamin Brands up until the sale of the company to Pepsi in 2008. For over a decade, Claire has been an active volunteer for INSEAD. She has been President of both the UK and the Global Alumni Associations, a trustee of the Alumni Fund and has served on the Board of INSEAD. A Greek national, Claire holds Masters Degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Economics from Germany and an MBA from INSEAD in France.

Marcelle Speller, OBE, Founder and Chief Executive

Marcelle is the founder, Chief Executive and funder of Localgiving.com. She is also a trustee of Community Foundation Network, and the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Community Foundation. She was the sole owner of the company since its start up in 2008. In April 2010 she transferred all her shares to the Community Foundation Network and the Ardbrack Foundation, a personal foundation whose mission is to enable philanthropic giving to local charities and community groups. After ten years in advertising agencies in London and Amsterdam, and an MBA at INSEAD, Marcelle held various Director and Board level marketing positions with multinational companies including American Express, Avis and Inter-Continental Hotels. In 1996 she co-founded Holiday-Rentals.com which became Europe’s leading website for advertising private holiday homes. The company was sold to Homeaway Inc in 2005. In 2007/8 Marcelle attended the Institute for Philanthropy’s Philanthropy Workshop, which gave her the inspiration to found Localgiving.com. Marcelle received an OBE in June 2011 for her extensive work in philanthropy.

Hamish Mackenzie, Director

Hamish Mackenzie has more than 20 years experience of investing and managing investments in Europe, North America and Asia. He brings a broad range of relationships at a senior level in corporations and organisations across Europe as well as experience as a non-executive director overseeing strategic development, most recently at Kwik-Fit and United Biscuits. He started his career as a solicitor in Scotland, where he was a partner for five years before moving into investment in 1989.

Matthew Bowcock, Non-Executive Director

Matthew Bowcock is a non-executive director of Localgiving.com and the Chair of Community Foundation Network. He has founded and developed software and biotechnology companies in Australia, the US and the UK and been a director of a number of private and public companies. He now dedicates his time to community philanthropy. He also studied strategic philanthropy at the Institute for Philanthropy with Marcelle Speller, where the need for Localgiving.com was first identified.

Stephen Hammersley, Non-Executive Director

Stephen Hammersley joined Community Foundation Network (CFN) in 2004 as Chief Executive. CFN supports and represents UK community foundations, the country’s leading independent funders of charitable community activity. Stephen joined CFN from Tearfund where he was Director responsible for pro-poor enterprise. Prior to that Stephen spent 17 years at Barclays mostly in business project management, but ending up as Head of Marketing for what is now a division of Barclays Wealth. Stephen is Chair of the Leprosy Mission’s trading company, runs part of his Church’s youth activity and chairs the UK fundraising committee for a refugee hostel in Nepal.

Doug Laughlen, Non-Executive Director

Doug is a veteran of a wide range of companies on three continents. He has an engineering degree from the university of Waterloo in Canada and an MBA from INSEAD in France. His work has ranged from the smallest firms (two kids and an idea) to the largest (IBM). He was one of Cisco’s first employees in Europe and co-founded their internet/telecoms group in the UK as well as managing major accounts and territories. He started his first software company while still in university, and continued on that path, building, managing and financing a number of other early stage firms in various areas of technology and business, including software, broadband video, VoIP and travel. Doug has been a member of the International and UK boards of the INSEAD Alumni association, the cofounder of a large community of entrepreneurs, international business plan judge, incubator board member, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is also an executive coach, father, lover of contemporary design and avid traveller. His biggest passion (apart from wife and kids of course) is the social impact of technology and how it can change our world for the better.