Meet our Trustees
We’re youth-led not just in name, but in everything we do. Our strategy, campaigns and communications are shaped by young people’s insights, ideas and lived experience. Our staff team works side-by-side with our Youth Board, using their experience and networks to back young people to lead real, meaningful change.
Behind it all is a Board of Trustees who are here to support, challenge and champion that mission.
Bite Back is overseen by a strong and experienced Board of Trustees. The organisation was first led by World Food Prize winner Dr Lawrence Haddad (2019–2021), followed by Dr Corinna Hawkes (2021–2023), now Global Director of Food Systems at the UN Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO). Most recently, the Board was chaired by Baroness Anne Longfield (2023–2026), former Children’s Commissioner for England. And the next Chair could be you.
The Board is currently led by Interim Chair Peter Freedman (former Managing Director at the Consumer Goods Forum) and is made up of seven Trustees, including three Youth Trustees who were previously members of our Youth Board.
Together, they help make sure we stay true to what matters: being youth-led, always. They bring expertise across campaigning, education, digital mobilisation, finance, PR and youth leadership but most importantly, they back young people to take the lead.
You can see their profiles below,
PETER FREEDMAN
Interim Chair
Peter has extensive experience in executive and governance roles in the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Alongside his role at Bite Back, he currently Chairs the Boards of: Avaaz Foundation, Police Now and Spring Impact. He is also the Treasurer of Anti-Slavery International. He was formerly the Managing Director of The Consumer Goods Forum and, prior to that, a senior partner at McKinsey & Company.
TASHA MHAKAYAKORA
Trustee
Tasha is a youth leader and advocate focused on empowering young people to influence the decisions that shape their lives. While serving as the founding Co-Chair of the Youth Board at Bite Back, and now as a trustee, she has represented youth voices on childhood obesity and food system transformation at global forums, including with UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Obesity Federation. Beyond her activism, she is currently pursuing a legal career on the path to becoming a solicitor.
DERIN ELEGBEDE
Trustee
For me, 2020 exposed just how broken our food system is and I couldn’t stay silent. I stumbled across Bite Back through social media which has led to over five years of activism, fighting for a fairer food system and fighting for young people’s right to be healthy. With Bite Back I have travelled the world speaking truth to power, spreading the word at international conferences and working with many communities on improving their food options. Now I want to empower more young people who are passionate about young people’s rights, health and more.
BRETT WIGDORTZ, OBE
Trustee
Brett’s lifelong mission is to help every child access an excellent education. He wrote the original business plan for Teach First and led the organisation for fifteen years, helping to build it into one of the UK’s leading movements to tackle education inequality and the largest graduate recruiter in the country. He is co-founder and was Deputy CEO of Teach For All, which has brought the model to over 50 countries around the world. His current focus is as co-founder and CEO of Tiney.co, a digital platform that aims to improve the quality of early years education. He was the non-executive chairman of the UK’s National Citizen Service. He is also a trustee & co-founder of Teach First Israel and the UK Fair Education Alliance. He received an OBE for services to education in 2012.
REUBEN BYFIELD
Trustee
Reuben has been part of the Bite Back family for nearly three years, from Youth Board member to Ambassador to Trustee. Passionate about food insecurity and youth power, he studies PPE at Warwick, is an #iWill Ambassador, and has advised on the DCMS National Youth Strategy and for NCS Trust.
RIMA AMIN
Trustee
Rima Amin is a Security Policy Manager at Meta focused on community defense specialising in tackling adversarial threats such as influence operations, fraud, hacking and cyber espionage. In a previous role Rima developed global policy and supported activists for the online campaign platform Change.org. Rima holds a BA in Journalism from City, University of London.
GORM THOMASSEN
Trustee
Gorm is AKO Capital’s Chief Investment Officer and their co-portfolio manager for the AKO European funds. He has been with AKO since the firm’s inception in 2005, and previously was with Cazenove. Gorm has been a Bite Back Trustee since 2020 and serves on the Financial Sub-Committee.
DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION & BELONGING (DEI-B)
A fairer food system means that every young person can access affordable, healthy food, no matter where they live or who they are. To achieve this, all Bite Back’s people must feel seen, heard and empowered.
Our working culture and values, Real, Respectful, Resilient, Fresh and Energetic, reflects this vision. We support our staff, young people and trustees to live Bite Back’s values in their work. At Bite Back, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging means that our people are able to join and navigate the workplace, trusting they’ll be supported to thrive, and that we’ll respond with compassion and make change when things fall short. We recognise the systems of oppression which keep marginalised groups from power, and seek to proactively build equity.
We are intentional about representation. We actively recruit under-represented voices, ensuring our staff team and youth board are representative of a wide variety of lived experiences. We push to improve outcomes for those kept furthest from power, celebrate differences and ensure accessibility is built in, not added on.
Our aspiration and intention is that Bite Back is an organisation that recognises, shares and acts on its power and responsibility to young people, employees, community and wider society, driving equity and inclusion in every space, and in every decision.