Making a Difference: Careers Panel 29th October 2019

This will feature the following alumni:

Chan Kataria, Group Chief Executive, emh group

Chan Kataria is the Group Chief Executive of emh group, a housing and care group with a turnover of £105m, 1,100 employees and over 20,000 homes in management. The group is a major developer of affordable homes and provider of care and support services in the East Midlands.

Chan has been in this role since 2004. Prior to this he worked for various local, regional, and national housing organisations. He is also Board member of a regional Hospice and Further Education college and a member of the CBI Regional Council.  

Gemma Lomas

Inclusion and Diversity Manager, UK House of Lords

Gemma graduated from Loughborough with a first-class degree in Social Psychology in 2015. She spent a year on sabbatical at the Students’ Union as the Welfare and Diversity Executive Officer, where she managed 30 student volunteers from a range of associations.

On leaving Loughborough, Gemma took a role as Inclusion and Diversity Officer at the University of Salford, before becoming Inclusion and Diversity Manager at the House of Lords (UK) in September 2018. She will share her experiences of making a difference through producing strategies and delivering workshops on I&D – and how that becomes embedded in an organisation.

Holly Penalver - Humanitarian Worker and Founder & CEO of Indigo Volunteers. 

After completing her degree in Psychology at Loughborough in 2008, Holly wanted to spend a year volunteering abroad before commencing her career - although not having fully conceptualised what that career should look like. This is when she first learnt about the dubitable practices and

disorganisation in the volunteering sector.  She then went on to complete her post-graduate study in nursing, stumbling upon the same issues again when she wanted to volunteer abroad using her nursing skills.  From these experiences, the idea of Indigo Volunteers was born. Indigo has been placing thousands of volunteers to grassroots projects around the world, going from strength to strength ever since.  Holly is now based in Samos, running the charity from the latest refugee crisis hotspot.

Sophie Rihm, Indigo Volunteers

Originally from Switzerland, Sophie moved to the UK to finish school and then went on to study Psychology at Loughborough University where she graduated in 2018. During this time she was introduced to the world of volunteering and has thus volunteered in India, Sri Lanka and the UK. After graduating, she wanted to continue with this journey before diving into further education and whilst researching opportunities stumbled across Indigo. Immediately attracted to the entire concept of Indigo, she successfully applied and was off to Greece three weeks after. She has now been in Greece since October 2018, working on the ground and coordinating the volunteers applying via Indigo.

Jimmy Zacharaiah, CEO, The Baca Charity

This charity provides specialist supported accommodation and development training for young people who are 16 years and over.  We specifically work with separated young people who are seeking asylum, some of whom have been victims of trafficking.