Meet Our Brilliant Board

Samaia Mashal LiC Trustee Chair Head Shot Large

Sumaia Mashal
Chair

Sumaia has been Chair of the Board of Trustees at Leaders in Community (LiC) since 2022 and has been actively involved with the organisation for many years. Her commitment to youth empowerment began during her time as Chair of the Poplar HARCA Youth Empowerment Board, where she led a successful funding campaign and oversaw the development of the Spotlight Youth Centre, a key partner of LiC.
Sumaia is passionate about creating opportunities for young people, reducing inequalities, and promoting female leadership. She is involved in numerous professional networks that focus on these causes and actively participates in coaching and mentoring programmes.
A clinical pharmacist by training, Sumaia transitioned into national roles at the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England, where she worked in various professional and policy capacities. She now works at a consulting firm, supporting national health policy initiatives.
Sumaia enjoys experimenting with new food recipes, adding her twist to them. She loves traveling, especially when it involves snorkelling, diving, or hiking and has also recently discovered a passion for boxing, a hobby she stumbled upon by chance!

Shelly Zucker
Treasurer

Shelley has recently joined the LiC Board as Treasurer. She is a Depositary Manager, looking after UK authorised funds and ensuring compliance and safeguarding of assets, focusing on maintaining the highest standards in governance and regulatory adherence. Her role involves collaborating closely with clients to navigate regulatory requirements and to provide robust oversight and risk management.
Prior to this role, she worked in Agency Securities Lending, focusing on regulatory and control oversight, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements, implementing controls, and managing risk to support seamless lending operations and trading.
Shelley’s experience gained in both Depositary Management and Regulatory Controls Oversight aligns well with the responsibilities of the Treasurer position, bringing key pillars of oversight, compliance, and challenge to the Board.

Simon Dodd
Vice Treasurer

Simon joined the Board of Trustees in late 2025 and currently acts as Vice Treasurer within the Finance Team.

Simon has worked in the Finance industry for over 30 years, for international banks in the City and Canary Wharf in a variety of different roles. His current role is in risk management, enabling effective collaboration between upstream and downstream partners in the closing of bilateral and syndicated lending and trade finance products in the EMEA region.

Prior to this, Simon has worked in relationship management, credit analysis and middle office roles, ensuring attention to detail, comprehensive documentation and partnership with quality assurance amongst other control oversight functions.

Simon’s long standing experience gained in various pillars of compliance aligns with the requirements of oversight of the Charity’s financial position as well as working with the Treasurer and the Board to accomplish the aims of the Charity.

Andy McGuire

Andy joined the Leaders in Community Board in late 2025. He is driven by a strong belief that opportunity should be accessible to everyone and is committed to reducing the hurdles that prevent people from reaching their potential.

Professionally, Andy works as a Compliance Officer at an investment bank, where he has spent his career making complex regulatory requirements understandable and workable. This includes fostering environments where good governance feels empowering rather than restrictive, and for constructively challenging businesses and holding senior leaders to account.
Alongside this, Andy chairs the board of trustees of an academy trust in South East London, supporting six primary schools and helping to ensure strong governance and positive outcomes for young people.

Outside of work, he’s passionate about sport and long distance running, and he’s a regular at the theatre – always energised by creativity, community, and movement.

Asad Bendeali

Asad founded A Spark Consulting in 2021, a research and human-centred design firm with a mission to educate and empower those driving public system transformation. Through his work, Asad aims to equip those who serve communities with the tools and knowledge to drive impactful change.
Asad has led numerous transformative projects, from launching the “Growing Kinship Connection,” a kinship navigation programme in child welfare, to designing and facilitating equity-centred leadership programmes for health care leaders. His work emphasises real-world solutions that centre on equity, innovation, and transformation.
Before launching A Spark Consulting, Asad served as a Policy Strategy Lead at St. Louis County, Minnesota, where he focused on elevating the voices of families, communities, and tribes to reduce child abuse and neglect. His efforts involved community engagement, impact investing, strategic planning with key stakeholders, and grant making.
Prior to this, Asad was an Improvement Advisor at Community Solutions, coaching leaders across 10 government jurisdictions on using quality improvement, data analytics, and human-centred design in service of ending homelessness.
Asad is a former Foster America fellow and holds a Master’s degree from Cal Poly Pomona and a Bachelor’s from the University of California, Irvine. He lives between Los Angeles and London, with his wife and son.

Janice Arthur

Janice is a trainee solicitor at a leading property development company, where she plays a key role in drafting complex contracts and assisting with multimillion-pound deals. Her legal expertise, particularly in the areas of property law and high-value transactions, allows her to navigate intricate legal frameworks with precision and insight. Janice holds a law degree, which has provided her with a solid foundation in legal principles and a strong commitment to justice.
In 2024, Janice joined Leaders in Community as a trustee, motivated by her passion for empowering young people. She is dedicated to helping young people develop the skills and opportunities they need to speak out about important community issues and challenge inequalities. Janice believes that young voices are vital to creating positive change, and she is committed to supporting initiatives that amplify their perspectives and drive social progress.
Through her work as a trustee, Janice aims to combine her legal background with her dedication to social justice, helping Leaders in Community create a more inclusive and equitable society.
Janice is proud to contribute her knowledge and experience to an organisation that shares her vision for empowering the next generation of leaders.

Merlyn Holkar

Merlyn lives and works in East London. He works in policy at the Financial Conduct Authority on the Consumer Duty, a flagship initiative to drive high standards of consumer protection across the financial services industry. Merlyn previously worked in the charity sector at Money and Mental Health Policy Institute where he managed a community of over 5,000 people with lived experience of mental health problems who are at the heart of the charity’s work. He is passionate about inclusive approaches to designing policy and services.

Nasim Ahmed

Nasim is a board member and trustee at Leaders in the Community (LIC) since 2019. However, his journey with LIC began much earlier, as he participated in several youth projects with the organisation during his teens.
Nasim is truly grateful to be part of LiC, especially at this pivotal stage of its history, where its expanded its reach significantly and deepened its engagement within the local community. His role as a trustee has given him the opportunity to assist in shaping strategic priorities, contribute to key decisions, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
He brings a blend of legal knowledge, strategic thinking, and governance experience to LiC. He is an aspiring solicitor, and has a background that spans: youth engagement, community outreach, and corporate governance, making him well-equipped to support LiC’s mission of empowering young people and improving community wellbeing.
Nasim is committed to using his skills and experience to further elevate LiC’s presence and contribute to positive, lasting change that empowers young people in our community to grow, thrive, and reach their full potential.