Staff

Chief Executive - Andrew Copson

Andrew became Chief Executive in January 2010 after five years coordinating the BHA's education and public affairs work. His writing on humanist and secularist issues has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, The Times and New Statesman as well as in various journals and he has represented the BHA and Humanism extensively on television news on BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky, as well as on television programmes such as Newsnight, The Daily Politics and The Big Questions. He has also appeared on radio on programmes from Today, Sunday, The World at One, The Last Word and Beyond Belief on the BBC, to local and national commercial radio stations.

He is a former director of the European Humanist Federation (EHF) and is currently a Vice President of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), where he leads on Communications. He has previously served as a delegate of the IHEU to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg and has also represented humanist organisations to the United Nations (UN) and Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). He has advised on Humanism for the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Authority, the Department for Children, Schools and Families, the BBC, and the Office of National Statistics among others. He is a member of the Advisory Group for the Humanist Library at London's Conway Hall and, in a previous post in the office of Lord Macdonald of Tradeston in the House of Lords, he provided the secretariat for the All Party Parliamentary Humanist Group.

Andrew graduated from the University of Oxford with a first in Ancient and Modern History and was a member of the winning team of the 2005 Young Educational Thinker of the Year Programme. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, a Member of the Chartered Management Institute, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and an Associate of the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff University. He came to the BHA in 2005 from the Citizenship Foundation, where he worked on political literacy projects.

Contact Andrew

Assistant to the Chief Executive - Cynthia Scott-Clark

Cynthia joined the BHA in 2010 after working for three years as an editor at a small book publisher based in Lewes. She has BA degrees in English Literature and Creative Writing from Elon University in North Carolina, US. Cynthia is responsible for Andrew's scheduling and administration, she is editor of BHA News and deals with most the BHA's HR and facility needs.

Contact Cynthia. 

Head of Public Affairs - Pavan Dhaliwal

Pavan heads the BHA’s public affairs team, and is responsible for the BHA’s campaigns covering a wide range of issues including public services, equality law, ethical issues, religion and schools, and social cohesion.

Pavan has worked in high level advisory and Head of Policy and Public Affairs roles for the past seven years. She is an equalities and human rights expert with a special interest in youth, criminal justice and education policy. She joined the BHA in January 2012.

Contact Pavan.

Head of Education and Promotion - Sara Passmore

Sara studied Education and English Literature at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and has since led on multi-million pound educational programmes across the UK as a projects manager at pfeg (Personal Finance Education Group). Sara is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and in her spare time helps run SCI-FI-LONDON, the London International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastical Film. 

Sara joined the BHA in May 2011. She has responsibility for promoting understanding of Humanism, including through an educational setting, and for promoting the BHA to diverse audiences.

Contact Sara

Head of Ceremonies - Ben Siegle

Ben started his career in the financial services sector before moving into media, firstly in feature film production followed by a business development and marketing role as Books Manager at the Guardian and Observer publishing imprint Guardian Books. He then founded a Corporate Internal Communications consultancy, before taking on roles in operational management, financial control and marketing in the worlds of online music and film distribution.

Contact Ben.

Campaigns Officer (Faith Schools and Education) - Richy Thompson

Richy graduated from the University of Oxford in 2010 with a Masters in Computer Science. While a student there he founded and was the first President of Oxford Atheists, Secularists and Humanists, and also coordinated the first Oxford Think Week. He subsequently became Press Officer of the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies (AHS), and in July 2010 was elected as the third President. He simultaneously became a campaigns volunteer at the BHA as well as the European Humanist Federation, before becoming the BHA's Faith Schools and Education Campaigner in May 2011.

Contact Richy.

Ceremonies Training Officer - David Pack

David has been a celebrant since 1999 and has a professional background on training and development.

He joined the celebrants’ training team in 2006 and took up the post of Ceremonies Training Officer early in 2007.  He looks after the celebrants’ training programme and provides various other aspects of support to our celebrants.

Contact David.

Ceremonies Assistant - Vanessa Ashbee

Vanessa joined us in 2004 to help Tamsin part-time in our busy office, while also working as a professional opera singer.

Vanessa read English and French at Birmingham University before starting her singing training at Birmingham Conservatoire and completing her M.Mus at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.  She has sung with the CBSO as the soprano soloist in Mozart's Requiem in Birmingham Symphony Hall, has worked with Mid Wales Opera and Opera East Productions, and regularly appears in charity opera galas around the city.

Contact Vanessa.

Head of Operations - Bernard Halter

Bernard graduated from The University of York with a degree in Chemistry and for many years pursued a scientific career in the pharmaceutical industry.

On being made redundant he took advantage of the opportunity to read for a Theology degree with London University and fulfil a lifelong ambition to understand the true nature and origins of Christianity. As a direct result of his learning he lost belief in religious teachings and practice, and left the church.

Now a humanist with a theology degree, Bernard joined the BHA in 2006 as a volunteer and has gone on to become our Head of Operations.

ICT, Database and Web Officer - Andrew West

Andrew joined in May 2011, after two years volunteering as the BHA's Photographer-in-Residence. He ran his own IT company for nine years before joining the BHA, and is now responsible for managing the office computers, as well as our various websites. He recently completed a part-time photography degree, where he spent four years trying to teach his tutors the difference between 'humanist' and 'humorist'. He also represented the BHA on the Fourth Plinth.

Contact Andrew.

Office Manager - Tamsin Van Dyken

Contact Tamsin.