The people behind London Creative Labs
THE FOUNDERS
Sofia Bustamante — Founder, Facilitator, Coach
Sofia had the initial idea and drove the first six months. Sofia is a designer and facilitator of living systems and her role is to host the whole.
From March 2010 to September 2011 Sofia was one of 15 "London Leaders" selected by the London Sustainable Development Commission. In April 2013 Sofia won the people's vote for Ogunte Women's Social Leadership Award.
See Sofia's LinkedIn Profile here.
Mamading Ceesay — Co-Founder, Futurist, Strategic Advisor
Mamading has been an invaluable asset in shaping the vision behind London Creative Labs. A rare individual — who traverses the various boundaries that are important to our times, His contributions range from pithy one-liners to identifying and articulating the subtleties in extremely complex systems whether they are social, technical, economic, political or a combination thereof. Since March 2009, Mamading has taken an executive role and has ensured that what we do ties in with current political and economic reality, enabling us to work with existing institutional structures in exciting ways.
See Mamading's LinkedIn Profile here.
THE CORE TEAM
Tamya Sylvana Bustamante — Operations Manager
Tamya is the longest standing team member. She joined LCL in the summer of 2010 and brought operational know-how and balance to the often hectic agenda of a startup organisation. The combination of her positive nature and logistical skills made for an ideal front of house role at our events, maintaining high standards in our client care. Sylvana lead the outreach for the Skills Camps, and was also a trainee career coach on the Camp programme, supporting participants who are new to career coaching. We could not have run our Brixton programme without her.
After the successful StartupBrixton Programme, Tamya and Annette led the Next Steps Programme, an after-programme for Skills Camps graduates.
Nicholas Okwulu — Community Development Worker
Nicholas grew up on Loughborough Estate, in the most deprived wards in Lambeth – one of ten estates that London Creative Labs is targeting in its current programme. Nicholas is a dedicated Community Enabler, running projects and workshops on themes that range from Community Cohesion to Education. He is the founder of PemPeople: People Empowering People. Nicholas brings real, practical and innovative approaches that are already helping people to shift several gears in their journey towards employment and enterprise.
Victoria Barambones — Coach and Expert in Gender Issues
Vicky built an organization from scratch in Madrid and has worked on projects similar to London Creative Labs - encouraging people to find work - as well as on projects that fall under the theme of personal development. Vicky’s passion is for gender mainstreaming and community empowerment. She has worked with a variety of community organizations and in particular women’s associations enabling them to develop appropriate projects in their areas. Her work stems from a core perspective that everyone has the capacity to analyze and take decisions about their own lives according to what is important to them – rather than simply reacting to situations. She has run workshops on self-esteem, communication skills, critical and analytical thinking. She was a coach on the Skills Camps programme, and played a key role in liaising with the Latin American community on behalf of London Creative Labs.
Journey:
Vicky continues to give LCL fantastic support through her volunteering commitment and has become a key member in the team. It all started after she checked out our website and felt a deep alignment between our vision and goals and her own. After a conversation over skype, Vicky wanted to contribute to our vision by volunteering with us. Her belief in the creative power of healthy communities where people support each other to thrive, resonated strongly with the core beliefs of LCL.
Vicky joined us at the beginning of a transformative phase in the LCL journey, as such she has contributed in many ways to helping us make a difference. Here are just a few of them:
- Dedicated voluntary support to the LCL team & community in Brixton.
- Supported first and second phases of outreach to a new community.
- Led in liaising with local Latin American community.
- Participated in the Skills Camps training and was able to deliver parts of the course.
- Shared valuable thoughts, reflection, and ideas which improved Skills Camps.
- Dedicated 1-1 participant care in Skills Camps.
- Logistics/front of house/1-1 coaching/assignment evaluation for Skills Camps.
- Worked on analysing Social Startup Labs data.
- Developed creative methods of interpreting data.
- Designed creative materials for LCL’s World Cafe event in Brixton.
- Drove LCL’s Social Media presence.
How we see Vicky:
What has really struck us about Vicky is her caring, playful and creative nature, the fundamental basis from which her abilities in critical thinking about data sharing and data analysis flow. Through a transformational stage in our organisation where we were developing week by week, Vicky has stuck with us and adapted to meet the needs of our organisation. She has brought both a light and insightful energy to the team, keeping her alignment to her vision of empowering communities to be healthy.Interesting Fact:
Vicky has trained in Hapkido and Sofia and Vicky mutually interviewed each other by attending an aikido class together!Vicky's catch-phrase: COME ON!
Rocio Veloso — Educational Consultant
Rocio is working as an educational consultant in London Creative Labs team. She is an Educational Psychologist, specialized in adult education in Chile. She has worked in different educational bodies, such us: schools, Universities and an Educational Foundation. Rocio has always been highly motivated by the development of healthy and flourishing relationships in both her professional and personal life. Currently, she is developing her coaching practice in the UK helping people that are interested in cultivating more authentic and profound relationships with themselves, their loved ones and any important aspect in their lives (careers, money, spirituality, etc.)
Journey:
Rocio’s journey with LCL began with her attending the Skills Camps as a participant on the first Skills Camps Course. She was a fantastic participant who developed a deep understanding of the material, sharing her profound reflections during the sessions and fortified the development of her peers through her insights. Rocio graduated as a 5 star coach who had not only showed skill in her coaching methods but who also made incredible transformations in her personal life. She then volunteered her time and energy to work at LCL. Rocio believes in the potential of human beings and in working to grow human development through compassion, understanding and in seeking to express individual human truths in the relationships we have with each other.
Some of Rocio’s contributions included:
- Development of organisational culture and created a healthy working environment.
- Developed principles of participation with LCL.
- Co-designed volunteer induction and recruitment process for LCL.
- Supported event logistics, delivery/ front of house and assignment evaluation of Skills Camps.
- Dedicated 1-1 participant care in Skills Camps.
- Supported Social Startup Labs event logistics & front of house.
- Supported in aspects of Skills Camps course design.
- Delivered parts of the Skills Camps.
How we see Rocio:
Rocio embodies compassion through clarity of communication. Through her unique qualities she has greatly supported progressive development of some of the Skills Camps methodology. From her academic and professional achievements to her transformations in coaching, Rocio has been a terrific asset to the organisation.
Interesting Fact:Rocio was a singer in a band who she travelled in a campervan with around South America.
Catch-phrase: Really..?
Annette Holtom — Management Consultant
Annette is currently consulting to London Creative Labs as a Management Consultant and Trainee Coach. She brings out the brilliance in people with her positive, can-do approach and caring attitude towards the people in our community. She is street-smart with roots intelligence, having grown up in South London. Annette is passionate about communities and co-founded The CaribOz Family Inc. (CaribOz) in 2004. CaribOz is a Caribbean/Australian non-profit community organisationwhich promotes and preserves the cultural heritage of the Caribbean people in Australia. She coaches in time-management, CV compilation, career analysis, achievements, life purpose, email etiquette, new office structures and planning procedures having worked as a senior Executive Assistant for over 15 years and also as a Business Operations Manager. Annette worked both in the UK and Australia. She worked for a breadth of organisations from BBC Worldwide, Brambles to Vodafone.
Journey:
Annette also joined us in the LCL journey after participating on the Skills Camps Course. She stood out in class through her determination, authenticity and integrity to practice the coaching tools, both on herself and helping peers and even new clients outside the coaching course. Annette has contributed on many different levels to LCL. As well as logistically on the events and organisational, administrative tasks she has dedicated 1-1 participant care and coaching.Here are some of the tasks/roles Annette undertook:
- Gave time management coaching to LCL core team members.
- Skills Camps event delivery/ logistics/ front of house/ admin.
- Delivered aspects of Skills Camps Course.
- Logistics/front of house/1-1 coaching/assignment evaluation for Skills Camps.
- 1-1 coaching to participants.
- Dedicated 1-1 Participant care inside and outside working hours
- Creative input in course design, materials & structure of Skills Camps
- Co-Outreach manager on second Skills Camps
- Led in Social Startup Labs data organisation
- Co-collaborated in Social Startup Labs data analysis
Annette’s dedication to the coaching practice blossomed through the course and lead to her starting a pilot ‘After Skills Camps - Next Steps Programme’. The aim of this 6 week follow on course, was for our Skills Camps Graduates to practice pure coaching in weekly sessions, on each other and keep the tools the learned on the Skills Camps course, fresh and active in their lives. The course helped bring Graduates back to the process of continually moving towards what they want to achieve. Annette created and project managed this pilot programme, with support from LCL, without any funding and offered it free to the Graduates.
How we feel about Annette:
Annette has many unique qualities. The one that strikes us most of all is her impeccable integrity. She has a way of seeing her mission and doing whatever it takes to get it done. It is beautiful to experience/ see this energy as Annette is a woman who wholly gives her energy, mind and soul to supporting people through coaching. She’s deeply believe in bringing the brilliance out in people.
Annette truly embodies the phrase ‘discipline is remembering what you want’.
Interesting Fact Annette loved Formula One motor racing, so much so that she worked free of charge as an Official at Silverstone so she could go onto the circuit and into the Pit. She also travelled around Europe to Gran Prix meets.
Catch-phrase: "Don't worry, i'll sort it".
Jose Ramon Texeria — Innovation Consultant
Jose is a highly skilled innovation consultant and has worked on a wide range of projects focused on service and strategic design, creative research, project finance and execution, both in the UK and in Spain. He is the President of INEMAR a non for profit organisation, which aims to develop innovative approaches to sustainable development in fisheries and include local actors in the process. Feast your eyes on his work here.
Jose has brought this creative flair and natural curiosity to support LCL in their journey and joined us at the last quarter of our programme Startup Brixton. Jose got under the skin of the LCL vision and was quickly able to emmerse himself into contributing to the work with ease. Jose volunteered his time in various aspects of the organisation including critical thinking, data analysis and of course in his beautiful and innovative designs of our Social Startup Labs data, which you can see an example of here.
Jose has been a wonderful and critical asset to the LCL team, we are delighted to have his continued support and engagement.
THE BOARD
James Arthur — Board Member
James is a geek generalist with a background in marketing and communications. He worked for six years as the Digital Media Director of Large Blue, co-founded green.tv and has represented the UK creative industries in China on behalf of the IVCA and UKTI. Now Co-founder of Togethr and active Espian, James is a Trustee of London Creative Labs.
Gloria Charles — Board Member
Gloria is intentional about empowerment and peer-led education as a tool for raising confidence and aspirations of the marginalised. With 16yrs experience in the third sector spanning international aid, training and employment and education projects she is currently involved with a number of social enterprises and charitable organisations.
David Pinto — Board Member
David has explored social innovation in mainstream schools, developing a self-discipline system before applying what he learned to the adult world of business as self-organisation. He has written a book "WISDOM - a Conversational Tango" which outlines a methodology based on emergence and non-organisational thought.
STRATEGIC ADVISORS
Tav Espian — Visionary, Symbiotic Engineer
Tav, the leader of the Espian collective, has provided strategic insight and helped streamline many aspects of London Creative Labs. We value his advice highly!
Attributions
Icon Illustrations by David Mills
People Illustrations on Flyer by Charlotte Mellor-Meecham
