Meet the Team
With a passion for doing good, faster, Laura, Heather, and Darleen are committed to actively driving the foundation's mission within the Third Sector.
With decades of combined experience in the field and a diverse range of creative and practical skills, the small team delivers all projects and campaigns, either independently, in collaboration with external supporters, or alongside volunteers from across gunnercooke llp.
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We are here to contribute to work that makes a difference.
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Whether you're a small charity leader or CEO in need of a supportive network, or you're looking for helpful resources on impact reporting, marketing, AI, sustainable income, alternative business models, and more, we're here to support you.
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Maybe you're a business looking to support the foundation or get involved with our mission at the House of Books & Friends. Or perhaps you're a gunnercooke partner wanting to create space for smaller charities across the UK, as a Hub Leader...
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There are plenty of ways we can all do good, faster.
Laura (right) is our Foundation Director, Heather (middle) is our Foundation Manager, and Darleen (left) is our Foundation Admin Assistant.
​The foundation is governed by a Board of four Trustees who are committed to the objects of the charity. Board member expertise includes law, business, finance, investment, risk management, marketing, and fundraising.
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You can find more information on the great people involved with each of our projects via this link.
Sarah Lynch
Operating Partner & Project Director
Sarah is an experienced director specialising in change management, innovation and new business generation within International businesses and Not-For-Profits with global brands such as Clarks and Manchester City FC.
Sarah has enjoyed applying her commercial skills for social good establishing and growing charitable foundations in the UK and abroad, and also enabling businesses to maximise their social impact through their charitable work.
Laura Fisher
Trustee
Marketing Director
Laura has overall strategic respon​sibility for the development of gunnercooke's internal and external brand and marketing services, with a wealth of knowledge across all new and tradit​ional marketing techniques. Laura supports both individuals and groups of partners on new products, business development, brand and profile raising.​
Darryl Cooke
Trustee
Darryl is the founder and visionary behind gunnercooke llp. In 2012 Darryl established the gunnercooke Foundation, the firm’s charitable foundation to help growing and ambitious charities. In 2022 he achieved his vision to launch a not-for-profit bookshop and House of Books & Friends opened in Manchester, where every penny of profit goes back into tackling loneliness and social isolation in the community.
Naseer Patel
Trustee
Finance Director
​Naseer joined gunnercooke in October 2015 with overall responsibility for managing the financial performance of the firm. He is a chartered accountant with a strong commercial focus, particularly around strategy execution, process improvement and governance. Naseer has a wealth of experience in the legal sector, having been the Head of Finance of a traditional law firm prior to jo​​ining gunnercooke and has also held different Non-Executive Director and Trustee positions.​​
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Sarah Goulbourne
Trustee
As the co-founder of gunnercooke, Sarah is passionate about challenging, improving and evolving the way in which legal services are delivered to businesses.
Sarah is also hugely passionate about creating a business model that gives back, helping to improve our communities and in turn our planet.