Who we are

An experienced impact team

We are a team of highly experienced and creative professionals working across social and environmental issues and with expertise across the impact cycle, including in research, stakeholder engagement, participatory processes, impact, strategy and evaluation. 

Team

Rachael Clay

FOUNDER DIRECTOR

Rachael founded Ethicore in 2008 to improve the impact that business, institutions, and NGOs have on social and environmental outcomes globally and locally.  She is particularly focused on the potential to develop transformational partnerships, systematic innovation and sustainable impact, based on deep insight and engagement. Her work as a strategic social innovator spans over 25 years, with technical expertise across many SDGs.  She is an expert in global research and engagement, participatory processes, facilitation, strategy, organisational development, partnerships, resource development and evaluation. Rachael works at all levels, with Boards, CEOs, technical and functional experts, teams and networks to enable impact, while strengthening capacity. She is a trained coach and NLP Master Practitioner.

Prior to setting up Ethicore, Rachael was a Senior Manager at Oxfam for over ten years, in various roles, including establishing a Strategy Development and Market Intelligence Function, and developing Oxfam’s digital presence and team. In her early career, Rachael worked as an Account Director for a commercial research agency and as a Business Manager at the Ordnance Survey, Britain’s Mapping Agency.  The thread throughout her career is a focus on impact.

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Annabel Marks

SENIOR STRATEGY ASSOCIATE

Annabel Marks is a global fundraising and partnerships specialist with over 15 years’ experience supporting social and environmental organisations maximise fundraising potential and drive forward strategic growth. As an international consultant and experienced facilitator, Annabel has a proven track record in helping clients develop and deliver robust funding strategies and plans to maximise income and partnership potential across all income streams, both in the UK and abroad. She is an expert in research and trend analysis, strategy development, financial modelling and business planning. She also works to support grant making bodies improve their strategic impact and grantee engagement.

Prior to consultancy, Annabel worked for ActionAid International, leading the investment and development of philanthropy teams in new global markets, to include the US, Europe, South-East Asia and Africa. She transitioned to this role from ActionAid UK, where she worked in various roles within the Philanthropy and Partnerships team working with HNWI’s and corporates.

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Caterina Violi

SENIOR RESEARCH ASSOCIATE

Caterina is a skilled market and social researcher with over 15 years of experience. Her expertise spans quantitative research, data analysis and models to qualitative methods, delivering impactful insights across diverse sectors.

Her journey began in 2006 at Oxfam, where she honed her skills as a research and data analyst. She then moved to the research think tank nfpSynergy in 2007, where she worked on projects for prominent charities, including Macmillan Cancer Support, Cancer Research UK, Care International and Friends of the Earth. In 2012, she took on a pivotal role at A New Direction, establishing and managing the research function of this London-based cultural education charity. Since 2016, Caterina has led the research arm of The Hive Change Consultancy, where she designs and delivers stakeholder research that informs training programs, focusing on culture change and transformation.

Fluent in English, Italian, and Portuguese, and French, Caterina brings a global perspective to her work. Beyond her professional achievements, she is dedicated to sharing her passion for the Brazilian martial art of Capoeira in Parma, Italy, where she founded her own school.

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Doda Szacki

RESEARCH ASSOCIATE

Doda is a qualitative researcher, evaluator, and facilitator with extensive experience in both private and non-profit sectors. Her work spans diverse fields, from stakeholder engagement and fundraising to market research, focusing on social impact, cultural, humanitarian and environmental organisations.
Her focus lies on supporting organisations through inclusive approaches and fostering collaborative environments, ensuring projects benefit from participatory processes that drive meaningful and actionable insights.
Doda has collaborated with international organisations, senior stakeholders, and partners on cross-cultural projects across Europe, the UK, Central and Eastern Europe, and Lebanon.

Drawing on her in academic background in Cultural Studies and Sociology (University of Lucerne, CH), as well as Cultural Management (Northumbria University, UK), Doda combines theoretical knowledge with practical insights to inform her work.
She is fluent in English, German, and Polish, and certified in MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning).

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Imma de Miguel

SENIOR ENGAGEMENT ASSOCIATE

Imma has built her professional experience in the field of development by working in West Africa. After 25 years in senior positions within Oxfam, she has accumulated knowledge, experience and skills that she is keen to share as an independent consultant with different stakeholders and in different contexts.

She has extensive experience in supporting programs and organizations, including influencing, organizational development, change management and strategic thinking and planning. She is an advocacy, campaigning and leadership trainer and a facilitator that enjoys mobilizing the collective intelligence of groups to address context and build on their passion for meaningful impact.

She practices yoga and enjoys being in touch with nature, which gives her the energy to collaborate with others to change the world for the better for all.

She is fluent in Spanish, French and English.

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Cristina Rigman

SENIOR STRATEGY ASSOCIATE

Cristina is a passionate Leadership & Adaptability Strategist, Speaker, Trainer & Coach focusing on people development for thriving organisations.

She has an inquisitive mind and a structured thinking, able to distill complex information into logical and clear schemes easily to understand by others. She has over 20 years of experience working in the nonprofit sector in various leadership and expert positions in European Union, Western Balkans, South Caucasus and Asia.

Cristina has permanently blended the academic learning from her Political Science and social research studies with the practical work in the field of people and organisations, loving the depth a research approach provides only if anchored in the hands-on experiences in the field.

Cristina is fluent in Romanian and English, and conversational in Italian and French.

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Jo Zaremba

SENIOR ASSOCIATE

Jo is a facilitator who helps people find ways to address complex problems in an ever changing world through applying systems thinking, multi-stakeholder and participatory approaches. Jo has held technical, advisory and managerial roles with NGOs, the UN, foundations and in the Private sector working on economic inclusion, livelihoods, food security, markets approaches, environmental protection, health research and humanitarian assistance. She has worked in over 35 countries and with organisations such as Oxfam, Save the Children, UNHCR, Earthwatch, ActionAid, CARE,  IBM and Rank Xerox.

In 2014 Jo founded BlueLemur to facilitate and promote participatory approaches to research, programme and strategy development and learning particularly between organisations and communities at the nexus between the Global North and South.

Jo’s ‘other’ passions are cycling and yoga which have taken her across Asia, Africa and Europe on two wheels, including leading bicycle tours and teaching yoga in Madagascar!

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Donna McKitterick

SENIOR ASSOCIATE

Donna specialises in developing engagement strategy and communications that put people, their attitudes and behaviours, at the heart of any change.  For the past eight years Donna has focused on environmental management, sustainability and corporate social responsibility.

Following two years engaging businesses in water efficiency for Thames Water, Donna ran the Sky and Global Action Plan charity partnership, before becoming Head of Development and Strategy on the senior management team. Donna designed internal and consumer focused engagement campaigns, tools and activities for companies including Waitrose, Veolia, RBS and Hammerson.  Donna is Founder of The Butterfly Bank, banking social and environmental good actions.

Donna can usually be found restoring and bespoke-ing furniture – she loves anything with a story and how she can create the next chapter!

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Frida Berry Eklund

SENIOR ASSOCIATE

Frida Berry Eklund is climate consultant and lecturer, with over 15 years of international experience in public campaigns, PR and advocacy. Her speciality is in effective climate communication strategies. She is based in Stockholm, Sweden, where she runs the climate-parent organisation, Föräldravrålet.

Frida co-founded the Swedish climate data and AI project Klimatkollen (Climate checker), making information about the local climate transition and company emissions available for citizens. She is also a Climate Reality Leader.

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Eva Didier

SENIOR ASSOCIATE

Eva is a feminist researcher and MEL practitioner who has worked with women’s organisations and the civil society sector globally and in the UK locally. She started working in the insights and strategy world over 13 years ago, before working with organisations like the feminist national Mexican fund, Fondo Semillas and the young feminist fund FRIDA.

Her thematic expertise is in the field of gender, working at the intersection of issues affecting women and girls from girls’ migrations across Ivory Coast; to reproductive and sexual health in Mexico; women’s cooperatives in emergency and disaster contexts in LatAm. Her work spans exploratory and audience-focused qualitative research, facilitating participatory theory of change and impact processes; strategy-related projects, as well as narrative change using semiotics and media analysis.

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