Our Trustees - Rebecca Swift Foundation

Cathy James – Chair

Cathy James is a UK qualified solicitor and formerly Chief Executive of Public Concern at Work (PCaW) the whistleblowing charity. She currently works as a legal consultant to the charity. Through this work Cathy has advised thousands of whistleblowers, as well as organisations, government and regulators on whistleblowing systems in the UK and internationally. She has expertise in governance and risk management systems across all sectors and is an international whistleblowing expert. Cathy set up the independent Whistleblowing Commission, which made recommendations for improving the legal framework for whistleblowing the UK including a Code of Practice for employers. Before working at PCaW, she was a litigation partner in a large London law firm. Cathy was awarded an OBE in June 2015, for services to employment rights.

Fiona McMorrough

With over 25 years’ experience in UK publishing, Fiona is considered one of the leading sector publicists in the UK. Fiona has worked with major authors, public figures and literacy organisations worldwide, has been on the Boards of Publishers and literary charities and has played a strategic role in the conception and launch of high profile industry initiatives. Amongst numerous awards during her career, Fiona has been named in The Bookseller’s 100 Most Influential 2014, 2015 and 2016, GQ’s Most Connected Women 2014, named in Debretts People of Today and the inaugural Hospital Award for Creative Contribution to Books. Fiona hails from Dublin where she graduated with a Masters in English Literature, UCD.

Tom Wilcox

Before joining Counterculture Tom was Managing Director at the Whitechapel Gallery where he oversaw a £13m expansion. He was previously at Arts Council England, the Poetry Society and Siobhan Davies Dance Company. Tom trained at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the Public Sector/Charities department. He was a contributor to the book Common Ground, a collection of writing about authorship and place. Tom is a music curator, producer and musician. Tom is a Chartered Company Secretary and a trustee of Whitechapel Gallery Estates Trust.

Jon Slack

Jon collaborates with startups and entrepreneurs who are creating positive change in the world through their work to bring more wellbeing, creativity and purpose to the lives of others. He volunteers as a Media & Messaging co-ordinator for the 'Regenerative Cultures' group within the international movement Extinction Rebellion. As well as his brand & consulting work Jon has set up and run 100s of events including literature & cultural festivals in London and the UK, and for nine years co-ordinated the member network for marketing specialists in UK book publishing.

Rebecca Rendle

Rebecca currently combines teaching English in the Sixth Form at ELATT, with consulting through leading fundraising consultancy, More Partnership. She led More’s international team of consultants until 2019 when she decided to pursue her passion, both for English language and teaching, by completing a PCGE at UCL’ Institute for Education. Rebecca has over 30 years experience of fundraising, communications and strategic management and has worked with many organisations including UCL, Terrence Higgins Trust, Magic Breakfast, Natural History Museum, the National Theatre and CRUK. Before More, she was fundraising director at Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres and deputy director of national charity, CSV (Community Service Volunteers, Volunteering Matters).

Alice Dewing

Alice Dewing is an award-winning publicist living and working in London. She began her career in publishing at arts communications consultancy FMcM Associates, where she assisted the team on campaigns for literary organisations including National Poetry Day, Wellcome Book Prize, The Literary Consultancy, Cheltenham Literature Festival and The Forward Prizes for Poetry. Since 2016 she has worked at Picador, Pan Macmillan’s literary imprint, where she manages fully integrated and inclusive communications campaigns across a wide range of fiction and nonfiction titles. Since 2017 she has managed the PR and marketing for Picador Poetry, working on developing and nurturing new talent, and managing tours and promotion for established artists. She is also Communications Manager for partnerships at Pan Macmillan, helping deliver partnership relationships across a broad range of sectors.

Amanda Jones

Amanda is an Advertising Strategist with 13 years experience of developing branding and marketing campaigns. Across her career she’s worked with brands like Ariel, Always, MINI and Boots. And charities like Cancer Research U.K., Sue Ryder and the Countryside charity. She’s passionate about finding positive and inclusive ways to engage people with important topics. During 2021 she set-up and ran Seen & Heard, a workplace D&I initiative that looks at art of all kinds to explore diversity topics through different perspectives to our own. She also runs Skilling Time, a bank of free actionable and encouraging content to inspire more professionals to ‘do good with their day job’ through pro bono work.

Martha Sprackland

Martha Sprackland is an editor, writer and translator from the north of England. She was co-founder–editor of Cake magazine, and is a co-founding editor of multilingual arts zine La Errante and the independent publishing house Offord Road Books. She is currently poetry editor for CHEERIO Publishing, in partnership with the Estate of Francis Bacon. Martha has published translations from Spanish of poems by Ana Gorría (Ciclo, Debacle Ediciones, 2020), Gladys Mendía (PTC/Ledbury, 2020), and Verónica Viola Fisher (Arc/Edge Hill, 2021) In 2021 she was shortlisted for the Peirene–Stevns Translation Prize for fiction. Following two pamphlets, Glass As Broken Glass (Rack, 2017) and Milk Tooth (Rough Trade Books, 2018), Martha’s debut collection of poems, Citadel (LUP, 2020) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Costa Poetry Award and the John Pollard International Poetry Prize. She has taught for Arvon and the Poetry School, and has been a mentor for the Women Poets’ Prize since 2018.

Project Manager:
Degna Stone

Legal and Financial Advisors:
Counterculture Partnership LLP
Unit NH.204, E1 Studios, 7 Whitechapel Road, London E1 1DU

Company number: 11121662

Registered charity number: 1177863

Registered Office:
5 St Johns Lane, London EC1M 4BH 3GA