Board Members
Sian Thomas
Siân is a lecturer, social researcher and practitioner with a background in human rights and social work. She first became interested in trafficking as a form of modern slavery while studying for her Master’s degree in Human Rights in 2005, and was part of the initial project team at The Salvation Army when they first took over the national contract for supporting adult victims of trafficking in 2011.
She has worked with migration and gender issues in the UK and Thailand, working with people with a diverse range of experiences, including refugees and asylum seekers, undocumented migrants, sex workers, survivors of torture, and women and men who have experienced domestic abuse.
She is also a registered social worker and has experience of statutory work with children and families in the West Midlands. She currently works for the University of Birmingham as a lecturer on qualifying social work programmes, with a particular focus on gender-based violence, migration and child protection.
She is a member of the Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS), and her research and evaluation work has included projects on supporting women in the asylum process, gender-based violence in the context of displacement, and preventative approaches to asylum support.
Adrian Booth
Adrian has been employed by a government department for more than 40 years. For 34 of those years he has worked in the law enforcement arena. During that time Adrian has undertaken many criminal interventions to protect the public purse and is now engaged in the assurance of his department’s operational involvement in the criminal justice system. He has worked collaboratively with various other law enforcement agencies both within the UK and overseas, including India, Slovakia, Poland and the Netherlands.
Additionally, Adrian has been involved in tackling human traffickers, working with both the Metropolitan Police on Operation Golf, where Romanian children were being trafficked to the UK and the Polish Police to terminate the activities of an organised criminal enterprise culminating in the arrest of 38 Polish nationals.
Shayne Tyler
Shayne Tyler is the Group Compliance Director for a leading fresh produce supplier to retail accounts. A practical and hands on Director with over 25 years of people leadership within the food industry. He relies on over 20 years of experience directly managing variable levels of employee exploitation identification and resolution, where he has actively helped shape legislation, guidance, best practice and support mechanisms for the prevention and eradication of worker abuse.
Having had ‘first-hand’ experience that has identified and tackled numerous examples of worker exploitation for such an extended timeframe, Shayne offers a valuable perspective in the fight to improve worker welfare.
Sipiwe Takura
Sipiwe is a long-standing committed advocate for social justice. She is dedicated to contributing towards combating Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking. Her intention is to achieve this through Education, Advocacy, and Awareness Raising Initiatives. Sipiwe’s experience lies in Education, Training, Workshopping, and Facilitation, as well as Campaigning and Collaborating with Organizations to eradicate violations of human rights.
Mohammed Ansari
Mohammad Ansari is a charity specialist financial accountant and consultant with over 15 years’ experience in the charity and not for profit sector. He has worked on both sides of the sector as an Accountant auditing charities, as well as working as a Finance Director for a number of NGOs and visited more than 10 countries on charity business. He enjoys working in a field where the clients he works for make a real difference to Society and people, both in the UK and all over the world, and is looking forward to working with the fantastic team at WMASN.