About Us

Desiree is a finance and business leader with over 15 years of experience across the construction, engineering and advisory sectors in the UK and Australia. Appointed Managing Director of the Considerate Constructors Scheme (CCS) in 2025, she previously served as Head of Partnerships, where she played a key role in strengthening industry collaboration.

Her career began in Australia in senior accounting roles, advising clients on financial strategy, regulatory compliance and business planning. She later spent eight years at the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) as Director of Finance, leading governance, restructuring and long-term growth initiatives.

Desiree is a committed advocate for social equity, with a focus on increasing representation of women and underrepresented groups in construction. She also serves as Treasurer of the Violence Intervention Project, a charity tackling youth violence. With expertise in corporate finance, stakeholder engagement and strategic planning, she brings commercial insight and sector knowledge to her leadership at CCS.

Alessandro Ferrari is Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Violence Intervention Project, where he provides strategic oversight and drives organisational growth to expand the charity's reach and impact for high-risk young people across London. A seasoned marketing executive with 30 years of experience, Alessandro has built and led marketing functions across fintech, data management, and SaaS -- including CMO roles at RIMES Technologies and Wematch.live. He brings to the VIP a deep commitment to mission-driven work, having also served as a trustee at Power of Zero, a child-safety and bullying-prevention charity. Alessandro currently runs Ferrari CMO Solutions, an outsourced marketing consultancy supporting startups and nonprofits. He is the author of Clever Marketing: Small Budgets, Maximum Impact. He is passionate about using strategic communications to amplify the voices and causes that matter most.

Nikki is a former police officer, criminology lecturer, and founder of Safer Together, an award-winning organisation dedicated to raising awareness of the issues that drive and underpin violence in all its forms.

After leaving policing and working as a Service Manager for a young people’s substance misuse service in Warwickshire, Nikki became a National Children’s Services Inspector with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). In this role, she led and contributed to national inspection processes across whole local authority areas, where her passion for developing a systemic understanding of safeguarding first emerged.

Nikki is also an experienced chair and author of statutory review processes, including Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (CSPRs). She has considerable expertise in the fields of serious youth violence, child criminal exploitation, and knife crime.

She is the author of Wolverhampton’s Thematic Review of Knife Crime and Sheffield’s Thematic Review of Serious Youth Violence and Knife Crime; reviews that have driven significant systemic change in addressing weapon carrying and serious youth violence, influencing policy and practice locally and nationally.

Emma is Head of Social Value at Capita, where she leads programmes focused on creating long-term social impact through public sector services, partnerships and community investment.

Her work spans social value strategy, sustainability, employability, education and social mobility, with a particular focus on building meaningful partnerships that improve outcomes for people and communities. Emma is passionate about helping organisations move beyond “tick-box” approaches to create lasting, measurable change.

As a trustee, Emma brings experience in social impact, stakeholder engagement and strategic collaboration, alongside a strong interest in how social value can support sustainable fundraising, partnerships and long-term community impact. She is particularly passionate about trauma-informed and shame-informed approaches that place dignity, trust and human connection at the centre of support.