the Charity

After service in the British Army with 15th/19th Hussars and the Light Dragoons Simon established a restaurant business in Bath before acquiring and running the Pierre Victoire restaurant chain. He founded a charity, Believe pioneering coaching and mentoring in schools and prisons.

In 2011 He founded Serve On, which he now chairs, inspired by his work with Help for Heroes where he designed a programme to address veteran mental health and the challenges of transition to civilian life.

With a career of 30+ years in the trading rooms of the City of London, Farooq has developed his skills and knowledge to become a prominent figure in the financial industry. For more than 25 years of those years, he has held leadership positions for some of the largest brokerage houses worldwide.

Farooq looks forward to using his extensive global relationships to help Serve On help those in need.

Abbas joined the charity in 2011 as a trainee IRT volunteer. In 2013 he graduated to operational status and since then has deployed with Serve On to earthquakes, floods and hurricanes including the Nepal quake in 2015, Hurricane Irma in 2017, and the Turkiye Earthquake in 2023.

Professionally, Abbas is a partner of the IT consultancy Agilicist, where he focuses on helping large companies scale their Agile methodologies.

Sarah-Louise joined Serve On in 2013. She originally came along to study search and rescue volunteers for her doctoral research and was persuaded to take part in the selection for the IRT. Sarah-Louise joined the board of trustees in 2021 and deployed with the IRT to Turkiye in 2023.

Professionally, Sarah-Louise is an academic at the University of the West of England. Her research interests centre on volunteers, the performativity of gender, and women’s experiences in male-dominated organisations.