Louisa Mitchell, MBE, Chief Executive Officer at West London Zone for Children and Young People. 

West London Zone is a community organisation working to break the cycle of entrenched inequality in west London by supporting children to build the relationships, self-belief and skills they need to flourish into adulthood. Embedded in schools, West London Zone proactively identifies children who will most benefit from additional support; connects up a holistic ecosystem of support and opportunities in their community; provides each child with a trusted adult who designs and delivers a two-year individual support plan enabling their social, emotional and academic progress. 

Louisa led the local listening and design of the West London Zone model in 2015, followed by the pilot project with 100 children in 3 schools in 2016, and the subsequent growth such that 4,500 children have been supported this way across around 60 schools in four west London boroughs. The model is currently being translated into a new place in the NW and a national social impact strategy is being designed. West London Zone has attracted funding from central and local government, schools, large trusts and foundations, national corporates, local businesses and individuals.  

Before this, Louisa published policy papers on inequality with think tanks Policy Exchange in the UK and Civic Exchange in Hong Kong, and other academic and civil society groups. She set up a charity for young people in Hong Kong and ran an environmental charity in London. Earlier in her career, she wrote for the Financial Times, worked in development finance at the International Finance Corporation and worked in investment banking in Hong Kong and New York. She also achieved an MSc (Social Policy Research) from the London School of Economics where she won the Titmus Prize for outstanding dissertation.