Our Team

David Macdonald

David set up Path after a period of deep self-reflection about our destruction of the environment. Shocked by the unprecedented climate and ecological emergency and the disastrous path towards extinction we face, he realised that a huge impact to be made by revolutionising the investment model so that savings are solely invested for good. He left a well-known firm of financial advisers and founded Path in 2019 to forge this new, radical path forward to fight the climate crisis. He is also passionate about giving back to people and the planet.

David’s true inspiration in life has come from watching fearless innovators and disruptors – his biggest hero is Nelson Mandela; and his greatest business inspiration came from his friend and mentor Mike Wilson who set up St. James’s Place and demonstrated with humour, humility and kindness how to take an idea and build a huge business. 

Julie Hope

Julie has over 13 years of experience working in the Financial Services sector and has worked for NPI, Adepta, Aegon, and a large IFA practice.  She has gained her Financial Planning Certificate during this time. After a break from the industry to raise her children, Julie has missed the industry and was keen to return. She believes giving a client time and space to concentrate on their lives, their family or their business, and allowing them the opportunity to have complete clarity and total confidence that their financial world is being looked after. This is the most rewarding part of her job and the fact that your investments are helping the environment makes her job even more satisfying. In her spare time, Julie enjoys cycling with her children, swimming and countryside walks.

Shams Kabir

A King’s College London Graduate with a background in international development and a specialisation in Microfinance, Shams believes ‘social’ businesses have the power to help change the world and is driven by the fact that there is a greater underlying purpose to his work at Path. When he’s not offering financial advice, he can be found learning about the latest developments in green technology – from starting a project in Mozambique and Angola to bring solar energy to rural and off-grid households, to learning about innovations in racing. And he’s also founded a cyclewear brand!

Carla Gerlach

Having worked in Portugal for 16 years, Carla returned to the UK with her family looking for a new challenge. The ethical vision and positive environmental and social impact that Path offers its clients and the socially responsible culture that the business encourages, strongly resonated with her desire to build a better future for her daughter and the next generation. With a wealth of experience in operational delivery across several industries Carla is driven to ensuring client satisfaction is central to every task and being part of a team of experts who can help clients achieve not just their financial goals, but social ones too is particularly rewarding. Outside of work, Carla is keen to explore the UK again, catching up with friends and enjoying the stunning British countryside – with the family dog in tow! 

Ashley Bell

Ashley has been running businesses and leading teams for over 20 years, from start-up environments to corporate, though he definitely has a preference for the agility of the former. He specialises in hiring the right people, building optimal processes around them and unleashing the team’s full potential. Ashley is a serial entrepreneur with a very strong background in scalable systems, AI and digital media. 

Initially, Ashley advised David as he looked to put his vision for Path into action. Over time becoming increasingly involved as his eyes were opened to win-win benefits of positive impact strategies, ending up sharing the early funding with David and committing to the role of MD to fuel the growth of the business.

Victoria Redsell

Victoria joined the financial sector from the world of PR, Marketing and Business Development. She holds the Chartered Institute of Insurance Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. Victoria’s mission in life is to ‘be happy’ and she derives happiness and fulfilment from looking after people and the planet; using her time and energy to make a positive impact on those around her.  Victoria has a large family and believes in empowering her children through guidance and leading by example, to make good choices and effect positive outcomes.

Victoria’s environmental and ethical compass is to think global and act local; believing that we can all contribute to a healthier future by making better choices; making sustainability the norm for our children and passing on a new way of living to future generations. Victoria believes that that legacy will be made up by a combination of big and small actions; from deciding how we use the world’s resources, to choosing where we invest our pensions, to encouraging our children to turn off the lights and putting a lid on our saucepans.

At home, Victoria and her husband have created a bio-diverse habitat and love to welcome a wide range of species to their garden and pond. They grow their own vegetables and fruit and look after their chickens Cluck and Winston. Much to the amusement of her family, Victoria loves to reuse and repurpose items and leftovers to minimise waste. In their spare time Victoria and her husband love to walk, kayak and explore the countryside, listening to nature and discovering the impact past generations have had on our environment.

By joining the Path revolution, Victoria is dovetailing her personal and professional goals, and is passionate about helping people generate and invest wealth to secure their and their families future, and have a positive impact on the world and its people.

Richard Ravelin

After more than twenty years working in and for a wide range of industries ranging from music to charity to publishing to governance, Richard joined Path because of his personal commitment to environmental and social causes. He has an interest in microfinance, community land trusts, and renewables, as well as being a keen investor in community crowdfunding and community share schemes, including hydro, local sustainable housing, and an ethical food CIC. When he’s not looking after everything from the website and accounts to HR and compliance as Path’s General Manager, in his spare time he is a green-fingered gardener and allotmenter and enjoys hiking, cycling, reading, nature, photography, architecture, and sustainable travel.

Casey Goodwin

Casey has been working within the Financial Services sector for 6 years, having recently completed her Chartered Insurance Institute Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning. A passionate paraplanner, Casey was inspired by our vision to provide quality financial planning advice whilst being at the forefront of making a positive financial impact in the world. Having a personal interest in ethical investing, Casey knew that this was possible without having to sacrifice good returns.

At home, Casey is working on transitioning to a zero-waste household – successfully sticking to her 2020 New Years Resolution to go plastic-free in the bathroom, with the kitchen next on the list. Casey is a keen writer, having studied Creative Writing as part of her degree, and also has a lifelong interest in collecting and crafting 1:12 scale miniatures – providing ample opportunity for upcycling hard to recycle household waste!

Rowan Harding

With over twenty-one years’ experience in the financial services sector, Rowan is genuinely passionate about pensions as a much-needed support for the many people who stop working and otherwise face falling into poverty. She is also currently studying towards a Chartered Insurance Institute Financial Planning Diploma. Rowan grew up as a nature lover and now regularly writes to her local MP about climate change and environmental issues and also volunteers for a local wildlife nature group. She involves her children in all her environmental pursuits as she believes it’s vital the next generation grow up understanding the impact of our actions on our planet.

Jack Clancy

Having studied Economics and Economic History at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Jack gained experience working in international development, both in London and abroad. This, together with four years at a leading wealth manager, led him to realise the positive impact that money tied up in pensions and investments could potentially have on the world.  Jack is a qualified member of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) and is passionate about helping clients understand the planning strategies best suited to them, whilst also driving positive change. His hobbies include cycling, golf, and gardening.

Rebecca Tasker

Rebecca was drawn to join Path as being able to tell her children that she is part of a new, small and progressive company with a team of people working together to save the world, is very exciting. She believes in setting the very best example she can in making positive, environmentally friendly changes to help towards a better future for her children. As a family of nature and animal lovers, they love to encourage wildlife and biodiversity in the garden; and each do their part to lead a conscientious lifestyle. All the family recently became vegetarian and they limit their carbon footprint by staying in the UK for their holidays.

Lisa Allen

Lisa is new to the financial industry, having come from a background in admin and customer service. She was drawn to Path for the opportunity to be part of a company who are making a real difference and are making an impact on the future of the planet. It is always daunting to start in a new industry, but Lisa is keen to embark on the challenge and looks forward to continuing to make changes to lower her carbon footprint and play her part in reducing the crisis that future generations are facing.

Marc Nummy

Marc enjoyed an early career in the paper and publishing industries before finding his way into Financial Services. He initially cut his teeth advising on mortgages and protection before realising his true passions lay with pension and investment advice. After a stint working with the pension provider Scottish Life, he has been a Financial Adviser with focus on pensions and wealth management since 2014. Marc is a Diploma qualified member of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) and is currently working towards Chartered status. He also holds the IMC investment management qualification from the CFA Society UK.

With a keen interest in environmental and sustainability issues, Marc has long felt that the positive investment choices we make are a powerful tool that we can all use to influence change. Having joined Path’s team, he is excited to be working with like-minded people, all with shared values and a passion to leave the planet in a better state for future generations. Marc lives in the vibrant city of Brighton with his wife and two teenage children. He is an avid music fan and also enjoys spending any free time either on the beach, in the sea or up in the Sussex Downs.

Rebecca Johnson

Rebecca was drawn to Path for its environmental and socially responsible ethos. Her background in administration and customer service means she understands the importance of paying attention to the smaller details, as well as the bigger picture. As an eco-conscious feminist, she is looking for a way to be able make a lasting positive impact in the world and is currently studying towards a master’s degree focusing on issues of gender violence. When not working or studying she is often found with a book in hand or exploring the local countryside.

James Harrison

Prior to joining Path, James worked in investment analytics before spending six years at a leading London wealth manager. Here he helped professionals in accountancy and law, whilst studying towards the Advanced Diploma in Financial Planning and subsequently obtaining Chartered Financial Planner status in 2020.

James understands that the benefits of financial planning are best realised by doing the simple things consistently over time, but that adding a layer of purpose to your investments means that money matters need not be boring. He believes that aligning money and values will have an ever-increasing role to play in the world of personal finance – with emotive and qualitative factors being more prevalent now than ever before – and hopes that the wealth management sector will continue to innovate with these elements at its core.

Tommy Hobson

Tommy joins us having previously worked as a Chartered Financial Planner at a leading Wealth Manager in London. With a keen interest in the environment and sustainability, Tommy joined Path’s team in order to work with like-minded people, to help society and build a better future.

Tommy understands that in the world of personal finance, making small changes to your behaviour now can compound and lead to huge impacts over time. His passion lies in helping his clients meet their goals in life by improving their financial wellbeing and investing their assets in a way which is aligned to their values, in order to help people and the planet.

Outside of work, Tommy can be found playing tennis or cricket, or attempting to improve on his golf.

Caz Reid-Watts

Caz would describe her personal values as happiness and kindness, and she tries to live her life around these principles – whether that means being kind to the planet, helping people or sending round a “Happy Friday” email each week to put a smile on colleagues faces. Having worked in financial services for over 15 years, Caz is a qualified member of the CII and considers herself to be a ‘career Paraplanner’ – loving the technical aspects of the job and seeing how a client’s plan comes together to achieve their financial objectives. Caz was drawn to Path as she believes that being involved in positive investment choices, that can benefit the earth, is a positive model to set for her two children.

Being a strong believer in giving back to a community which came together so well during the Covid lockdowns, Caz volunteers as treasurer for the local primary school’s PTA. She loves being creative and, when not working, can usually be found behind a sewing machine, painting, creating models or embarking on the latest outlandish decorating project in the house. Caz also enjoys camping and is happiest packing up the car with a vague idea of a destination, trying to fit in as many countries as possible on the way!

Zoe Rudd

Coming soon.

Jonathan Cooper

Coming soon.

Xijia Zhang

With an MBA in business and administration Xijia has held senior positions such as advisor on the China strategy for the London based Law firm Mishcon De Reya and their family office. Xijia is a serial entrepreneur with 24 years of investment experience in sectors such as Tech, Engineering, & international trade and has an ever expanding portfolio in property. Xijia has recently participated in a number of multi-million pound exits demonstrating her ability to differentiate good from poor investments. As a mother she is continually reminded of the toxic world we live in and felt that making investments in businesses that contribute to this was no longer acceptable for the future of generations to come and strongly believes she has a moral responsibility to engage only with businesses that can demonstrate ‘Green’ credentials. Path is a company that supports modern thinking and demonstrates that good investments can be enjoyed without cost to our environment and poor effect on our children. So impressed was Xijia that she took her commitment a stage further and became an ambassador for Path, and together they hope to improve modern thinking about responsible, sustainable yet enjoyable investment strategies.

Elliot Muscant

With a 20-year advertising career, Elliot is an ex-CEO of Dentsu Aegis Network where he ran a team of over 500 and built arguably the most successful independent digital business in the industry, being part of the management team that delivered business transforming expansion and growth. With a proven track record of innovation and entrepreneurialism he has Co-founded Open Partners , The Candidate, Football Eradora and The Strength Collective. He has held various non-exec and marketing advisory roles and brings considerable experience and a streetwise integrated approach to digital marketing, data and media channels.

Helen Furnivall

Helen has over 20 years’ PR and communications experience. Perhaps ironically, she started her career as a business travel journalist which involved trying out new business class routes, hotels and destinations and often jetting off across the world at a moment’s notice for not much reason. She worked for several years at the British Red Cross in senior strategy and communications roles before starting her own agency High-Rise Communications which specialises in working with clients that are all working to create stronger, happier and healthier communities. Helen is a member of the People’s Powerhouse steering group and a Non Executive Director of hospice purchasing social enterprise HQP. Helen is married with three teenage children and a camper van in the garage that has become a bar during lockdown. She misses Glastonbury.

Jessica Smith-Burrows

Coming soon.