Name: Christopher Donnelly
Job Title: Trustee
Christopher Donnelly is a Trustee of the Active Change Foundation (ACF). After graduating from the University of Manchester in Russian Studies in 1969, Mr. Donnelly taught at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst for three years before helping to establish the Soviet Studies Research Centre. In 1989 he became a Special Adviser to the NATO Secretary General, serving four Secretary Generals in that position. He joined the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom in August 2003, whereby he was responsible for developing the non-technical research process. He also set up the Defence Academy’s Advanced Research and Assessment Group and was the head of that unit up until 2007. He is now The Senior Fellow of the Defence Academy. Since 2006, he has also taken on the position of Co-Director of the newly formed Institute for Statecraft and Governance, based in Oxford. As a former officer in the Territorial Army, Mr. Donnelly initially specialised in the study of Soviet and Warsaw Pact Defence Systems. After the fall of the Berlin Wall he was closely involved in the reform of the newly emerging democracies in Central and Eastern Europe. For the last eight years his area of particular interest has been new security threats and the evolution of our national and international institutions to deal with today’s security environment. Mr. Donnelly is the author of three books and has many published articles on Russian and Eastern European defence and security issues.
Name: Sheikh Michael Mumisa
Job Title: Trustee
Sheikh Michael Mumisa is a Trustee of the ACF, a faith adviser and is a highly respected Muslim Academic and Theologian. He was awarded his ‘Alimiyya (Al-Azhar University Graduate Degree equivalent) in Islamic Classics and Classical Arabic Literature with distinction from Dar el-Ulum after six years of training. He went on to graduate cum laude with a BA Honours degree from the Department of Semitic Languages at the Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg, South Africa. He did his MPhil research at the University of Birmingham and is currently pursuing a PhD Research in Arabic Literature and Contemporary Literary and Critical Theory as a Special Livingstone Scholar at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge. Sheikh Mumisia has taught at the University of Birmingham, University of Cambridge’s Institute of Continuing Education, Newman University College, and Markfield Institute of Higher Education. He is the author of a number of studies including Islamic Law: Theory & Interpretation (2002).
Name: Mohammed Arshad
Job Title: Trustee
Mr. Arshad is a highly respected member in the community and has always remained focused on helping young people. He is very passionate about supporting groups who are credible and in his own words “real” with regards to tackling the social ills that exist within communities. Born in Azad, Kashmir - Pakistan, Mohammed Arshad came to the UK at the age of eleven where he now resides in Ilford with his wife and two sons. Mr. Arshad qualified with a Diploma in Auto Engineering and worked as an Automotive Association Patrolman for fourteen years. He then went on to invest in his own automotive business which he currently runs in Essex.
