Meet our team
Josiah Lockhart- Chair
Josiah is one of Scotland’s leading social entrepreneurs and serves as both the Chief Executive of Firstport for Social Entrepreneurs and the Chair of FirstImpact.
In 2018 he was a finalist in the national Social Enterprise Scotland Awards as a recognition to his contribution to the sector. As a leading voice and champion of the sector, Josiah delivers keynote speeches at national and international conferences and regularly judges business pitching competitions including the Scottish Edge and the Converge Challenge amongst others.
In addition, Josiah is a publicly appointed committee member of the Scottish Land Fund helping administer a £10mil fund on behalf of the Scottish Government to support communities to bring land and buildings into community ownership.
Megan Veronesi - Head of business development and partnerships
Megan joined the Firstport team in April 2019. Prior to joining Firstport, Megan worked for Farewill, a venture-backed tech start-up, where she set up and led the charity partnerships team which raised over £90million for charity in gifts in wills. Prior to this, Megan spent a decade in business and service development roles at top charities including Marie Curie and Terrence Higgins Trust where she designed and led award-winning community-based services.
Megan also brings experience as Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Lambeth Elfrida Rathbone Society, and as a mentor to young social leaders through CharityWorks and the Aspire Foundation.
Maria Ashley - Head of Communications and Digital
Maria joined the team in August 2010. She started her career as a Marketing Assistant for a social enterprise supporting young and social entrepreneurs in London. This role allowed her to develop an understanding of the opportunities and challenges faced by start up companies, especially those with social aims at the heart of their businesses.
After that she had a stint in the private sector, working for a specialist insurance broker.
She relocated to Edinburgh in 2009 and worked in events management for a local charity.
Dr Poonam Malik- Board Member
Board Member and Non-Executive Director (NED) for Scottish Enterprise, Scotland’s National Economic Development Agency with responsibility for £330milion annual budget; Governor, University Court member and NED for University of the Highlands & Islands (UHI); and an Advisory Board Member for Wallet Service- an innovative Blockchain Technology Company harnessing the benefits of transformative distributed ledger technology (DLT) in multiple sectors.
Dr Malik is passionate about supporting Female founders and entrepreneurs as Business Angel Investor, Mentor, Advisor, Trainer and Reviewer by being an active Member of Investing Women Angels Ltd (IWA), Scotland's only Female Angel Investor Group. She is also Investor Member of Kelvin Capital and Equity Gap Angel Syndicates with a primary focus of benefitting businesses with Investments, Mentoring and Advisory.
Dr Malik brings leadership skills in strategy, change planning, digital transformation, and project and people management aiming for an inclusive and sustainable growth in a diverse society.
Twitter: @Poons21