Chris Greenhill (Chair)

Chris has lived and worked in Harlow for over 40 years, initially working at The Harlow Labs in London Road (now the site of the Kao Park in the Enterprise Zone). During that time, he held a variety of marketing and communications roles, concluding as head of corporate communications with Nortel Networks in Harlow.

In 2002, he formed Greenhill Consulting to work as a business consultant and adviser working with SMEs, corporates, the public sector and not-for-profit organisations. Now semi-retired he works exclusively with charities, helping them to be better social businesses.

Chris became a Rainbow Services trustee in 2002. He has also held trusteeships with several other charities, both locally and nationally, and was a primary school governor for 16 years.

Chris is married with two daughters and four grandsons, all of whom live locally. Aside from spending time with friends and family, he enjoys playing badminton, researching family history, and listening to music.

Marlena Mandat (Vice Chair)

Having moved to UK from Poland in 2005 Marlena has worked in retail, healthcare and for the last 8 years in the educational sector. She completed her Marketing Degree, Managerial Finance and MBA Essential courses from London School of Economics while working full time. In 2018 she became Governor of Primary school Trust which runs the school her children attend. Within a year she was elected Chair of the Governing body. This has proven to be a challenging but rewarding activity and Marlena decided to broaden her volunteering activities. She has joined secondary school Trust as Vice Chair of Governing body. Her main strengths and skills are: strategy, data analytics, financial performance and planning, change management and organisational design. Marlena puts these skills to great use in her volunteering activities.

Marlena considers her main role at Rainbow to be one of ensuring our clients always receive the best possible advice, help and support. The other key focus is to ensure that the Charity is well run and has a solid strategy to continually improving service levels to the local residents.

Marlena is married to Emanuel and has two sons, Daniel and Ben. She lived in Walthamstow London before moving to Harlow in 2009. Family values and relationships are very important to her. Marlena and her husband went through the naturalisation process and she is well aware of the challenges that EU citizens face post Brexit, as well as the difficulties that many people face in the post Covid world.

Marlena’s interests include current affairs, education and fitness and she loves animals.

Nishall Garala

Nishall joined Rainbow Services as a Trustee in December 2018.  Nishall is an award-winning community worker who has been working to improve the lives of people in his town for many years. Beginning as a Youth Councillor for Harlow Youth Council in 2009, Nishall has worked hard to provide opportunities and be the voice of his peers. Nishall is a modern and innovative thinker, dedicated to creating the best environments for people to flourish in. He has had many public appointments representing Harlow and its people.

Nishall was the East Regional Winner and National Finalist for ‘Bringing Communities Together’ for vInspired’s 2014 awards. Nishall was awarded Young Volunteer of the Year by Harlow Council in 2011 and won second-place in Essex’s Young Person of the Year 2015. He has also been honoured the British Citizen Award and the Prime Minister’s Points of Light Award for his services to the community. He has also been given a Fellowship to the Royal Society of Arts.

He is the founder of #BigUpHarlow, an ongoing drive to improve the public image of Harlow through the use of social media and to champion the achievements of the people that live, work and study there.

Joy Das

I had a very fulfilling life and enjoyable career but I reached an age where I felt that there is more to life then going to work and earning money. The UK, my adoptive country, has been good to me and I want to put something back in to the community.

My first role was to work as a governor in domestic violence with Women’s Aid. Then I was then a trustee with Accuro, providing respite care to the parents with sick children. I was the Chair of Harlow and District Health Care Forum for number of years. I feel that the way to bring any changes, one must try to influence.

Rainbow Services is going from strength to strength and I like dynamic, go getter people. I have also joined the Audit committee, as technical manager of various food companies, I audited various suppliers in both UK and Europe. The scope is different but principle is the same; I do hope that I will be useful and bring some significant value to the organisation.

Fiona Sinnott

Fiona forged strong links with Harlow as a Marketing and Business Development Consultant working with clients in the area. She is a proud Discover Harlow Ambassador, and also assisted that Place Brand initiative with their communications and a media project with students of Harlow College.

She is a passionate advocate for the arts having had a long career as an actor, and in her consultancy and community work likes to explore how creative storytelling and photography can be used to unite communities and give people a vital means of expression.

Fiona has a special interest in Dementia, having managed her Father’s care and business for a number of years after he was diagnosed with a rare early onset brain disease. She understands the challenges faced by people dealing with complex health, financial and mental health challenges and how important a good support network is.

She looks forward to learning from Rainbow’s incredible team and helping to support, and celebrate, the people of Harlow and beyond.

Alan Brooking

I moved to Harlow in 1980, after leaving the Royal Navy to join my wife whose family has strong ties to the town. My main working roles have been in business operations in the IT Managed Services and Ecommerce sectors and for the last 4 years I have been General Manager at Harlow Rugby Club.

Outside of work my main passion has been Harlow Rugby Club, where I was a player for 6 years, and then served on the Executive as Financial Controller and Chairman. My biggest challenge outside of playing was to move the Club to its current home at Latton Park as well as still volunteering at Harlow RFC, I am also the Chair of Finance for Essex RFU.

Outside of Rugby, I have been a Parent Governor at High Wych Primary School, and a Trustee of the Jordan Jay Trust.

Why Rainbow Services? because simply they are a shining beacon of hope for the Harlow Community and I want to help them as much as I can to continue the great work they do.

Paula Robinson

Paula lives in Harlow and brings extensive business experience to the Rainbow board including over 20 years spent as a project manager with IBM UK. She has volunteered with CanalAbility for several years in a variety of roles, including Chair of Trustees.

Join our board

Could you bring new skills and experience to our board to help oversee our charity and define its future direction? If so, we would love to hear from you.

For an informal chat about the role of trustee at Rainbow, please contact our CEO, Sharon Summerfield or or Chair, Chris Greenhill.

To formally express your interest, please complete our EoI form and return it to Sharon.