Executive Team

Jolanta Lasota is Chief Executive of Ambitious about Autism and the Schools Trust. She Chairs the Autism Alliance and is a member of the Autism Strategy Implementation group. She is a member of the Commission on Countering Online Conspiracy in Schools and a Trustee of UK Youth. Her career includes Director roles in national voluntary sector organisations, including Turn2Us, Speech and Language UK and the Governance Hub. Jolanta has lived experience of autism and is passionate about creating a more inclusive world. 

Paul is the Deputy Chief Executive at Ambitious about Autism. Prior to this, he was the Chief Executive of Action on Hearing Loss from 2012-2018. He is the Honorary Treasurer of NCVO and a past Chair of the Disability Charities Consortium and of Charity Finance Group. He is a passionate advocate for volunteering and social change.

Danae works at Ambitious about Autism, where she oversees the charity’s national services, external affairs and fundraising. She is also a Trustee of ELHAP and a board member of GAIN (Group for Autism, Insurance and Neurodiversity).

Her career includes roles at Childline, NSPCC and Tommy’s, always led by her motivation to enable better life outcomes for children and young people.

Michael joined Ambitious about Autism in October 2023 as the Director of Property and Information Technology (IT) and is responsible for Property, IT, Health and Safety and Sustainability for the charity. He is an experienced education professional and has spent the last 21 years working in the further education sector, mainly for London-based colleges.

Throughout his career, Michael has held a variety of senior leadership roles and has a breadth of experience within resources and front-facing learner services. He is a member of the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management and is also a qualified PRINCE2 project manager. Michael is passionate about learning, inclusivity and helping others to achieve their goals and aspirations. 
 

Lindsay joined as Director of Finance and Planning in April 2025, bringing extensive experience in financial leadership and strategic planning across the non-profit and public sectors. As a member of the executive team, Lindsay plays a key role in ensuring the charity’s financial sustainability and operational effectiveness, enabling the organisation to deliver maximum impact.
Before joining Ambitious about Autism, Lindsay held senior finance roles where she led on budgeting, forecasting, and long-term financial strategy at Refugee Council, Greenwich University, The Children’s Society, Livability and Scope. She is passionate about using financial insight to drive positive change and is committed to transparency, collaboration, and continuous improvement and is proud to support a mission that aligns closely with her values.

Mark is the Director of People and Culture at Ambitious about Autism. Prior to this, Mark has been in the charity and not for profit health and social care sector since 2006 and was the Director of Corporate Services at United Response, Director of HR at Certitude and Deputy Director of HR at Action for Children. Mark also has worked with the NHS and the RAF as well as the private sector. He is passionate about people having opportunities to do well in their life.
 

Sam Newton's career focus has been in the SEND sector since 1998, with experience of supporting learners aged two to post-19 requiring support from education, health and care. Previous leadership experience includes experience across all key stage phases and in a variety of roles as Director of Education, Headteacher, Head of School, Assistant Head – KS3/4 Transformation, Assistant Headteacher for securing capital development projects for Specialist Status and Head of Primary in both day and residential, maintained, non-maintained and charity settings.

During her career, she has worked with provisions who work as local, regional and national settings across a range of local authorities, social care and health funded. Leading and facilitating transformational change and turnaround where significant improvements are required has been a passion of hers, with an aim to ensure that provisions provide leading educational standards. Sam advocates a systems leadership approach whereby leaders at all levels are empowered to learn from each other and others for continual improvement in delivery to learners. Sam is proud that her efforts resulted in a Pearson’s National Teaching Award in 2021 but as she wholeheartedly recognises the work of the staff in any setting, it is by rights theirs, too!