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Meet the business growth team

Unseen’s business growth team is dedicated to supporting businesses to eradicate modern slavery across their supply chains. Meet the team behind this vital work.

The business growth team plays a crucial role in Unseen’s mission. They build and nurture relationships with businesses, helping them strengthen their processes, identify risks, and develop effective ways to prevent modern slavery. This team leads Unseen’s business outreach and supports organisations as they begin or advance their modern slavery approach. 

meet lucy

Lucy leads business development and has been part of the Unseen team for nearly five years. She started her career in corporate events before moving into business services, where she found exactly what she’d been looking for, a balance between purpose driven work and putting her professional expertise to good use. 

Before stepping into her current role, Lucy spent four years delivering consultancy services to clients. That hands-on experience gave her a genuine understanding of what businesses need and, more importantly, how to ensure the work creates real impact, not just on paper. 

Hear from Lucy: 

meet laura

Laura is Unseen’s Business Communications and Marketing Consultant. She first joined Unseen as a caseworker, supporting survivors both in the community and in our safe houses, before moving into roles focused on addressing the root causes of exploitation and strengthening business engagement. 

Hear from Laura:

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meet will

Will joined Unseen in 2021 as part of the fundraising team before transitioning into business services as a Business Development Consultant in early 2025. With experience in both public engagement and business support, he brings strong insight into how different sectors can help prevent exploitation. 

Hear from Will: 

want to learn more?

If you’d like to find out how Unseen’s business services can support your organisation’s modern slavery approach, visit our business services page or contact our team. 

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Justine Currell

As I came to understand more about the issue, including through a visit to an Unseen safehouse, I knew I needed to do more to stop this abuse and exploitation.

For the last five years of my Civil Service career, I was the Modern Slavery Senior Policy Advisor in the Home Office and led on development of the Modern Slavery Act, including the transparency in supply chains provision and business guidance.

I joined Unseen to lead the development of the Modern Slavery & Exploitation Helpline, and Unseen’s work with businesses. I am regularly called upon to present at national and international conferences and use my experience of working with Ministers to influence other governments internationally to take action to address modern slavery and, in particular, business supply chain issues.

In my spare time I enjoy keeping fit, music, reading and travelling.

Andrew Wallis

What ultimately compelled me to act was a report on how people from Eastern Europe were being trafficked through Bristol airport to the USA. Kate Garbers, who went on to be an Unseen Director, and I wrote to all the city councillors, MPs and the Police Chief Constable challenging them on the issue. The challenge came back to us: this city needs safe housing for trafficked women. And so Unseen began.

But we never wanted Unseen to be just about safe housing. We wanted to end slavery once and for all, and that remains our driving focus.

I chaired the working group for the Centre for Social Justice’s landmark report “It Happens Here: Equipping the United Kingdom to Fight Modern Slavery”. This is now acknowledged as the catalyst behind the UK’s Modern Slavery Act of 2015. It was a great honour to be awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours that year. On the other hand, I’ve also been described as “the loveliest disrupter you could ever hope to meet”.

This job has taken me from building flat-pack furniture for safehouses, to working with businesses to address slavery in supply chains, to delivering training, raising awareness and advising governments around the world.

When not at work, I enjoy travelling, spending time with my dog Harley, cooking, supporting Liverpool and Yorkshire CC, music (I’m a former DJ) and endurance events such as the Three Peaks Challenge and Tribe Freedom Runs – which I vow never to do again. Until the next time.