We are a team of staff, volunteers and Trustees with a range and depth of experience that includes pioneers and emerging talented leaders in their field of work.
Pictured, right, Suresh Grover, National Coordinator and founder of The Monitoring Group
Suresh has been a leading anti-racism campaigner in the UK for over four decades. He is widely acknowledged as an expert advocate for victimised and marginalised communities and brings a formidable reputation for campaigning against race, gender, caste and class discrimination, state misconduct, communal violence and environmental destruction in the UK and the global South.
Suresh has had a pivotal role in hundreds of family justice and community defence campaigns established or supported by The Monitoring Group. He has been named as one of the top influential people in social policy in the country by Britain’s Guardian newspaper.
Both Suresh and The Monitoring Group have been granted core participant status by the Undercover Police Inquiry (UCPI). The UCPI was established by former Home Secretary (and later Prime Minister) Theresa May (Baroness May of Maidenhead) to examine illegal police spying of peaceful campaigning and protest groups.
Jagdish Patel, Project and Development Manager
Jagdish Patel is the manager of The Monitoring Group’s race hate crime casework as part of the CATCH race and advocacy service and leads in developmental work for the East Midlands region.
He has had a number of roles with The Monitoring Group over the last three decades and is a former deputy director. Jagdish is an artist and is completing his PhD. He is a Postdoctoral fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, researching Cultures and Practices of Democracy in the Indian Diaspora.
Chloe Ruthven, Senior Advocacy Officer
Before joining The Monitoring Group, Chloe Ruthven worked for twenty years as an educator with those affected by school exclusions and other vulnerable young people, designing curriculums and supporting their mental health.
She is a committed community activist and filmmaker who has made several documentaries tackling important social justice issues in the UK, Palestine and India.
Rohan Patel, Advocacy Officer
Rohan Patel is a campaigner and researcher based in South East London. His work focuses on racial justice, migration, and social inequality, with experience in policy research, community engagement, and frontline support. He holds a BA in Politics and Sociology from the University of Leeds and a master’s degree in photography & urban Cultures from Goldsmiths, University of London. He previously managed a food bank, addressing food insecurity and poverty through direct assistance and advocacy. Rohan has received testimonials from clients of The Monitoring Group who have praised his hard work and dedication to resolving their cases as an Advocacy Officer with the organisation.
Lamarr Nugent, Advocacy Officer
Lamarr Nugent is a passionate advocate and legal professional with a strong commitment to community development and social justice for all. He holds a bachelor’s degree in law from Coventry University and is currently completing his master’s degree in law with the Legal Practice Course (LPC) at the University of Law. Lamarr has developed diverse experience across a number of legal sectors, including family law, contract law, immigration law, employment law, personal injury, and clinical negligence, while also expanding his skill set in criminal law. He has worked closely with organisations such as the Black Police Association.
Lamarr is an avid traveller who has taught English in both Southeast Asia and Africa, where he embraced new cultures and broadened his global perspective.
Kareena Rippingale, Advocacy Officer
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Deborah Hobson, Office Manager
Deborah Hobson is an anti-racism campaigner and life-long trade unionist. She believes in the transformative power of organised labour and supports the liberation struggle of the Global South majority. Deborah is a journalist, documentary filmmaker and visual artist. She has a BA (Hons) in Fine Art: Drawing from the University of the Arts London (UAL) and a master’s degree in Fine Art from UAL Chelsea College of Arts,
Deborah is a National Executive Committee member of the National Union of Journalists and Secretary at Unite the Union’s National Media and Publishing branch. She is Deputy Editor at the UK’s first dedicated citizen journalism website The-Latest.com. Deborah is Co-Chair with Hassan Ahmed at anti-racism and human rights organisation The Liberation Movement.
Omar Amin, Finance Manager
Omar Amin is the Finance Officer at The Monitoring Group. He is an ACCA qualified accountant and has over 20 years financial management experience in the charity sector.
Prior to joining the charity sector, Omar has worked for various banks, both in the UK and abroad.
Professor Jawed Siddiqi, Chair of Trustees at The Monitoring Group
Jawed Siddiqi is the Emeritus, retired, Professor of Software Engineering at Sheffield Hallam University. He was nationally recognised for his leadership having served as the President of the National Council of University Professors and on the executive committee of the Council of Professors and Heads of Computing.
Jawed is a political activist focusing on anti-racism for over four decades. He has worked closely with The Monitoring Group’s Suresh Grover in campaigns for justice involving the Dawood family and the Rotherham 12.
Jawed was a member of the North Staffordshire Campaign Against Racism and Fascism in the 1980s. He was a founding member the North Staffordshire and Surrounding Districts Community Relations Council (CRC later REC) and served as its Chair for several years which involved working with African, Caribbean and Asian communities and individuals who experienced racial harassment and discrimination. In the nineties, in Sheffield he was Secretary of the Black Justice Project and Chair of the Sheffield Action Against Racial Harassment Project working with young African, Caribbean and Asian men facing racial attacks and often being arrested for defending themselves. Jawed led a successful campaign, involving a group of young Asian men from Darnall who were arrested for countering a march by British National Party (BNP) members, that resulted in all charges being dropped.
Dr Adam Elliot-Copper, Trustee at The Monitoring Group
Adam Elliott-Cooper is a senior lecturer in social and public policy, in the School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary University of London. He has previously worked as a researcher in the Department of Philosophy at University College London (UCL), as a teaching fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick and as a research associate in the Department of Geography at King's College London.
His first book, Black Resistance to British Policing, was published by Manchester University Press in May 2021. He is also co-author of Empire’s Endgame: Racism and the British State (Pluto Press, 2021).
Dr Jasbinder Nijar, Trustee at The Monitoring Group
Jasbinder Nijjar teaches at Birkbeck, University of London. He has a PhD in Sociology from Brunel university.
Jasbinder has a broad interest in state racism, violence and social justice. He is a member of the council of management for the Institute of Race Relations and has written articles for academic and activist journals including Race & Class, Social Justice and Popular Communication. Jasbinder is involved in grassroots anti-racism activism in Southall, west London. He is a member of the Southall Resists Forum, and worked on the Southall Resists 40 project - a community-led initiative that organised a series of events in the area to mark the fortieth anniversary of the police killing of anti-fascist campaigner, Blair Peach.
Rheian Davies, Trustee at The Monitoring Group
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Amidou Njie, Treasurer at The Monitoring Group
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Aqsa Suleman, Trustee at The Monitoring Group
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Hajera Begum, Trustee at The Monitoring Group
Hajera Begum is a grassroots organiser who has campaigned around the issues of anti-racism, state repression and Palestine. She is the co-founder of Nijjor Manush, an independent socialist organisation that aims to empower and organise Bengalis and Bangladeshis in the UK. She is also part of Abolitionist Futures, a collaboration of community organisers and activists in the UK and Ireland who are working together to build a future without prisons, police and punishment. She has written articles on policing and co-developed educational programmes on the history of anti-racism organising, South Asian Internationalism and the Prevent programme.
