Meet The Team
Wild at Heart Foundation is powered by a full-time team of five dog-lovers, all of whom are passionate, driven and deeply committed to bringing about change.
Our team
Click on each team member to learn more about who they are and what they do…
Nikki Tibbles
When Nikki isn’t driving our mission to provide a better life for the world’s stray dog population, she can be found heading up her world-renowned florist business. Her creativity and determination has not only helped Wild at Heart become a market leading brand, it’s also the reason Wild at Heart Foundation is the thriving, meaningful and committed charity we are today.
For the first four years of the charity’s development, Nikki’s business covered all costs, as well as contributing significantly towards projects and campaigns. This gave the Foundation the opportunity to grow, and to invest 100% of donations into our overseas project work. Wild at Heart still contributes 10% of its profits annually towards our running costs, and Nikki personally funds many of our international project trips where grants are unavailable, allowing us to channel all public fundraising straight into the areas of greatest need.
A dog-lover for life, Nikki grew up with stray dogs and has never known a time where she didn’t have a dog of her own. Her current clan includes Tia, Smith and Lenny (from Spain), Ronnie (from Romania), and Ruby and Rita (from Puerto Rico).
You can read more about Nikki and how she started the charity on our blog.
- Live wire
- Good with other dogs
- Heart of gold
Olivia Staves
A long-time supporter of Wild at Heart Foundation, Olivia rescued a Romanian dog through the charity back in its early days in 2015. She joined the team as a volunteer in 2017, before progressing to full time Head of Adoptions Operations in early 2019.
Thanks to Olivia, and her team’s genuine and unwavering dedication, many hundreds of dogs have been happily and seamlessly adopted into loving homes here in the UK.
- Good with people
- Wonderful nature
- Loves a spreadsheet
Sam Ellingford
Samantha joined Wild at Heart Foundation in 2020 as Operations Manager. Her demanding role includes strategizing, organising meetings, aiding communication, managing the charity’s bank balances and company merchandise, HR policies and procedures and overseeing the education campaign…she’s always willing to support and add structure to any aspect of the charity. Working closely with Nikki and the senior team, Samantha ensures the vision of the charity is always at the forefront of everything we do.
- Full of smiles
- Always efficient
- People pleaser
Carol Anne McMahon
Carol Anne has worked in fundraising management for over 25 years and has extensive experience of securing income from all fundraising streams for charities in both Scotland and Northern Ireland. An animal lover from a very early age, Carol Anne has been involved in animal welfare for charities in the UK and abroad, completing sponsored overseas treks to South Africa and Peru as well as many other fundraising initiatives. Carol Anne regularly fosters dogs arriving from abroad until they find their forever homes and helps with transporting dogs to their new owners.
- Passionate
- Empathetic
- Determined
Our volunteers
We’re so grateful to have a truly amazing team of volunteers who play a vital role in helping us achieve our goals. As a small charity, we’re reliant on the support they provide, and we can’t thank them enough for giving us their time, commitment, and expertise in the name of all things dog.
A special thanks goes to:
Our home checkers
Help to ensure that the adoption process runs as smoothly and efficiently as possible, giving up hours of their free time to liaise with potential adopters and making sure all our dogs to honest, caring and responsible homes. They’re there to answer questions, talk through potential concerns and provide invaluable insight into the experience. We couldn’t do it without them.
Our fosters and drivers
Foster carers provide a safe and stable home for a dog to settle in between locations, be it for a few days or a few months. Our volunteer drivers help transport our dogs across the country (and sometimes across continents), all in the pursuit of helping more dogs into happy homes
Our events volunteers
We’ve been honoured to meet hundreds of people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and help out at our events and fundraisers – whether it’s manning the bar, selling raffle tickets, rattling collection buckets or hosting a special event. We’re so grateful to anyone who donates their time and skills to help raise money for our cause.
Friends of the charity
We’re lucky to have the backing of an incredible community of ambassadors, partner brands, and companies, who lend their support to raising funds and awareness for Wild at Heart Foundation. Meet our ambassadors and partners here.
Learn more about volunteering or fostering for Wild at Heart Foundation
Our trustees
We’re lucky to have a team of inspiring trustees behind us, all of whom are committed to the rescue of dogs from all around the world.
Andrea Previ
Andrea is not only one of the charity’s best loved friends, he is also one of our most fervent supporters having advocated for Wild at Heart Foundation when it was still just a dream in Nikki’s mind! His support has been unwavering, and we’re so grateful for everything he’s done for the charity, be it supporting events and fundraisers, or helping us develop new corporate partnerships.
Jane Gottschalk
Stephanie Camu
Stephanie is the Founder of an artist management consultancy who has a passion for rescuing dogs. She has two rescue dogs from Crete herself, Ziggy and Ella. Stephanie has also helped to find homes for many other dogs from Crete.
Lorrie Robertson
Lorrie is the COO for the Country House Group and has a strong background in brand, marketing and digital.