Executive Leadership Team
Howard Taylor
Chief Executive Officer
Howard joined Lumos as CEO in 2024 after leading the United Nations Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children.
Prior to this, he has had over twenty years of experience as a transformational leader in non-profit, corporate, government and UN settings in UK, USA, Africa and Asia.
Enrique Restoy
Director of Programmes
Enrique is a child rights and child protection senior executive with experience of delivering results in the fields of programming, advocacy and campaigning on human rights and human rights-based health and international development programmes in over 45 countries.
Prior to joining Lumos, Enrique was Executive Director of Programmes and Policy at Hope for Justice, a global anti-child trafficking organisation. He also served as an executive at the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, Anti-Slavery International, Child Soldiers International, and Amnesty International. Enrique sits in the Impact Advisory Board of the School of Global Studies at the university of Sussex.
Freya Paleit
Deputy Director of Communications
Bringing over 20 years of high-level strategic communications experience from leading international nonprofit and media organizations. Her extensive background includes senior roles at Sported, ActionAid, Sightsavers, and Marie Curie Cancer Care, where she has consistently delivered complex communications strategies and managed brand reputation across press, broadcast, and social media channels.
Her professional journey includes a transformative five-year period in publishing, during which she served as Editor-in-Chief of a monthly magazine in Hong Kong.
She is a Governor of The Hendreds Primary School in Oxfordshire.
Global team
Grace Mwangi
Country Director for Kenya
Grace is a Child Protection and Care Reform professional with over 25 years’ experience. Prior to joining Lumos she worked with Tumaini Kwa Watoto – Children of Hope (UK Charity) and Give a Child a Family, a South Africa Based Organization during which she oversaw over 300 children reintegrated back into their families and communities, and pioneered community-based Family Strengthening and Early intervention program.
Grace actively serves and contributes to various national child protection policy development technical working groups, including the development of National Care Reform Strategy among other Care Reform supportive documents. She has served as a Trustee in Street Families Rehabilitation Trust Fund and currently serving as a member of the National Positive Parenting Programme Steering Committee. At the regional level, she currently oversees the Secretariat of the Africa Working Group on Children Without Parental Care (AWG-CWPC).
Rosario Del Rio
Country Director for Colombia
Rosario worked for over 20 years for international non-governmental organisations such as Plan International and Mercy Corps, promoting children´s rights and gender equality in Colombia and other countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.
She has a Masters degree in Regional Development Planning and Administration and an MA in Business Administration. She is a proud mother of three.
As Country Director of Lumos Colombia, Rosario is leading work to support the Colombian Government and society to move away from institutions and towards family and community-based care, so children can thrive in safe, caring families.
Marcel Straton
Country Director for Moldova
Throughout his career, Marcel has been focused on respecting human rights, in particular, the rights of children, and promoting a safe and loving family for every child.
With over 5 years of experience in the field of child rights protection, Marcel is currently leading the efforts of Lumos Foundation in Moldova aimed at ensuring the respect of all children’s rights, including the rights to development, to a family, to education, to social protection through the development and strengthening of social, educational and early intervention services for children at risk, those with developmental delays and disabilities with the ultimate goal of preventing their separation from their families, as well as their placement in residential institutions.
Marcel has over 10 years of experience working in various roles for the Government, international NGO, and private businesses in Moldova as well as over 10 years of experience working for private businesses overseas.
Yaroslav Laguta
Country Director for Ukraine
Yaroslav Laguta joined Lumos after an extensive career as a public servant – Head of Kyiv City Darnytsa District State Administration, a.i Head and Deputy Head of Zhytomyr Regional State Administration. In his position as Deputy Head of Zhytomyr Regional State Administration, Yaroslav led the strategic review of the situation of children in the region and the development of the Regional Care Reform Strategy for 2018-2026. Yaroslav has also headed the Regional Council for Child Rights Protection and different thematic inter-sectoral child protection-related working groups.
Since the war in Ukraine started, Yaroslav worked alongside Kiev Municipality authorities to provide life-saving assistance to Ukrainian citizens in crisis situations.
In his current position, Yaroslav is working with national and regional authorities in Ukraine to make sure that child protection and children’s rights are prioritised on the country’s agenda, care systems are strengthened, and the most vulnerable children and their families are supported to prevent family separation.