Sarah Owen MP
Chair
Sarah Owen was elected as the Member of Parliament for Luton North in December 2019.
Sarah is a campaigning MP and was appointed Shadow Minister for homelessness, rough sleeping, and faith in December 2021.
Sarah is a member of the Health and Social Care Committee, Vice-Chair of the APPG on Hate Crime, and is leading legislation through the House on regulations for fireworks and providing bereavement leave for parents following baby loss.
Sarah is also the first female MP of South-East Asian descent and is the Chair of East and South-East Asians for Labour.
Lord Sonny Leong CBE
Vice-Chair
Sonny is Chief Executive of a training provider for public sector staff, and a successful publishing, education and social enterprise entrepreneur.
Driven by two political passions – increasing minority representation and ensuring that no child is left behind in education or life opportunities – Sonny has led AccessBooks, promoting publishing skills in Africa; Book Power, providing reduced price textbooks to students in developing countries; the MuLan Foundation Network, increasing inclusion for the British Chinese community; and FutureFirst, building alumni networks for state school students.
Sonny was on the Executive Committee of BAME Labour and the National Policy Forum. He founded Small and Medium Enterprises for Labour and East and South-East Asians for Labour.
He regularly speaks on panels and writes articles on Labour’s need to increase ethnic minorites representation and engage positively with business.
He was awarded a CBE for Political Service. In October 2022, it was announced that he would receive a life peerage in the 2022 Special Honours. On 31 October 2022, he was created Baron Leong, of Chilton in the County of Oxfordshire and of Camden Town in the London Borough of Camden.
Councillor Edison Huynh
Vice-Chair
Councillor Edison Huynh was elected to represent Lewisham Central ward in 2022. He serves on the Licensing Committee; Overview and Scrutiny Committee; Public Transport Liaison Committee and Sustainable Development Select Committee (Vice-Chair).
Outside of politics, Edison serves as the Director of Research and Special Projects at The New York Academy of Sciences contributing to the development of educational products for the Global STEM Alliance (GSA) - the Academy’s initiative to strengthen and support the STEM pipeline - as well as developing ideas for new programs and special projects which leverage the Academy’s unique position as a convener of scientists from around the world.
Edison has had a varied background in education practice, policy, and research. He started off as a high school science teacher in the UK before being elected Teach First President where he campaigned on tackling education inequality and developed partnerships with business, policy makers, school leaders and non-profit foundations in order to highlight barriers to social mobility. Edison also worked at the political thinktank IPPR where he worked in the Public Policy team across education and health briefs. He has also worked in education research in many international contexts – most notably in Canada and China.
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