Councillor Lotis Bautista
Chair
Lotis' family hails proudly from the Philippines and in May 2022, she was elected to represent King's Cross Ward, before being elected as the Chair of ESEA for Labour in April 2023. She is currently Deputy Whip of the Labour Group in Camden and serves on the Planning Committee and Children, Schools and Families Committee.
After starting her career as an English Teacher on the Teach First Leadership Development programme, Lotis served as Assistant Head of Sixth Form in West London and an Access Coordinator at City Lit, before going on to Co-found and run her own education technology for 5 years. She has since supported multiple founders of startups and family businesses to improve their company operations.
Lotis has combined all of her previous experience into her current role as a Business Transformation Coach at Multiverse, where she works with business apprentices to create digital transformations across their organisations.
Prior to getting involved in politics, Lotis was a School Governor in North West London and is also a Trustee for Voluntary Action 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.
Marcus Storm
Vice-Chair
Marcus is an experienced professional in the field of Artificial Intelligence. He has led world-leading companies' AI transformation and strategic delivery projects, as well as large teams to develop the next generation of responsible AI-enabled products. He advises politicians on how to use AI to transform public services for the next generation and works with C-suite executives and government agencies to finance defence equipment and platforms across the world.
Marcus holds a Master's degree in Physics from Imperial College London and is business fluent in eight languages. He also chairs the Fabian Society Defence and Security policy group.
Antony So
Secretary and Communications Officer
Antony is a London-based political and communications consultant specialising in agrifood policy and food systems.
He has lived, worked and studied in Switzerland, Paris, Brussels, Washington, D.C, and the UK. He has previously worked with international and national trade associations, multinational companies, chambers of commerce, strategic communications agencies, leading universities and several political campaigns.
He holds Master’s degrees from the Centre for Food Policy (City University of London) and the European Institute (London School of Economics).
Chris Wongsosaputro
Treasurer
Chris currently serves as ESEA for Labour Treasurer and has close links to South East Asia, having grown up in Indonesia and Singapore. He has been a Labour Party member since 2013 and is Treasurer of Vauxhall Ward who regularly campaigns in Vauxhall and elsewhere.
Chris was the Co-Chair of Young Fabians Economy & Finance Network and published regular economic updates and participated in podcasts. He co-led Young Fabians pamphlet "An Economic Lens to Reclaiming the Heartlands" with a foreword from Gordon Brown and contributions from ~30 MPs and ~20 writers across the UK.
Chris is a Chartered Accountant and works in Strategy Consulting.
Carrie Ho
Equalities Officer and Scotland Rep
Carrie was born and brought up in Hong Kong, and moved to Edinburgh with her family moved in 1995.
She continued to work as a nurse when she first arrived in Edinburgh. She then had a career’s development in Equality and Diversity and successfully delivered projects for the Scottish Government under the Social Inclusion Team. She then went back to her nursing career and continued to develop her skills as Specialist Nurse and Facilitator in training and education.
Carrie took an early retirement in 2023 so that she can travel with her husband. Carrie has a strong sense of community spirit and continues to volunteer for different charities in Edinburgh.
Edward Lawrence
Campaigns and Policy Officer
Ed works in Parliament for the Labour Party. He previously worked on trade, animal welfare and transport policy in the Civil Service.
Outside of his day job, Ed helps to run Labour for the Long Term, which aims to support Labour's policymaking on resilience and emerging risks.
Tim Cheung
Digital Officer
Committee Members
Zahra Lee Spencer
For the past 16 years, Zahra Spencer has worked in primary education in London and Hertfordshire. She also volunteers with a local hospice in charity retail.
Based in Hertfordshire, Zahra is the secretary for both the Broxbourne Constituency Labour Party and Hertfordshire Local Campaign Forum.
Her qualifications include (BA) hons Fine Art: Painting (University of the Arts London) and PGCE (University College London).
Will Thong
Jun Man
Honorary Board Members
Sarah Owen MP
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.
Ambassador Extraordinary
East & South East for Labour is proud to announce the establishment of the Ambassador Extraordinary, Eminent Labour People Panel. Members of the panel are eminent people supporting Labour values, and at the top of their profession.
Lord Sonny Leong, Vice Chair of ESEA4Labour says "These people are perfect role models for our younger generation. They are Labour Party members or supporters who believe in our values of fairness, social justice and equality of opportunities."
Professor Stephen Chan OBE
Professor Stephen Chan is widely respected as a distinguished academic who has made a major contribution to the academic understanding of international politics in general and African politics in particular. He has also made a significant impact on political developments in Africa through his involvement in high-level diplomacy and actions and advice on the ground.
The firstborn son of Chinese refugees to New Zealand, Stephen Chan was a national student president, publisher, newspaper editor and international civil servant before he became an academic, first in Africa and later in Britain.
He was awarded an OBE for 'services to Africa and to higher education' in the 2010 Queen's Birthday Honours’ list.
Dr Stephen Chan is Professor of International Relations at School of African & Oriental Studies, University of London. He began his academic career as a lecturer in International Relations at University of Zambia in 1983 then worked briefly as a visiting lecturer at the University of Wellington before moving on to academic posts at the University of Kent, then Nottingham Trent University, where he was Dean of Humanities.
He joined SOAS in 2002 as Professor of International Relations and served as Dean of Law & Social Sciences for five years from 2002 to 2007. Professor Chan has published 27 books on international relations and more than 200 articles and reviews in the academic and specialist press, as well as over 100 journalistic feature articles. Particularly notable are his 2002 biography of Mugabe (Robert Mugabe: A Life of Power and Violence), his 1991 book on Zambian issues (Kaunda and Southern Africa: Image and Reality in Foreign Policy) and his 2006 volume of interviews with opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai (Citizen of Africa: Conversations with Morgan Tsvangirai). His most recent work is The End of Certainty.