Meet the Universal Advisors
Our external advisors provide expert advice that complements our board's efforts.
We are always eager to connect with individuals or organisations that believe they can contribute and wish to get involved.
COLIN BURTON
Colin is a solutions specialist with over 20 years of commercial delivery experience across both public and private sectors. He runs his own consultancy and serves as a non-executive director for several organisations.
For the past four years, Colin has focused on driving change within policing. He chairs the National Community Reference Group and leads the National Police Chiefs’ Council’s largest initiative to improve trust and confidence in policing among Black communities across England and Wales. He has worked directly with 23 different forces and influenced all 43 nationally.
He partners closely with key policing bodies like the Home Office, College of Policing, HMICFRS, and IOPC. He regularly chairs parliamentary sessions and holds several chairing roles with Kent Police.
Colin also leads a national effort to reduce serious youth violence by creating commercial opportunities, mentoring, and reinstating safe spaces collaborating with schools and grassroots groups UK-wide.
Dr Maz Idriss is Senior Lecturer in Law and is LLM Programme Director at Manchester Metropolitan University, England. His research on honour-based abuse (spanning 20 years) focuses on violence against women and men in South-Asian communities, including forced marriages.
He has published widely in a number of academic journals and has written for the Criminal Law Review, Journal of Criminal Law, Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, Journal of Interpersonal Violence and the International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice. He has also published two edited books on this subject and was awarded his PhD in 2018, where he interviewed 38 survivors and key agents involved in honour-based abuse and forced marriages as part of his research.
Dr. Maz recently published two reports (Honour-Based Abuse and the Courts, 2024; and Honour-Based Suicides, 2025) on the impact of honour-based abuse and the law and is firmly committed to making important legal changes in support of victims and survivors.
DR MAZ IDRISS
RICHARD MOORE
Richard is Scotland Lead for Pilotlight – an organisation dedicated to amplifying the delivery of charities, businesses and individuals.
Since 1996, Pilotlight has helped over 1000 charities fulfil their remit of creating and delivering impactful programmes for social enterprises, charities and global business partners - all for social good.
Of Universal Truth's founder Nyla Khan he says: ‘It’s rare to come across such a unique and inspiring person so driven to create change in such a challenging and critical space as forced marriage and community coercion. Meeting Nyla inspired me to want to get involved and support what Universal Truth is seeking to do in changing conversations around Forced Marriage and diversity and to help Nyla achieve those goals via Universal Truth.’
TARIQ ALI
Tariq is a highly experienced and accomplished campaigner for equalities and justice with over 20 years of experince in the social enterprise and charity sector. His extensive experience spans from grassroots organisations to nationally and internationally recognised charities. Throughout his career Tariq has consistently demonstrated exceptional leadership, organisational, and management skills, as well as a deep commitment to social justice.
Passionate in the struggle against forced and abusive marriages, Tariq is committed to effecting cultural change through his work with Universal Truth.
DR DOIREAN WILSON BEM
Dr Doirean Wilson is a distinguished academic, thought leader, and award-winning diversity expert with a career spanning higher education, human resource management, and sustainability leadership. She is Associate Professor in Sustainability Management and Director of the Academy of Policing & Criminal Justice at the University of East London where she is also one of three Sustainability Champions. Previously, she was Associate Professor in Human Resource Management at Middlesex University.
Dr Wilson is UK Country Chair for the G100 Club’s Higher Education & Industry Connect Wing, a global network of women leaders shaping policy for institutions including the UN, AU, and EU. In 2024, she joined the Advisory Stakeholder Board of the Police Race Action Plan and was commissioned by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), to undertake a diversity project, drawing on her inclusive work, to promote the MPS’s cultural awareness. This work is embedded as a core aspect of mandatory training for all new recruits.
Ranked 7th in the 2024 HR Most Influential Top Thinkers List, Dr Wilson has received numerous awards including the British Empire Medal, the UN Global Peace Council’s London Award for Excellence, and multiple diversity, leadership, and education honours. She is also a commissioned artist, former journalist and TV presenter, lyricist, and business consultant, celebrated for advancing inclusivity, equity, and sustainable leadership.