Our Team

Hive is a growing group of passionate team members, channel leads, volunteers, and advisors

The Team

  • Sofia Balderson

    she/her
    Co-founder and Executive Director

    As Executive Director, Sofia leads on Hive’s mission, vision and strategy, ensuring its programs empower farmed animal advocates globally.

    Sofia co-founded Hive to combat isolation in the advocacy community and improve access to resources for impactful work. Before Hive, she contributed to the success of Animal Advocacy Careers and Veganuary.

    When she’s not working on Hive, Sofia enjoys exploring nature and reading about stoic philosophy.

  • Kevin Xia

    he/him
    Managing Director

    Kevin supports Hive as Managing Director, where he is responsible for the day-to-day operations at Hive and ensures that our programs are executed effectively.

    He previously started as Generalist for Hive, where he focused on community management, MEL and other projects. His background is in Philosophy and he started an effective animal advocacy group in Austria where he has also supported the Effective Altruism community as a board member since 2023.

  • Angel Lau

    she/her
    Fellow

    Angel supports Hive as a fellow primarily with communications, fundraising, and events. 

    She has been creating educational content in Chinese and English to help raise awareness of animal issues since 2018.

  • Nazlı Elvan Gökgöz

    she/her
    Fellow

    Nazlı manages community engagement projects and fosters partnerships, aiming to empower communities through effective communication.

    She is passionate about driving positive change toward a better world for animals.

    As an advocate, she worked with Kafessiz Türkiye (Türkiye Without Cages), where she led volunteer programs and organized events to raise awareness about factory farming.

  • Douglas Browne

    Software Engineer

    Doug manages our technical infrastructure at Hive across various platforms. He builds tools to increase community engagement and connect Hive to other advocacy platforms.

    Previously a software engineer at Google, he has extensive experience building and maintaining custom software solutions at scale.

  • Abraham Rowe

    Operations Contractor (Good Structures)

    Abraham previously was the COO of Rethink Priorities (RP), a think tank that works on studying charitable interventions. Prior to RP, he co-founded and was the first executive director of Wild Animal Initiative, a scientific field building organization.

  • Keighly Baron

    Operations contractor (Good Structures)

    Keighly Baron is an Operations Manager at Good Structures, with an extensive background in nonprofit administration and human resources management. She has experience across the tech, arts, and legal sectors.

Community leads

  • Liz Wheeler

    Fundraising channel

  • Björn Ólafsson

    Media Strategies and Research channel

  • Aditya

    India channel

  • Alexia

    Latin America channel

  • Alex Wolfe

    Parents channel

  • Chi

    Asia channel

  • Daniel Abiliba

    Africe channel

  • Johannes Pichler

    Wild Animals channel

  • Em Stokes

    Alt-Protein channel

  • Alicja Bućko

    Food Systems channel

  • Kara Lombard

    Operations channel

  • Danica Kubick

    Operations channel

  • Nicoll Peracha

    MEL channel

Want to join our team as a volunteer or channel lead?

Hive started as a volunteer-run project and we aim for it to remain community-centric. Volunteer channel leads help run subcommunities, engaging members and maintaining our high level of quality content.

Board Members

  • Cameron King

    Board President

    Cameron started the Hive Slack space alongside Sofia in February 2023. One of Cameron’s goals is to empower advocates from across the world (in particular LMICs) to foster new relations and connections to help end factory farming internationally.

    Previously, Cameron went through Charity Entrepreneurship’s incubation program, which led him to co-founding Animal Advocacy Africa.

  • Constance Li

    Board Secretary

    Dr. Constance Li is the Founder and Executive Director of AI for Animals, an initiative that originally began as part of Hive and explores the role of AI in shaping the future for animals. Constance joined Hive as its co-founder in August 2023, bringing over two decades of entrepreneurial experience and deep connections within the animal advocacy movement.

    Previously, she led a successful cage-free egg campaign at Rutgers University, co-founded the volunteer-based TNR group, Northwest Philly Cat Trappers, and started The Medical Vegetarian Society at her medical school. She is board certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and established a telehealth company with the aim of earning to give to impactful initiatives to reduce animal suffering.

  • Sofia Balderson

    Board Treasurer


    Sofia's mission is to serve the planet and its inhabitants, focusing on the most neglected causes. 

    Sofia started Hive because she wanted to address the isolation of farmed animal advocates worldwide and improve access to key resources for impactful advocacy. 

    She started the Hive newsletter in May 2022 and the Slack space in February 2023 with Cameron King (now Hive’s advisor). Before starting Hive, Sofia worked at Animal Advocacy Careers and Veganuary.

Advisors

  • Nicoll Peracha

    Nicoll Peracha

    Advisor

    (she/her)

    Nicoll worked 25+ years in (international) non-profits and co-founded The Mission Motor to empower animal charities through Monitoring & Evaluation. She’s driven to end factory farming, helped expand ProVeg Netherlands, and supports multiple people and organizations as a mentor or board member. Nicoll’s experience spans management, facilitation, and capacity building.

  • Cameron King

    Cameron King

    Advisor

    (he/him)

    Cameron King has co-founded and run Animal Advocacy Africa for the last 3 years as well as participating in Charity Entrepreneurship incubation program in 2020. 

    Previous to this, he has run his own e-commerce business. He has also managed the UK-based vegan discord for 5 years.

  • Aaron Boddy

    Aaron Boddy

    Advisor

    Aaron co-founded Shrimp Welfare Project through the 2021 Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Programme. He has a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from LJMU. Aaron’s professional background includes 4 years of as a Business Analyst in the National Health Service, experience collaborating with the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute on a survey of AGI Projects, and funding a startup.

  • Jay Barret

    Advisor

    Jay is one of the co-Founders of PEPR Public Benefit Corporation, a professional services organization working to support the animal advocacy movement to accelerate and amplify its impact but supporting advocacy organizations to progress their mission. PEPR focuses on strategic support across People & Culture and Finance & Operations with direct support through its program offering and services. Prior to PEPR, Jay founded the HR consultancy Culture Canopy, and brings with him experience from various sectors and industries, including consumer goods, fashion, creative fields and non-profits.