Team

Sophie Rochester

Founder and CEO

Sophie Rochester is the founder of Yodomo. She is an advocate of the power and benefits of making, championing Yodomo’s mission to grow the reuse of materials  and participation in making to support wellbeing and sustainability.

She has over 25 years experience of working in the creative industries, with a focus on innovation, making, circular economy and community engagement.

Sophie is a life-long learner has recently completed: 

:: Designing for Environmental Sustainability and Social Impact (Acumen 2022)
:: Design Methods to Decarbonise your Business (Design Museum 2022)
:: Cambridge Social Ventures Programme (Cambridge Judge Business School 2021)
:: Deutsche Bank Made for Good Programme ('We in Social Tech' programme 2020)

She is the author of Making a Living: How to Craft your Business (Hachette 2021). 

Rachel Forster

Product Innovation 

Rachel Forster specialises in Architectural, Interior and Furniture Design. She graduated from Kingston University with a Bachelor of Arts (BA), interior design followed by an MA, interior and spatial design from the Royal College of Art. Rachel set up her own practice, Forster Inc, over twenty-five years ago, to allow her the creative freedom to develop ideas directly with her clients and to provide sustainable solutions to interior design projects.

Having been disillusioned with the levels of waste within the interior design industry, Rachel founded SortedLondon looking to change customer behaviour around waste and over-consumption. Rachel joined the Yodomo team to develop its work in the circular economy specifically looking to reduce textile waste in the interior design industry, through redistribution of materials to Yodomo's maker community. 

Rachel's experience of working in product design also feeds into Yodomo's ambitions to close the loop on textile waste, and she leads on our R&D into innovation around materials. 

Eloise Wales

Researcher and Behavioural Insights

 

Eloise Wales builds out our community at Yodomo across industry, microbusinesses and the creative community. She is a PhD researcher in the School of Society and Culture at the University of Plymouth, previously working in waste services for Runnymede. 

Eloise is also a Director and Researcher at ALSO which runs a number of creative workshops and masterclasses, and where repair, reuse, renew are at its heart. She has worked with a variety of arts, media and publishing organisations including Guardian Masterclasses, The Literary Platform and Salon London, where she has delivered live content for Latitude Festival, and Festival No.6.

Sandy di Yu

Researcher and Data Analyst

Sandy Di Yu oversees data analysis and improving data collection at Yodomo. She brings her expertise in the Information Management Framework and her experience in research management.

She holds an MA in Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths, University of London and is currently a PhD researcher in Digital Media at the University of Sussex, focusing on how digital technologies can cultivate new cultural shifts that lead to positive societal change.

Sandy has written extensively on the varied developments across contemporary culture, with work published in The Independent, TechRadar, the Strategist, Media Diversity Institute, Wellcome Collection, ArtRabbit and more. She has worked on digital content strategy with many organisations in the UK and internationally, including ArtRabbit, the Canada-UK Foundation, the Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-east England (CHASE).