Our five founders

Movement On The Ground was founded in 2015 by Adil Izemrane, Charlie Macgregor, Johnny de Mol, Laura Jansen and Dylan Ingham. After seeing the image of Alan Kurdi washed up on the shores of Molivos, Greece go viral, the five founders felt an immediate pull to the island of Lesvos. They knew that they had to go and start providing relief in any way possible to the thousands of vulnerable displaced people.

Adil Izemrane / Head of Mission

Adil Izemrane is a real estate developer and founder of several companies. The common theme throughout his work has been a strong belief in corporate social responsibility and sustainability. He was moved to act after visiting Lesvos in the summer of 2015. Since then he dedicated himself so fully to the cause that he moved to Lesvos in 2016 to ensure real impact and lasting improvements to the refugee crisis on the island. Adil has been spearheading Movement on the Ground by bringing in like minded partners and connecting to initiatives and entities on the ground. He is now the Head of Mission.


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Charlie Macgregor / Founder

Charlie Macgregor is CEO of The Student Hotel, a company with strong core values reflecting inclusiveness, unity and social responsibility. Charlie has supported many humanitarian efforts over the past years and was moved to act when the first images from Lesvos flooded the news and could no longer be ignored. He joined Adil and Johnny in the fall of 2015 in setting up Movement on the Ground, and has since committed himself and his network to helping the current crisis. 


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Johnny de Mol / Founder

Johnny de Mol is a Dutch actor and presenter. He has been active most of his life with charitable endeavours and is currently focusing his energy raising awareness on behalf of the situation in Lesvos. He is ambassador for Het Vergeten Kind (The Forgotten Child). Johnny began his work with Movement on the Ground when he and Adil decided to visit Lesvos upon hearing the chilling stories on the media about the refugee situation. Upon returning to the Netherlands, Johnny activated his social network, and was able to return to Lesvos with structural donations and a burning ambition to do much more. Since then Johnny has committed himself fully to this cause and visits Lesvos as often as he can.

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Laura Jansen / Founder

Laura Jansen is an award winning Dutch/American singer songwriter. Her own music has taken her around the world collaborating with artists such as Armin van Buuren, Keane, Snowpatrol and many others. Her life took a remarkable turn when she was confronted with the current refugee crisis in her hometown of Amsterdam. Compelled to act, she volunteered locally with new arrivals and the stories of those she helped led her to travel to Lesvos, Greece where the humanitarian crisis was in full effect in 2015. Laura stayed on Lesvos for 2.5 years working on implementing immediate support and the longer term goals of Movement on the Ground.

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Dylan Ingham / Founder

Dylan Ingham has over 25 years experience crafting communications for some of the most respected brands across the planet. He uses his expertise to help commercial brands as well as non-profits to be game changers. Dylan is one of the founding board members of Movement on the Ground.

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