The team

Michael founded TIFA Life in 2023 and built it into a multi-site service business working with institutional customers across Wales, currently supporting more than 60 young people through 12 or more local authority commissioners, with around 40 frontline staff and a leadership team of five. He wrote the strategy and operating model from scratch: governance pillars, control gates, decision authorities and escalation routes. The business now runs day to day on that framework rather than on founder availability, which is the point of it: a commissioner should be able to inspect how a decision gets made without needing to reach him. Before TIFA he spent more than 20 years contracting in regulated enterprise environments, including Microsoft, BAE Systems, Nationwide and Virgin Money. He is also the founder of TIFA Connect, the platform TIFA Life runs on, which he designed and built inside the live operation and then made available to other providers in the sector.

Adina worked in the Neath Port Talbot leaving care team from 2010, and before that from 2002 to 2006. She was the regional UASC young persons advisor for Swansea and Neath Port Talbot from September 2023 to April 2026. Since June 2026 her weekly Swansea drop-ins for unaccompanied young people aged 16 to 25 have been attended by young people placed by four authorities, with referrals from five. She supported the regional consultations with unaccompanied young people in 2024 and 2025. At TIFA Life she leads the settling-in work in the first weeks of a placement: college and ESOL enrolment, GP and dentist registration, a bank account and a phone, local travel, and the solicitor and Home Office appointments, with someone beside the young person. She runs the sessions at the Studio for any authority's young people, and leads the training and experience days for authority teams. She does not give immigration advice.