our people

Rachel Arnold

Rachel moved to London after University to work as a Landscape Architect for a great firm based in Shoreditch. With a love of the outdoors, being in vast spaces and seeing the horizon, how she ended up in Tower Hamlets is a good question!

After eight years working as an award-winning Landscape Architect on all aspects of design, installation, and leading a team, Rachel felt unsatisfied and dreamt of a business that helped homeless, long term unemployed, or ex-offenders work as landscapers in an environment that built up individuals; and gave opportunity for the team to work and step into a future with the hope that goes beyond the grave.

This dream led to the birth of RenewEL in 2017, first creating furniture out of pallets and then since 2018 installing and maintaining gardens. It really is an adventure stepping into Kingdom plans and purposes beyond our expectation!

Jimmy Wheale

Jimmy first got his hands dirty in the garden alongside his grandad, digging up potatoes on the allotment. Since then, he’s never really stopped, swapping spuds for soil and cement in a career spanning landscaping and construction.

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Outdoors is where Jimmy’s in his element. He thrives on teamwork and loves nothing more than taking an unloved patch of land and giving it a new lease of life. Through his own social enterprise, Nomadic Community Gardens CIC, he’s turned grey, forgotten corners of the city into colourful community hubs for everyone to enjoy. 

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At RenewEL, Jimmy keeps that same energy flowing. He’s led some of our most successful projects, balancing hard graft with a big smile and wise words of encouragement. His sunny disposition, faith in God, and can-do attitude make him the kind of leader people naturally want to follow; a role model to the younger crew, and a firm favourite with colleagues and clients alike.

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Simply put: Jimmy makes work feel less like work, and more like building something that matters.​ A true asset. ​

Can Hussain

Can was studying Horticulture at Capel Manor College in Crystal Palace in 2021, there he met John Foster through one of his lecturers, and a shared passion for Landscape Gardening. Can struggled to find a landscape placement and he was offered a position at RenewEL.

In Can's words;

"I am so thankful I found my way to RenewEL and I am really enjoying my time here, I am getting lots of hands on experience, gaining lots of knowledge and working with a great team of people.

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Each morning we pray together and read the Bible, I am of Muslim faith and background but I like to take part in this with the guys before we start our day.

Gemma Brown

Gemma began work with RenewEL in October 2022; one day enjoying a coffee after church Rachel mentioned to Gemma that she was currently recruiting a part-time Office Manager, the business was growing and further support behind the scenes was needed. 

Gemma is a Personal Trainer and Sports Massage Therapist, however has a background in the Construction Industry, having worked on multi-million pound groundworks and infrastructure projects, and felt she felt she had the skillset and available time to work with Rachel at RenewEL. 

Gemma’s worked with homeless people at a shelter providing weekly feeds for many years, so RenewEL’s ethos really aligned with her values as a Christian.

5 year celebration

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John Foster

John has been involved with RenewEL since the end of 2017, helping with garden maintenance and supporting the landscape team. After a 20-year career in finance and media, which saw John work in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, John transitioned to the renewable energy sector, developing a waste-to-energy and agricultural project in Lesotho, and founding a renewable energy company that was listed in 2020.

John has always been fascinated by plants, having travelled extensively to various ecosystems and after settling in East London, helped develop several communal gardens in his local community. He started helping out at RenewEL, as a favour to a friend, but soon became more involved with the day-to-day work, developing the maintenance business and helping train the company’s employees. He has industry qualifications in horticulture from Capel Manor College and the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and finds working with the RenewEL team engaging and rewarding.