Our trustees

Our committees

We also have 4 sub-committees which support our Board. They scrutinise different areas of our work, to add another layer of insight. All of our trustees contribute to both Board and a Committee.

Strategic delivery committee

• Supports us to deliver our work
• Campaigns and influences for change
• Scrutinises how we carry out our strategy

Network committee

• Helps develop our network of Local Minds
• Helps to drive forward Mind's federated structure

Pwyllgor Cymru

• Ensures we have the greatest possible impact in Wales
• Makes sure our work reflects Welsh culture, identity and devolved organisations

Finance, risk and audit committee

• Oversees and monitors Mind's financial, fundraising and admin activities
• Is partly responsible for auditing Mind's work 

Mind retail board

• Leads Mind retail
• Reports to Mind via the Finance, Risk and Audit Committee

Stevie Spring – chairman

Stevie Spring CBE chaired the Groundwork Federation for 8 years and BBC Children in Need for 10 years. A portfolio director, investor and adviser, Stevie was named by GQ magazine as one of the UK’s 100 most connected women and was on the Telegraph/Debretts list of Britain’s 500 most influential people.

Originally a lawyer turned marketer, she has been CEO of 2 international media companies and has served on numerous boards.

Currently she chairs the remuneration committee for the Coop Group of Companies and sits on the Global Advisory Board of pladis.

Stevie is a Fellow of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and the Marketing Society and holds an honorary doctorate for services to business.

Ian Ruddock – board advisor and chair of Mind Retail

Ian is a chartered accountant with more than 25 years' experience in project and corporate finance. He specialises in the funding and management of investments in infrastructure.

Ian trained with KPMG in London before leaving to set up a specialist financial advisory practice. He was chief executive of this company for 10 years and managed its merger into a US quoted global advisory firm.

Ian's relationship with Mind started in 2012, when he was appointed to chair the audit committee. Ian was appointed Mind's Treasurer in 2013.

John Wilderspin – vice chair and chair of network committee

John is a leadership coach and independent consultant working in the health and care sector. He previously worked in the NHS running hospitals, community services and commissioning organisations, and leading a number of national programmes.

He has a particular interest in partnership working, ensuring different organisations work together to provide excellent, integrated services for the people they serve. 

As well as his role with Solent Mind, John is  a Vice Chair of national Mind and chairs the Network Committee.

Joanne Theodoulou – vice chair and network committee member

Joanne, who has experience of governance in the not-for-profit sector, joined Mind's Council of Management in December 2016.

A lawyer by profession, she has legal, financial and management experience drawn from working in large law firms and banks, as well as small companies.

Joanne is a strong believer that with the right care and information, those suffering from mental health problems, just as those with physical illnesses, can lead fulfilling lives and contribute to society. As someone who has experienced mental health problems, Joanne brings a compassionate understanding based on experience and with it, the vital message of hope.

Joanne was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 1999 while working at city law firm Linklaters. She manages her condition with a combination of medication, looking after her physical health, and the invaluable support of those around her.

Joanne qualified as a solicitor in 1998 and holds a degree in English and Spanish American Literature from Warwick University. Before qualifying as a lawyer, Joanne studied music and dance to a high level and still has a passion for both.

She lives in London with her husband and two children.

Rohan Kallicharan – trustee and member of the finance, risk and audit committee

Rohan is an HR leader with a background of leading organisations through significant global scaling and change. In his role, he has been able to influence perceptions around workplace wellbeing as a recognised public speaker and subject matter expert. He is a role model on the Inside Out Leaderboard in the UK and also a Stability Leader in the US based Stability Network.

Rohan has lived experience of mental ill health which drives his commitment to change. He credits Mind with giving him hope, purpose and dignity after the impact of his bipolar disorder led to homelessness and multiple attempts on his own life.

Rohan has spoken in schools and prisons, encouraging young men from disadvantaged communities to speak openly about mental health. He was also a Mind Media Award winner in 2017 for his part in the documentary, Me and My Mental Illness.

Rohan is fiercely committed to removing all barriers to mental health dialogue and support, especially in underrepresented and racialised communities. He shares his journey to give a voice to others, to challenge assumptions, and to show that we can thrive beyond mental ill health.

He is happily married and lives in South West London. He is most likely to be found watching his beloved Liverpool Football Club or running in his Mind vest. As of December 2021, he has completed 50 marathons for Mind.

Alex Jensen – trustee, member of the finance, risk and audit committee, and member of Mind retail board

Alex joined the board of trustees in 2016 and sits on the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee and the Mind Retail board.

She became involved with mental health issues in 2012 when her daughter stopped eating. She was shocked by the speed of response, fragmentation of care, rigidity of schools in embracing different needs and the fear and "otherness" that her family felt for many years as a result of these failures.

Alex joined Mind to support an organisation that she knew was making a difference. Previously, she spent 10 years as a local volunteer for Victim Support focusing on violent assault and rape.

Alex has run several multi-national retail and customer-facing businesses and has a background in operations, marketing and digital data transformation. Her professional career has given her valuable experience across different cultures, managing lots of stakeholder groups and building a culture which matches the changing needs of a growing organisation.

She graduated from university with a degree in Mandarin, holds a masters, and is on the Board of Inchcape plc. She lives with her husband, two grown up children and several animals.

Alyson Scott – trustee and strategic delivery committee member

Alyson has worked in the voluntary sector for more than 20 years, starting as a volunteer and then, following university, as a youth and community worker.

She's worked in a number of charities which help to support the the voluntary and community sector, and facilitate links with schools and families to reduce exclusions and poor experience of education. She's led an organisation which provides support for young people through counselling, sexual health advice and generic youth work.

She moved into charity management more than 10 years ago and undertook a Post Graduate Diploma in Charity Resource Management.

Alyson has been the CEO at York Mind for more than 4 years and has been involved in the development of the Mind Network.

Shubulade Smith – trustee and strategic delivery committee member

Dr Shubulade (aka Lade) Smith is a consultant psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and visiting senior lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Kings College London. She graduated in Medicine from Guy’s Hospital Medical School, London, winning prizes in Psychological Medicine.

After training in psychiatry at the Maudsley, she completed a Research Fellowship in antipsychotic side effects. She then set up a joint medication review and physical health clinic, a “one stop shop” aimed at health promotion and management of physical problems in people with SMI, leading to her being nominated as a “Woman of the Year” and a BMA Pioneer award for innovation in psychiatry.

Having trained in general psychiatry, she is now a forensic psychiatrist. She is the lead for the Acute Forensic Pathway of the South London Partnership and clinical director of the Forensic Services at SLaM. She is also the clinical director of the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, providing medical leadership for the team developing mental health guidelines.

She sat on the core working group of the Independent Mental Health Act Review and was responsible for some of the key recommendations, including those for patients with forensic issues. Recommendations aimed at improving outcomes for black people with mental health problems have now been taken up by the government.

Dr Smith was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2019 for services to Forensic Intensive Psychiatric care. In November 2019 she was awarded Psychiatrist of the Year by the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Anna Hughes – trustee and chair of the finance, risk and audit committee

Anna became a trustee of Mind in 2017 after being CEO of Suffolk Mind.

As CEO of Suffolk Mind, Anna developed an ambitious 5 year strategy for the charity, designed to encourage people in Suffolk to improve their understanding of their mental health. Suffolk Mind delivers services across the spectrum of mental health and has a reputation for delivering innovative services, for example in Borderline Personality Disorder and in rolling out the emotional needs model.

She was also instrumental in the redevelopment and extension of a medieval church in Ipswich as a wellbeing and heritage centre.

Anna is a chartered accountant who qualified with KPMG in 1991. She has been a consultant to organisations like the Tate Modern, the British Museum and the Institute of Chartered Accountants. She's also been finance director at Ipswich Town Football Club.

Christer Stoyell – chair of strategic delivery committee and finance, risk and audit committee member

Christer has more than 17 years of international experience, firstly as a Management Consultant with Cap Gemini Ernst and Young, and then within the European energy industry with RWE and Capita Energy Services. He's held leadership positions across strategy, operations and new ventures and now specialises in business and cultural transformation.

Christer has held two non-executive directorships within the software development and recruitment industries and also mentors start-up organisations.

He has an undergraduate degree from Oxford and an MBA from INSEAD in Paris, and he speaks Swedish, German and Spanish.

Christer has personal experience of mental health problems and is now motivated to contribute to Mind. He wants to be an advocate of speaking up to raise awareness and reduce stigma wherever he can.

Emrys Elias – chair of Pwyllgor Cymru and network committee member

Emrys has recently retired after a long career working with NHS mental health services. Emrys originally trained as a mental health nurse and has worked in numerous service areas including policy, commissioning, hospital and community mental health services. He has had several senior nurse, senior manager and director posts, including being a nurse director. Up until his retirement, he was the Director of the NHS Delivery Unit where his work focused on the performance of NHS organisations in delivering services.

During his career he has led the development of mental health services at a national and local level and has chaired a number of mental health forums for service planning and operational delivery.

Emrys has also had the opportunity to visit and learn about mental health service delivery in Italy and Singapore.

Emrys has directed and coordinated a number of national and local performance reviews of services within Wales in line with the national delivery requirements for adult and children's mental health services. These include reviews of organisation mental health models of service delivery, the methods in place for people to access services, how a person's care and treatment is coordinated and the delivery of outcome-focused care planning.

Throughout his career Emrys has strived to improve the wellbeing and lives of other people.

Pippa Glucklich – trustee and finance, risk and audit committee member

A Board-level leader, Pippa has more than 25 years’ experience delivering growth for global media, digital and communications agencies. She's developed long-standing client relationships across a wide range of Global 100 brands. Her career has spanned planning, buying, new business and commercial roles for leading and fast-growth agencies. Most recently, she spent five years as CEO at Starcom (Publicis Groupe), and was CEO of Amplifi, part of Dentsu Aegis Network.

She is now CEO of independent media agency Electric Glue, chaired by creative legend Sir John Hegarty. She's also a board advisor for 2 female-founded digital start-ups and Must TV.

As well as her business career, Pippa is a long-standing trustee of charity NABS, which strive to improve the wellbeing of everyone in the advertising and media industry. She sits on the steerco of timeTo, an initiative to bring an end to sexual harassment. She's also still engaged in not-for-profit women’s network WACL, where she was president in 2018/19.

Pippa has 2 sons, a dog called Digby and lives in Wimbledon.

Cynthia Tze Keng Ko – trustee and member of the network committee

Cynthia is a global citizen with a heart for the planet and its people. She’s struggled with her mental health since the age of 11 while being on the receiving end of racism. At 18, she was diagnosed with chronic depression and has been on and off therapy ever since.

Her life has been a constant search for belonging, trying to find a balance between her Chinese ethnicity and Dutch upbringing.

Despite the adversities in her life she’s always found a home in social impact, by using her wide-ranging skills as a behavioural scientist, service designer, researcher and campaigner.

Cynthia has been involved in research projects around Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) in youth employment, broadcasting, the mortgage industry, the heritage sector and more.

Using her lived and professional experience, she’s been a Bridging the Gap advisor at Mind, aiming to make recruitment of lived experience opportunities more inclusive. She continued her passion for mental wellbeing as a Lived Experience Facilitator and is now the youngest trustee at Mind.

Cynthia is also a sustainability campaigner who advocates for environmental justice, being fully aware that marginalised communities may face the worst physical and mental health impacts due to climate change.

All of this has gained her recognition as a Global 30 Under 30 Next Generation Insights Leader. As a trustee, she hopes to continue standing up for youth and ethnic minority communities, because, in her words: “The last thing I want is for anyone to feel like my 11-year-old self”.

Valerie Harrison – trustee and Pwyllgor member

Valerie Harrison has had a long career in the NHS as chief executive of an NHS community and mental health trust and an acute trust. She has also worked as a consultant in an international consultancy firm and as director of investigations at the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Office where she focused on mental health services.

For the last eight 8 of her career she was chief executive of a large advocacy charity, supporting people to get their voices heard. She has held several non-executive roles in the NHS, including at a Mental Health Trust and in two CCGs.  She is a trustee of her local Citizens Advice Bureau, and was chair of her local Mind and Vice Chair of national Mind. She has recently re-joined national Mind’s Board.

Jude Trenier – trustee and member of the strategic delivery committee

Jude is a community and youth work professional with more than 20 years’ experience working in the not-for-profit sector. This has included starting and growing grassroots youth work initiatives in Ireland, and delivering multimedia issue-based workshops for young people. She's written gender and equality training and charity consultation in Asia, presented radio  and published writing on various issues including mental health, relationships and sexuality, personal development, mentoring and leadership. She is also a speaker at a variety of conferences and events across the UK for young people and adults.

Her work in recent years has included working with parliamentary bodies, advocating for resettlement of refugees and development of young adults. She's been involved in directorship and senior leadership in several charities, with a focus on organisational and leadership development, as well as media and communications.

Her own experience of mental health challenges and gender-based violence has empowered her to passionately advocate for greater awareness, understanding and support for those dealing with these and other significant challenges in life.

Jude is also an alumni for the Senior Faith in Leadership, a community of current and future reflective leaders who explore their own faith and the faiths of others and create partnerships that can make a real difference to our society. Jude is currently working as the learning and development lead for the National Citizenship Service Trust and is training as an executive coach.