Our trustees

Our committees

We also have 6 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.

Federation First 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

People and culture committee

• Oversees and monitors Mind’s people strategy and organisational culture
• Ensures that the policies and practices associated with the strategy are consistent with Mind’s values and desired culture

Nominations and remuneration committee

• Oversees recruitment of all trustees and honorary officers and advises the board on the skills and diversity required to be an effective board
• Ensures all senior management staff are remunerated fairly

Our board

Stevie Spring – chair of the board and chair of nominations and remuneration committee

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 30 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 establish a specialist financial advisory practice. He was chief executive of this company for 10 years and managed its sale and merger into a US quoted global advisory firm.

Ian currently provides advisory and mentoring support to start- up businesses in the infrastructure sector.

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 and undertook this role for 9 years before his appointment as chair of the charity’s retail and commercial subsidiary in 2022.

Joanne Theodoulou – board vice chair,  member of the Federation First and nominations and remuneration committees

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.

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

Alex joined the board of trustees in 2016 and sits on the finance, audit and risk committee.

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 member of the people and culture committee

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 member of the Federation First committee

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, honorary treasurer, chair of the finance, risk and audit committee and member of Mind Retail Board

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 – trustee and member of Mind Retail board

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 – trustee and chair of Pwyllgor Cymru

Emrys recently retired after a long career with the NHS. He originally trained as a mental health nurse and has worked in various service areas, including policy, commissioning, hospital, and community mental health services. He has held several senior positions, including senior nurse, senior manager, executive, and Board positions. Up until his retirement in 2023, he served as the Chair of the Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board.

Throughout his career, Emrys led the development of mental health services at both national and local levels. He chaired multiple mental health forums for service planning and operational delivery, most recently serving as Chair of the Welsh Government Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat.

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

He has directed and coordinated several national and local performance reviews of NHS services within Wales, in line with national delivery requirements. From a mental health perspective, these reviews included assessments of organisational mental health models, service access methods, care and treatment coordination, and outcome-focused care planning for both adult and children’s services. He was the joint author of the national review of the Care Programme Approach (CPA), where the findings influenced changes in mental health legislation in Wales.

Throughout his career, Emrys has consistently strived to improve the wellbeing and lives of others.

In the King’s New Year Honours 2024, Emrys was awarded the OBE for services to the NHS and Mental Health Services in Wales. 

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

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 chair and board advisor for a female-founded talent tech start-up.

As well as her business career, Pippa is a long-standing trustee of ad industry charity NABS, which strives to improve the wellbeing of everyone in the advertising and media industry. She chairs the steerco of timeTo, an initiative to bring an end to sexual harassment. She's also still actively 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 people and culture 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, member of Pwyllgor Cymru and people and culture committee

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 chair of the people and culture 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.

Jonathan Phelan – trustee and chair of the Federation First committee

Jonathan joined Mind’s board of trustees in 2024. He is also chair of its Federation First committee, which is focused on realising the benefits of harmonious working, co-operation and collaboration between Mind, the network of local Mind charities across England and Wales, and its range of retail shops.

Jonathan's involvement in mental health grew out of his lived experience following a child bereavement. He has developed diverse interests in this field, which include sharing his perspective on how people can best have mentally healthy conversations in a non-medical or therapeutic context, such as at work, university, school or socially. Jonathan also gets involved in encouraging workplaces & universities to provide a culture that offers psychological safety for their people. Jonathan has written about these subjects in his book: “The Art of the Mentally Healthy Conversation.”

By profession, Jonathan is a solicitor and has enjoyed a career in financial services regulation. His consumer protection role has particularly focused on vulnerability, and includes his leadership of work to develop regulatory policies and expectations of the
financial services industry when working with vulnerable consumers. Jonathan particularly offers expertise in relation to business model analysis, corporate governance, the development of robust and effective strategies, the customer journey and risk management.

Alongside his leadership role at the Financial Conduct Authority and his position as board trustee at Mind, Jonathan is Chair of the Board of Trustees at North Staffs Mind and Chair of its Risk Sub-Committee.

Jonathan also runs his own business, Evenhood, which provides resilience coaching to individuals and support for workplaces and universities that want to provide a culture that offers psychological safety for their people.