Meet the senior leaders promoting trust and confidence through excellence.
Sally joined Solent Mind in 2022, having worked in the voluntary sector for over 25 years. Most recently at YMCA, but previously in London working across some of the City’s more deprived boroughs. Her passion has always been championing local people and ensuring everyone has the opportunity to thrive and realise their potential, regardless of the hurdles and pitfalls we face.
Realising these ambitions certainly require partnerships and joint working, and Sally seeks to foster a collaborative approach and can do attitude, both within and outside of Solent Mind to support sustainable change.
Outside of work, Sally has a husband and 2 teenage boys, and will be ideally found enjoying any type of outdoor adventure, whether camping, kayaking or simply enjoying the birds and trees in the woods. If that all fails, running 10k in the countryside is her foolproof way to clear the head.
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Ian joined Solent Mind in June 2024 having worked in the charity sector for the last 10 years. He is passionate about delivering effective, high quality services that support people who are experiencing challenges in life. Prior to joining Solent Mind he had leadership roles at Victim Support and the Stroke Association.
Previous to this Ian worked in a number of behavioural science roles for UK Law Enforcement, the Ministry of Defence and UK Government, and has a Masters degree in Forensic Psychology.
Outside work Ian enjoys running, walking the dog and going to gigs, although time for these pursuits is increasingly limited with 2 young children in the family!
Robert has worked in the not-for-profit sector for over a decade, specialising in fundraising, communications, marketing, and events. He’s passionate about stakeholder engagement and helping advance organisations forward through mutually beneficial relationships. He has an MBA, is a Chartered Manager, a Fellow of the CMI, and a Member of CIPR.
In his current role he oversees income generation including fundraising, external communications, PR, marketing, volunteering, internal communications, workplace wellbeing training and IT.
Outside of work, Robert is Co-Chair of The Crescent Primary School, a Trustee at Eastleigh Youth and Community Trust, and has a passion for theatre, running, and theme parks.
Polly has significant experience of working across the private, public and not-for-profit sectors in a range of human resources, project management and consultancy roles.
Polly holds a MA in Human Resources Management, Postgraduate Certificate in Psychology and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (FCIPD).
In a voluntary capacity as a school governor for over 15 years Polly held a variety of roles at two large London primary schools. This included several years as chair during which time she worked in partnership with the head teacher, governors and local authority to secure funding and establish a Children’s Centre at the school for the benefit of the school and wider community. Polly was a trustee of Solent Mind 2018-2020.
Following the serious accident of a family member Polly understands that often it’s the psychological that is more difficult to diagnose and can take longer to heal than any physical pain or injury. She experienced extensive time as an advocate for the right support and treatment in both social care and health settings during this time. This was alongside managing her own trauma and recovery journey.
Polly lives in the New Forest, is a CrossFit enthusiast, walks the dog and runs when she can to look after her own mental health and well-being.
Kevin joined Solent Mind in June 2023 bringing a broad experience of working within the Education and Charities sectors. He is a Chartered Management Accountant with an MBA from UCL Institute of Education. Kevin has worked in Senior Management roles for the last ten years and has been involved in a range of strategic tasks including major building projects and mergers. At University of Southampton he supported the Alumni and Development Team and reported to the Board of the Gift of Sight charity.
Within Solent Mind, Kevin leads the Finance Team and is keen to ensure all managers have a firm understanding of their finances so that can be confident in their work with service users and presenting value for money to our stakeholders, funders and donors. A new finance system went live in January 2024 and this will support improved financial reporting and information. It will also help improve finance processes across the organisation freeing up time to focus on our charitable aims to deliver a better services to those that need Solent Mind most.
Debbie has worked in the private and public sector for over 30 years working in a number of business sectors. After a career break, Debbie joined Solent Mind in September 2021 hoping to use her experience as an Executive Assistant at Senior Management Team and Board level to use within the current role.
In her current role as Executive Assistant she helps to oversee the Solent Mind Board meetings; sub-committee meetings; Leadership Management meetings; Senior Management Team meetings along with extensive work for the CEO of Solent Mind. As a Mum of 2, enjoy spending time outside of work with family, walking the dog in the New Forest area.
Claire is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Trustee of Inspire Learning Partnership; a Multi Academy Trust of Primary Schools based in Hampshire and Southampton. Claire has also served on the Department for Education Advisory Board and the Governing Body of a local sixth-form college.
Claire believes in empowering teams and fostering an environment of collaboration leading to continuous improvement. She places a strong focus on personal and professional development, believing that empowering others is crucial to driving organisational success. Her motivation to work with colleagues at Solent Mind and serve as a Trustee stems from both personal and professional experiences.
Professionally, she has seen first-hand the impact of socioeconomic disadvantage on mental health, and has personal experience with close friends and family, who have needed mental health support where more access to resources was needed.
John trained as a Chartered Accountant at Deloitte and spent most of his career in financial management with JP Morgan Chase and HSBC investment banks where he obtained experience in several mergers and working with other cultures on global IT and finance projects.
In the last 10 years, John has held several senior financial positions in local organisations with greater social impact, including a group of schools, a homeless charity, the National Oceanography Centre, the Trussell Trust and lecturing at Solent University. He is keen to bring his financial experience to the role at Solent Mind, especially in the areas of strategy and risk management.
Email: RPullen@solentmind.org.uk
Richard has over 35 years’ experience in commercial property having qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 1982. He was a founding Director of Palmer Fry Commercial Property Consultants, leading a management buy-out of a business from Royal Insurance. He was Finance Director and Lead Director of the business, involved with the acquisition of four businesses and the eventual merger of the business with the larger Goadsby & Harding Group in 2005 where he was Director of Investments.
He has run his own commercial property consultancy, Pullen Associates for over 10 years, which specialises in providing regional consultancy and agency services to pension funds, property companies, private individuals and occupying businesses. For about 10 years until 2020, he was a trustee of Mayfield Nurseries, during which time he was Chair of the Trustees.
Workstream: Campaigning & Influencing
Email: RPoyner@solentmind.org.uk
Additional role: Chair of the Business Development Subcommittee
Email: HShakoor@solentmind.org.uk
Haseeb is a Senior Commercial Manager currently working for NATS. He grew up in the Greater Manchester area, before studying Aerospace Engineering at Sheffield University. Since leaving university Haseeb has worked for several companies in the Aerospace & Engineering industry with a primary focus on business development and competitive tendering processes.
He takes a keen interest in mental health issues with personal experience of the impact it can have on lives. Haseeb is pleased to be given the opportunity to support Solent Mind as a trustee and is looking forward to working with colleagues to help raise awareness and make a positive impact on people living with mental health issues. Haseeb now lives in Whiteley with his wife and 2 young children.
Additional Roles: Chair of the People & Quality Subcommittee, Safeguarding lead
Email: GGeorge@solentmind.org.uk
Gareth has been a Police Officer for 28 years, starting his career with Hampshire Constabulary. He has worked in various roles as a detective and witnessed the impact mental health and wellbeing has within the emergency services and criminal justice system. 15 years ago, Gareth transferred to national organisations; the National Crime Squad, Serious Organised Crime Agency and the National Crime Agency (NCA).
Gareth is currently a Branch Commander for CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection). CEOP is the UK's lead organisation dedicated to tackling child sexual abuse and exploitation. Gareth has always been a strong advocate for the awareness of mental health and is honoured to support Solent Mind.
Email: DVine@solentmind.org.uk
Denise has worked in local government for over 30 years, mostly in supporting economic development. She has been involved in many major regeneration projects and exciting new developments. In her current role, as Group Head of Economy at Arun District Council, she is responsible for business, town centre & tourism support, development implementation of major regeneration projects, securing external funding and maintaining strategic partnerships.
She has led on the delivery of publicly funded employment programmes to help those facing the greatest barriers to work. She is aware of how important employment is to maintaining self-esteem and good mental health. Due to close family caring responsibilities, Denise also has an extensive understanding of the mental health system and the availability of appropriate care. It is this personal lived experience that has prompted Denise to join Solent Mind and to support them to provide ever better services to the community.
Email: LRobins@solentmind.org.uk
Lucy is a chartered surveyor and spent the first half of her career working on planning and development projects throughout the UK, initially for commercial and local authority clients and later for the Ministry of Defence. She then spent 16 years working in boarding schools, which were also charities, where she managed the finances and a wide range of estate and infrastructure projects as well as leading support services and commercial operations. Having led large teams, Lucy understands the importance of employee wellbeing, believing a supportive culture is vital to an organisation’s success. She is delighted to be able to use her skills and experience to support Solent Mind
Email: SWickes@solentmind.org.uk
Simon is Chief Operating Officer at Truu, a digital health start-up; and founded Cynapse, a boutique business consultancy advising in business strategy and innovation across SMEs and multinationals. He is also a Non-Executive Director at an NHS GP Federation in Surrey.
He grew up in the Solent region and returned to the area just over ten years ago. Since returning he has been involved with several charities and fundraising activities and coaching youth rugby at a local rugby club.
Simon has personal experience of how important mental health is and its impact on the lives of individuals and their loved ones. He is excited to help raise awareness of the importance of mental health across the region.
Email: HFuge@solentmind.org.uk
Helen has experience in both the public and private sectors and currently works as Head of Talent and HR Support for NATS. Her career has centred on the support for others and she spent over 14 years in Higher Education supporting Students, most recently as an Assistant Director for Student Services at Southampton University.
Helen has a real passion to support Solent Mind due to family caring responsibilities and is driven to support the access points and provision of Mental Health support.
Vanessa began her career in financial markets at Merrill Lynch, developing expertise in trading and risk management. She later helped build a new trading and sales business at MUFG Securities, growing products and teams, expanding the client base, and delivering sustainable results.
As a Managing Director and member of the firm’s Management Committee, Vanessa worked closely with boards and stakeholders on business strategy, governance, and navigating organisational and regulatory change.
With a deep understanding of the pressures people face in both personal and professional life, and as a mother of young children, Vanessa is passionate about mental health and committed to using her experience to support Solent Mind’s vital work in the community.
Karina has worked in the not-for-profit sector for over 20 years and is currently the Group Director of Business Development and Communications at The Avenues Group. Avenues is a charity operating across the South of England supporting people with learning disabilities and who are autistic to live fulfilling lives in their local communities. Autism Hampshire joined the Avenues group in November 2023 and Karina has executive responsibility for overseeing the delivery and development of the autism specialist community services.
She is an advocate for the charity sector and believes passionately that having a social purpose can sit comfortably alongside having a commercial approach. This was the focus of her Masters degree in Charity Sector Management at Bayes Business School, City University in 2018-2020 where she specialised in charity marketing and fundraising.
Karina is married with three teenage children and a bouncy Labrador. She is a keen runner and an active volunteer with her local running community.
Kath is a Partner at law firm Blake Morgan and specialises in banking and finance law. Kath was appointed as the first female Chair of Blake Morgan in 2021, stepping down at the end of her term in 2024. A key part of this role involved presiding over and helping to develop the firm’s diversity and inclusion activities and policy, of which mental health and welfare form a major strand.
Kath is proud of what she and the team achieved during her tenure as Chair and remains passionate about diversity and inclusion in all its forms. She is looking forward to the challenge of being a Trustee of Solent Mind and to using her skills to support and promote the charity’s mission to ensure that all individuals with mental health issues receive the support that they need.
Richard has worked in the energy and utility sector for Centrica since beginning his career in 1999. Richard has led operations for over 20 years, with experience in both call centre and field environments. Working with and leading people has provided Richard with lots of experiences and learnings around mental health and has a created a passion to support others and improve the support available to people.
Richard is a father of 4, a keen runner, enjoys walking, football and partaking in charity events.
“I am honoured to be given the opportunity to support Solent Mind and those that benefit from the services provided. I have lived experience of mental health issues both professionally and personally and really value the chance to raise awareness and help Solent Mind make a difference across the region. My values of self care, family and kindness align well the charity’s mission and I am excited to be part of a group that ultimately wants to develop positive mental wellbeing for everyone.”
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