Meet the leadership team

Brian Dow is Chief Executive of Mental Health UK and the Deputy Chief Executive of Rethink Mental Illness.

Brian is a member of the NHS Assembly which advises the board of NHS England on delivery of the NHS Long Term Plan and is also an independent member of the Lloyds of London ESG committee.  He also represents Rethink Mental Illness on the Richmond Group, a collaboration of leading health and social care charities.

He began his career as a broadcast journalist in Scotland later moving to the BBC in London. He has spent 20 years in the voluntary sector with organisations including Shelter, the School Food Trust and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

Deidre has over 15 years’ experience in the third sector after a former career in Law. She leads the delivery of Mental Health UK’s programmes including our flagship service, Mental Health & Money Advice, the first UK-wide service aimed at improving both financial and mental wellbeing. Deidre’s role also encompasses overseeing the development of innovative new services and solutions at scale.

Prior to working directly in mental health, Deidre held various leadership positions where holistic support to local communities was a focal point. Most recently, as Chief Executive Officer of a Nottingham based charity.

Deidre is also a trustee at a small grass roots charity.

James is a senior campaigns and communications professional who has worked on some of the highest profile issues in the third sector.

He joined Rethink Mental Illness in 2017 and is responsible for brand & design, campaigns, digital communications, internal communications, marketing, media and membership.

In 2023, James took up the expanded role of Director of Communications and Campaigns at both Rethink Mental Illness and Mental Health UK. James manages to crowbar references to West Ham United into most things, including this bio!

Lucy has over 15 years’ experience in achieving change through policy, influencing and partnerships. She oversees the department responsible for working with Government and policy makers to influence national policy change in mental health and then partnering with health and care organisations to ensure change is delivered on the ground. The team work in partnership with people with lived experience to test out new ways of supporting people and then feed the evidence from innovation back into our national influencing.

Lucy has a background of successful influencing of Government Acts, budgets and policy direction having worked in policy, public affairs and campaigning at other charities. She also has 5 years’ experience as a lived experience expert on NHS England’s National Diabetes Audit Board.

Aisling oversees the work of the training team which provides expert mental health training to organisations in the private, public and third sector. Aisling also oversees the Advice and Information service and is able bring the experience of working with those directly affected by mental illness into training delivery; combining theoretical and real-life experiences to deliver the highest quality evidence-based courses.

Before joining Mental Health UK in 2021, Aisling worked in Higher Education and Housing where she developed a passion for supporting people with their mental health. Most recently, she led a service for students at 24 universities in London supporting them to find safe housing, running a housing advice service and delivering 50+ events each year for students, landlords and professionals.

As Head of Marketing and Communications at Mental Health UK, Anant oversees all elements of our marketing, communications and campaigns to key audiences. He is responsible for raising the charity’s profile through effective, measurable strategies, and by maximising our digital channels as best we can to leverage our partnerships, services, and fundraising – with the aim of supporting our founding charities to be able to deliver for our beneficiaries locally.

Anant brings over a decades’ worth of experience in communications, marketing, digital, editorial, press and PR to Mental Health UK, having previously held strategic roles at Rethink Mental Illness, Gingerbread and the National Union of Students.

Away from the office, he is a lover of music, media, sport, cooking, and travel, amongst other things.

Charlene leads the Mental Health and Money Advice service at Mental Health UK, the first UK-wide service aimed at improving both financial and mental wellbeing. Charlene is responsible for overseeing the service as well as designing and implementing advancements to it.

Prior to joining Mental Health UK, Charlene spent over 16 years in the charity sector. She began her career as a volunteer adviser at an advice charity alongside her Law degree, where she developed a passion to make a difference.

She brings experience of understanding the issues faced by those with mental health issues into service delivery, as well as leading on innovative ways to deliver good quality advice.

Following her Psychology studies and postgraduate qualifications in Mental Health, Charlotte gained over 10 years’ experience working as a clinician and supervisor in both community and forensic primary mental health care settings, working for the NHS and the third sector.

Charlotte is passionate about supporting wellbeing in teams and raising awareness of mental health issues within the workplace. As a firm believer in ‘prevention is always better than a cure’, Charlotte now works with partners to improve proactive mental health promotion and encourage prioritising positive wellbeing at work.

Jemima has over ten years experience in the charity sector and expertise in mass individual fundraising products.

As Head of Community & Events fundraising, Jemima manages Mental Health UK’s sporting and community fundraising strategy. She leads on monitoring that area of fundraising, optimising income from it, and diversification of the portfolio.

Prior to joining Mental Health UK, Jemima worked for Rethink Mental Illness, managing the same area of fundraising.

Jeremy leads on policy influencing for Mental Health UK and our partner Rethink Mental Illness. His teams work closely with colleagues in communications, campaigns and co-production to elevate the voice of lived experience to those with the power to bring about larger scale improvements to mental health such as government officials and ministers.

He has a background in service development and policy influencing in charities for often marginalised people such as refugees, asylum seekers and people experiencing rough sleeping.

Kat leads media activity for Mental Health UK. She is also Head of Media at our partner charity Rethink Mental Illness, responsible for promoting the charity’s campaigns, services, and expertise across print, online and broadcast media. Central to this is ensuring that the voice of lived experience is represented in the conversation about mental health.

Prior to joining the mental health sector Kat worked in disability sport, supporting media operations for the British team across four Paralympic Games, from London 2012 through to PyeongChang 2018, when she was Chief Press Officer.