Our Board of Trustees is responsible for setting Together’s overall policy and direction. The Board currently consists of thirteen people with expertise and experience in different aspects of our work, including health and social care, human resources and finance, as well as people with experience of using mental health services.
New Trustees are formally elected each year at our annual general meeting and can also be co-opted at any time during the year. Once elected, Trustees serve for three years and may stand for two subsequent three-year terms.
Professor Antony Sheehan, Chair
Antony is Chief Executive of Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust – one of England’s largest mental health and learning disability trusts. He is currently Visiting Professor at the University of Central England. Antony has been a prominent figure in developing mental health services in England for the last decade and, in an international context, developed the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership.
Antony is currently taking a year-long sabbatical.
Erica Conway, Acting Chair
Erica is Deputy Director of Finance at the University of Birmingham. Before that, she was an Assurance Director with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, providing auditing and related services to PwC’s UK clients.
Erica has served on a number of boards of charities and is also a school governor.
Edward Weiss, Treasurer
Edward Weiss was a Commissioner of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, a body that investigates whether there has been a miscarriage of justice in criminal cases. He is now associated with the Security Industry Authority. Formerly, he was chairman of Loss Reviews at Lloyd’s and on the corporate finance panel, and spent many years in business as a main board Director of Chubb Security.
He has been Chairman and non-executive Director of several companies (including a sheltered housing company) and was a director of the Chartered Accountants Compensation Scheme, Deputy Chairman of its Business Law Committee and Chairman of its Pensions Committee. He is on the appeals committees of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and of the Actuarial Profession.
Stuart Aaron MBE
Stuart is a retired chemical engineer who worked for Shell and latterly the Chemical Industries Association. He is also a trustee of Chaucer Homecare, a charitable trust providing Community Support services in East Kent, and serves as a Governor at the local village primary school.
Albert Larmie
Until his retirement, Albert was Service Manager for Adult Mental Health Services and Substance Misuse at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, having previously been Assistant Clinical Director for Mental Health Services for North Hertfordshire NHS Trust. Prior to that Albert spent many years in nursing management.
Dr William Obomanu
Dr Obomanu is a psychiatrist who has worked as a consultant in both the NHS and the independent sector. He specialises in general and forensic psychiatry with a particular interest in rehabilitation into the community, psychiatry and the law, and the contribution of anthropological perspectives to medical practice.
Mark Vincent
Mark is Principal Lecturer for Postgraduate Developments and International Coordinator for the School of Health at the University of Northampton. His previous roles have included Commercial Director, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, at De Montfort University in Leicester; Associate Director of Training and Education at Leicestershire County and Rutland Healthcare NHS Trust; and Associate Director of Nursing and Quality for Leicestershire Mental Health Services.
Mark began his career as a geologist but decided to become a nurse working within mental health after volunteering to work at Centrepoint in London, and with children with learning disabilites in Cornwall and Nottingham. His particular interests include legislation in mental health and recovery approaches and he actively teaches and facilitates in the delivery of the MSc in Mental Health at the University of Northampton.
Sue Young
Sue is a consultant in human resources specialising in the evaluation of senior roles in central Government and a member of the Commissioner for Public Appointments’ Central List of Independent Assessors. She is also Deputy Chairman of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Appointments Committee, director of a community addiction service, lay chair for the Yorkshire and the Humber Deanery, and acts as a trainer on behalf of NHS Employers. She is a former chairman of a Primary Care Trust and Health Authority and was influential in the modernisation of pay arrangements for more than a million NHS staff. She was the first co-Chair, with a leading Trades Union official, of the NHS Staff Council, a member of the Job Evaluation Group and NHS Employers Policy Board.
Paul Farrimond
Paul worked for many years for the NHS, initially qualifying as a nurse (SRN and RMN) in 1981, and later going on to hold a range of management appointments in the mental health field including Director of Mental Health Services in NHS Trusts and Deputy Chief Executive in a Primary Care Trust. Paul now works as a self-employed consultant with a particular focus on delivering improvement and change in NHS Trusts and PCTs.
Sara Atkins
Sara is a former solicitor and previously practiced in commercial law in the City. She has also worked in information and communications roles for two charities – CAFOD and Shelter.
Robert Wood
Robert is semi-retired following a business career in the automotive industry in the UK and North America. He now holds several non-executive directorships and is a Trustee and past Chair of HF Trust (formerly The Home Farm Trust), a charity providing a range of care services to around 850 people with learning disabilities across England. In the past, he has also served as a trustee of other mental health and learning disability charities.
Helen Davies
Helen began practicing as an occupational therapist in the mid-1980s and specialised in working with people living with long-term health challenges, including HIV, substance misuse, and mental distress. She has held several senior management positions in social services departments and until recently worked at a senior level in health policy at the Greater London Authority, leading work on the London Health Inequalities Strategy. Helen now works as an independent consultant in health strategy and partnerships.
Find out more
To find out more about our Trustees or how to become one, contact: