Together, UK Mental Health Charity working alongside each person with mental health issues on their journey towards greater wellbeing. Trusted experts in service user involvement
‘I’ve found my niche at Together. It’s not judgmental; everybody can be who they are...’
Our trustees
Our board of trustees is responsible for setting Together’s overall policy and direction. It currently consists of nine people with expertise and experience in different aspects of our work, from psychiatrists to users of 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, after which time they are eligible for re-election.
Our current trustees
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 Professor of Health and Social Care Strategy at the University of Central Lancashire and 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.
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 Criminal Injuries Compensation 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 over the last few years (including a sheltered housing company) and was a Director of the Chartered Accountants Compensation Company and deputy chairman of its Business Law Committee. He is on the appeals committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Stuart Aaron MBE
Stuart is a retired chemical engineer who worked for Shell and latterly the Chemical Industries Association. He is currently chair of Chaucer Homecare, a charitable trust providing community-support services in Kent, and works as a volunteer at one of their gardening work-training schemes in Canterbury. He also serves as a governor at the local village primary school.
Albert Larmie
Until his recent 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
William is a Consultant in Forensic Psychiatry with the Lambeth Forensic Service, which is part of South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. He works with inpatients at the Tony Hillis Unit, a 15-bed ward offering forensic low-secure support, and with outpatients through the Lambeth Community Forensic Team. He has lectured and written on many aspects of forensic psychiatry, and psychiatry and the law, and he has a special interest in the psychiatric aspects of medical anthropology.
Mark Vincent
Mark is Head of the Division of Mental Health and Learning Disability at the University of Northampton. Before that he was Commercial Director, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, at De Montfort University in Leicester. He has also held the posts of Associate Director of Training and Education at Leicestershire and Rutland Healthcare NHS Trust, and Associate Director of Nursing and Quality for Leicestershire Mental Health Services. He began his career as a geologist but decided to become a nurse working within mental health, and spent a number of years as a CPN and as a nurse tutor. He was a member of the Department of Health’s working group on mental health recruitment and retention.
Sue Young
Sue is a consultant in the human resources field 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 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 over a million NHS staff. She was the first co-chair, with a leading Trades Union official, of the NHS UK Staff Council, a member of the Job Evaluation Group and NHS Employers Policy Board.
Erica Conway
Erica is currently an Assurance director with Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP. In the last ten years, she has been involved in providing audit and related services to clients of PwC in the UK, based in PwC’s Liverpool, Birmingham and now London offices. Erica has served on a number of boards of charities – most recently The Academy of Youth - focussed on education for all and different learning methods.
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.
Sylvie Montgomery
Sylvie has personal experience of using mental health services and is a member of our National Service User Steering Group as well as part-time administrator for Kensington & Chelsea Service User Network. She has an academic background and has worked in information management and research as well as volunteering in the homeless sector. She holds a Master of Arts in French and also speaks German. She has also studied law.
Sara Atkins
Sara is a former solicitor and previously practiced in a commercial law firm in the City. She has also worked in information and communication 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/learning disability charities.
To find out more about our trustees or how to become one, contact Mary Bevis or Rosemary Clements, tel - 020 7780 7314.
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