Trustees with specific roles

Guy Paisner, Chair

Guy is an analyst at a London-based investment firm. He has a background in fundraising and investor relations for alternative asset managers and started his career as a financial journalist focused on European private equity and venture capital.

Hilary Samson-Barry, Vice Chair

Hilary is a leadership and professional development coach working mainly in the public and not for profit sectors. She has personal experience of bipolar through family members. Hilary is also a member of the charity's Finance Committee.

Sarita Dent, Treasurer

Sarita is a management and financial consultant who also sits on the boards of private and public sector organisations. She brings a wealth of commercial and financial expertise to the board of Trustees and is chair of the Finance Committee.

Trustees

Alice Alphandary

Alice Alphandary works in banking supervision at the Bank of England. She studied natural sciences specialising in biology at university and so is always interested in learning about different medication and therapy used to manage the condition. Alice has family experience of bipolar.

Melissa Barnett-Welch

Melissa is Head of Public Affairs at Healthcomms Consulting, a healthcare-focused communications and public affairs agency. Melissa has worked at Healthcomms Consulting for a number of years, gaining expertise in healthcare, public affairs and PR and an understanding of the NHS and current policy initiatives.

Ed Butcher

Ed is an experienced board member, having served on the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, responsible for oversight of the London Fire Brigade where he held the positions of chair of the Finance and Property committee and the Community Safety Panel. Additionally, he was an elected Councillor for London Borough of Haringey for eight years. Professionally, he is Head of Business Development at HS1 Ltd and has a background in public affairs and influencing.

Louis Constandinos

Louis is a multidisciplinary scientist who has worked in a variety of roles across the pharmaceutical industry from early-stage drug discovery all the way through the process of developing medicines to supporting and designing clinical trials. His original interest in mood disorders came from working on novel medicines for their treatment. His current research interest is in the epidemiology of bipolar disorder and co-morbid metabolic diseases.

Jeremy Clark

Jeremy is a Mental Health Policy Manager at the Department of Health and Social Care. He has a diagnosis of bipolar and is a carer for a family member with the condition. He has been an active volunteer with Bipolar UK for many years, co-facilitates one of our peer support groups and helps to raise awareness, with a particular interest in self-management techniques and digital tools.

Derrick Dale

Derrick is a QC who practices commercial law from Fountain Court Chambers. He also sits as an arbitrator and is a bencher of Middle Temple. He is currently involved in developing fund raising strategies within the charity.

Robert Print

Robert is Head of Executive Office at the Law Society, working primarily on strategy, business improvement and governance. He was diagnosed with bipolar in 2010, and in 2018 ran his third London Marathon in support of Bipolar UK.

Dr Aditya Sharma

Dr Aditya Sharma is a Clinical Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Newcastle University and CNTW NHS Foundation Trust. His areas of clinical academic interest area are mood disorders impacting on children and their families in a global context. To this end he leads a tertiary second opinion Specialist Adolescent Mood disorders Service (SAMS) in Newcastle and is involved in various research projects focussed on improving outcomes for young people under 25 years living with mood disorders by using psychosocial, pharmacological and digital interventions.

Nadia Silver

Nadia is a barrister specialising in financial, and serious and organised crime. She has a particular interest in how the criminal justice system deals with defendants who are suffering from mental ill health. She has personal experience of bipolar through a close family member.

Bill Walden-Jones

Following a highly successful career in the charity sector, including 11 years as Chief Executive of the mental health charity Hafal, Bill retired in 2014 to focus on developing a writing and consultancy role. He retains his close links with Hafal as a consultant.

Thanks also go to

Prof Allan Young, Dr Clare Dolman, Ashley Toft, Maggie Gibbon, William Courage, Tamasin Little, Mohini Morris and Jennifer Trent Staves (trustees who stepped down recently).

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Last updated: 9 February 2023