Mind's senior management team
The senior management team have overall corporate responsibility for Mind's strategy, leadership, management and organisation performance. The team focus at a strategic level on the business of Mind and on the delivery of its activities.
Dr Sarah Hughes - Chief Executive Officer
Sarah has worked in mental health and criminal justice for 34 years. After originally training as a social worker, Sarah has spent the majority of her career in the voluntary sector within both community and secure settings.
Sarah became CEO of CPSL Mind in 2004 and has also led the prestigious think tank The Centre for Mental Health. She also holds advisory and board roles with organisations including the FA, Kooth PLC and IIMHL.
Sarah is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Sciana and Salzburg Global. She is also a social commentator and has been invited to speak at many international events. In 2022 she achieved her professional doctorate studying women and leadership.
Paul Ward - Chief Operating Officer
Paul has 30 years of experience in mental health and has both managed and set up mental health services. He has served on lots of government working groups and led a mental health hospital re-provision programme.
Paul is a current non-executive director at a mental health NHS foundation trust and has been a non-executive director on a strategic health authority. He has held senior management positions in both the NHS and charity sectors.
Paul joined Mind from Terrence Higgins Trust, where he has been Deputy Chief Executive since 2000. He brings lots of experience in charity sector leadership, community mental health strategy and service provision planning.
Andrew Vale - Managing Director of Mind Retail
Andrew is responsible for all of our Mind shops. He's also in charge of coming up with new ways we can raise money in the retail sector. Mind Retail is planning lots of new shop openings and also intends to improve our existing ones. Exciting collaborations with high street brands are also being organised!
Andrew has a retail and charity background and has worked for Marks and Spencer, Birthdays and the British Heart Foundation. He was Head of Retail at Age Concern England when it merged to form Age UK.
Andrew plays a prominent part in the Charity Retail Association, having spent time there as a board member.
Kathleen Miles - Director of Fundraising
Kathleen Miles has been Director of Fundraising at Mind since 2007. and is responsible for the direction, development and delivery of Mind's fundraising and Mind's Workplace Wellbeing hub. The fundraising team comes up with creative ways to raise for Mind and run a range of successful Workplace Wellbeing initiatives. These include Mind's Training and Consultancy and the Workplace Wellbeing Index.
Mind's Workplace Wellbeing hub delivers our Time to Change employers' work with our partner colleagues at Rethink Mental Illness. As you may have seen on our website, the hub has recently launched a programme to support the needs of Blue light emergency service workers.
Kathleen has a voluntary sector background. Over the last 26 years, she's had jobs at the NSPCC and the University of Oxford. She has worked in service development delivery and fundraising. Kathleen holds an MSc in Voluntary Sector Organisation from the London School of Economics.
Karen Mellanby - Director of Networks and Communities
Karen is Director of Networks and Communities at Mind. She is responsible for the direction, management and development of the Networks and Communities Department. This part of Mind works with the national affiliated local Minds network and supports community leadership and social participation. The department runs programmes across the Local Minds network that promote quality in local mental health service development and delivery, including:
- a quality mark
- grants programmes
- peer learning and knowledge sharing
- innovation and business development
- equality improvement
- community action.
Before joining Mind in 2013, Karen worked at Locality as Director of Programmes, overseeing a range of high profile national programmes to support community-led development and enterprise. Previously she was Deputy Chief Executive at Action for Advocacy, where she was actively involved in promoting and supporting independent advocacy for users of health and social care services. Karen also holds an MA in Applied Social Studies and a diploma in Social Work and Management.
With over 20 years of experience working in the voluntary sector, she has direct experience providing services and support for older and disabled people and users of mental health services.
Sue O'Leary - Director of Mind Cymru
Sue chairs the Wales Alliance for Mental Health, and the anti-stigma campaign, Time to Change Wales. She was Head of Operations at Mind Cymru for 5 years, working with Local Minds and partners to co-produce, pilot and scale service delivery models. Prior to working in Mental Health, Sue’s background is in Criminal Justice, holding leadership roles in the Prison Service, Probation Service and Ministry of Justice. She is passionate about collaboration, innovation and improving access to effective services and support. Outside of work, Sue enjoys running, reading, travel home to Ireland, and being mum to her two girls.
