Oxfordshire Mind Senior Management Team

For Jess, mental health has been a particular interest, ever since her first job in a hostel, where she learnt a lot from the service users she supported and their experience of mental ill health. Over the years she worked in a variety of settings including outreach, day centres and supported housing.

Jess has over 20 years’ experience both in homelessness and mental health charities, initially in Kent and London before moving to work in Oxfordshire in 2012. Jess began working for Oxfordshire Mind in 2017 and became CEO in 2023.

“Leading this incredible team working across Oxfordshire, Reading, Wokingham & West Berkshire is a huge privilege and an exciting opportunity to utilise my skills and experience for an organisation whose values I share. Now more than ever, the work we do together is crucial to ensure everyone experiencing a mental health problem gets both support and respect.”

Eleanor joined Oxfordshire Mind in May 2024. With a background in psychology, her main interest is improving wellbeing, and her first question about any service is: ‘so, how do we know this is doing anyone any good?’ She has worked in health, mental health and wellbeing services in Australia and the UK, and the high points of her last 10 years has been working in collaboration with other third sector, private and public sector organisations, from primary care through to intensive inpatient services, to bring about positive impact for people in Oxfordshire. Eleanor lives in Botley, a short cycle (or about 3000 steps!) from the Osney office.’

Ian joined the SMT at Oxfordshire Mind and Mind Berkshire West in April 2023, following a career in the food, farming and environment sector over 18 years. Working in three national charities previously, he has been responsible for business development, fundraising and major programme and partnership development with responsibility for multi-million pound income generation. He leads our development team, and has responsibility for our Grants and Philanthropy programmes.

Ian balances his work-life with two main hobbies of middle distance running and acting in Oxford and Banbury theatres.

Sally Joined Oxfordshire Mind in August 2024 providing maternity cover for Karla Draper.  Recently she has worked as HR Director supporting small to medium sized businesses and charities , including two mental health charities and a regional Mind team. This was as Co Founder of a successful HR Consultancy business.

Sally is a qualified and experienced coach and provided coaching support to teams throughout her HR career . Prior to having her own business she was Head of HR at the Nuffield Orthopaedic NHS Trust, which is now part of the Oxford University Hospital.

Sally is  a Trustee of a charity called Careers Springboard, and a mentor through the CIPD and provided careers support with Year 13 students for 5 years.

Sally is approachable, open, and prides herself on making sure people are at the heart of any organisation she has worked in, creating a space where people feel they belong.

Bev’s role involves looking after the day-to-day operation of the finance team including invoicing, payments for purchases, and payroll. She is also responsible for working with colleagues on the Senior Management Team to produce budgets and forecasts, and reporting on financial performance in the year.

Bev is also involved in costing new work and ensuring that this covers related overheads. This is her second role in the Mental Health Sector having previously worked at Response; Bev has a large amount of experience working in a range of not-for-profit organisations.

She has family members and friends who have experienced challenges with their mental health and knows how important it is for people to be able to access the support they need.

Outside of work Bev loves the theatre and is a trustee of Pegasus Theatre and her and her husband enjoy going to musicals.

Simon has spent most of his career working in the charity sector, mainly in housing and homelessness. He was the manager of the Oxford Night shelter/O’Hanlon House for 17 years, before moving to be Head of Housing for Oxfordshire Mind in 2017. He is a qualified Social Worker, and has a Masters degree in Charity Management. He is a trustee of several charity’s and his local church.

Simon is married with 2 daughters, and enjoys all travel, and most water sports, he has even been known to canoe to work at Osney.