Staff & trustees

To date, James has been playing a 25 year career of snakes and ladders. From a start in advertising then marketing at MTV, since 2007 James has shaped ventures in music, enterprise software, mobile and latterly fashion, as co-founder of British workwear brand M.C.Overalls. James is now in the midst of launching a Pattern, a next-gen wellbeing practice founded upon 33 years of enquiry into quantum science, and New Working Class, a radical education venture placing FE/HE colleges on the high street. James joined CALM as a patron in 2006 and is now Chair of Trustees. He is also a long-standing trustee of youth information & support service The Mix and Chair of change network One Question.

Adam is Chief Experience Officer at Tribal Worldwide London, part of the DDB group, leading its Customer Experience (CX) practice. He is both a creative and strategic senior leader who has successfully operated at the intersection of design, experience and technology for more than 25 years. He has led high-performing digital design and UX teams on some of the world’s most iconic brands, both client-side and agency-side, including the BBC, RedBull, The Guardian and Google. Powers retains a passion for great design, in all its guises, and a constant hunger to understand and shape what’s next in the digital world. He is currently also a board member of the Global Design Standards Board at General Assembly and a Creative Council Member of BIMA.

Aimée founded the London office of Fortnight Collective in Spring 2018 and has been leading the charge ever since, helping brands from YO! Sushi to Nike and Starling Bank to Cancer Research to be better, faster. Having worked with CALM since 2000, Aimée is proud to have encouraged the creation of the charity in 2006, from which point she became a founding Trustee. Aimée is also on the Board of Trustees for The Langa Township Pre-School Trust in South Africa, which works to help Mums pull themselves out of poverty.

Ajax is a qualified counsellor and psychotherapist, so he brings excellent expertise in mental health from his own practice and specifically supports the Operations Director in oversight of the CALM Helpline and Webchat services. Previously Ajax spent 20 years in the music and media industries, including stints as editor-in-chief and publisher of trade bible, Music Week, so he provides combined expertise into two important strands of CALM’s activity.

Andy is a Global Managing Partner at The Talent Business, the world leader in executive search for businesses fuelled by innovation and creativity. With 20 years’ experience working internationally across the creative, innovation and communications sector, Andy spends his time advising businesses on senior hires, talent strategy and organisational structure and also helping senior individuals to navigate their careers. Prior to The Talent Business, Andy was International Talent Director for design and communications company, AKQA. He brings his network, knowledge and passion for transformational talent and teams geared towards growth and delivering change, to CALM.

Catherine is a change management and HR specialist who helps organisations develop and implement strategies to deliver lasting and successful change. After 20 years in senior HR and commercial roles at Marks and Spencer plc, culminating in Head of Change for the International Division, she left to set up her own business. She now consults with a number of organisations, as well as providing individual leadership and executive coaching. She is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Personnel and Development and sits on the Governing Body of two local schools. Catherine believes that young people must be supported through education to develop into resilient young adults, equipped with the skills to take care of their mental health.

David trained as a lawyer, starting his career in London law firms and later moving into a corporate legal environment. He has worked in the electronics, IT-services, software and market-research sectors, along the way experiencing Japanese, US, French and British corporate cultures. He has been at Canon since 2006, responsible for legal, IP, sustainability, government affairs, privacy, governance and risk. As a member of Canon Europe’s Operations Committee, he contributes to a range of corporate activities, among them employee listening, M&A, outsourcing, leadership, transformation and mentoring. He has been a board member of a Canon start-up and is a trustee of a school rowing club charity. With 3 teenage boys, CALM’s mission resonates strongly and he is excited to help it grow.

Emma established the European office of m2m in 2011. Emma leads m2m’s global development and strategic engagement strategy and holds day-to-day responsibility for m2m’s European and North American operations. Emma began her career as a project finance lawyer at Allen & Overy. She has served in various board roles in national and local charities, including as Vice-Chair of Amnesty International UK and as a trustee of the Amnesty International UK Charitable Trust. She currently also sits on the Advisory Board for Gucci’s Chime for Change. She has also served as a Visiting Fellow at Cass Business School. In her spare time Emma corrals her three small boys and loves cake and beaches. As a result of personal experiences, Emma is a passionate believer in the need for systemic seismic change in the way we approach the prevention of suicide.

Following a career as a professional snowboarder during his twenties Marcus transitioned into magazine and online editing, and more recently fitness and sports coaching. He was lucky to work alongside incredible coaches and train some of the best in UK snow sports, the highlight working with Olympic athlete Jenny Jones in the run up to the Sochi games in 2014. Jenny won bronze at the games making her the UK’s first ever Olympic medalist on snow.

Marcus became involved with CALM in 2012 after his best friend Nelson Pratt took his life. Nelson was an exceptionally talented professional snowboarder and freestyle coach to olympic bronze medalist Jenny Jones. Following Nelson’s death, his brother and Marcus set up a cycle sportive in his honour called Nelson’s Tour de Test Valley. They wanted to create something positive from such a tragic story, help raise awareness of the issue and reduce stigma surrounding mental health. The event is now in its 8th year with over 1000 riders every year and has raised over half a million pounds for CALM.

Matt started the first CALMtown in the UK, a project putting everyone’s wellbeing at the heart of his home town St Ives. It has used community to reduce stigmas around mental health, empowered people to care for themselves and be there for loved ones who are struggling. This simple idea inspiring other towns to do the same has featured in national and international media. Matt has been community organising for many years, connecting and bringing out the best of diverse groups of volunteers around a common cause. He regularly teaches and advises in a variety of contexts about the power of community to bring change, from universities to keynote addresses, BBC Radio Two to volunteer meetings in cold village halls. When he started, Matt was the youngest Methodist minister in the country and now has two decades experience of the place spirituality and mindfulness play in wellbeing. His work takes him into the complexity of people’s lives where he sees, given support, how ordinary people have an amazing capacity to find hope in the toughest of places. He currently has a national role for the church, heading up recruitment and training of pioneers and shaping their innovation strategy.

Philip’s experience in the voluntary sector includes being on the Court of a leading City Livery company and previously on their grants committee, as well as some years with the Samaritans based in Liverpool. His business career spans four decades in management, mainly in the finance sector. Philip is currently Managing Director of ISGAM AG, a Swiss independent asset management company. He takes a keen interest in CALM’s fundraising activities, specifically supporting the key area of Trusts and Foundations.

Philip is a non-Executive with VIOOH, an AdTech start up, which operates a supply side and programmatic trading platform for the global outdoor advertising market, based in London. He was part of the team that set up the business on behalf of JCDecaux SA in 2017, acting as Interim CEO until the role was filled permanently. He is a qualified accountant with a degree in Business Studies and has worked in a variety of industries including outdoor advertising with JCDecaux initially as CFO and then as the UK’s CEO. Prior to that he was part of the management team that set up Tchibo Coffee in the UK as Finance Director and latterly as Managing Director. Earlier roles were in the IT industry with Burroughs (now Unisys), a start up with a motor group working with ASDA, and a management trainee with British Steel Corporation.