Board of Directors

Dr Michael Holland has been Chief Executive Officer of the Trust since November 2022.

Michael was previously Medical Director at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and liaison psychiatrist at Guy’s Hospital. He was a fellow at the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement. He has also worked as an improvement advisor to the improvement programmes delivered in NHS South West and NHS South. As Chair of the Medical Directors of the Cavendish Square Group and regional Clinical Director for London, he brings well-established relationships in London and the experience of system work, such as the 136-pathway work he led across London.

Chris joined the Tavistock and Portman in August 2023 and has worked in the NHS since qualifying in 2007.

Chris was previously Associate Medical Director for CAMHS at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (taking up post the day the first Covid 19 lock down was announced). He led on CAMHS provision for Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham and Croydon throughout the pandemic ensuring services could continue to function and helped set up alternative to A&E space for CAMHS presentations during the first lock down.

Chris has led on CAMHS benchmarking and activity definitions for NHS benchmarking across all-London CAMHS providers. He was the Lead Clinician for Lambeth CAMHS and responsible for the restructure of the service based on the THRIVE model and secured £900K to support this.

Chris has also worked as a consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist in a community crisis service specialising in psychosis and high-risk adolescents. This was a service that Chris was responsible for setting up in 2015, securing funding and growing the team from two staff to ten.

He is also actively involved in research into early onset psychosis in adolescents with three published papers in the last 12 months.

Rod Booth joined the Trust as Director of Strategy and Business Development in July 2023. Rod has worked across health, social care and charity sectors for the past 25 years and has had the privilege to commission and deliver services across London, South West England and Nationally.

Rod joins us from South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust where he led on performance, income generation and developing strategic partnerships to improve care, supported by sitting as Executive Member for Mental Health on the Southwark Local Care Partnership.

Gem Davies has been Chief People Officer at the Trust since February 2023. Gem was previously Deputy Director of People at Homerton Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

Gem has worked in the NHS for over 20 years in a range of settings, including a Commissioning Support Unit, Primary Care Trusts, a number of hospitals, an ALB and as a senior workforce lead on the COVID-19 vaccination programme during the pandemic.

Gem is passionate about engagement, inclusivity, and creating just, learning cultures.

Sally Hodges was appointed as Clinical Chief Operating Officer in 2019, and became Acting Chief Executive Officer in 2022.

Prior to taking up this role she was Director of our Children, Young Adults and Families (CYAF) Directorate. Before that she was Associate Clinical Director of Complex Needs in CYAF, and the Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) lead for the Trust. Sally is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, and has been working with the Trust since May 1996, specialising in children and young people with learning and developmental disabilities. She also holds a Leadership MSc from the University of Birmingham and the NHS Leadership Academy.

Voting member of the Board.

Ade Kadiri joined the Trust as Director of Corporate Governance in August 2023. Before joining us, he was Head of Corporate Governance at the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, and prior to that, Company Secretary at the Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. He has also worked in the fields of criminal prosecution, medical professional regulation and health and local government sector regulation.

Ade is legally qualified and is a Member of the Chartered Governance Institute (formerly ICSA) and brings experience of all aspects of governance, regulatory compliance and risk management, among other things, to the Trust.

Jane Meggitt has been the Director of Communications and Marketing at the Trust since May 2023. Jane was previously Director of Communications and Engagement for Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes ICB.

Jane has worked in NHS communications for over 30 years, including in high-profile teaching hospitals, the Department of Health, NHS England and a wide range of commissioning organisations.

Jane recently led on the COVID-19 communications response for the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes system. She has a wide range of experience, including reputation management, leading organisations through change and staff, patient and community engagement.

Peter has been with us since May as Financial Advisor to our Chief Executive, Michael Holland. Following the retirement of Terry Noys, Peter will cover the role of Chief Finance Officer until a permanent appointment or alternate solution is agreed. Peter brings a wealth of experience having worked in the NHS for the past 34 years.

Elisa Reyes-Simpson brings a wealth of institutional knowledge and experience to the role of Interim CETO, having been Associate Dean here since 2015. She has been connected to the Tavistock and Portman for over 25 years, first joining us as a student. She is also Chair of the Tavistock Society of Psychotherapists.

Voting member of the Board.

Clare Scott joined the Trust as Chief Nursing Officer in July 2023. Clare was previously Deputy Director of Nursing and, more recently, Director of Nursing, at Barnet Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust.

She began her career in health and social care in 1993, qualifying as a learning disability nurse in 1996 and later as a registered mental health nurse.

Clare has a strong background in clinical practice and professional leadership, she was previously the Programme Director for Nursing Workforce in NCL. She is dedicated to collaborating with staff and service users to enhance the quality and experience of our services.

Debbie Colson joined the board as a Non-Executive Director in October 2016. Her second term of office ends in September 2023.

Debbie's background is in biomedical research and research management. Her last role was as Chief Scientific Officer on a child health study at the Institute of Child Health, University College London. Before that she worked as a freelance science policy advisor following nine years at the Wellcome Trust and seven years at the Medical Research Council.

Prof Janusz Jankowski is the former Chair of the University College of Osteopathy, working with The Princess Royal as Chancellor. Janusz has extensive Board experience, both as Executive and Non-Executive in Higher Education, Health, Government and the NGO Charity Sectors.

He joined the Tavistock and Portman at the beginning of November 2022.

Janusz has holistic leadership experience having served as Deputy Vice Chancellor, National Clinical Advisor, Magistrate, International Medical Editor and Academic Consultant Physician.

He is a strong and effective advocate of mental health and disability services having supported appropriate Guidelines from NICE. He is also a successful experienced coach and mentor who, has helped improve institutional culture and the subsequent CQC inspection outcomes.

Sal Jarvis joined the Board as a Non-Executive Director in November 2022. Sal is Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education at the University of Westminster. Sal has worked in Higher Education since 2006. A former primary teacher, she has career-long experience in education and training, with a focus on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Inclusion. She is Governor, and Chair of the Development Board, for a school for students with physiological and neurological impairments.

Claire Johnston has spent her nursing career in community, acute and mental health roles and was a director of nursing for 20 years, most recently at Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust.

She was previously national advisor in primary care and community nursing at the Royal College of Nursing, She also worked at the Department of Health on the community care reforms and at Health Education England running the Capital Nurse programme in North London.

Claire coaches nurses and midwives in managing and developing their careers, as part of Tavistock consultancy. She chairs ‘Our Time’, a charity working to support children who have a mentally ill parent.

David Levenson was appointed as a non-executive director in September 2019.

David is an executive and career strategy coach, accredited team coach and founder and managing director of Coaching Futures.
He co-founded the Raising Roofs programme which prepares future leaders for the boardroom, and runs governance training courses for the professional academy of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAEW). David has been chief finance officer for three leading UK house providers, starting in 1992.

He is a recognised innovator in the financing of major housing developments. He is an active community volunteer and supporter of charitable causes.

Aruna Mehta was appointed as a non-executive director in November 2021. Her professional expertise is in technology and operations, organisational risk, auditing, compliance and governance. She has worked at executive director level with responsibility for global risk and control.

Aruna also serves as a non-executive director at Epsom St Helier NHS Trust, Clarion Housing (the largest social housing association in the UK) and the University of Greenwich. She was previously Vice-Chair of the Kemnal Academy Trust, which comprises 45 schools across the south-west. She has been a diversity champion in all of her board-level positions. 

Shalini Sequeira joined the Trust in September 2020. Her first career was in the City of London as a finance lawyer, where she held senior roles in global firms. More recently she is the founder of her own business specialising in executive coaching, peer learning and facilitation of leadership development programmes.  She is particularly interested in how to develop inclusive leadership and augment inclusion and equity, both inside and outside the workplace.

Shalini has been Chair of Trustees for a domestic violence charity, Chair of Governors at a London primary school and is currently part of the leadership team for a social enterprise developing female leaders who are leading change. She also gives some of her coaching time pro bono to coach those living with cancer through Macmillan Cancer Support.

Sabrina Phillips is the Lambeth Living Well Network Alliance Director. Sabrina is a Mental Health nurse, and worked in South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Sabrina has a wide range of clinical experience in Acute and community setting, including National & Specialist Children & Adolescent Mental Health. Sabrina has held Senior Operational roles overseeing a varied portfolio of Specialist Community Mental Health Teams for people with Mood and Anxiety issues, Reablement service and Specialist Psychology services such as Croydon Touchstone and IAPT. Sabrina has also held roles in Quality Improvement, leading on Trust wide programmes that aimed to improve the experience of staff and patients on wards, as well as reduce the length of time service users have to wait for a service or be on a ward. Sabrina interest in Quality stems from her role as Head of Nursing for Southwark and Addictions Clinical Academic Group (CAG).Sabrina is passionate about improving services for people with mental health problems through the provision of equitable high quality care delivered by a compassionate, skilled workforce working in partnership with colleagues from statutory organisations, VCSE, service users and carers and the people living in the community we serve. Sabrina is also a NHS Leadership Academy Ready Now Alumnae and 2020 Florence Nightingale ‘Emerging Leaders’ Scholar.