Board Members
Kevin Corrigan joined the board in 2009. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants and is currently a senior vice president and Head of Credit at Lombard Odier Investment Managers. He has worked in financial services for over 20 years beginning with JP Morgan where he trained as an accountant. He spent 11 years as Managing Director and Partner of FFTW, a specialist fixed income advisor, and before his current appointment, he worked for 3 years at Goldman Sachs managing their credit portfolios. He is at present Chair of the Resources Committee and is a non-executive director of CANAF group, a mining company. Kevin lives near Haywards Heath, is married with two children and enjoys reading and sports.
Sue Darnell joined the Board of Sussex Oakleaf in March 2011 having retired as the HR Administrator for Sussex Oakleaf the previous year. Sue also returned to the organisation in July 2010 as a volunteer, when she set up and coordinates Project Volunteer, to recruit, encourage and support the volunteers assisting in the various projects within the organisation. Previously in her career Sue obtained her Associateship of the Institute of Personnel & Development and became Head of HR for the Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre, and then went on to become the Office Manager for a large firm of Independent Financial Advisers where she obtained two further financial qualifications. Sue then semi-retired and went to work for Sussex Oakleaf for a very happy 3 years on a part-time basis before fully retiring last year, although she happily feels she has never really been away! Sue has been married for 40 years and has two children, and two grandchildren. She is a keen football supporter and loves concert and theatre going, as well as being a member of Mid Sussex Choir.
Alison Lyon joined the Board in March 2011. She is a Chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and hold a BA Honours degree in Social Psychology and an MA in Human Resource Management. Alison has held a number of senior HR management roles in the public sector, most recently as HR Director of Sussex Probation Area. Since 2008, Alison has worked as an independent HR Consultant and her clients include a variety of public, private and voluntary sector organisations. She also serves on the committees of Gymnastics’ Club in Brighton and a local play centre. Alison lives in Brighton with her husband and three young children.
Richard Pearson joined the Board in 2009. He is an economist and independent adviser on employment issues. Recent clients include major companies and public bodies in the UK and internationally. He is on the Board, and Chairs the audit committee of the Sussex Community Foundation (SCF), and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Leicester and the University of Sussex. Prior to this he has been a member of the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) which advises on salaries of the judiciary, senior armed forces, senior civil service, and MPs; Research Director at the Employability Forum which helps improve the integration of refugees in to employment; and for 12 years was Director of the independent Institute for Employment Studies (IES).
Peter Roberts joined the board in 2005. Peter was previously a civil servant, transport controller and an accountant prior to illness in 1999 when he became a user of mental health services. When Peter was a service user at Stepping Stones in Crawley he became interested in the needs of people like himself and how they were being met, so he decided to join the board of Sussex Oakleaf to try and influence their policies to bring the most benefit to all service users. Peter is now contracted to East Sussex County Council as a Peer Support Specialist and also is a former Service User Governor of Sussex Partnership NHS Trust for West Sussex.
Barbara Williams (Chair) began her career as a trainee social worker in residential and day care services in East Belfast in 1978. After moving to Hackney in 1981 she was involved in a range of voluntary activity which included being Chair of a local Residents Association, a volunteer driver for community transport, running equal play play-schemes and providing housing and support to Kurdish refugees. Since 1989 Barbara has lived in West Sussex. She worked for Arun Council for Voluntary Service in Littlehampton and then moved on to Social Services based in County Hall, Chichester. In the meantime she gained a BSc (Hons), Diploma in Applied Social Studies and Diploma in Management Studies with the Open University. In 2001 Barbara became UK Director of Community Service Volunteers (CSV) Volunteering Programme enabling young people to experience life changing opportunities supporting individuals to live independently. In April 2007 Barbara took up her current post as Director of Operations with the Multiple Sclerosis Society responsible for a wide range of activities delivered in England and across the UK. Barbara potters in the garden to relax and good live music is always a priority.
Liz Williams began her career in the voluntary sector working with the elderly in London. Liz gained her PGCE in Social Studies and taught in many schools following her husband’s Prison Service moves. Liz retrained in 1996 and gained the Certificate in Specific Learning Difficulties and worked with children suffering from dyslexia. Liz is a Board member of a number of schools and of Carr-Gomm. Liz suffered from post natal depression and has a 37 year old son who suffers from schizophrenia as well as members of her family with bi-polar disorder. Liz has always been interested and concerned about people struggling on their own. Liz has sung semi-professionally and now sings with a good group in Chichester. Liz is against people being horrid to other people and joined anti-Vietnam march in 1968, and anti Iraq War march in Feb 2003. Liz is keen on gardening, sewing, walking, cooking, reading. Liz was born and brought up in West Sussex where she has returned recently in ‘retirement’.
Lynn Willis
Senior Management Team
Robert Jones, CEO
Rob Jones joined Sussex Oakleaf in April 2010 as CEO. Since moving to Sussex in 1992, he’s worked closely with many diverse voluntary/community organisations and with the public sector in Sussex as CEO of VOLG. He has been very active locally as a founding member and trustee of several organisations (Pressure Point Mental Health Advocacy, Regnum Crossroads and the Community Association of Portslade South). Regionally and nationally, his involvement continues as a RAISE Board Member and, formerly, as an elected social/environmental member of the Regional Assembly, Chair of the Social Inclusion Partnership and helping to establish the national Joint Planning Officers Network (now called InVOLve). Originally from Canada, Rob ran an Independent Living Project (supported housing & outreach services) in Toronto at a time when individual budgets and care brokerage were being developed and implemented. Prior to that he has worked in the substance misuse field in Camden (where he got his first taste of cross-sector partnership working) and, briefly, for the NHS. He holds an honours degree in Commerce, an NVQ Level 3 in Business Start Up (social enterprise), is an accredited trainer and an experienced facilitator of Forum Theatre. His interests include music, VWs, football, surfing and snowboarding.
Nahar Choudhury, Director of New Business and Development
Prior to joining Sussex Oakleaf Nahar was Director of Hopscotch Asian Women’s Centre in Camden. It involved empowering Asian women in a range of areas including Domestic Violence and Community Cohesion. Nahar grew up in London and moved to Sussex five years ago.
Caspar Murphy, Director of Operations
Caspar has worked in social care for over 20 years, predominantly within mental health organisations. Caspar’s experiences has enabled him to work with diverse communities across a broad range of locations, including Wandsworth, Southwark, Lambeth and, Hackney in London; Alloa in Scotland; Brighton and now in East & West Sussex. Caspar has worked as a volunteer, a support worker, a housing manager, a service manager, a trustee, operations director and as the director of a charity, and therefore has first hand experience of a variety of roles. Outside of Sussex Oakleaf, Caspar is a UKCP registered Psychotherapist, with over 13 years clinical experience, still seeing individuals on occasional evenings. He is also a trustee of a large inner city church in London, as well as being a visiting lecturer at Goldsmiths University of London for psychotherapy students.
Bettina Jeppesen, Director of Operations
Bettina joined Sussex Oakleaf with nearly 20 years experience in the Social Care sector gained in the UK and her native Denmark. She has worked with a variety of service user groups front line and in managerial posts. Most recently, she held a post as Marketing & Service Delivery Manager for 2Care, a national mental health provider. Bettina graduated in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sheffield. She also holds an Advanced Diploma in Dual Diagnosis (Mental Health and Substance Misuse). In her spare time, Bettina is challenged by project managing a significant refurbishment programme of a villa in Le Marche, Italy.
Jennie Harris, Director of Finance and IT
Prior to joining Sussex Oakleaf in September 2008, Jennie spent 10 years working for a large multinational company. Jennie has always worked in Finance and began building her professional qualifications while working at Unilever. Jennie’s move from the corporate sector to the third sector was not a deliberate one, but a move she was very glad to have made as she found the change in focus away from profits to people extremely refreshing. Outside of work Jennie is kept extra busy caring for her young son.
