Advisory Editorial Board

Toni is an experienced HR professional with 20+ years in professional services. She trained as an accountant at PwC, working with global clients across multiple sectors. After 10 years in client facing roles she moved into human resources and went on to shape and drive the firm's reward strategy. As part of the HR leadership team, she was also responsible for employee relations and global projects. She joined A&O in 2016 as Global Head of Reward and also became the firm's first Head of Wellbeing. Throughout her career Toni has worked with senior leaders to create people strategies that drive change and improve performance across many aspects of the people agenda including diversity, resourcing, performance management and wellbeing in the workplace - a topic she is passionate about.

Zoe is one of the founders of This Can Happen. She is also the founder of Employees Matter, the largest provider of employee engagement seminars and webinars in the UK.

Emma is currently Global Health and Wellbeing Lead at recently established healthcare company Haleon, after 15 years working at GSK. Emma is experienced in developing and delivering global health and wellbeing programmes on a range of different wellbeing topics to varied employee populations.

Chief People Officer for the Weber Shandwick Collective in Asia, Susie has been living and working across the Asia Pacific region for over 25 years, holding people and HR leadership roles in multinational organisations.

Based in Hong Kong, Susie has been a part of the IPG network since April 2013 having worked across multiple brands during her tenure, overseeing People initiatives across China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and India. In addition to her HR responsibilities, Susie actively developed Weber Shandwick's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Asia Pacific strategy and has been leading the initiative for the region since early 2021.

Susie is a seasoned and accomplished practitioner in a variety of HR areas, including strategic manpower planning, employee relations management, dispute resolution, rewards & recognition, innovation, diversity, equity & inclusion, and employer branding, with the ability to align strategic talent initiatives to business goals, often within the context of complex cultural dynamics. Through her career Susie has developed People strategy in a number of industries including healthcare, tech and auto, as well as being hands-on in strategic people initiatives with mergers and acquisitions.

Susie is passionate about creating an environment that encourages employees to grow and develop, whilst staying true to their authentic selves in the workplace. She is a strong advocate for empowerment at all levels with organisations and believes that employees' true potential is realised when organisational culture supports a bottoms-up "I want to learn from you" leadership mentality. She is a strong advocate of servant leadership in all its many facets and has a strong and highly contagious "can do" attitude.

Jonny Benjamin MBE and Neil Laybourn give talks and present on the topic of mental health to groups and organizations all around the UK and internationally.

The pair are award-winning mental health campaigners – their journey together began in 2008 when Neil talked Jonny out of taking his own life by jumping from the edge of Waterloo Bridge in London. Jonny had just been diagnosed with schizophrenia and depression and was extremely unwell.

Neil’s interaction saved his life but the two were soon separated when the police intervened and took Jonny away to be sectioned. 6 years later, in 2014, Jonny launched a campaign on Twitter to find and thank the man who had stopped him taking his own life - #FindMike - it became a global news campaign that reached over 300 million people around the world and was successful in reuniting the 2 strangers within a matter of weeks from the campaign being launched.

What followed was an emotional meeting and the beginning of a journey where both men united to campaign around the issues of both mental health and suicide, which is now the biggest killer of men under 45 in the UK.

The story of their journey was made into a TV documentary, The Stranger on the Bridge, which aired on Channel 4 in 2015 and had a meaningful impact on millions of viewers.

The documentary has won a number of awards and is currently being aired internationally.

After a private meeting with Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge in March 2016, the pair were invited by the Royal Foundation to represent the ‘Heads Together’ charity in running for the 2017 London Marathon.

Sarah joined Northern Trust in 2016 and is responsible for the strategy and implementation of a wide variety of D&I programmes and initiatives.  Before joining Northern Trust, Sarah headed up D&I teams at AIG and Barclays Wealth and prior to that held a variety of HR roles at Morgan Stanley and Simmons & Simmons LLP. 

Sarah holds a BA in International Management and Business Administration with German from the University of Reading. Additionally she holds an MSc in Human Resource Management and an MBA from the Open University. She is a Fellow of the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development) and is bilingual English/German. Sarah is also a Magistrate, serving on the East London bench. 

Sarah is a qualified Mental Health First Aid instructor.

Senior Manager, People Projects for Weber Shandwick Collective in Asia, Wendy is based in Singapore and has been part of the IPG network since July 2022.

Wendy enjoys helping leaders and teams get organised to run their day-to-day activities more efficiently. With over 20 years gaining valuable exposure in multiple industries, her cross-industry experience of Group-level, regional and local capacities brings valuable insights and contributions in People operations and projects. Before her career in People & Culture, she operated a handmade jewellery business and a travel blog and worked in marketing and administrative roles.

As a late-diagnosed autistic person at age 40, Wendy is committed to instilling psychological safety, destigmatizing mental health challenges and creating an inclusive environment in APAC workplaces. She has been openly sharing her anxiety journey since late 2019, helping peers find comfort that they are not alone and there is no shame in seeking professional help. She shares her varied lived experiences to remind them the importance of regular self-care and self-kindness.

Jyoti is an experienced HR professional with 10+ years of generalist experience roles. Jyoti designed and implemented the wellbeing programme in the Allen & Overy Middle East offices. She is now responsible working for with global teams across the firm to drive the broader wellbeing and mental health agenda. She also directly supports individuals through internal coaching.

Mellener currently head Diversity, Equity Inclusion and Mental Wellbeing for Northern Trust in India. An Inclusion Strategist, she has a passion for creating cultures where people can bring their passion and whole selves to work. 

Mellener has won several awards for her work in Diversity and Inclusion and has recently been appointed as a global D&I advisory board member for the Future Talent Council. She is often invited to speak at external D&I events and conferences including the 2018 UN Gender focal point meeting in Geneva. She has been on the taskforce for a number of projects led by Community Business Asia. guest faculty member for the Certified Diversity Professional Program in India. She has contributed to research on Diversity and Inclusion.

As a passionate advocate for mental health awareness her mission in life is to work towards creating more mindful and grateful communities at the workplace and beyond.

Jamie works alongside Zoe our co-Founder to research the mental health space in-depth and always ensure our speakers and topics are of the highest quality – of which we are immensely proud!

Arif Jiwany is a highly experienced GP & Occupational Health Physician who has worked in both the NHS as well as several different industry sectors. Having previously been at Shell, Cancer Research & GSK, he has been the Head of Occupational Health & Wellbeing for the Haleon, the former consumer division of GSK for 18 months. Apart from establishing a new function which operates as a centre of excellence. He & his team are responsible for developing & driving the new health & wellbeing strategy, improving the quality & delivery of health programmes and improving governance related processes. Our ambition being to create a culture that enables our people to be at their best.

Susan combines an academic post in Organisational Psychology with her work as a business psychologist,  an executive coach, mediator and consultant.  She specialises in working with below the surface dynamics and vulnerability at work.  Her research interests include endings, failure and resilience with books published on these topics.

Monika is European Head of Health and Wellbeing at Mars. She is experienced in setting workplace wellbeing and mental health strategies and leading global teams to operationalise these. She has over a decade of experience in delivering change programs globally at team and individual levels and has more recently in supporting managers to create a positive environment for their people to thrive.

She started her medical career as a General Practitioner and subsequently became a specialist in Occupational Medicine, which she has practiced both in the public and corporate sectors.  She coaches all levels within organisations including executives and is a strong advocate of harnessing the power of mentoring and coaching to enable people to lead more fulfilling lives. She is on the board of the What Works Centre for Wellbeing.

Her interests outside work include practising yoga and mindfulness and supporting the mental health of school aged children.

Claire joined Mental Health UK in 2021 with over 20 years’ experience in the Employee Assistance Programme sector. She has worked as a counsellor, case manager, account manager and business development manager. She has been a member of EAPA UK for 15 years and has spent time on their Board. With a strong background in both counselling and psychology Claire brings specialist knowledge and a naturally consultative approach. She has supported individual employees and worked closely with Senior Management, Human Resources, Occupational Health professionals, Trade Unions and Health and Safety groups to deliver effective workplace mental health programmes to organisations in a wide range of industry sectors.

Bhairavi Prakash, a psychologist and social entrepreneur, is dedicated to reshaping India's mental health landscape. She operates an independent consulting practice and founded Mithra Trust in 2018, a non-profit providing mental health support, reaching over 12,800 individuals across India. Her innovative mental health approaches have earned recognition in publications like BeBadass. Mithra Trust's contributions during the COVID-19 pandemic were acknowledged by The Youth Fund and Restless Development. Her consulting expertise in mental health has also garnered acclaim, securing the 'Best Mental Health in the Workplace Strategy - Multinational Implementation' at This Can Happen Awards, 2021. A sought-after speaker, Bhairavi shares her insights on mental health and innovation on national and international platforms, featured in publications such as Forbes, The Hindu, The Indian Express, and HuffPost. Beyond her professional life, Bhairavi is an advocate for the environment and marine biodiversity, often found enjoying beach walks and sunrises with her dog, MuMu.

David Stone is Managing Partner at inQUEST, a global consultancy committed to strengthening team and organizational cultures through the lens of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. David’s broad experience as an attorney, consultant, mediator, trainer, and facilitator enables his clients to connect authentically, align strategically, and move forward together towards improved performance. At the core of David’s approach is the commitment to engage in the hard work of deeply understanding ourselves and one another and then to use this knowledge to change behaviours and enhance practices, processes, strategies, and structures within organisations.

In addition to his unique professional perspective, David is sought-after for workshops and dialogue sessions specifically for his engaging style, which emphasizes empathy and intellectual rigor, coupled with a good amount of levity and humor. He has the recognition of being the Trainer of the Year for his work with the Center for Conflict Resolution in Chicago, where he also founded and served as the executive vice-president of the Chicago Jewish Day School.