Trustees

Guy Paisner, Chair

Guy is an analyst at a London-based investment firm. He has a background in fundraising and investor relations for alternative asset managers and started his career as a financial journalist focused on European private equity and venture capital.

Dan Whitlam, Treasurer

Dan has a background in finance, governance, risk and compliance as well as corporate social responsibility. He has worked in the gambling industry for over 15 years and currently works for GamCare, the leading UK charity supporting those harmed by gambling, leading an industry-facing team that educates gambling business to better protect their customers. Dan is chair of the Finance Committee. He was diagnosed with bipolar type 1 in 2017.

Alice Alphandary

Alice Alphandary works in banking supervision at the Bank of England. She studied natural sciences specialising in biology at university and so is always interested in learning about different medication and therapy used to manage the condition. Alice has family experience of bipolar.

Melissa Barnett-Welch

Melissa is Head of Public Affairs at Healthcomms Consulting, a healthcare-focused communications and public affairs agency. Melissa has worked at Healthcomms Consulting for a number of years, gaining expertise in healthcare, public affairs and PR and an understanding of the NHS and current policy initiatives.

Ed Butcher

Ed is an experienced board member, having served on the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, responsible for oversight of the London Fire Brigade where he held the positions of chair of the Finance and Property committee and the Community Safety Panel. Additionally, he was an elected Councillor for London Borough of Haringey for eight years. Professionally, he is Head of Business Development at HS1 Ltd and has a background in public affairs and influencing.

Louis Constandinos

Louis is a multidisciplinary scientist who has worked in a variety of roles across the pharmaceutical industry from early-stage drug discovery all the way through the process of developing medicines to supporting and designing clinical trials. His original interest in mood disorders came from working on novel medicines for their treatment. His current research interest is in the epidemiology of bipolar disorder and co-morbid metabolic diseases.

Derrick Dale

Derrick is a QC who practices commercial law from Fountain Court Chambers. He also sits as an arbitrator and is a bencher of Middle Temple. He is currently involved in developing fund raising strategies within the charity.

Robert Print

Robert is Head of Executive Office at the Law Society, working primarily on strategy, business improvement and governance. He was diagnosed with bipolar in 2010, and in 2018 ran his third London Marathon in support of Bipolar UK.

Dr Aditya Sharma

Dr Aditya Sharma is a Clinical Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Newcastle University and CNTW NHS Foundation Trust. His areas of clinical academic interest area are mood disorders impacting on children and their families in a global context. To this end he leads a tertiary second opinion Specialist Adolescent Mood disorders Service (SAMS) in Newcastle and is involved in various research projects focussed on improving outcomes for young people under 25 years living with mood disorders by using psychosocial, pharmacological and digital interventions.

Thanks also go to recent Trustees

Nadia Silver, Sarita Dent, Jeremy Clark, Hilary Samson-Barry, Bill Walden-Jones, Professor Allan Young, Dr Clare Dolman, Ashley Toft, Maggie Gibbon, William Courage, Tamasin Little, Mohini Morris and Jennifer Trent Staves.