Welcoming our new trustees

Think Ahead is delighted to welcome three new trustees, appointing Aparajita ‘Aps’ Ajit, Peter Molyneux and Liam Sloan to its Board.

The organisation believes that a thriving mental health workforce is key to ensuring every person can live the life they want. It was founded in 2014, to deliver an accelerated recruitment and training programme for mental health social workers, and advocates for the social issues affecting mental health to be better understood and the ‘social approach’ to be integrated across the health and social care system.

Each one of Think Ahead’s new trustees brings knowledge and vision from across mental health provision, technology, service delivery, and commercial and philanthropic insight that will help drive the charity’s five year strategy forward.

The Board of Trustees is chaired by Professor Dame Carol Black GBE. Dame Carol said:

“We are delighted to have Aps, Liam and Peter come to us from such a diverse range of professional backgrounds. They have joined the Board with such energy and expertise, and their insights are going to prove invaluable to Think Ahead delivering on its strategy and vision”.

Meet the trustees

Aparajita ‘Aps’ Ajit

Aps Ajit has over 25 years of international experience in technology and transformation and is passionate about corporate social responsibility.

On joining the board Aps said:

“I am privileged and honoured to join the board of Think Ahead, who are advocates of our country’s mental health workforce and have a pivotal role to play in making sure our citizens have timely access and compassionate support when they need it.”

Liam Sloan

Liam Sloan is the Commercial Director of Public Digital, with much of his work supporting the public sector.

Liam said:

“I feel both extremely privileged and very excited to be joining Think Ahead’s board. Across my career I’ve worked closely with many areas of service delivery and seen how a social approach towards mental health can be truly transformative for people who are experiencing challenging times. Think Ahead’s role in pioneering ways to grow and evolve the mental health workforce has never been more important.”

Peter Molyneux

Peter Molyneux is the England Liaison for the Global Leadership Exchange in Mental Health.

Peter said:

“I am excited to be joining the Board of Think Ahead. This charity has an important role to play in supporting people into the health and care workforce and contributing to the growth agenda”.

 

 

Background information

The Think Ahead Board is chaired by Dame Carol Black GBE. Other Board members include Professor David Croisdale-Appleby OBE, Dr Ruth Allen, Professor Kamaldeep Bhui, Levi Chambers-Cook, James Darley, Jayne King, John Lawlor, Sharon Rice-Oxley, and Nicholas Timmins.

New Board members biographies

Aparajita ‘Aps’ Ajit

Aparajita ‘Aps’ Ajit has over 25 years of international experience in the technology, transformation, managed services and not for profit sectors, where she has held several leadership roles. Her client centric and commercial experience sees her helping organisations deliver value, scaling and building high performing teams internationally. She has an MBA from École des Ponts (ENPC) France and an Executive Master in Change from INSEAD, France.

Aps champions positive mental health, education for children, racial diversity and gender balance. She is passionate about CSR and has been actively involved in leading social impact programmes both personally and professionally across the UK, India and Bhutan. She is also a non-executive director on the Think Equal UK board. She lives in Kent with her husband, teenage son and two beautiful dogs.

Peter Molyneux

Peter is the England Liaison for the Global Leadership Exchange in Mental Health. He is an experienced chair and non-executive director serving as chair of Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, the North London Mental Health Partnership, the London Mental Health and Employment Partnership and on the boards of NHS Providers, the Mental Health Network and Recovery Focus.

He works to change the narrative around mental health and build stronger links between organisations – particularly housing, education and employment. He is the founder chair of the LGBTQ+ Leaders’ Network and a Visiting Fellow at the John Madejski Centre for Reputation at Henley Business School (University of Reading). He lives with his husband in Peckham.

Liam Sloan

Liam is the Commercial Director of Public Digital, a global transformation consultancy that works with large businesses and governments to help them become more responsive, adaptable and impactful. Much of his work is with the UK public sector, including the NHS and local authorities.

Liam started his career as a journalist, and then spent over a decade working in business development and commercial roles across public sector outsourcing, healthcare and education. This has included winning and delivering contracts for complex services across the public sector, NHS and blue chip businesses.

Outside of Think Ahead, Liam is also a trustee at Reset Communities for Refugees, which delivers the UK Government’s Community Sponsorship and Homes for Ukraine schemes. He is also a Visiting Fellow of Practice at the Government Outcomes Lab at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, bringing together research and practice around relational approaches in public sector contracting.  He has degrees from Warwick and Sheffield universities, and an MBA from Warwick Business School.