Arden Founder & CEO
Ross Co-Founder & COO
Lia Chief Safety Officer
Iain Psychiatrist & Clinical Safety Officer
Steve Living Experience Consultant
Elspeth Program Manager
Sherine Project Manager
Debbie AMHP Advisor
Mackensie Product Manager
Mary Client Lead
James Advisor & CCIO
Syeda Software Engineer
Daniel Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
Dominique Advisor
Carl Advisor
Pravin Automation Testing Engineer
Zuzana Program Manager
Paul Advisor
Mette Product Manager
Rajesh Automation Testing Engineer
Stuart Software Engineer
Chris Board Advisor
Sancha Product and Marketing Designer
Vijay Automation Testing Engineer
Laurie Head of Marketing
James Commercial Lead
Arden spent 12 years working with private equity businesses helping them build best-in-class executive teams, manage company restructures, accelerate growth and prepare management buyout deals. Arden’s dad (also called Arden) is a psychiatrist, which opened his eyes to acute mental health care from a young age. After witnessing a close friend being sectioned first-hand, he founded Thalamos to improve the process and outcome for those in crisis.
Ross has spent a career fixing problems. Before Thalamos he was resolving cases as an Investigator for the Financial Ombudsman Service – balancing perspectives to get things resolved. Ross is known for his keen eye for detail and the ability to deliver ideas from inception through to completion. Ross’ desire to do something with purpose led him to co-found Thalamos with Arden.
Lia is passionate about building systems that are ethical and safe by design and which improve people’s lives. She has extensive experience of service design and transformation roles in the NHS (provider level and at NHS Transformation Directorate, formerly NHSx), charities and for-profit sector, optimising the latest technology to deliver exemplary healthcare. She is an accomplished digital health strategist working nationally and internationally.
Lia is a Consultant Liaison Psychiatrist, a fellow of the Faculty for Clinical Informatics and a member of both the Chief Clinical Information Officers advisory panel and the National Association of Primary Care. Lia is known for her holistic patient-centred approach to work as well as her understanding of how to balance innovation with the needs of the healthcare frontline.
Iain is a ST6 Specialist Registrar working on the acute inpatient wards in Buckinghamshire and is frequently involved in Mental Health Act assessments of those most in need. He helps to guide Thalamos through the logistics of digitising a complex care pathway with multiple stakeholders.
Iain sits as an executive on both the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Digital Psychiatry and Private & Independent Practice Specialist Interest groups and has helped to influence the national Digital Clinical Safety Strategy.
Steve has extensive personal experiences of mental illness, including periods of depression, suicide attempts, and hospitalisation. He has a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder and Complex PTSD – the result of psychological abuse in his early years through to adulthood.
Appointed as a Vice Chair for the Independent Mental Health Act Review led by Sir Simon Wesley, supporting the chair in making recommendations to the government. Steve chaired the Service User and Carer Group, and co-chaired the Black African Caribbean Working Group. In 2019 Steve was recognised in the Queens Birthday Honours List and appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to Mental Health.
With Thalamos, Steve supports the team to ensure we maintain a patient centric approach to development.
After studying history at university, Elspeth started working in the charity sector creating digital learning products. Working within a charity sparked her interest in social causes. Elspeth joined the Client Team at Thalamos as she wanted to be involved in an organisation with people’s best interests at the centre of its mission and with a real world impact.
Sherine started her career as a project manager in 2013. She gained experience in different sectors such as E-Publications, E-Retail and E-Commerce before becoming a member of Thalamos’ Quality Assurance Team. Thalamos provides the opportunity for her to learn, evolve, manage new challenges. She is reliable and often seeks new responsibilities within a wide range of business areas. As Project Manager, she synchronises with the team in order to channel resources and complete projects successfully. Her hobbies are baking, painting and reading.
Dr Debbie Martin is Director of the Bournemouth University, South West England Approved Mental Health Professional’s/BIA course, and an independent trainer. Debbie provides training for many local authorities and trusts, and for s12 approved doctors and approved clinicians. She also provides specialist supervision for Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs). Debbie is co-author of Mental Health Law in England and Wales, 4th Ed (2020), and The Mental Capacity Act 2015, A Guide for Practice, 3rd Ed (2015).
Debbie is a registered social worker and supports Thalamos with advice on best practice as well as guidance on the legislative evolution of its application.
Mackensie started out working with charities and social enterprises to help them overcome their challenges. Seeing the potential for technology to solve problems and drive social impact, he quickly became interested in building digital products that put people first. This led him to join Thalamos as a Product Manager, where he is responsible for doing just that. On the side, you’ll find him running laps around Victoria Park or scoping out which mountains to visit next.
Mary studied Politics and Social Anthropology at university before joining the Health Foundry as Communications Manager where she met Arden and Ross. After a brief stint in asset management working with the EIS team, Mary joined Thalamos as a Client Associate in 2020. She now heads the Client Team and, together with Arden, makes sure Thalamos is implemented properly.
Throughout his career James has worked on bringing technology and patient care together. He helped to pioneer the role of Chief Clinical Information Officer in mental health NHS trusts after being appointed at Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS FT in 2013. He continues to work as a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, bringing together the legal and clinical aspects of mental health work. His wide experience in implementing and managing technology in health settings, in addition to his extensive clinical experience provides invaluable insight and a 360 degree view of mental healthcare.
Syeda originally worked in sales and account management but found being on the ‘building’ side of the product more engaging. So she entered the world of engineering through an apprenticeship. She enjoys solving problems and seeing solutions make a difference. It’s important for her to understand what she is building and how it will impact the end-user. Thalamos gives her the opportunity to do this. She also values the close relationship between development and product that Thalamos caters.
Daniel has over 20 years of experience leading projects and building software primarily within start ups. He has experience in several industries including business services, technology and financial services. More recently Daniel has shifted his focus to deploying his skills in health technology and, in particular, mental healthcare.
Dominique was recently appointed CEO for Senior Living at Pacific Investments to lead on the creation and development of their Senior Living offer. Dominique’s career in senior living spans 18 years having worked across all parts of the sector. She has led a portfolio of Care Homes and has been a part of creating a market leading Home Care business (The Good Care Group). Dominique is also the Chair of the Homecare Association (HCA), a professional association representing over 2,700 homecare providers and is a non-executive director for both London and Quadrant and the Live-in Care Hub.
Carl’s career in technology has seen him involved in the early stages of Skype, the development of Microsoft and the conceiving, launching and scaling of new products for Twilio. More recently he was Head of Product, Software & Productivity for Zoopla. Carl’s most recent venture is Co-Founder and CEO of Sustained, an app that helps people make more environmentally-friendly food choices.
Carl brings this wealth of technical and product experience to the Thalamos Advisory Board to assist in navigating the applied technical challenges that exist in software creation.
Pravinraj started his career as a QA (Quality Assurance) Engineer in 2016 and has 6 years of experience in manual and automation testing. He has fantastic knowledge of testing techniques including Black Box, Agile Methodology and Selenium WebDriver. With his critical thinking and ability to view things from a customer’s perspective, he creates many “What if?” scenarios to ensure the software responds to every possibility. This enhances the quality of the output. Outside of work he likes to explore and travel by bike to meet new people.
Zuzana is a psychology graduate with a professional background in people and project management. Prior to joining Thalamos, Zuzana worked on improving employee engagement and wellbeing in the tech sector. She joined the Client Team at Thalamos due to her interest in mental health and the desire to have a direct impact on improving people’s lives.
Mette studied at the University of Oslo whilst competing as a professional handball player. After finishing her Master’s degree in Media Science, Mette retired her athletic career and moved to London to start a job in content marketing. Her interest in helping people, and a desire to do something meaningful, led Mette to Thalamos. Mette’s sports career hasn’t completely left her, she is known for trying to turn everything into a competition.
Rajesh completed his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2016. He started his career as Quality Analyst with Cognizant in the same year. He is now an Automation Test Engineer with more than 5 years of experience in software testing and is responsible for designing and developing test automation solutions to meet business needs. He plays a key role in building quality products and performs in-depth testing of Thalamos’ systems to ensure they meet critical requirements. He loves keeping himself updated with the latest technology in the market. Being a part of a big Indian family, he spends his leisure time with family and cousins.
Not only is he a football fanatic, Stuart also holds a MSc in software engineering. He enjoys learning new front and back-end technologies specialising in JavaScript. Before joining Thalamos in 2021, Stuart gained experience in several industries including E-commerce, travel and finance but ultimately felt healthcare was the most rewarding. When he’s not coding you’ll find him at the playground with his son.
Chris is the Chairman of Cambridge Sleep Sciences the creators of SleepHub®, an electronic bedside sleep device designed to aid falling asleep and improve sleep quality. He is also Executive Chairman of Verso Biosense (formerly VivoPlex) which specialises in fertility and women’s health. Chris is a medically trained doctor and grew and sold one of the UK’s leading medical software companies, serving GPs. His particular interest in mental healthcare software saw him join Thalamos as the first member of the advisory board.
Sancha is an experienced product and graphic designer. Driven by helping people and the eagerness to do something meaningful, she takes pride in being an avid problem solver and a creative thinker. As a Product and Marketing Designer for Thalamos, her goals include helping more people achieve their objectives and giving them a great user experience whilst doing it. She joined Thalamos to put her skills to use in a business with an ethical purpose, that aims to improve the outcomes of those with mental health issues which aligns with who Sancha is as a person and as a professional.
Vijay completed his Electrical and Electronics Engineering degree in 2017 and started working in electrical industries. Later he found his interest in the ‘building’ side of the software product which prompted him to change his career path to become a Quality Analyst. Before joining Thalamos in 2021, he gained experience in several industries including train manufacturing as an Electronic Engineer. Apart from work, he loves to hang out with friends and plays badminton.
Laurie is our resident marketing guru. She has worked in a variety of marketing roles across London and Sydney covering brand management, strategy, social media, digital marketing and media buying. Her 12 years of marketing pre-Thalamos saw her work in a zoo, on cruise ships and for hotel chains. Laurie joined Thalamos in March 2020 because she wanted a job where she could make a positive impact on the life of others.
James graduated with a first class degree in Psychology and a master’s in Philosophy, before working for many years within the executive search industry focussing on the venture capital and private equity sector. James joined Thalamos in 2020 as Commercial Lead to advise on, and manage, the business development function. James is also a volunteer counsellor for a bereavement and mental health charity.
Reverse engineered from:
thalamus; noun Grey matter lying between the cerebral hemispheres, relaying sensory information. (the nerve centre)
Origin Late 17th century (denoting the part of the brain at which a nerve originates): via Latin from Greek thalamos.
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