Workplace Wellbeing Academy
Meet the Team
Meet the Team
Bill Cunningham - Director
Bill Cunningham is a psychologist who has been delivering mental health awareness training to the public, across the UK and Ireland, since 2007. He was one of the first Mental Health First Aid instructors in England and has delivered courses to diverse groups in community, corporate and public settings ever since.
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This included working with officers and prisoners in prisons and extensive work training mental health advocates for Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service.
From 2009 to 2017 he was a National Trainer for the MHFA England CIC and trained 30 cohorts of new MHFA instructors, including 30 prison officers, to deliver the course in community and workplace settings.
As a Director of the Golden Tree Wellbeing CIC, he developed training courses using techniques derived from Cognitive Behavioural Theory, Mindfulness and Positive Psychology to help provide people with proactive tools to promote positive wellbeing. He has also designed courses delivered to NHS staff in Cumbria and to the armed forces community at Catterick Garrison.
From 2017 to 2019 he worked for the Saint John of God Hospital, Dublin which holds the licence to deliver MHFA in Ireland. His role as National Trainer involved delivering the training in the community and in corporate setting across Ireland. He also developed the training materials and designed the MHFA Ireland instructor training programme. In this role, he delivered a programme of courses for police officers (An Garda Siochana) several of whom went on to train as instructors. He remains an Associate Trainer for MHFA Ireland.
He is a member of the British Psychological Society and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Glen Ridgway - Director
Glen recovered from his own breakdown in 2008 to design and deliver his employer’s global mental health matters strategy. Glen created all training materials (included a full day promoting mental health and awareness course) for a community of 1500+ positive mental health champions across the globe.
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As a Divisional Director of the global HSE team responsible for the strategy Glen travelled extensively to support the business to deliver the strategy including North and South America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. His biggest revelation during this time is that mental health is an issue that affects all communities in all countries and, as such, can be a unifying subject for global organisations. The method of delivery may vary – but the message is very much the same.
“Investing in the mental health and wellbeing of staff brings benefits for the individual and the organisations”.
Glen is a founding father of Safer Highways and one of the architects of the first ever sector wide mental health survey looking at how the highways industry were delivering the Stevenson Farmer “Thriving at Works Report. Glen’s client list includes: Palace of Westminster Restoration & Renewal Project; Safer Highways; Applied Driving Technique; City & Guilds (UK); Hope for Children; Charity IT Leaders and other clients who prefer to remain confidential
He has the practical experience in delivering mental health and wellbeing strategies that has helped clients deliver long term, sustainable change and helps employees thrive every day.
Iain Smith - Director
Iain has a proven track record of enhancing individual, team and group performance at executive and senior manager level. With a long career in transport, he has worked as a consultant for many transport companies as well as in a number of other sectors including education, forestry, pharma and local government.
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His key clients include Transport for London, Network Rail and City & Guilds. He has also advised the Mayor of London’s Office on apprenticeship programmes.
Iain has an energetic and innovative change agent who brings a personable, engaging and honest communicative approach to each project. With more than 20 years in the L&D field he understands how to align training programmes with the specific need of clients. Allied to this he understands the fundamentals of how to engage with staff at all levels to ensure maximum participation. He has the theoretical knowledge and practical experience to ensure training and development programmes achieve long term, sustainable success.
Shireen Ali-Khan - Associate
Shireen Ali-Khan has 20 years’ experience in communications, engagement and change. Working with many of the UK’s major infrastructure programmes, she has built relationships with a wide range of stakeholders including business, employees, educational establishments, charities, and community groups.
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She is passionate about understanding human behaviours and motivations which has been integral in developing others to thrive. Her people first approach, authenticity and holistic style makes Shireen stand out from the crowd. The impact she has had on the programmes she has worked on has ensured sector wide legacy for example, the work of the Crossrail Community Investment Programme, which saw activity from all contractors across the entire route supporting a range of vulnerable community groups. Shireen led on communications and wellbeing for several organisations during the Covid 19 Pandemic, ensuring staff were supported and engaged with throughout and has recently launched the Muslim Mind Collaborative, an evidenced based programme which brings together faith based and national mainstream mental health organisations to develop a Muslim focused strategy to mental health and wellbeing.
Her interests extend into leadership, development, intersectionality, trauma, psychology, productivity and habits. She has advised on emerging risks and threats in this area, and championed the escalation of mental health up the leadership agenda.
Some of Shireen’s previous clients include:
- Transport for London
- Tideway
- High Speed Two
- Crossrail
- Royal Academy of Engineering
- Institute of Engineering and Technology
- Muslim Mind Collaborative
Shireen is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and Association of Project Managers
Get in touch
If you would like to know more about how we can support you in identifying key training needs to support workplace mental health and wellbeing