Step One Charity is led by a team of experienced and dedicated professionals, who are passionate about empowering people with mental health challenges, learning disabilities and neurodiversity to reach their full potential.
Our Senior Leadership Team is responsible for the day-to-day running of the charity, while our Trustees provide strategic oversight and governance.
CEO & Director of Finance
Derek is a resourceful and adaptable senior leader with 20 years of experience in financial oversight, strategic planning, and team development. A qualified accountant and with an NHS Leadership Academy Award in Executive Healthcare Leadership.
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Derek has a track record of navigating high-pressure environments, specialising in financial planning, commissioning & contracting, governance, and risk management. Previous roles have included Locality Director at NHS Devon Integrated Care Board, Deputy Chief Finance Officer at South Devon & Torbay Clinical Commissioning Group and Head of Finance at Torbay PCT / South Devon & Torbay Clinical Commissioning Group.
Beyond his professional career, Derek is passionate about community involvement. He is the coaching assistant and Club Committee Member for Upton Athletic U11s and has held governance roles as a Foundation Trust Governor for Torbay & South Devon NHS FT and a School Parent Governor. He is also a Trustee for Somerset Activity & Sports Partnership (SASP). Amongst the volunteering roles, Derek enjoys football, running and cycling and is an active member of local clubs, both playing and supporting.
Head of Psychological Practice and Development
Chandanee leads on the clinical and psychological delivery aspects of the organisation, bringing strategic oversight and a commitment to high-quality, person-centred care.
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Chandanee brings extensive clinical experience across a range of mental health settings, including work with individuals with autism, learning disabilities, and children and young people. She is a strong advocate for equitable access to services and has supported organisations in developing inclusive and responsive approaches to care. Her work often sits at the intersection of clinical practice, service development, and social justice.
Alongside her clinical work, Chandanee has held senior academic leadership roles within university and training settings. She has led the development of postgraduate and professional programmes in psychology, leadership, and neurodiversity, with a strong focus on reflective, anti-oppressive practice.
She has also taken on leadership roles in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), working to embed equity across both education and service delivery. Chandanee continues to work across academic, clinical, and community contexts to support innovation, reflection, and equitable change in mental health systems.
Director of Quality Improvement, Service Delivery & Deputy CEO
Sara brings extensive experience in senior strategic nursing leadership, with a professional background as both a nurse and midwife. Throughout her career, she has worked across a wide range of healthcare settings, including provider organisations, commissioning environments, community services, and acute care.
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Sara has a strong track record in driving quality improvement, patient safety, service transformation, and governance, leading programmes that improve outcomes for patients, staff, and organisations. She is passionate about developing high-quality, person-centred services and embedding continuous improvement cultures.
Alongside her operational and leadership roles, Sara has significant experience in education and workforce development, having taught in both university and clinical practice settings. She is a trained Quality Improvement (QI) educator, certified coach, and experienced leadership facilitator, supporting individuals and teams to develop their skills, confidence, and effectiveness.
Sara combines strategic thinking with a practical, collaborative approach, and is committed to developing compassionate leadership, improving organisational performance, and delivering sustainable improvements in quality, safety, and service delivery.
Chair of Trustees
Lorna was appointed Chair of Trustees on 1 January 2026. She brings over 40 years’ experience across public service, private enterprise and management consultancy.
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Lorna trained and worked as a nurse and midwife in the UK and Canada, where she lived with her family for nearly ten years. On returning to the UK, she settled in Devon with her husband and twins (with another son remaining in Canada) and worked in community healthcare. During this time, she completed a degree in Community Health and later a Master’s in Business, driven by a strong interest in how business principles can be applied to public services to promote equity and quality of care.
Lorna has extensive experience in, and a deep commitment to, patient safety, safeguarding adults and children, equality and diversity, clinical risk, and governance. Prior to her retirement in 2019, she was Chief Nursing Officer for NHS Devon.
Since retiring, Lorna has held non-executive director roles in both public and private sector organisations. She also facilitates staff events and continues her long-standing passion for staff wellbeing through mentoring and coaching individuals working in and for public services.
Trustee and Chair of Finance & Audit Committee
Dave was appointed as a Trustee for Step One in 2021. He joined the Devon Air Ambulance Trust as the Director of Finance and Infrastructure in 2014 and is currently an integral part of the governance structure as part of the executive leadership team for the charity.
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Dave qualified as an accountant with HW Fisher in London before working as an Audit Manager at BDO Sydney.
Following a return to England and a period of working for Capita as a Manager of the Investment Trust and Venture Capital Trusts team in Exeter, he moved into the charity sector as Director of Finance & Infrastructure at Devon Air Ambulance in 2014. He currently overseas the facilities and finance departments and is an integral part of the governance structure as part of the executive leadership team for the charity and a Director for its trading company. He is also a Director of the Institute of Legacy Management.
Trustee and Chair of Quality, Assurance & Improvement Committee
Kay was appointed as a Trustee for Step One Charity in 2022. In 2002, Kay founded Friends and Families Charity, and over the past 20 years, she has been involved in campaigning, developing and shaping both national and local strategy and provision for families with disabled children and young people.
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Much of Kay’s working life has been spent in social care, training and employment. She has been involved with projects and enterprises that work towards reducing social isolation, improving health and wellbeing, helping to prevent ill-health and striving for a society that’s accessible and allows equal opportunities to everyone.
Her interest in grassroots organisations, charities and community groups lead her to becoming a school governor to two special schools, regional committee chair for SCOPE, Director of Improving Lives Plymouth, Trustee for Plymouth Octopus Project, (POP), regional committee member for Children in Need, and Trustee for The Livewell Foundation. Through this work, she has gained extensive experience and insight of working within the charity sector, and has a wealth of knowledge and skills in charity governance, fundraising, networking and partnership working.
Trustee
Mark currently works in communications for UK Research and Innovation, the national funding agency investing in science and research in the UK. Mark is passionate about promoting healthcare and advocating for everyone to speak freely about their mental health.
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In his previous role, Mark was Head of Communications for an NHS community services provider. Mark is passionate about promoting healthcare, advocating for everyone to speak freely about their mental health in a stigma-free society.
Trustee
Rob is Managing Director at Optix Solutions, a B Corp-certified digital agency in Exeter, and founder of wavemind, a leadership consultancy focused on culture change and sustainable growth. With over 30 years’ experience, he’s worked with startups, charities, and FTSE 100 firms, helping leaders unlock performance through clarity, compassion, and culture.
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Rob was named in Campaign’s 40 Over 40 in 2024 as one of the UK’s most effective and influential leaders and led Optix to win Campaign’s Best Agency to Work For in 2023. A qualified mental health first aider, he’s committed to building healthier workplaces where people and purpose thrive.
He joined Step One’s Board in 2025, driven by both professional insight and personal recovery from a mental health crisis. Rob believes lived experience brings empathy, credibility, and a deeper understanding of the barriers people face—essential for shaping services that truly meet people where they are. He’s proud to support an organisation helping others regain stability, dignity, and hope.
Trustee
Sam is a barrister and broadcaster currently based in Exeter. He works in the Court of Protection dealing with issues relating to mental capacity.
Trustee
A degree qualified Chartered Surveyor, Steve has over 25 years of commercial and management experience working at senior and board level within a number of key sectors. Having worked with several organisations of varying sizes this has given an insight to the challenges faced by the private and public sectors.
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He has over five years’ experience working within the Social Housing Sector for Mi-space (UK) Ltd and has also spent over 10 years providing services to the public sector within Environmental and Highways. From 2016, 3 years was spent in the South West delivering a fusion of contracting, housing and mixed-use regeneration schemes. This has included partnerships works in collaborative long-term arrangements with registered providers, local authorities and other stakeholders to build high quality housing and sustainable communities.
Steve worked on the Board of Westward Housing Group, initially joining the Board of Horizon Homes. He was then invited to join the main Board in 2016 and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of the sector and assisting the Executive Team in delivering the organisation’s objectives. From 2018, Steve worked on the Audit and Assurance Committee gaining valuable experience in Risk Management.
He understands the challenges in the current political and economic climate and demonstrates working in partnership with public sector organisations though vehicles such as joint ventures.
Steve’s key focus in any organisation relates to governance, effectiveness and efficiency, achievement of set goals and delivery of the bottom line.
Trustee
Matthew is a Chartered commercial leader with over a decade of senior experience across the public sector, including executive roles in urgent care and strategic positions within the Cabinet Office and Ministry of Defence.
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He has led major procurement and transformation programmes across health and defence, with a focus on driving innovation, value for money, and social impact.
