Relate is governed by a Board of Trustees, all of them volunteers, who are committed to realising our vision of a future in which healthy and happy relationships form the heart of a thriving society.
Ffion Griffith, Chair
Ffion joined the Trustee Board in June 2023 as Chair-Designate and was confirmed as Chair on November 1, 2023.
She has worked for 35 years in a range of HR roles across a number of sectors, with a particular focus on professional services, and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
In her executive career, she is Global HR Director for Efficio Limited, a global management consulting business.
In her non-executive life, she is a Member of the Academy Trust of BMAT and the Senior Independent Director and Chair of Remuneration Committee for Nexus Plc. She is also a qualified coach.
Outside work Ffion lives in Essex with her partner, is the mother of two adult children, loves to travel to new places and is a keen scuba diver.
Matthew Chaplin, Vice Chair
Matt started his career as a management accountant working for a leading UK media company. In 2013 he transitioned to become a strategy consultant working on a variety of projects including finance transformation, global cost reduction and shared service outsourcing for several multinational companies. Since 2016, Matt has been working for a global travel technology company leading a company-wide transformation programme.
Matt lives in South East London with his partner and their daughter. He enjoys running, cooking, and sharing great food and drink with family and friends.
Ian Pleace, Treasurer
Ian Pleace chairs Relate’s Finance Committee and is a member of the Audit Committee. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte, where he had a 17-year career, focused on audit and corporate finance assignments for a range of clients in the publishing and media sectors. Ian has acted as the Director of Finance for BBC Nations & Regions, Goldsmiths’ College and, currently, the University of Roehampton. He serves on the boards of i2 Media Research, Cognivate Rehab, the Whitechapel Gallery and the National Tramway Museum at Crich in Derbyshire. He has previously acted as an independent member of the Audit Panel of the London Borough of Lewisham.
Patsy Whiteside
Patsy became a trustee in November 2017, having been involved with Relate for many years. She is also Chair of Relate London North East.
With an extensive background in teaching English in the Further Education sector, Patsy is passionate about Relate’s goals of educating the public about healthy relationships and supporting continuing professional development for the organisation’s workforce.
Patsy’s other interests include food production, sustainability and security. She is also a keen gardener.
Malcolm Pearson
Malcolm joined Relate Birmingham early in 2018 and later that year became Chair of Trustees. He has contributed to the development of a National Association of Relate Trustees and was elected to the National Board in November 2019.
Being retired, Malcolm volunteered for a role as a Trustee of Relate Birmingham following a period serving as a Governor of an NHS Trust.
Prior to retirement, Malcolm followed a long career with a major International Company before leaving to help friends set up a new business in the same Industry and so has seen life at both ends of the business spectrum. In both organisations, he was involved in Sales and Marketing positions with a Technical bias.
Michele Grant
Michele became a Trustee of Relate London North East and Essex in 2015 and joined the national board in 2019. Her career spans local government, the BBC and running a social enterprise. At the BBC Michele was Controller of Communications for BBC News followed by nine years in Washington developing the BBC's news services for the US market.
Her skills and experience include media relations, marketing, business development and journalism. Following a career change, she founded a social enterprise specialising in coaching and training with a particular emphasis on people from disadvantaged backgrounds and those experiencing challenging circumstances.
Michele has extensive experience on charity boards. She is also a Trustee of Nightline, the peer-to-peer student support charity, and has been a Trustee of Shelter, Unlock and Common Ground Mediation.
Mauro Mortali
Mauro is Senior Manager Strategy & Innovation at BT. He has 25 years of corporate experience having worked in consulting, marketing, strategy and innovation roles.
Before becoming a trustee Mauro was a school governor at his local primary school for 10 years, include 5 years as Chair Of Governors.
Mauro has a degree in French and German, an MBA and can speak 5 languages, including being bilingual Italian. Mauro is a road cycling obsessive and big Liverpool fan. He lives in South Buckinghamshire with his wife and two daughters.
Tony Perryman
Tony joined Relate Cross Pennines as a trustee in 2012 and has been chair for the last five years.
After completing a diploma in electronics in Cardiff he spent fifteen months in Singapore as a VSO teaching industrial electronics, and athletics and as a volunteer working with disadvantaged young people. This experience led to a career initially in Training and development and latterly in HR.
Tony studied and qualified as an HR professional in 1978 and completed a postgraduate diploma in management in 1980 at the Polytechnic of Wales.
He held several senior HR positions, mainly in food retail over a thirty-year period. After leaving corporate life he set up his own HR consultancy specialising in employment law, organisational design and change management. Tony is now retired.
Tony’s interest in volunteering has been a constant throughout his life. This has resulted in him being involved with a variety of organisations.
Tony loves to travel and experience the cultures of different countries. Music and poetry are important parts of his life. And of course, being a Welshman, Tony loves watching a good game of rugby.
Daniel Peters
Daniel is a diversity and inclusion champion, working with his clients to create an inclusive workplace culture in the fashion industry and creative sector. His 15-year career spans marketing and communications, and strategy development for leading organisations such as Burberry.
Peters, a Peckham native, also sits on the Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee at the British Fashion Council, and the Fashion Retail Academy, helping to bring about systemic change relating to inclusion and diversity in the sector.
As an ex-music student of the BRIT School for Performing Arts, Daniel is a regular attendee of live music performances. When not at gigs, he can be found in the kitchen pushing his love for cooking for dinner guests.
Debra Clark
Debra became a Trustee in 2021 after nearly two years of being a Board Trustee for Relate Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch.
Debra has worked in employee benefits for over 25 years within the intermediary market where the goal is to help clients to maintain a healthy, happy and productive workforce. She is especially passionate about mental health and all forms of well-being particularly in the workplace as she strongly believes, that people are any business's best asset and they can ensure the success of a company if they are well.
She is keen to use this knowledge to help support Relate National and the work we do assisting relationships - be it marital, personal, families, young people or even with yourself.
As a working Mum to a teenager, it feels like Debra is constantly spinning plates but she has netball and yoga plus walking the dog to help her unwind.
Mubeen Bhutta
Mubeen has over twenty years of experience in the voluntary sector, working in a number of policy and communications roles and successfully advocating for change. She has worked for both large, household name charities and small, newly established organisations. She is passionate about the power of relationships and human connections to well-being and connecting people's real experiences to those in power.
Mubeen is currently Head of Policy, Public Affairs and Campaigns at Samaritans. She lives with her partner and two daughters and is often found running (slowly) up the hills of southeast London.
Jayne Hall
Jayne has been Chair of Trustees for Relate Severn and Wye since 2020. Now retired from her career in sales and marketing, she has experience across a mixture of multinational businesses in manufacturing and distribution. Jayne’s last position was Chief Executive of a building product company.
She believes what we do at Relate radically improves people's lives and wants to develop the capability of the organisation to help more people nationwide, as well as raise the profile of the benefits of healthy relationships.
Jeremy Tobias-Tarsh
Jeremy joined the Trustee board in March 2024.
Jeremy has a background as a corporate finance lawyer (at Clifford Chance and US firm Paul Hastings), and as an entrepreneur in the legal industry, co-founding TotallyLegal.com and Legistics Limited, and as a shareholder/director of the Practical Law Company. He is currently the executive chair of a new business bringing career support services to individuals in the legal industry.
Since 2013 Jeremy has devoted his working time largely to the non-profit sector, as a trustee then chair of Grief Encounter, a child bereavement counselling charity, and as executive chair of Hackney Aquatics. He also served as a non-executive director of the occupational mental health business Grespi Limited until 2023. He is an advisory board member of Queen Mary University Legal Advice Clinics and a trustee of the grant-giving foundations, Philip King Trust and Levy2.
Jeremy is married with two adult children and lives in Muswell Hill. In his spare time he loves to spend time with friends and family, play golf and squash, read and listen to history and philosophy podcasts.
Mo Mead
Mohammed became a part of Relate Coventry and Warwickshire in early 2023 and later joined the National board of trustees in 2024. He has over 24 years of experience in the IT sector in various industries and sectors and has worked with IBM, Amazon, Triumph Motorcycles, Experian and CBS.
He grew up in rural Wales and is passionate about social mobility and social equality. He currently sponsors an orphanage in East Africa and does various other local charitable activities, such as supporting schools in the Coventry areas with outreach programs for dyslexia and dyspraxia support.
Mohammed enjoys mentoring aspiring IT engineers in his free time and loves to travel, which his current position as Head of Technology Services at Travelopia allows him to do.