Our Trustees
Meet our Trustees at Tenterden Mindfulness
Dr. Neil Pillai
Chairman & Healthcare
Dr Neil Pillai is a GP from Ivy Court Surgery, Tenterden. He has been trained to teach Mindfulness based courses at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, Oxford University. He is an enthusiastic Mindfulness teacher who is keen to bring the benefits of Mindfulness to the widest possible audience, and as Founder has led Tenterden Mindfulness as the Chairman since its inception.
Jeremy Cooper
Vice Chair & Legal
Jeremy is a retired tribunal judge. Between 2010 annd 2016 he was Director of Training for Tribunals in the Judicial College, London, where he was also Joint Dean of the Faculty. He sat as a Tribunal Judge in both the first-tier Tribunal and the Upper Tribunal and was for several years Southern Regional Chairman of the Mental Health Review Tribunal. Prior to becoming a Tribunal Judge he was Dean of the Law Faculty at Southampton Institute. Jeremy worked for several years as a consultant to the United Nations and the European Union on Judicial Integrity Projects.
Les Etheridge
Treasurer
Les is a retired Actuary who spent his career in the financial side of Life Assurance with the last six years as the Chief Executive of a Kent based Mutual Insurance Company. He also spent 9 years as a non-executive director of a major life assurer.
He was a Governor of his local Primary School for 25 years including 18 years as Chairman of Governors. Les has volunteered for The Inland Waterways Association, a national charity which aims to protect and restore our inland waterways, for over 20 years. He was a Trustee for over 13 years with four years as National Treasurer and six as National Chair.
Philippa Harris
Marketing
Philippa is now retired from a senior business career mostly in travel with well-known companies like Sovereign Luxury Travel, TUI AG, British Airways Holidays and Eurotunnel, and latterly in logistics serving the UK tourism industry. Apart from general business and management skills, Philippa has many years’ marketing experience, strategic and tactical, and holds the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Post-Grad Diploma.
She is Chair of Trustees to the Family Holiday Charity, giving families the opportunity to experience a break away from difficult home circumstances, and also a Director of Tenterden Schools Trust.
Derek Roger
Free & Assisted Places
Derek spent his professional life in academia, initially in Psychology but then in Neuroscience. He is now retired from academic work but, together with his wife, runs the Work Skills Centre, a training consultancy established to provide a vehicle for the Challenge of Change training programme developed from the research.
They also offer evening meetings in a system of practical philosophy they developed called Enlightened Living, described in a recent book (Enlightened Living: A Book of Being; Austin Macauley 2019).
Nick Stringer
Strategy
Nick is a strategic adviser with over 30 years of experience in the technology and digital media sectors. He has held senior leadership and regulatory roles at major organisations including Orange, the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB UK), and the Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), focusing on industry standards, privacy and data protection and global advocacy.
A frequent commentator on the intersection of technology and society, Nick explores how digital innovation can empower individuals while addressing the complexities of the modern world. Nick is a passionate advocate for the benefits of Mindfulness in navigating the stresses of a digitally-connected world. He is committed to using his strategic and communications expertise to help Tenterden Mindfulness make Mindfulness accessible to the wider community.
Michelle West
Trustee
Michelle is a mental health trainer and since 2019 she has trained hundreds of people, including teachers and parents, in youth and adult mental health first aid. Michelle also facilitates skills based workshops for anyone caring for a loved one, of any age. experiencing an eating disorder. Michelle is co-founder and trustee of the Sam West Foundation, promoting good mental health strategies for young people and their families. Pre the birth of her 3 boys, Michelle was a nutrition advisor for a food supplement company in Kent.
Michelle is passionate about Mindfulness and she practices Mindfulness daily since attending Dr Neil Pillai’s Finding Peace in a Frantic world course back in 2015. She found the Mindfulness Based Compassionate Living course in 2020 positively life changing. Michelle would like to see as many people as possible experience the goodness that Mindfulness brings to her life into theirs too.