Our Board & Exec

Lord Richard Layard
Professor of Economics at LSE; founder director of Centre for Economic Performance and Head of Well-Being program. Author of best-selling books Happiness and Thrive. Co-founder of AfH.
Profile: Richard Layard

Sir Anthony Seldon
Vice-Chancellor of Buckingham University; previously Master of Wellington College, where he famously introduced well-being classes. Author of Beyond Happiness. Co-founder of AfH.
Profile: Anthony Seldon

Sir Geoff Mulgan
Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation at UCL. Previously Chief Executive of Nesta, the UK's innovation foundation, CEO of the Young Foundation and Head of Policy in the Prime Minister's office. Co-founder of the think-tank Demos. Co-founder of AfH.
Profile: Geoff Mulgan

Vanessa King
Head of Psychology & Workplaces for Action for Happiness.
Writer, speaker, leadership and organisation development consultant, expert in positive psychology. Author of The 10 Keys to Happier Living.
Profile: Vanessa King

Dr Mark Williamson
Director and co-founder of Action for Happiness.
Experienced leader with a wide range of expertise across both commercial and non-profit sectors.
Profile: Dr Mark Williamson
Our Patron

His Holiness the Dalai Lama
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, describes himself as a simple Buddhist monk. He is the spiritual leader of Tibet.
Find out more about how we work together here
Our Team

Alex Nunn
Head of Movement Building
Alex works to help grow and deepen the impact of our movement. He leads the Exploring What Matters course programme supporting hundreds of volunteers to run local community-building courses. He has been with us since January 2014.

Sarah Vero
Head of Communications
Sarah leads our communications activities to raise the profile of the Action for Happiness mission with the media and general public. She has been with us since November 2018.

Tanya Barrett
Project and Administrative Support
Tanya helps support our local courses and volunteer course leaders. She has been volunteering with us for many years and working in this role since October 2016.

Gaby Deschamps
Project and Administrative Support
Gaby helps to support the setup and operation of our local courses. She has been working in this role since February 2017.

Natalie Wood
Community Wellbeing and Safeguarding Manager
Natalie looks after the wellbeing of our community and supports our activities to be safe and inclusive. She joined the team in 2022.

Clair Cohen
Admin & Community Support
Clair supports our monthly calendars and keeps our day to day activity on track. She joined the team in March 2022

Joshua French
Volunteer Training Support
Joshua has been supporting and training our volunteer network since spring 2021. He has been a co-organiser of the Action for Happiness Brighton group for many years.

Tracy Ampah
Strategic Advisor
Tracy is a qualified Positive Psychology practitioner with specialist expertise in organisational development, leadership, wellness, coaching, engagement, diversity and inclusion, learning and culture change. She has been supporting AfH since May 2015.

Stan Rosenthal
Happy Cafe Network Coordinator
Stan helped set up our very successful Brighton group and developed the Happy Cafe concept which he's now helping to replicate in other towns and cities.

Val Payne
Happiness in Schools
Since May 2014, Val (a teacher and education consultant) has been helping to develop and roll-out the Keys to Happier Living toolkit for schools.

Peter Harper
Happiness in Schools
Since May 2014, Peter (a consultant clinical psychologist) has been helping to develop and roll-out the Keys to Happier Living toolkit for schools.

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Gives you friendly nudges with an action idea each day Sends you inspiring messages to give you a boost Helps you connect & share ideas with like-minded people
