Core team

Octavius Black is the Co-Founder and CEO of Mind Gym, which he co-founded in 2000. Octavius co-authored Mind Gym’s four books and has written in The Times, Financial Times and The Sunday Telegraph. Octavius co-founded Parent Gym with Joanne Black. Prior to founding Mind Gym, Octavius was a director of the organisational communications consultancy Smythe Dorward Lambert and prior to that he was an analyst at Booz Allen Hamilton. Octavius read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at The Queen’s College, Oxford University.

Joanne Black is the Non-Executive Board Chair at Mind Gym, and a former barrister and parliamentary candidate. Joanne was called to the bar in 1994 and practised as a human rights barrister until 2010. She co-founded Parent Gym in 2009 and joined the Board of Mind Gym in 2011 becoming Non-Executive Chair in 2014. Other previous roles include Vice-Chair of the Fawcett Society and board advisor to Women2Win. Joanne read English Literature at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University.

Dr. Sebastian Bailey is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Mind Gym. Sebastian has led the development of Mind Gym’s products since its inception, from the portfolio of 90-minute workout to the latest digital eWorkouts. Sebastian conducted the definitive academic research on how to maximise the transfer of learning, which underpins Mind Gym’s proposition. Sebastian co-authored the four Mind Gym books. Sebastian gained a PhD from Bristol University with a thesis entitled “Maximising transfer: How learning translates into action in organisations.”

Richard Steele joined Mind Gym as Chief Financial Officer in March 2018. From 2012 until January 2018, Richard served as Finance Director of Cook Trading Limited, the frozen ready meal retailer. Prior to this, he was Finance Director at the retailer White Stuff Limited from 2007 to 2012. Richard has also held a variety of finance roles within Principles Retail Limited and Easy Group and started his career at Tate and Lyle plc where he qualified as an accountant and worked for 10 years from 1989.

Sally Tilleray is the Senior Independent Non-Executive Director on the Mind Gym board. Sally has served as Group Chief Operating Officer and Finance Director at Huntsworth plc, the international public relations and healthcare communications group, from 2004 to 2014. Sally is an experienced marketing services agency executive and has been Non-Executive Chairman at Cognito Europe since 2016 and also Non-Executive Chairman of digital agency, Kagool. In July 2019 she became a Non-Executive Director of NAHL plc, the AIM-listed consumer legal focussed marketing and services business. From 1999 to 2003, she held the role of CFO Europe for Predictive Inc., an IT network consulting business which undertook an IPO on Nasdaq in 2000. Prior to this, she held senior finance positions at Imperial Software, Unique Solutions, Dowty Communications and Sunlight. She started her CIMA qualification at Bayer UK and completed it while working at Schlumberger plc.

Trevor Phillips is a writer and television producer. He is the co-founder of the data analytics consultancy Webber Phillips, and Chairman of Green Park Interim and Executive Search. He is the Chairman of the global freedom of expression campaign charity Index on Censorship; a Senior Fellow at the Policy Exchange think tank; and a Vice-President of the Royal Television Society. He was the President of the John Lewis Partnership Council until 2018, and founding chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

David Nelson is Non-Executive Director on the Mind Gym board. David qualified as a chartered accountant in 1987 and has been a partner of Dixon Wilson since 1990, serving as Senior Partner from 2008 to 2018. David is a non-executive director of a number of family-owned companies. He is an adviser to UK-based families and their businesses, advising on financial and tax matters 24 in the UK and overseas. He is also a trustee of a number of UK trusts. David is a non-executive director on the board of Daily Mail and General Trust plc (LSE: DMGT) and also sits on the Audit and Risk Committee and Remuneration and Nomination Committee. David is also the interim chair of the Remuneration Committee.

Ruby McGregor-Smith is the President of the British Chambers of Commerce. She also chairs the Air Operators Association, is a Non-Executive Director at the Department of Education and the Tideway Tunnel, and Senior Adviser at Mace Group. Ruby was the Chief Executive of MITIE Group PLC, the strategic outsourcing company, employing over 65000 people predominantly in the UK. She is one of a small number of women who have held the position of Chief Executive in the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 and is the first Asian woman to be appointed in such a role within that group of companies. She was recognized as a top 50 female world business leader by the FT in 2013. Ruby was also an Independent Non-Executive Director of PageGroup, appointed to the Board in May 2007. She chaired the Audit Committee, was a Member of Nomination and Remuneration Committees and also latterly their Senior Independent Director. Ruby is a member of the House of Lords, having been granted a Life Peerage in 2015. She is responsible for the Independent Report to the UK Government on Race in the Workplace published in February 2017 and was the Chair of the UK Government’s Women’s Business Council between 2012 and 2016.

Octavius Black is CEO of Mind Gym which he co-founded in his kitchen on 01/01/01. Octavius writes extensively in the Financial Times, Times, Sunday Telegraph and City AM, and has co-authored four books. He also leads Mind Gym’s CSR programme, Parent Gym, which delivers free parenting programmes in socially challenged areas across the UK.

Sebastian Bailey is a thought-leader, Co-Founder and President of Mind Gym where he consults on the future of learning for global organisations. Sebastian holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology with Cognitive Science from the University College of London and a PhD from the University of Bristol, where his thesis focused on how to maximise the transfer of learning in organisations.

Wei-Li Chong joins from KinderCare, the US's largest provider of childcare and early learning services, where he was appointed President with responsibility for c. 30,000 employees having previously been EVP for HR. As a member of the Executive Team, Wei-Li led the cultural turnaround and people strategy which has been credited to transforming the business and delivering record results. Prior to joining KinderCare, Wei-Li was SVP, Human Resources at Ann Inc, the women's retailer known primarily for its brand Ann Taylor. At both companies, Wei-Li brought in Mind Gym as a strategic partner to deliver cultural change that drove a turnaround in business performance.

Richard Steele joined Mind Gym as Chief Financial Officer in March 2018. From 2012 until January 2018, Richard served as Finance Director of Cook Trading Limited, the frozen ready meal retailer. Prior to this, he was Finance Director at the retailer White Stuff Limited from 2007 to 2012. Richard has also held a variety of finance roles within Principles Retail Limited and Easy Group and started his career at Tate and Lyle plc where he qualified as an accountant and worked for 10 years from 1989.

Ryan Boughan has been with Mind Gym since 2011 and his experience of growing our client base helps inform Mind Gym’s strategy on marketing, recruiting and retention, solution support and design, and the prioritisation and launch of new products and points of view in the marketplace. Ryan is the Executive Sponsor on many of Mind Gym’s largest and most complex client accounts working in partnership with the management team and senior sales team to oversee and broaden our client relationships across the globe.

Claire joined Mind Gym as General Counsel in January 2019. Prior to that Claire was a director and General Counsel of a Biotec startup responsible for the strategic planning of the company transitioning from an R&D entity into production. Claire has over 25 years’ experience as a lawyer specialising in intellectual property, working in private practice in New York and as a managing partner of Hobson Audley in the City before joining Barclays as Head of Group IP where she set up the IP worldwide governance framework.

Across her career, in both large corporates and start-ups, Elaine has been leading businesses where emerging technologies create new consumer and media opportunities. She joined Mind Gym in 2019 to take up the challenge of transforming and expanding our digital offer. Elaine was previously the Chief Commercial and Operating Officer - Digital Channels at HSBC where she was in charge of the digital leadership team at one of the largest global banks in the world. She has an MBA and BSc in Economics from the Wharton School. She is passionate about increasing the role of women leaders in business, government, and society overall and believes that diverse leadership, teams, and organisations are the real key to success in our ever more complicated world.

Drawing on 20 years of professional experience consulting with leaders and organizations, Desi Kimmins is Chief Commercial Officer for Mind Gym based in the firm's London office. She oversees all of Mind Gym’s client relationships across EMEA & APAC, managing the commercial team, client services team, and solutions strategy for these regions. Prior to joining Mind Gym, Desi took on the following roles: Senior Partner and Head of Leadership Development EMEA at Korn Ferry - the global organizational consulting firm – where she was responsible for: Leadership Development, Top Team Development, Executive Coaching and the firms Diversity & Inclusion practice (with a strong focus on building the female talent pipeline)., International Client Director at Mannaz Global Leadership Development, in London, where she was responsible for a portfolio of large multinational Fortune 500 clients., Head of Leadership Development, Talent Management and Talent Acquisition at ING Investment Management Europe, based in the Netherlands. She completed her MBTI, Insights, Hogan, Real Drives, PPA, Firo B, KFLA , KFALP and viaEDGE certifications, and also holds various project management certifications. Desi earned a master’s degree in social and organizational psychology from Leiden University, The Netherlands. She is fluent in English, French, and Dutch.

Mark Dickinson-Keen joined Mind Gym as Interim Chief People Officer in April 2020. Prior to joining he spent 10 years with TalkTalk where he held a number of people roles, most latterly as Chief People Officer. Mark held a number of people roles prior to TalkTalk including in the Financial Services and Retail industries.

Dr. Harris’ research uses a social neuroscience approach to explore the neural correlates of person perception, prejudice, dehumanization, anthropomorphism, social learning, social emotions, empathy, and punishment. This research addresses questions such as: How do we see people as less than human, and non human objects as human beings? How do we modulate affective responses to people? How do we decide right from wrong? By combining social psychology, affective and cognitive neuroscience with philosophy of mind, developmental psychology, evolutionary anthropology, economics, law and policy, this research focus is a comprehensive strategy to explore human behavior.

Sophie studies the causes and consequences of individual differences in psychological and behavioural development across the life course. She takes an inter-disciplinary approach to observing behaviour and environments, primarily through the application of new assessment technologies that enable collecting big, high-quality data. Sophie focuses her studies in particular on three areas: (1) the effects of early life environments on children’s language development; (2) the role of personality traits like curiosity and imagination for learning; and (3) the relationship between genome-wide polygenic scores and educational attainment.

As director of numerous leadership development programs, Dr. Noumair brings her work on individual, group, and organizational dynamics to executives through examining multi-rater feedback and psychological assessments at the individual and group level and through teaching and executive coaching with senior executives nationally and internationally. She has worked with global companies in Asia, Australia, Europe, and the United States.

Dr. Dimitrios Tsivrikos is a Consumer and Business Psychologist at University College London (UCL). His research, teaching and consultancy work specializes in Business, Consumer/Branding and Occupational Psychology with a specialist interest in the contribution of social identity and group membership to a range of organizational processes, such as leadership, communication, organizational change, advertising, and Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A). Throughout his academic career he has held a number of international research fellowships and has published widely on psychology and business-oriented subjects, and articles in various periodicals and general interest journals. He is a leading commentator on consumer behavior/psychology and a frequent guest on the BBC, as well as acted as a scientific consultant in various periodicals such as Property Week, Esquire, and The Guardian.

Tomas is an organizational psychologist who works mostly in the areas of personality profiling, people analytics, talent identification, the interface between human and artificial intelligence, and leadership development. He is currently a professor of business psychology at University College London (UCL) and Columbia University, as well as the Chief Talent Scientist at ManpowerGroup, and was previously the CEO at Hogan Assessment Systems.