Our trustees

Phil Waller (His Honour Philip Waller CBE), Chair of Trustees

In a judicial career spanning 26 years Philip Waller has gained wide experience of and expertise in family law and practice. He was appointed as a district judge of the Principal Registry in 1994, continuing his specialist interest in family law developed in practice at the Bar.. From 2004 until 2013 Philip was Senior District Judge of the Family Division, in which role he was responsible for hearing some of the more complex and sensitive financial and children cases and for advising on changes in practice and procedure. He was appointed to the circuit bench in 2013, sitting in the family court at Watford and Luton, where alongside children proceedings his work included financial remedy appeals and Court of Protection cases. He retired from judicial office in February 2020.

As a member of the Family Procedure Rule Committee from its inception, Philip was closely involved in the development of the Family Procedure Rules and in the changes supporting the creation of the Family Court. He was a member of the Financial Remedies Working Group and has since been involved in the procedural changes for financial remedy cases which have followed the group’s report.

Philip is a Bencher of the Inner Temple and Chancellor of the Diocese of Portsmouth. He was appointed CBE in 2011 for services to the administration of justice.

Lana Wood

Lana Wood was appointed as a Circuit Judge on the South Eastern Circuit, based at Harrow Crown Court, in January 2018.

She was called to the Bar in 1993.  Lana was appointed as a Deputy District Judge in 2004 and a District Judge in 2012.

John Baruch

John trained as a doctor in London then took psychiatry and psychotherapy training in Southampton, London and Cambridge. He worked as a consultant psychiatrist in Aylesbury for over twenty years, taking a particular interest in teaching colleagues from many professions - including Relate counsellors - an approach to mental health care drawing on diverse theoretical models.

John plays classical music and jazz on his cello and, since his retirement, has served as a Relate Trustee. He is married with two grown up sons.

Rose Bentley

Rose’s career has spanned management, business development, marcoms and coaching across Europe, the US, The Middle East and India most recently As Global Head of Business Development and then Global Head of Reputation at Wolff Olins, a position she held for 10 years.

Prior to this, Rose ran her own PR company for over 20 years: first as owner and managing director of Chambers Cox PR, and then as shareholder and Director of Kinross + Render (with which she merged Chambers Cox in 2004). During this time, Rose led client programmes for businesses in financial services, food & drink, manufacturing and  Not-For-Profit sectors, as well as public sector programmes for organisations such as WRAP and Young Enterprise.

Rose started coaching client and agency teams in effective business development and engagement skills when running her own PR consultancy and has continued to develop this in her years in branding. She also delivers an annual Networking Masterclass to students in Brand Leadership at the University of East Anglia.

In her other lives Rose has been a TV presenter, journalist and Masterchef finalist.  She writes a food blog in her spare time. http://the-coconut-asado.tumblr.com

Jean Lammiman

Cllr Jean Lammiman was elected local Councillor for the Hatch End ward of the London Borough of Harrow in 1994, a representative role she still holds. Jean combines her role in public life with work as an HR practitioner, academic researcher, business consultant and business author. Jean has written books and journals on innovation and management of change, people and organisational development.

She is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Fellow of the Institute of Directors, and Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, as well as a qualified Linguist and Editor. Councillor Lammiman was elected Mayor of Harrow in May 2007. In 2009 Jean was inducted as Freeman of the City of London.

Nicola Tavender, Vice Chair

Nicola works as a leadership development specialist in London. She is a chartered occupational psychologist and is passionate about leaders realizing their potential. She has global experience having lived and worked in China and India leading business development for YSC. Nicola lives with her husband in Hertfordshire; her hobbies include netball, interior design and walking.

Michael Young, Vice Chair & Treasurer

Michael is a qualified Chartered Accountant with over 30 years experience in Finance Change and Transformation Programmes in Financial Services industry. Michael joined the Relate Mid-Thames and Bucks as a Trustee and the Treasurer in 2018.

Fatima Patel

Fatima is an experienced professional with a BSc in Physiology and Biochemistry having completed a Post graduate research in Microbiology, Diploma in Medical Ethics.

She has worked in communication, strategy, and medical information within the pharmaceutical industry for a several years, freelance medical writing and editing, medical publishing, medical conference organisation, working with Charity Commission and medical societies and associations.

Fatima set up Mediscript Ltd, a medical education, publishing and conference company in 1984 from which she recently retired in 2020 after closing the company.

In her spare time when she isn’t spending time with her two children in London, she volunteers her time for the PTA at Haberdasher Girls and Westminster Schools, NSPCC; Chair, Totteridge District, Opera Holland Park; Events Committee and Barnet Health Champions.

Meghan Luton

Meghan Luton has been a Lecturer in Midwifery at Middlesex University since 2017. She qualified as midwife in 2010 with a HEDip (Midwifery) from UWL and held a number of positions within midwifery across community, midwifery led and labour ward settings. In 2018, she completed a MSc in Advanced Clinical Practice (Midwifery) and has focussed her research towards midwives experiences of working within obstetric led units. She also has a passion for improving access to healthcare from women with additional needs, particularly Deaf and disabled women.

She is currently undertaking a PhD exploring the experiences of Deaf women in maternity services. Meghan is our lead Safeguarding Trustee.

Simon Lascelles

Simon Lascelles is an accomplished Technology Board Advisor and keynote speaker to organisations around the world.

Adept at translating technology into simple business language, Simon has lectured for organisations such as Nokia, ECI, Siemens, Learning Tree. His experience in running multinational teams to unlock their potential and explore innovative ways of working, provides him with a wealth of experience to assist growing mid-sized organisations to achieve their ambitions by building technology and teams to deliver business transformation. Simon has been described, by others, as customer focussed, enthusiastic, innovative and dynamic, commercially minded IT thought leader.

Sarita Kohli Dent

A Commercial leader and key strategic advisor who partners with CEO's, Founders and Stakeholders, to strike the necessary balance required to push the ambitions commercially whilst ensuring integrity is maintained to the overarching strategy.

Sarita has a proven track record of steering longer term ambitions to many types of businesses which has resulted in change, transformation and sustainable success.

Sarita is also a Trustee of Bipolar UK https://www.bipolaruk.org/

Become a Trustee

Find out how to become a Trustee for Relate London North West, Hertfordshire, Mid Thames and Bucks.