Our People

Michelle has over 30 years experience leading and working with various health and social care services and organisation across Kent.
Her priority continues to be on improving services and supporting people’s wellbeing, which she successfully achieved in her previous work throughout the NHS, and in her previous roles of Care Director of Hospice in the Weald, and CEO of both Age UK North West Kent and FCS Talking Therapies.

She is committed to the improvement of support services and passionate about ensuring that everyone is supported to reach their maximum potential, no matter their age or ability.

In her free time, Michelle enjoys going to the gym, is passionate about fitness, and loves being outside in nature as much as possible.

Amanda has 20 years’ experience in education and training, the last twelve having been spent with local charities. As a services manager and business development manager, she has worked in partnership with other local charities, businesses, and authorities.

“I have especially enjoyed partnership working over the last 12 years with some amazing people; developing new projects and supporting and working alongside some of our more vulnerable groups is my passion. I am really looking forward to developing this further with Compaid”

Prior to working in the voluntary sector, Amanda worked in retail and in contracting. She is an avid reader and enjoys walking, crafts, motor racing and music … “in fact anything that gets me out and about!”

Diane has over 20 years fundraising experience in the voluntary sector, having worked in mental health before coming to Compaid. Her previous employment has been in banking and even ran a Children’s entertainment business for seven years.

In her spare time, Diane is a qualified endurance running coach at Tonbridge Athletics club and is a keen racewalker, having competed at international level. She lives in Tunbridge Wells with her husband and has three grown-up children.

Outside of work Diane can be found cycling, walking, or organising and marshalling at road races and athletics events. She has been involved with Kent Schools Athletics Association for over 15 years, taking Kent athletes each year to English Schools championships.

John started working at Compaid as a driver in 2022, and thoroughly enjoyed meeting, interacting with, and helping all the inspiring clients on the accessible transport buses every day. Even though there was a lot to learn, he found a lot of satisfaction in his role.

As his understanding of what it took to deliver such a vital service grew, John moved to work in the office, and is enjoying making a contribution in a different way. Now, he helps our in-house Transport team with taking bookings, maintaining the buses, keeping up with all the drivers, and occasionally still getting out to help on the road when needed.

John says, “It is great that the transport service, which was established in order to bring clients to the centre so that they could be assisted with access to the online world, not only continues to do that but also now helps a wide variety of clients in their day to day lives – school runs, shopping, hospital appointments, day care centre and leisure activities. I enjoy being a part of that.”

Sara has been with Compaid for 8 years as an Outreach Trainer. Prior to taking on this role, she volunteered in the Training Centre. Over 16 years, she has held various training positions and has teaching experience.

Sara goes out to reach those that need help with digital and employability slills, bringing Compaid ‘s services to local venues. This allows her to meet a wide range of people and engage with local communities.

I am enthusiastic about bringing Compaid’s services into the local community to enable more people to access vital digital skills. This is becoming more and more essential to everyone for everyday life. I love seeing clients have that ‘lightbulb moment’ where they understand how to do something or access vital information.’

In her spare time Sara loves dancing, music and learning languages.

Ife joined Compaid in 2022 as a graduate through the Job Centre’s Kickstarter Scheme, helping young adults get into work during and following the pandemic.

Now, she creates and manages all online and offline marketing efforts for Compaid, using her talent for creative writing to share the impact of Compaid’s services, as well as stories of our staff, volunteers, service users, and community.

She is an avid reader, has a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing, and in her spare time, she enjoys watching good movies.

Acting for 30+ years as CEO, founder and MD of SMEs has brought Jean-Pierre the opportunity to experience the roller coaster of entrepreneurship emotions, from the Stock Market listing to Receivership. In 2020, he trained as an Executive Business Coach to refocus his career towards sharing with business leaders his experience especially in the assertion of their leadership.

When he moved from France to Kent 7 days before Brexit, Jean-Pierre quickly said to my wife that I wanted to be involved with a local charity to give something back in a different way. Luckily enough Compaid thought I could be a good addition to their board of Trustees and since joining, he has been so proud to be part of it.

Jean-Pierre has felt tremendously humbled as he experienced the level of commitment of the different employees, volunteers, and trustees of Compaid to make a difference each day to the lives of people in need. He has been appointed Chair of the Service Committee for the last 18 months and since working alongside Compaid’s management team to support the growth of the Transport and Digital Training the charity delivers daily.

Jean-Pierre says, “I cannot stress enough how fortunate I feel to contribute to Compaid’s effort.”

Peter Dove is retired from a successful career in Sales and Business Management in the IT sector. Looking for a way to put his experience to beneficial use, he began, and is still, at Compaid as an active volunteer. Peter’s qualification as a driving instructor enables him to bring a wealth of perspective and insight to our Transport, supporting their research and procurement of effective and efficient vehicles that meet the needs of Compaid’s passengers. In time, this opened the opportunity to join the Board of Trustees.

Peter is married with two grown-up sons, and in his free time, he has a passion for all things motor related, especially performance cars, motorcycles, and Formula 1/Motorsport.

Laurence is a French and British finance professional with 30-year investment and risk oversight experience gained in banks and asset managers. She is a Senior Advisor to Gira Strategic Finance, a UK merchant bank, and a non-executive on the investment committees of funds investing in essential infrastructure and decarbonisation.

Previously, Laurence worked at Aviva Investors, a large European asset manager, where she managed a €4bn AUM European infrastructure investment platform. Passionately committed to a just transition, she also championed the incorporation of environmental and social impact considerations in investment.

In her free time, Laurence enjoys travelling to see friends and family, and cycling in the lovely Kentish countryside.

Kathy Melling comes from a background of supported employment and disability with her first experiences in the sector in the late 1970’s in the United States, emigrating to the UK in the early 1980s.

She has been viewed as a leader in the supported employment sector, with over 20 years’ experience working in local government, the civil service, and notably working in a senior management role at KCC. Kathy has been self-employed since 2012 and continues to drive change for disability equality in her own work and at Compaid, where she has contributed towards the charity’s sustainability, growth, and ways to capture the service user’s voice and experience throughout the organisation.

In her spare time, Kathy supports a range of community and voluntary sector organisations in Kent as well as Charlton Athletic.

Simone Prince has many years’ experience working in the charity sector supporting people with learning disabilities and wanted to get more involved. After retiring in 2017, she began working with Compaid as a volunteer in our Digital Skills training centre, supporting clients with various impairments to learn how to use the internet and various devices confidently and safely.

After a few years of diligent support of our learners, she was asked to join the Board as the Volunteer Representative in 2020. Simone’s perspective of volunteer work and contribution has been invaluable to the board, enabling both to expand the support of our volunteers and enable them to help our clients better in turn.

Simone is a member of U3A, where she enjoys socialising with other members and taking part in the activities they provide.

Andrew is currently the Group Commercial Director of a FTSE 250 services group that specialises in the delivery of services to the public sector across the globe. He has been involved with Compaid for nearly 7 years, supporting the executive team in its bids for work with Kent County Council and other local authorities.

Andrew says, “I was mostly raised in Kent and my two daughters both went to school in Sevenoaks, so what Compaid delivers for Kent and its citizens is hugely important to me.”

In his spare time, Andrew enjoys walking his dogs and working on restoring my home.

Simon Newberry MBA, FRSA is the Managing Director of Purple Compass Ltd a company focussed on providing interim executive management support, programme management and consultancy services.

Simon has over 20 years of experience working on public-funded contracts that provide a variety of services and support to socially excluded individuals. He has also worked with several social investors to implement new and improve existing social outcome contracts working with some of the most marginalised groups of people across the UK.

Outside of work Simon enjoys open water swimming, mountaineering, and travel.

Russell Holloway is a board-ready executive with over 30 years’ leadership experience across Life Sciences, Financial Services and the Public Sector. Before becoming a Partner at a global consulting firm, where he led the UK Life Sciences practice, Russell worked as a management consultant with Big Four and other leading consultancies. He previously served as Executive Director at a global life sciences organisation, driving enterprise-wide digital transformation, AI governance and strategic change.

He brings deep expertise in digital transformation, change management, governance and risk. Russell also serves as Director and former Treasurer of his local Residents’ Association, adding practical community-level governance experience. Passionate about digital inclusion, Russell joined Compaid’s Board to support its transformation and expansion of services across Kent.

Outside work, he is married with two daughters, enjoys running, and explores healthspan optimisation as a self-described novice bio-hacker, an interest aligned with Compaid’s mission to help people maintain independence and quality of life.

Shaumik De is a Cybersecurity and Identity & Access Management (IAM) leader with over 27 years experience delivering large-scale digital transformation programmes for global enterprises. He currently works at a technology company, leading strategic customer success initiatives across the UK and Europe, helping organisations modernise identity security through converged platforms, cloud-based privileged access, and AI-driven governance.

Shaumik has managed multi-million-dollar portfolios, built high-performing international teams, and delivered complex programmes spanning ERP transformation, cybersecurity strategy, governance, and regulatory compliance. Passionate about digital inclusion and secure access to technology, Shaumik joined the Board of Compaid to support its mission of empowering individuals and communities across Kent through accessible digital services.

Outside work, he enjoys reading fiction, swimming and exploring innovations in AI & cybersecurity.