The Mental Health Impact of Working From Home

Andrea Brewster OBE, IP Inclusive

Andrea is a Chartered Patent Attorney and a former CIPA President. In the past she has served on the Institute’s governing Council and several of its committees.

Before her retirement she was a partner in a small regional IP practice, Greaves Brewster LLP, of which she had been a co-founder.

Andrea established IP Inclusive in 2015 to promote equality, diversity, inclusion (EDI) and wellbeing throughout the UK’s IP professions. Alongside many enthusiastic volunteers, she has developed the initiative into a well-connected and influential player in the IP sector. She became its first Lead Executive Officer in 2019.

Ruth Gawthorpe, Smart Revolution Working

Ruth, an ex HR Director with corporates including HCL Technologies, Sitel and Domestic and General, has been implementing Smart Working options successfully into large and small businesses for the last 20 years.  6 years ago Ruth became wheelchair bound after an operation and realised just how much talent cannot do the commute 5 days a week.

Despite an ongoing disability, Ruth is now CEO of the Smart Working Revolution. As Lead Practitioner, Ruth supports Business Leaders with a range of unrivalled products to help pilot and implement smart workforce models, including remote working and Smart Leadership skills. Improved business performance, workplace trust, customer and employee experience are the outcomes organisations benefit from when Smart Working is effectively deployed.

And if adopted widely, the impact of Smart Working on society will be powerful enabling diversity and inclusion across the towns and villages of the UK. Thus, Ruth lobbies Government bodies to support organisations who implement smart options.

Ruth is also the founder of The Change Directors. A business that serves organisations who want to transform……..powered by their people.

Elizabeth Rimmer, LawCare

Elizabeth has been managing and developing charities in the mental health sector for over 20 years.  She joined LawCare in  2014 from the Institute of Group Analysis, a membership and training organisation for group psychotherapists. Before that she headed up Alzheimer’s Disease International, a worldwide federation of Alzheimer Associations. Elizabeth started her working life as a solicitor specialising in clinical negligence, practicing at Leigh Day.

LawCare is an independent charity offering emotional support, information and training to the legal community in the UK and Ireland. We work to promote good mental health and wellbeing in legal workplaces and drive change in education, training and practice.  If you need to talk call us on 0800 279 6888 or visit  www.lawcare.org.uk

Mary Taylor, IPO

Mary started her professional life as a solicitor in an IP firm before moving into the Civil Service in 2003.   Since when Mary has worked in a variety of roles at both Companies House and the Intellectual Property Office.   She is currently Head of a Patent Examining Group and is also part of the cross office Mental Health Strategy Group taking a particular interest in the mental health of patent examiners.  Outside of work Mary is a trustee of Eden Gate, a local homelessness charity.

Lee Davies, Chief Executive, CIPA

Lee Davies has been the Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) since February 2012. Prior to this, Lee was the Deputy Chief Executive of the Institute for Learning (IfL), the professional body for further education teachers. Lee’s professional background is in engineering (mechanical services) and further education teaching. Lee has experience of the governance of professional bodies, having served as the President of the Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering (CIPHE) in 2011-12.
Lee says that such a varied career, from apprentice plumber to CEO of CIPA, via organisations such as the Highbury College in Portsmouth, the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) and IfL, has left him a little confused about his professional identity. Lee now identifies as an ‘association leader’, although the concept of association leadership is, in Lee’s words, “woefully undervalued and little recognised in the UK”. Lee is a passionate advocate for the association sector and is President and Chair of the Institute of Association Leadership (IAL), where he leads the Chief Executives’ Forum.