Jenny Edwards, CBE, Chief Executive
Jenny Edwards takes up the role of Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation from 29 October 2013.
Over recent years Jenny has specialised in consultancy on issues of social justice and disadvantage, advising the government and voluntary sector. She is an expert advisor to Heriot Watt University's study of severe and multiple disadvantage in the UK. She has worked with partnerships in Stoke and Bristol on successful £10 million bids for programmes for and shaped by people with multiple and complex needs.
Jenny has over 20 years’ experience of operating at senior level in various organisations, including being Chief Executive of the national charity Homeless Link, where she chaired the Mayor of London's Homelessness Roundtable and the Minister's Homelessness Advisory Group and was represented on national advisory bodies. She was instrumental in founding the Making Every Adult Matter alliance with Mind, Drugscope and Clinks on the multiple needs of mental health, addiction, homelessness and offending.
Over the years she has worked in local government, as a civil servant, in Parliament and in the voluntary sector. In 2011/12 she was interim CEO of Interights, a human rights charity working internationally. She also worked in cultural organisations such as Arts England, previously ran the National Campaign for the Arts and was advisor to the Gulbenkian Foundation on participatory arts.
Jenny was awarded a CBE in the 2011 Birthday Honours List for services to disadvantaged people. She chairs Ashford Place, a charity working with vulnerable people and communities. She has previously been a school governor and trustee of charities concerned with aging, the arts, domestic violence and herbal medicine.
Jenny's career prior to October 2013 has included a variety of senior executive positions including:
- Jan 2012 - Oct 2013: Director, Taproot Consultancy
- Oct 2012 - Feb 2013: Interim Executive Director, Interights
- June 2004 - Dec 2011: Chief Executive, Homeless Link
- 1998 - 2004: London Director of External Relations & Development, Arts England
- 1993 - 1998: Director, National Campaign for the Arts
- 1992 - 1993: Senior Policy Advisor, London Borough of Camden
- 1990 - 1992: National Co-ordinator, Ministry for Women Initiative