Geoff McDonald
Keynote talk: Previously the Global Vice-President of HR at Unilever, Geoff is now a global advocate, campaigner and consultant in addressing the stigma of workplace mental ill-health, with a reputation for motivating people to take action in creating workplaces that enhance the lives of everyone. He also speaks on the power of Purpose to transform organisations, and co-founded the Minds@Work charity network.
Poppy Jaman OBE
Conversation with: Poppy Jaman OBE is a respected figure in the international mental health space who champions equality in all its forms in her professional and personal life.
After working with leaders across the world in both public and private sectors for over 20 years, she has become a global voice of authority on workplace mental health, constantly striving to drive sustainable change forward.
Dr Brendon Stubbs
Speaker: Dr Brendon Stubbs is a clinical-academic physiotherapist and lecturer, passionate about implementing real world research that changes people’s lives.
Ranked as the world’s leading researcher into movement and mental health, Dr Brendon’s research focuses on understanding and improving the physical and mental health of people experiencing mental illness.
Alex Staniforth
Panellist: Alex Staniforth is a record-breaking adventurer, ultra-endurance athlete and founder of Mind Over Mountains, a mental health charity restoring mental health naturally. Inspired by his lived experiences, Mind Over Mountains provides therapeutic outdoor experiences by combining walking in nature, alongside professional mental health support, coaching and mindfulness. Alex believes everyone should have access to the 'Natural Health Service' and the tools they need to stay physically and mentally well.
Claire Neal
Panellist: Claire Neal is Head of Workplace Mental Health at Mental Health UK, a charity that works to tackle the societal causes of poor mental health.
She has 25 years experience in the workplace mental health sector and has worked closely with Senior Management, Human Resources, Occupational Health professionals, Wellbeing Leads, Trade Unions and Health and Safety groups to provide consultancy and deliver effective workplace mental health programmes to organisations in a wide range of industry sectors.
Ben Davie
Rooftop exercise: Ben Davie is a Fitness and Movement specialist. Ben actively works to break down barriers because he believes that exercise can be accessible and enjoyed by all. Ben works with a range of clients - from those with brain injuries, and seniors, to elite professional athletes - and runs corporate Wellbeing Days, which focus on the 3 Ms (Movement, Mindset and Motivation).
His ethos is 'Fitness for Everyone'; "I am passionate about using fitness as a tool to help you not only live a happier life but also help to provide movement longevity.”
Emily Robinson
Panellist: As London Sport's Chief Executive Officer, Emily has a passion for improving physical and mental health and wellbeing. She also has a strong interest in behaviour change and the power of physical activity and sport to impact people’s lives combating loneliness, and building connections.
Emily joined London Sport from UKAD where she had spent six months as Interim CEO. Prior to UKAD, she spent five years at Alcohol Concern where she founded the Dry January campaign. She has vast experience in strategy development, senior leadership teams, programme delivery, fundraising, campaigns and advocacy.
Ashley Gray
Panellist: Ashley has a background in performance human physiology, applied technologies and large-scale multidisciplinary collaborative innovation, having previously worked for Progressive Sports Technologies, Loughborough University’s Sports Technology Research Group and currently, Future Space at Loughborough University London leading Collaborate, the university’s academic - industry collaborative innovation programme. He’s now driving forward a mission to bring together industries and sectors to explore, develop and realise opportunities to create population health and wellbeing through everything around us in our daily lives.
Dr Kiran Sodha
Speaker: Dr Kiran Sodha is a practising GP specialising in lifestyle medicine and the founder of Mahi Health, a disease reversal company. Despite advances in modern medicine we are in an epidemic of metabolic and mental health related conditions, including depression, diabetes and burn-out. Kiran has experienced the impact of these conditions affecting his family, friends and patients. By treating the root cause of conditions including movement-related factors, he has enabled his patients to become masters of their own health. Mahi health provides education and group coaching to help reverse diabetes and support the long-term health of patients.
Trojan Gordan
Panellist: Trojan Gordan is a youth and community counsellor and co-founder of the Emancipated Run Crew, a virtual and physical running community that supports and encourages black and brown runners to meet and exceed their fitness goals, while providing a safe space and voice to those who feel excluded from the mainstream running community.
Amy Huskisson
Panellist: Amy Huskisson is the Director of AV Wellbeing, a team of consultants and trainers who've delivered Mental Health First Aid training to thousands of employees, providing valuable skills and knowledge to support their colleagues, and created a community that offers free content, expert talks, and networking opportunities that are always evolving.
Steve Underwood
Speaker: Steve Underwood is the Founder and Managing Director of Bonded Agency, a digital agency in Newcastle. Steve’s passion for RED has helped bring together over 150 people across the advertising community, and for last year's RED challenge they walked, ran and cycled the distance from Newcastle UK to Newcastle Australia and back again!
Lindsey Simpson
Panellist: A culture, communication and engagement specialist, and a mental health first aid instructor, Lindsey works with organisations in a variety of sectors to create cultures where organisations and their people sustainably thrive. Focused on systemic change, she is the Research Director of the UK Fitness & Active Leisure Workforce State of Mind Survey, and co-founder of Workplace Mental Wealth and The Good Work Pledge which promotes employer-led action around workplace mental health.
Peter & Alex Webb
Breakout session: TLR (Team Leadership and Resilience), run by Alex and Peter Webb, focuses on providing support to allow businesses to discover and improve their organisational health.
Working with companies from all sectors, to diagnose key obstacles, bringing greater clarity, cohesion, communication and consistency, where it is needed the most, creating an environment for all to thrive. By tackling the often underlying symptoms, their focus is on prevention rather than cure.
Hannah Beecham MBE
Speaker: Hannah is the founder of RED January, a nationwide movement that empowers people to overcome barriers that currently lead to higher inactivity and lower wellbeing in the winter. The campaign leads a year-round mission to support movement and mental health projects that can drive real change in local communities, including working for positive and sustainable change in UK workplaces. Since 2016, over 270,000 have joined the movement, and more than £3 million has been raised.
Daphne Clifton
Breakout session: Daphne is a PCC accredited coach with over 18 years of experience in the leadership coaching space. An accompanying coach for Mind Over Mountains, Daphne understands how breathing, moving and being listened to as well as listening, enable a person to flourish, wherever at work or play. When working with groups Daphne’s energetic, inclusive style ensures participants find clarity for their situation, gain fresh insights and have the tools to make the most of their whole life. The ‘Breath Move and Listen’ breakout session run by Mind Over Mountains will give you a taster of what you would experience on one of their walks.
Georgie Mack
Panellist: Georgie founded Peopleful in 2020 with a mission to bring evidence-based insight to the world of workplace wellbeing so that leaders can effect impactful change. She spent the last 20 years working in innovation consultancy latterly as Managing Director of the digital innovation consultancy Made by Many and prior to that as an innovation consultant and leader at IDEO. She has a passion for human-centred design and bringing this to bear on the people, processes and ways of working within large organisations. Eight years ago, she co-founded Minds@Work – a charity focusing on mental wellbeing in the workplace.
Szymon Molda
Speaker: Szymon is Decathlon UK's HR Director. Decathlon have been taking part in RED January for years, and during the 2023 event, started to encourage 'movement breaks' throughout the organisation. On this, Szymon notes: "We challenged our colleagues right across the country to try and do at least 30 minutes of activity each day, and to add a bit of extra fun (we love a good competition at Decathlon!), and ran a nationwide competition to see which team managed to register the highest average number of minutes per teammate. It was incredible to see how many people got involved, and hundreds of thousands of minutes were clocked."
David Tod
Panellist: David Tod is the Senior Events and Enlivenment Manager at Related Argent, the property asset manager behind the regeneration of King’s Cross, Brent Cross Town and Tottenham Hale. David is responsible for the events, enlivenment and commercialisation strategies and has been working on the 67 acre King’s Cross development project for the past 10 years. David’s work around place making includes running a programme of events and activations deigned to engage those that live, work, study and visit these developments.
Why is this needed?
Research suggests that on average, a person has 3.4 poor mental health days per month. With regular movement/exercise, this drops by 40%.
Alongside this, around one in three workers are ‘constantly struggling with fatigue and poor mental health’.
We believe this needs to change. Do you?
Decathlon's movement breaks
Decathlon introduced movement breaks for all of their UK employees during RED January 2023, following a survey which found that two thirds (61%) believed that having time in their day to move would significantly improve their mental wellbeing during one of the most difficult months of the year.
Following the success of their workplace initiative and off the back of a recent report finding that getting the nation’s workforce physically active could benefit the UK economy by up to £17bn a year, we strongly believe it’s now time for all businesses to look at the approach that could work for them.
Our movement campaign
We surveyed 1,438 of this year’s REDers to understand the impact being more active had on their mental health and found that almost 80% of participants noticed an improvement in their mental wellbeing as a result of moving regularly throughout January, with over a third (35%) saying that workplace movement breaks were one of the most important changes their employer could make.
The health and wellbeing of employees is one of the most valuable assets a business can have, which is why we’re urging businesses to take the lead from our incredible partners Decathlon UK and implement daily movement breaks to support employees through the winter months and beyond.
