Mental Health for all – a collective responsibility

David May, FCBI, Vice President and Vice Chair of the Chartered Banker Institute, is a Partner, Executive Coach and Consultant with Aesara Partners. As the former Director of Leadership, Learning and Development, NatWest Group, David brings over 40 years of experience within Financial Services spanning executive leadership of strategic and operational teams across multiple markets and jurisdictions. He is a thinking partner to board level executives and supports leaders to become the best versions of themselves and to lead effective teams.

David is founder and Managing Director of the award winning learning and development company ABSTRACT. He has had extensive experience of both leading and working with major businesses, ensuring that they have the right people, exuding the right behaviours and within the right environment, for the benefit of the organisation’s goals and objectives. David has developed a highly-regarded reputation that has delivered superior and sustainable results for many organisations over more than two decades. 

David is the creator of ABSTRACT's career management development programmes, ACCELERATE and AMBITION, that have so far helped thousands of women in the UK, Ireland and worldwide to develop and manage their careers, developing the growth of talented people in business to lift others as they climb. ACCELERATE won the Diversity Initiative of The Year at the Women in Finance Awards and David was Highly Commended in the IOD Director of the Year Awards in the category of Equality, Diversity & Inclusion.

Prof. Chris Speed, FRSE is Chair of Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh where he collaborates with a wide variety of partners to explore how design provides methods to adapt, and create products and services within a networked society. Chris has an established track record in directing large complex grants with industry partners, that apply methods to challenges in the banking, international development and cultural heritage sectors.