Meet the board

Sarah started her career in her early 20s, following personal experience of supporting family and friends who were diagnosed with Autism. Sarah wanted to pursue social care as a career and applied for a support worker role working specifically with young adults. Sarah’s experience spans across day opportunities, community support, residential care and supported living. Sarah is passionate about person centred support and strongly believes that a learning disability should not be a barrier to someone achieving their dreams.

Helena works closely with people supported, staff and the Thera East Midlands board to ensure we achieve our vision and help people make their own choices. Helena uses her own experience of having a learning disability to make sure Thera provide quality care and support.

Lynn has worked in Education, the private sector and for the last 15 years within the NHS. She wanted to become a non-executive for an organisation that truly believes in working in partnership with people. Lynn hopes to be able to bring her expertise to the Thera East Midlands board and meeting the people supported and colleagues. Outside of a work environment Lynn loves keeping fit, walking her rather large and lovable German Shepherd dog (Sam) and travelling as much as possible with her husband.

Ceri started her career as a secondary school teacher and later became a Music Therapist. She has since spent most of her career working in health and social care, including supported living and the NHS, with previous roles including HR Director and Director of People and Innovation.

In her day-to-day role, Ceri is the Group Executive Director – People and Culture at Thera and is passionate about making sure we get things right for staff, so that we can get things right for those we support.

John has more than 25 years’ experience of working at a senior level for some of the largest names in the world of fast-moving consumer goods and has had the opportunity to work internationally as well. He now runs a consultancy business, working with plant based and sustainability focused companies, as well as running another company working in the world of design and interiors.

Thera’s vision that those with a learning disability can be leaders and have a right to make decisions about how they live is important to John as he has an adult son with Autism. He’s been looking for a role with an organisation like Thera to use his experience positively, supporting the region, its team and members.

Ronnie Corbett, a Director of Audit Culture and Root Cause at Grant Thornton, was Born in Norfolk. Ronnie’s journey began with a brief stint in the Royal Marines, eventually finding purpose in the Royal Air Force (RAF) in 2000. Over a span of ten years in the RAF, he specialised as an air traffic controller, embarking on various tours that included RAF Valley (the fast jet training centre of the RAF) and a tenure as an instructor at the air traffic control school in Shropshire. Ronnie was deployed to Basrah, Iraq in 2007.

Ronnie transitioned from the military to become a civilian air traffic controller. His pursuits led him to train with NATS, qualifying as an area and approach controller, with the opportunity to manage Heathrow approach radar. He became a Watch Manager, contributing at airports including Liverpool and East Midlands.

Parallel to his journey as an air traffic controller, Ronnie cultivated a decade-long expertise as an aviation incident investigator. Shifting paths in 2021 Ronnie joined Grant Thornton, where he has spent the past four years working to help create a bespoke audit culture through psychological safety and speaking up.

"What drives me is a firm belief that everyone deserves purpose, belonging, and growth from their work. I'm committed to building environments where people feel genuinely valued, psychologically safe, and empowered to speak openly and honestly, because workplaces thrive when every person feels heard, supported, and able to flourish."

Residing in the Peak District with his family - wife Sarah, son Jamie, daughter Isabelle, and their Cocker Spaniel, Molly. Ronnie loves the outdoors, and his life outside work is spent walking, climbing and cycling around The Peaks. He also enjoys good food, good music and nice beer!

Chris is a member of the RICS and provides expert construction development project management advice together with cost expertise. Chris has extensive experience in managing large scale projects within various sectors with the majority being within the industrial logistics market.

"My passion is development and delivery. I am a strong business development executive and strategic planner, recognised throughout my career for driving change and transformation across various businesses. I am a strategic independent individual who can influence, lead, and inspire decisions from an executive level, I will guide and contribute with thoughts, recommendations, and pull on my several years of experience to assist with the successful delivery of any project."

Having run his own company, New Revival Ltd, for 15 years, Chris constantly strives to improve the end product and the bottom line as much as possible.