Our Senior Management Team

Our senior management team has 4 members of staff.

Ian Silver, Chief Executive

Our Chief Executive, Ian Silver, has over a decade of experience in the charitable and housing sector. A qualified nutritionist, Ian has worked closely with communities and organisations designing, developing and delivering innovative programmes and research projects. These projects were focused on addressing social equalities, particularly concerning health, environmental behaviours and employment in some of the most diverse and socio-economically deprived regions of the UK.

Taking a collaborative approach, Ian has worked with organisations throughout the UK, including DEFRA, Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food, NFAP (one of UK’s most influential sustainable food programmes) and London 2012 in the design and delivery of London 2012 Olympic Games Legacy projects in London.

Ian joined in 2013 as Operations Manager and as Chief Executive brings a clear vision in realising the potential of self management uk in supporting more people living with long-term health conditions.

If you would like to know more about our work or discuss how we can work together, Ian can be contacted on email [email protected] or mobile 07500 039713.

Grace Smith, Head of Finance

Grace's main career was with a wide variety of NHS Organisations across London and Kent. She started as a trainee accountant, became qualified worked in Finance and then was promoted to Group Director with responsibility for patient environments within community settings and more general management responsibilities at an Acute NHS Trust.

For the last thirty years Grace has supported local charities through a number of committee and Trustee roles by providing financial administrative support as the Treasurer and completing the annual accounts, including; the local branch of the National Childbirth Trust; Special Needs Football Club Sutton Eagles; Community Works (Sutton Food Bank) and currently the Mental Fight Club. 

Grace joined self management uk in 2016.

Laurence Scott, Head of Resources

Following a lengthy career in classic commercial roles, Laurie moved to the employability sector where he had the opportunity to utilise his commercial knowledge in launching Shaw Trust’s national accounts initiative – securing agreements with major national employers to not only vastly increase the number of people with long-term disabilities they employed, but also improving the conditions under which they worked. He was then approached by Working Links to run what was then the government’s flagship employment programme for people with disabilities, "Pathways 2 Work".  

After more than a decade running skills and employability contracts, he moved into the charity sector in 2015, joining the multi-discipline organisation Saltbox, running diverse programmes such as; money and debt advice; combatting loneliness amongst older people; housing consultations and engaging with older people to give them a voice in how local public services are commissioned and delivered.

Laurie’s experience of running multiple contracts designed to support those amongst the most vulnerable in our society, combined with personal experience of supporting family members through long-term conditions has given him a passion for the work delivered by self management uk.

Laurie joined our team in January 2019.

Sarah Barker, Head of Sales & Marketing

Sarah joined self management uk in 2014 to oversee the organisation's transition to a charity.

Sarah's background is in commercial marketing and sales. She worked for the Caudwell Group for 10 years in both the UK and Hong Kong, setting up an office in the region in 1997. Her role as Executive Marketing Manager involved all product management, marketing activities and the setting up of websites for mobile phone manufacturers Nokia and then Motorola.

Sarah moved to Yale, part of the Assa Abloy group, in 2005 as EMEA Marketing Manager with responsibility for product, marketing and brand activities across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.

2 years of caring for family coupled with running a local market-produce stall and contributing to a cookbook website saw Sarah move to London in 2012 and seek a new challenge.

Sarah's passion for people with long-term conditions comes from personal experience of family members. Her desire to improve their care pathways and ensure they receive the right care at the right time is what drove her to accept the role with self management uk.