Board of Directors

Ruth Picker, Director and Deputy Board Chair

B.A., F.C.A., FSIA, FCPA, CPA Australia
Memberships: Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia, FINSIA, Australian Institute of Company Directors, APRA, AMCOS

Mind Board committees - Committee Chair of Finance, Audit and Risk (FAaR); Program, Practice and Quality (PPaQ)
Current and previous positions - The Australian Ballet School, Director; International Financial Reporting Interpretations Committee (IFRIC), Member; Australian Accounting Standards Board, Deputy Chair

Ruth is an experienced finance, accounting, audit and risk management specialist with many years of international senior executive leadership experience as a Lead Partner in the corporate finance sector. Born and educated in Cape Town, South Africa, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (classical piano) Ruth then studied to become an accountant as a route to leave South Africa.

Ruth has had a long corporate relationship with the firm Ernst & Young (EY), where she was the Asia-Pacific Risk Management Leader and a member of EY's Asia-Pacific Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She has held many voluntary committee positions, both in Australia and internationally. Ruth is a strong advocate for women’s leadership, and diversity and inclusion more broadly. A member of the Australian Accounting Hall of Fame, Ruth is also a published author and a Board Director of the Australian Ballet School.

Jeremy Coggin, Director

Exec MBA, B.Sc.(Architecture), B.Sc.(Computing), GAICD

Jeremy has worked on boards with a mental health mission since 2012, starting at mental health carer ARAFMI Victoria through to its merger with Mind Australia. He is currently president of Mental Health Carers Australia, the only national group solely concerned with advocacy on behalf of mental health carers, and is also the carer board member of national advocacy peak, Mental Health Australia. He is passionate about how we can design person-led systems and services by embedding the voice of consumers, family and carers, and service providers at the heart.

He is a design and innovation professional with expertise and qualifications in business, digital, design and facilitation. He currently heads Experience Design and Innovation for CPA Australia, and has over 20 years of management consulting experience working in senior management roles at Areeba, Deloitte, and CPA Australia.

Leilani Darwin, Director

Mind Board committees - Program, Practice and Quality (PPaQ)
Current and previous positions - The Black Dog Institute, Executive Director; Lifeline Australia Indigenous helpline, Advisory Board; Beyond Blue, The Way Back Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Advisory Group; National Mental Health Commission - National Suicide Monitoring System, Expert Advisory Group; Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Steering Committee, Indigenous Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Clearinghouse; LEAP – Suicide Prevention Australia Lived Experience, Advisory Panel; Queensland Lived Experience, Advisory Group

Leilani is a proud Quandamooka woman, whose ancestral home is Stradbroke Island. She is the CEO and Founder of First Nations Co., a community-led Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander consulting business whose sole purpose is to deliver improved outcomes for the community. Leilani is already well known within the sector for her work and leadership in suicide prevention and mental health. 

Leilani is a powerful advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander led culturally informed practices within mainstream services. This work derives from losing many loved ones to suicide and Leilani’s own lived experience of mental ill health. Living with depression, anxiety and suicidality, Leilani navigates workplace obligations and her own wellbeing.

Teresa Fels, Director

BEc (Hons), LLB, MComm (Hons), MA (Hons Kings College London), Barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria

Dr Margaret Grigg, Director

PhD, MS (Health Policy & Administration), MBio, BA, RN, RPN MAICD

Mind Board committees - Chair of Program, Practice and Quality Committee; Governance and Nominations

Margaret is an experienced mental health professional with extensive experience across the health and government sectors. She is currently the CEO of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health (Forensicare) and a non-executive Director on the Boards of Colac Area Health and HealthShare Victoria. Margaret's previous roles have included Chief Operating Officer at Mind Australia, Executive Director of Health Service Policy and Commissioning and Director of Mental Health with the Victorian Department of Health. In 2017 she was named as one of Victoria’s top 50 Public Sector Women.

Erandathie Jayakody, Director

BComm, LLB

Mind Board committees - Governance and Nominations; Culture, People and Remuneration
Other Board roles - Co-Chair Independent Governance Board The ALIVE National Centre for Mental Health Research, Advisory Member Australian Mental Health Prize, Assistant Director Strategic Advice Mental Health NDIA

Erandathie is a mental health advocate. She draws on her personal experience of living with a mental health condition and peer support to promote the consumer perspective. She advocates for mental health services that recognises the most basic human desire to have control of one’s own life and future, and services built on the belief that believe people living with mental health conditions have the ability and autonomy to achieve that.

Erandathie has experienced first-hand the power of peer support. Coming across a peer support network and finding her ‘people’ was a life changing experience and one that changed the narrative of her recovery. She is the co-editor of the book 'Peer Workforce in Australia: a new future for Mental Health'.