Who We Are

Raliza has over 10 years experience in developing research strategy and overseeing investments in the neuroscience and mental health research sector. As Portfolio Developer/Head of Neuroscience & Mental Health at the Wellcome Trust, she managed a £500M+ portfolio of grants and developed a number of  public-private partnerships. She has provided input on the development of roadmaps for the brain health sector and worked closely with the IAMHRF over many years to increase collaboration amongst mental health research funders. Raliza holds an MA in Psychology Research from the University of the Witwatersrand and a PhD (Biology) from the University of Cambridge. 

Diane supports the Chair of the Graham Boeckh Foundation and works with the team of the IAMHRF as Director of Operations. Motivated by discovery, challenge and progress, she finds it inspiring to work for the IAMHRF in support of uniting funders across borders to coordinate a shared mental health research agenda. Diane earned a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Relations at McGill University in Montreal and has worked in human resources, office management and executive offices in the telecommunications and biotechnology industries. Her personal interests include hiking, gardening, theatre, travel, history and spending time with family and friends.

Antonis is a public health specialist with over 10 years senior leadership experience across the not-for-profit, government and academic sectors. He has extensive academic experience, including leading research partnerships, as well as teaching in several universities on Global Mental Health. As Director of England and Wales at the Mental Health Foundation he oversaw a large portfolio of research, policy, and campaigning activities for over 7 years. Antonis is an active member of the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership, and has fulfilled various strategic advisory roles, including for the UK Government, NHS England, and the American Psychiatric Association.

Barry is a communications and events specialist with over 14 years experience in the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Since 2018, he's played a central role in the development of the Happier Lives Institute, a non-profit research institute that evaluates the impact of charities using measures of subjective wellbeing. In 2022, Barry helped to organise the inaugural Wellbeing Research & Policy Conference at Oxford University and from 2018-2021 he worked on the Effective Altruism Global conference series in London and San Francisco. Before that, he led public engagement initiatives for a wide range of major health and infrastructure projects. 

Tim is actively committed to advancing research and action on mental health globally. He co-chairs the governance working group of Healthy Brains Global, a collaboration of global leaders in mental health research and finance. He joined McGill University in September 2019 as the inaugural Director and Associate Dean of the School of Population and Global Health in the Faculty of Medicine and Associate Vice-Principal - Global Policy and Innovation. Previously, he was Senior Director of the Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice at the World Bank Group and, from 2010 to 2013, Tim was Dean of the James P. Grant School of Public Health at BRAC University in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Senior Advisor to the BRAC Health Program. From 2003 to 2010, he was Assistant Director General at the World Health Organization (WHO). Prior to this, he served as Director of the Health Equity Theme at the Rockefeller Foundation. Dr. Evans has been at the forefront of advancing global health equity and strengthening health systems delivery for more than 20 years. At the WHO, he led the Commission on Social Determinants of Health and oversaw the production of the annual World Health Report. Tim received his Medical Degree from McMaster University in Canada and was a Research and Internal Medicine Resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He earned a D.Phil. in Agricultural Economics from University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

Benoît is Executive Director at KBF Canada. He started here in 2017. He has a Master of Laws from the UC Louvain University in Belgium (1994, with great honor). He began his career as the director of a youth association, and then became President of a youth Federation, which encompasses 15 organizations and a total of 75 employees. Passionate about the philanthropic sector, in 1999 he joined the King Baudouin Foundation, the largest foundation in Belgium and a major foundation on the world stage. He was in charge of various programs at the KBF, namely the entrepreneurship program, the Observatory of Associations and Foundations, which compiles data and trends on the charitable sector, various capacity-building programs for non-profit organizations, the Prince Philippe Fund, etc. As Head of Venture Philanthropy, he launched the Venture Philanthropy Fund, a fund that actively helps organizations to scale-up and restructure by coaching them on good governance, long-term strategy, business models, and impact assessment. This fund is operated in partnership with private sponsors and consultancy companies such as BAIN & Company and Accenture, which are all driven to maximize the impact of philanthropic actions. He also managed a support program for underprivileged youngsters to help them do better in school and find jobs. His driving ambition is to create maximum social impact on society.

As founder of the consulting firm GiveResearch, Cynthia Joyce works to advance innovations in healthcare for individuals and families affected by disorders of the brain and mind. With 30+ years of experience in the research funding, fundraising and industry, and having lived and worked in the US and the UK, she brings a unique perspective to the challenges facing healthcare systems in the post-pandemic world. Most recently, Cynthia established the non-profit MQ Mental Health Research, the first international fundraising organization focused on mental health research. In prior years, Cynthia has served as Executive Director of the SMA Foundation (NY) and Executive Director of the American Academy of Neurology Foundation (MN); she has also held positions in industry. She holds a BA from the University of Chicago and an MS from the University of Minnesota. Cynthia currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Frayme, a Canadian knowledge-exchange project focused on adolescent mental healthcare and for the Graham Boeckh Foundation (Montreal). She also serves in an advisory capacity for several international research organizations.

Michel joined Strategy Corp in 2020 as Senior Advisor, bringing over 37 years of senior-level experience with the Canadian Federal government and the not-for-profit sector. He is recognized for his relationship management skills, political acuity and ability to negotiate value added consensus among the most diverse groups. Over the course of his career, Michel has travelled and worked extensively with all Canadian provinces and territories and internationally with civil society organizations and multilateral institutions. Michel retired from the Public Service in December 2019 as Executive Vice President of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), a research investment agency. As EVP, Michel was responsible for organizational strategies, governance, operations, communications, as well as government, stakeholder and Board relations. From 1999-2014, Michel served as Chief Executive Officer for the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse. During his 15-year tenure, Michel spearheaded many initiatives that were a first of their kind in Canada and internationally, including Canada’s first National Framework for Action on Substance Abuse and National Alcohol Strategy. Internationally, Michel led the Beyond 2008 initiative which saw over 900 NGO’s from 145 countries produce the first comprehensive global NGO consensus recommendations on drug policy for the UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs. Mr. Perron is a graduate of the University of Winnipeg and of the Harvard Business School.

Ian is the President and a Director of the Graham Boeckh Foundation (GBF), a private family foundation that is dedicated to transforming mental health services. He was appointed President of GBF in June 2015 and had previously held the position of Executive Chair. During Ian’s tenure in senior management positions with the Foundation, he has overseen the development of the strategic plan and has been involved in a number of large-scale projects in Integrated Youth Services, indicators for Canada’s mental health care systems and some major collaboratives in the mental health sector in Canada and internationally. Ian is also a former Director of the Fondation Jeunes en Tête of Québec, whose mission is to promote mental health and raise awareness through its Partners for Life program, educating secondary school students on how to recognize the signs of mental health problems and how to seek help. Ian’s career has spanned a number of fields including mental health, natural resource management and policy, economic and financial forecasting, as well as investment management. His professional background is primarily in the area of economics and finance. He earned an undergraduate degree in economics from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario and Masters of Economics from the University of British Columbia.

Naila Farouky is CEO & Executive Director for the Arab Foundations Forum (AFF), a regional, membership-based association of foundations and philanthropic entities working across the Arab Region. With over 15 years of experience in Project Management, Media Production and Strategic Communication, Naila is a Peabody Award-winning executive who has built a career across several continents. With over 13 years of experience at the iconic Sesame Workshop, Naila was responsible for managing the production and creative aspects of Sesame Workshop’s multi-media co-productions in 17 countries over the course of her career. She has worked as a Media and Communications consultant on a wide range of projects, including a project funded by USAID and the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) focused on a Decentralization and Local Administration Reform initiative to introduce and secure the inclusion of democratic governance principles in the Egyptian Constitution. In this role, Naila was the Project Director responsible for creating a Media and Communications strategy around the initiative. As a consultant for the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at the American University in Cairo, Naila co-authored a scan narrative on philanthropic giving in post-January 25th revolution Egypt – part of an 83-page paper highlighting case studies of different forms of philanthropic giving and the current state of philanthropy in Egypt vis-à-vis the political environment post the political uprising. The scan was published in January 2013. Naila is a member of several Boards of Directors, including the WINGS Network (Worldwide Initiative for Grantmaker Support) – a global membership association of over 140 members in over 40 countries, ArteEast (New York) and The Family Hub (Egypt). Naila grew up mostly in Cairo, Egypt, and has lived in Kenya, New York, Washington DC, Jordan, Switzerland and South Africa. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the American University in Cairo.

As Associate Director of the CIHR Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction (CIHR-INMHA), Dr. Marcotte plays a key role in the development and implementation of innovative research programs to improve health within the broad mandate areas of the institute. Dr. Marcotte joined CIHR in 2003 to establish the Regenerative Medicine and Nanomedicine Initiative, one of the agency's inaugural major strategic initiatives. Since 2010, Dr Marcotte has been the strategic lead for the Canadian Epigenetics, Environment and Health Research Consortium (CEEHRC). More recently, he has led the development of the Integrated Cannabis Research Strategy (ICRS), to address urgent research issues related to the legalization and regulation of cannabis in Canada. Dr. Marcotte serves as Chair of the Executive Committee of the International Human Epigenome Consortium (IHEC). He has been active in the leadership of a number of international consortia, including having served on the steering/executive committees of the International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC), the European Research Area Network for European Funding for Neuroscience Research (ERA-NET NEURON), and the International Initiative for Traumatic Brain Injury Research (InTBIR). Dr. Marcotte holds a PhD in Medical Sciences from McMaster University, and did post-doctoral work at McGill University.

Dr. Pim Brouwers, completed undergraduate and graduate studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands and obtained his Ph.D. in clinical neuropsychology from McGill University in 1979. He joined the NIH in 1980 and has been involved in research in the neurobehavioral effects of chronic illness and its treatment on the CNS reporting on late sequelae of cancer and its treatments, and the reversal of HIV-dementia with AZT in adults and children in 1987. He continued these lines of investigation at the National Cancer Institute to 1998, and at the Texas Children’s Hospital of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston to 2004, where he was Professor of Pediatrics and Neuroscience. He then joined the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda where he currently is Deputy Director of the Division of AIDS Research and Interim Director of the Center for Global Mental Health Research.

Cule heads the Mental Health department at the Dutch National Agency for Health Research (ZonMw). He was born in Belgrade, Serbia, and holds Dutch and Serbian citizenships. He is a medical graduate, with work experience in the NGO sector (Dutch institute for Healthcare Improvement – CBO), the WHO Collaborating Centre and the World Bank. He has been at ZonMw for twelve years, at first leading the acute care communication and implementation department and, in the last five years, mental health. He is also responsible for top (not academic) medical care, dementia and gender programs. Recently, he started coordinating research and knowledge platforms related to societal impact of COVID-19.

Niall studied medicine at Oxford University and subsequently trained on the North London psychiatry rotation, including work in forensic, liaison, rehabilitation, and old age psychiatry. He joined The Lancet as a Senior Editor in 2010 and launched The Lancet Psychiatry as its first Editor-in-Chief in 2014. Niall joined Wellcome as Head of Field Building in Mental Health in 2021. He is interested in bringing the mental health community together to identify and focus on specific areas with the potential to improve the lives of people experiencing mental health problems. Niall is also keen to explore how medical publishing models can be updated to meet the needs and challenges of the 21st century research landscape.

Nicole is a Associate Director with Grand Challenges Canada. She leads the Global Mental Health Program, working to support innovations that improve treatments and expand access to mental health care in low-resource settings. Nicole focuses on investments and partnerships that support the mental health and wellbeing of young people in low-resource settings. Nicole provides direction to the mental health portfolio in addition to providing strategic oversight to the Saving Brains portfolio. She joined Grand Challenges Canada in 2019 to lead the relaunch of the Global Mental Health program. Prior to joining GCC, Nicole worked to support mental health programs in Canada. She completed her MSc and the University of Edinburgh and her PhD in Developmental Psychology at Queen’s University.

Vijay Rajkumar brings 25 plus years of experience working with vulnerable and marginalised populations such as slum dwellers, refugees, injecting drug users, male sex workers who sell sex to men, children living the streets in the development sectors in Asia. He brings expertise in conducting participatory program design, monitoring and evaluations of interventions, and reviewing large research projects from a lived experience and community involvement perspective. He is a long term carer of a younger brother who is living with a severe mental health condition for 15 plus years. He is a practitioner of mindfulness (vipassana) meditation.

Citizen activist and user researcher in medico-social sciences. Involved in the psychiatric survivors' movement since the early 1990s, she came to medical research through her experience as a mental health patient. Her interests combine psychological and political aspects of the socio-medical, in particular human rights, ethical issues and the active participation of service users in medico-social research. She has participated in research as a subject, as a co-researcher and has coordinated a team of patient-researchers. She has published and co-published a number of articles on patient and public involvement in research and has contributed to work advocating for patients' rights in psychiatry. Today she is also a PhD student in Gender and Policy Studies at the University of Bristol with a project based on her political experience of Brexit. She has lived in the UK since 1986 and is the very willing slave of a small grey panther with green eyes.