Until his retirement in September 2022, Paul Jenkins had worked for over 35 years in senior management and policymaking roles in Central Government, the NHS and the Voluntary Sector.
He has extensive experience of working in the area of mental health. He was Chief Executive of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, a specialist mental health trust and prior to that was Chief Executive of Rethink Mental Illness, a leading national mental health charity working to help those affected by severe mental illness where he helped to lead ground-breaking work in improving public attitudes towards mental illness. He has been involved in the implementation of a number of major national initiatives and was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2002 for his role in setting up NHS Direct.
He is currently the Chair of the mental health charity Mental Health UK.