Meet Team Elemental
Our team has been at the forefront of mobilising communities towards better health, education and employment for the past 30 years combined.
CO FOUNDERS
Jennifer Neff
Co Founder
Jennifer has more than 16 years’ experience in managing public/ private and voluntary, community and social enterprise sector partnerships. She led the delivery of community programmes across employability, digital skills and Active City, Age Friendly and Early Intervention.
Leeann Monk-Özgül
Co Founder
Leeann has a long established track record in the community and voluntary sector engaging, activating and supporting our most disadvantaged communities towards better health outcomes. Reducing health inequalities is her passion. Leeann helped establish and manage a Health Living Centre for 15 years in a in Derry City, N.Ireland.
CORE TEAM
Mark Gowdy
Senior Developer
Mark has over 20 years of experience creating scalable, database-centric web applications for both public and private sector clients. Has worked extensively in the field of both Digital Asset Management and health improvement solutions. Mark was a co-founder of Aetopia, a successful digital asset management company, which he successfully exited in 2015. He specialises in full stack development, with core skills include Java, Python, Content and Asset Management, Elasticsearch, WebObjects (Wonder), AWS and Linux.
Denise Dillon
Head of Operations
Denise Dillon has over 16 years experience working within the community and voluntary sector. After graduating in 2001 with a Bsc Hons Business Information Systems she started working in community development, mental health, training and project management working with some of the most marginalised communities in Northern Ireland. Her career to date has seen her work with Old Library Trust Healthy Living Centre (Creggan, Derry), Cancer Research NI, Hands That Talk (Deaf Community) and AWARE.
Natasha Deeney
Communications Manager
Natasha is a first-class honours graduate in communication with advertising from Ulster University. She is an award-winning communications professional with five years experience in PR, media relations and digital communications. Natasha has previously supported high impact campaigns for in house and agency based roles. Most recently, Natasha has supported online and offline campaigns on behalf of a broad range of clients, including Ulster Bank, BT, Bushmills Irish Whiskey and FlyBe.
Gemma Donnahey
Business Development Manager
Gemma has more than 5 years' experience in business development, account management and training within the healthcare technology industry. She has a huge passion for helping healthcare organisations to harness technology, become more effective and enhance their services for the benefit of patients.
Paul O’Donoghue
Senior Software Developer
Paul O’Donoghue has over 16 years experience as a software developer across many industries such as telecoms, finance, media, advertising, search and semiconductors. After graduating with a degree in Software Engineering in 2001, Paul has focused on delivering efficient solutions that allow users to focus on their work; such as clean, well-documented APIs or touch/voice/audio based user interfaces. Paul writes code across the full software stack, specialising in java platform solutions which leverage the latest technologies.
Liam Monk
Finance & Administration Executive
Liam has over 8 years experience in the field of Admin and Finance, cutting his teeth firstly in the community and voluntary sector where he spent 4 years working in the heart of the community, after this he spent time in the corporate world with Xerox then Fujitsu.
Dani Hakim
Regional Lead Middle East
Dani is versatile communications professional with experience through diverse industries, spending 12 years working in global advertising agencies. The past 4 years have been dedicated to healthcare marketing, where she has supported clients from Government entities to pharma organisation with strategic solutions. Her strengths lie in problem solving and content creation, where she is always looking for opportunities to partner and innovate.
Alan Downes
Project Implementer
Alan is passionate about technology, he runs his own company offering support to local businesses and teaching children about digital media. Having over 25 years experience in the retail sector, running a top 1% team for a FTSE 100 company, explaining technology in a way that made sense, Alan was the ideal partner to help us ensure our new clients hit the ground running. Alan is passionate about what we do having recovered from poor mental health himself in the past. He’s also a qualified drone pilot!
Alison Carlin
Business Development Executive
Alison is a versatile, effective and highly personable individual with a proven success in Business Development and Relationship Management. She has over eighteen years experience with a leading provider of professional services in Employment Law, Insurance, HR, Health & Safety Management. She has extensive experience in designing and delivering Employee Wellbeing Programmes to meet CSR and employee wellbeing related objectives. Alison has a passion for contributing to ever-expanding organisations.
Clare Cooper
Project Manager
Clare is an honours graduate in Business and Computing from Ulster University. She has over 4 years experience working within the community and voluntary sector and has held a number of roles in health improvement aiming to reduce health inequalities and improve the health and well-being of the community. Most recently Clare was the Social Prescribing Manager at the Bogside and Brandywell Health Forum, a Healthy Living Centre in Derry City, Northern Ireland.
Serena Terry
Head of Marketing
Serena is an experienced Marketer who has been helping to grow companies in the tech industry for over 10 years. She is a self confessed growth-hacker who specialises in inbound marketing, digital marketing strategy, user experience, conversion optimisation and marketing processes. Serena is a University of Ulster graduate who also lectures with the North West School of Marketing. As Head of Marketing, Serena will spearhead plans to introduce social prescribing to more Housing Associations and NHS organisations throughout the UK.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Aidan McGrath
Chairperson
Aidan is an experienced business executive with over 30 years’ experience in the technology sector. He is an active trainer, consultant and start-up mentor. He has a wealth of commercial experience, with particular strengths in business development, strategy and entrepreneurship. He is a trainer at the the William J. Clinton Leadership Institute at Queen's University where he delivers the Sales Leadership Programme. He has founded and successful exited two companies: Beckinridge and Aetopia. He is also a director of Cahoots NI, a theatre company that produces inspirational educational theatre for children.
Mary McKenna
Board Director
Mary is a well known Northern Irish serial tech entrepreneur and angel investor. She co-founded Derry based Learning Pool in 2006 following a long public sector career and a spell as a Silicon Valley dotcommer and successfully exited in 2014 in order to work with earlier stage startups. Mary is one of Said Business School’s (University of Oxford) Entrepreneurship Experts at the Entrepreneurship Centre, a Tech London Advocate, a member of the Taoiseach’s Global Irish Network and a popular speaker and writer on a variety of technology topics. She is...
Ryan Williams
Board Director
Ryan was one of the youngest Non-Executive Directors ever appointed in the UK to the Clinical Commissioning Group the Western Health and Social Services Board for a seven year term. Ryan is the CEO and Founder of Connected Talent Ltd with offices in the UK and Ireland specialising in RPO and niche recruitment solutions. Ryan is Managing Director of Ally Consulting, a management consultancy business advising and investing in a range of startup high tech businesses as well as existing profitable enterprises. Ryan is also an Executive Director with Connected...
Oliver Lennon
Board Director
Oliver is an experienced technology founder, CEO & Chairman with a proven track record in significant value creation. He has over 25 years’ experience in the technology and software sectors having founded several companies, including SpeechStorm, which achieved global growth acquiring customers across five continents and securing a successful exit to a leading Silicon Valley tech company. Oliver has held several senior executive level roles in large organisations including Kainos Plc and Genesys Inc and brings significant experience to Elemental in company start-up, venture capital funding, enterprise sales, product and...
ADVISORS AND CONNECTORS
Bev Taylor
Advisor
Beverley Taylor worked in the public sector for 22 years, held senior roles in various government departments including Court Service, Home Office, Foreign Office, Regional Government office, culminating at West Yorkshire Police as Head of Performance and Commissioning for Integrated Offender Management. In 2013 she joined NAVCA as Head of Strategic Engagement and strategic health lead. Bev led on NAVCA’s work on systems resilience & winter pressures and the associated single point of contact model (SPOC). Her new role is as a consultant associate of National Voices
Phil Veasey
Advisor
Phil loves to create and scale sustainable strategies and programmes in local communities including: co-writing the recommendations for the Morgan Stanley ‘Healthy Cities London’ Programme; Active Local Links on the Isle of Dogs – which is shortlisted for the RSPH Health and Wellbeing Awards 2017; and the National Mini Tennis Programme, for the Lawn Tennis Association (now the way children are introduced to the sport globally). Phil sits on the Public Health England National Child Measurement Programme Board, and the Guys and St Thomas Charity Childhood Obesity Oversight Committee.
Sarah Harvey
PR Advisor
Currently Head of Public Relations and Public Affairs for a government agency based in Cheshire, Sarah has over 15 years’ experience in strategic communications, public relations and marketing across the public and private sector. Her work includes devising and delivering creative communications strategies and campaigns that create strong brand stories to engage with audiences.
Ken Perry
Advisor
Ken is the Director of Do-Well (UK) Ltd, a personal, leadership and organisational success business which works across all sectors to enable enhanced resilience, build social movements, develop leadership and partnership capacity to help people, places and organisations define and then mobilise to achieve. Ken has over 30 years’ experience in housing, health, commercial enterprise, neighbourhood investment, charities and social enterprise. Prior to establishing Do-Well in 2014, he was Chief Executive of a large North West England based housing association group, a post he held for over 14 years.
Martin Bell
Advisor
Martin runs his own consultancy, specialising in healthcare, healthcare IT and strategic business advice and support. With 33 years in a variety of sectors (defence, retail, software, construction) including 15 in healthcare, Martin has a wealth of knowledge and experience.
Debbie Taylor
Patient Advisor (Mental Health)
Debs has experienced and overcome mental health challenges and uses her experiences to help others. Amongst her many achievements, she has spoken at government level at the all-party parliamentary group for arts, health and wellbeing, and at the King's Fund Social Prescribing Conference. She has also been shortlisted in the Sue Ryder Yorkshire Women of Achievement Awards
