Gabriela Matouskova - Chief Executive Officer

Gabriela leads on business development and growth. She loves all things crossing arts, health, creativity, community and research. 

Gabriela has over 25 years business support experience across Europe. She leads on delivering our growth strategy in Coventry and beyond. Working with us aligns with Gabriela’s personal and professional principles, in particular her interest in social enterprise spin-outs from academic research for economic and sustainable societal impact. She also leads our Hope Culture programme. Gabriela cared for her mum, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2013. Her personal experience of caring and loss fed into development of content for our Hope Programme for Carers.

In 2022, Gabriela was named amongst the Natwest WISE 100 Women in Social Enterprise and awarded a Highly Commended award at Start of the Future category, for a CEO or leader showing star qualities relatively new in their social enterprise career, with three or fewer years of leadership experience.

Dr Anna Carlson - Head of Partnerships and Projects

Anna leads on Hope projects delivery and managed key partnerships. She is a proud Brummie and enjoys music, documentaries and spending time with her family and friends.

Anna brings with her an extensive experience of managing, monitoring, and evaluating projects and conducting research at national, regional and a local level. She has worked extensively across the NHS and charity sector and is trained to facilitate workshops with multiple stakeholders. Her PhD completed at Coventry University focused on development of an online self management intervention to support men with cancer.

Dr Bethan Alper - Quality Assurance Lead

Bethan leads on training, assessments of our online facilitators and manages quality assurance for the Hope Programme. She loves music, dancing and fancy dress.

Bethan completed her PhD at Coventry University and worked in the healthcare sector for number of years until 2018 when she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. In March 2020, Bethan completed our online Hope Programme. She has since trained as a Hope Facilitator and used her expertise to develop quality assurance processes for our online delivery in line with QISMET accreditation.

Jen Scoble - Course Co-Ordinator

Jen loves trying new recipes, going to see live music and theatre and spending time with friends and family.

Jen joined us from a busy customer facing role at a worldwide organisation. She now co-ordinates and administers all of our Hope Programme courses across the UK. Jen has expanded on her passion for promoting health and wellbeing in the workplace by training as an accredited Hope Programme facilitator.

Dr Mark Taylor - Independent Chair

Mark is Head of Strategic Partnerships at the National Institute for Health Research Coordinating Centre in Twickenham with a background in healthcare, life sciences, and innovation. He has been a trustee for the MS Society and Asthma UK and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2003.

Mark is currently Head of Strategic Partnerships at National Institute for Health Research Coordinating Centre Twickenham. He has worked, amongst other places, for Merck KGaA, 3i plc, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust, the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement and Oxford University Innovation (the University’s knowledge transfer arm). He has been a trustee for the MS Society and briefly for Asthma UK as well as on the British Medical Journal’s Patient Panel. He was diagnosed with relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis in 2003.

Prof Andy Turner - Non-Executive Director (Research)

Andy is passionate about research that makes a meaningful difference to people’s lives. He is a keen tennis player and loves hats and beards.

Andy Turner is the Founding Member of our social enterprise and Professor of Health Psychology at Coventry University. Andy is also the co-inventor of the Hope Programme. Andy has developed, delivered and researched health behaviour coaching and self-management programmes for over 25 years and has written over 70 academic peer reviewed journal articles, papers and book chapters. He lives with grade 4 arthritis in both of his knees and has learnt to manage his pain through playing tennis.

Gabriela Matouskova - Executive Director

Gabriela is the Chief Executive Officer of Hope For The Community CIC.

In 2022, Gabriela was named amongst the Natwest WISE 100 Women in Social Enterprise and awarded a Highly Commended award at Start of the Future category, for a CEO or leader showing star qualities relatively new in their social enterprise career, with three or fewer years of leadership experience.

Matt Shield - Non-Executive Director (Legal)

Matt comes from a legal background and provides pragmatic, commercial and legal support to Hope. He is an avid fan of cricket, gardening and travelling and a keen interest in American politics.  

Matt has almost 20 years experience working in the legal sector, and qualified as a solicitor in 2007. He specialises in commercial law and has considerable experience of supporting business development from his time working as an in-house lawyer. Matt joined our board in April 2021 and is enthusiastic about supporting Hope as it works towards providing support to an even wider audience.

Dr Helen Crampin - Non-Executive Director (Business Development)

Helen is passionate about healthcare innovation and supporting businesses to tackle health inequalities. She has a background in investment, marketing, and business development across healthcare and life sciences.  

Helen is the Chief Marketing Officer at the National Innovation Centre for Ageing, where she leads on strategic partnerships and engagement. Previously, she played a key role at UKRI’s £98M Healthy Ageing Challenge, spearheading investment initiatives to support SMEs in the ageing sector. With over 20 years of experience in business development and commercialisation, she brings valuable expertise in supporting innovation and scaling impactful healthcare solutions. Helen has a strong understanding of grant funding, commercial partnerships, and investment strategies, with experience spanning healthcare, wellness, academia, life sciences, and medical device start-ups.

Stephen Pearse - Non-Executive Director (Community Voice)

Stephen is a former NHS IT engineer and current mindfulness teacher. A passionate Hope Programme facilitator, he helps others manage long-term conditions. He enjoys sport, political debates, and the South Devon outdoors.

Stephen first completed the Hope Programme in 2018 and trained as a facilitator in 2019. Since then, he has led courses for people with a variety of long-term conditions and has been involved in promotional videos, local radio podcasts, and interviews. Now a qualified mindfulness teacher with his own business in South Devon, he also volunteers as a health coach and continues to facilitate Hope courses. Stephen is passionate about the impact of the Hope Programme, which has helped him manage his own long-term condition and develop confidence, self-belief, and compassion.

Robert Forrest - Non-Executive Director (Finance)

Growing up in a caring, resilient community shaped Robert’s understanding of how vital support networks are—not just for those facing illness, but for their families and caregivers.

Throughout his financial career, Robert has been most proud when working with global consulting and technology organisations that prioritise giving back. He has come to appreciate that professional success carries the most meaning when it serves a greater purpose. Contributing his expertise to our social enterprise is a meaningful way to support an organisation creating real, lasting impact where it is needed most.

“At a time when division and uncertainty dominate the global landscape, the deliberate actions of Hope For The Community CIC are a reminder that compassion and community matter more than ever. It is a privilege to be part of this mission.“

Ellis Taylor - Non-Executive Director (Digital)

As a Non-Executive Director, Ellis brings a commercially grounded experience to digital governance, risk management, and growth, ensuring technology is a core pillar of our long-term business vision and success.

Ellis is a technology and commercial leader with a passion for scaling businesses through strategic digital transformation. Over the past five years, he has been at the heart of growing Novel from inception into a thriving SaaS platform, shaping both its product and commercial direction while driving rapid yet controlled growth into a high-performing, scalable business. Prior to that, Ellis spent three years at The Economist, working across multiple core product and platform teams, gaining valuable enterprise-scale experience in digital strategy and transformation. His background uniquely bridges the agility and rapid growth culture of startups with the scale and governance of enterprise systems, allowing him to navigate complex digital challenges with controlled efficiency.

Dr Tim Robinson - Hope Programme Clinical Advisor

Dr Tim Robinson has 30 years of experience in General Practice with a specialist interest in Long COVID. Dr Tim Robinson is Hope For The Community’s named Clinical Safety Officer.

Dr Tim Robinson is Hope Programme Clinical Advisor at Hope For The Community with responsibilities that include advising on the safety and efficacy of our programmes and digital products and services, focusing on the wellbeing of people living with long-term conditions and their carers. His current appointments include NHS England Long Covid GP Clinical Lead South West Region, NHS Dorset Post Covid Service - GP Lead, NHS Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire Long Covid Service - GP Lead, NHS Torbay South Devon Long Covid Service - Clinical Lead.

Matthew Jones - Tech Development Lead

Matt is a web developer and database architect with over 21 years of experience. He leads the work on the Hope digital wellbeing platform.

Matt’s detailed technical portfolio includes: Mobile first web design specialising in HTML5, CSS and Bootstrap 3/4. Programming languages include VB, ASP.Net architecture (VB.Net and C#). Forms and MVC, Java, PHP, SQL and T-SQL Scripting languages include JavaScript, JQuery, VBScript, XML/XSL, Json. Database background SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL (and MariaDB) and MS-Access . Web Service Technology (WCF and REST). Other skills include MS Server Administration and Cisco Core Networking (CCNA Program).

Dr Liz Sparkes - Mindfulness Practitioner

Liz delivers live mindfulness practice session on our Hope Programme courses. She moved from academia to run her business Dr Liz Sparkes spiritual coaching.

Liz is a HCPC registered practitioner Health Psychologist with a PhD in Pain psychology. Liz developed a Masters course at Coventry University in Mindfulness and Compassion. She is Health Psychologist, Accredited Spiritual Coach, Meditation & Reiki practitioner. Trainer & Coach for Heart-based living. She runs workshops supporting people who are in pain both emotionally and physically.

Harry the Dog

Harry is our mascot and one fearless Jack Russell terrier.

Our dog Harry is a lovely Jack Russell terrier. He embodies the spirit and values of our organisation by being a breed of dog which is tenacious, energetic and enthusiastic. Jack Russell Terriers are the biggest dogs you'll ever meet in such a tiny package. They can run all day and keep coming back for more. They are sharply intelligent and absolutely nothing gets past them. There is no fooling Harry.