How we’re run
Meet our staff and trustees
Our structure
The Migraine Trust is a registered charity in England and Wales (1081300) and in Scotland (SC042911). It is also a company limited by guarantee registered in England (3996448). Our work is funded entirely by donations.
We are governed by a Board of Trustees and our work is carried out by a team that is lead by our chief executive, Rob Music.
We have a volunteer panel that supports our work through sharing their experience and feedback from the perspective a person with migraine or their family/carer.
We are registered with the Fundraising Regulator and the Information Commissioner’s Office as well as holding membership of the Institute of Fundraising and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO). We comply willingly with their regulations and policies.
Our trustees
Michelle Walder (Chair)
Michelle has a background in modern languages and law, and co-founded leadership development firm TXG in 2004. Her experience consists of developing corporate strategies, team effectiveness and C-suite consultancy, and coaching. She specialises in working with some of the most forward thinking boards who are keen to be the best in their sector. Michelle has senior development experience spanning several financial services firms including Commerzbank, Nomura, Societe Generale and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. She is also a non-executive director of Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club, where she also chairs the Women’s Football Club.
Dr Shazia Afridi
Dr Afridi qualified from Guy’s and St Thomas’ Medical School with an intercalated neuroscience degree. Following her basic medical training in London she completed her PhD at the Institute of Neurology, Queen Square looking at functional imaging in migraine. She then went on to complete her higher training in London and is a Consultant Neurologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust where she runs the headache service in the neurology department. She is also a council member of BASH (British Association for the Study of Headache). She has spoken at events and been invited onto advisory boards for Eli Lilly, Novartis and Teva.
Katy Brown
Katy has over 12 years of diverse, global experience across financial services and investment management, management consulting, start-ups, social enterprise, and charity. Having lived with daily chronic migraine for the last ten years, Katy is extremely passionate about supporting The Migraine Trust’s cause.
Gary George
Gary is a trustee of The Migraine Trust and our Treasurer. He joined The Migraine Trust board after previously holding a similar role at Migraine Action, and where he played a leading part in persuading the membership that its resources could be deployed more efficiently by transferring them to The Migraine Trust. He has recently retired following career in which he spent over 40 years in investment banking and fund management, holding senior management positions across a variety of fields including credit analysis, leveraged finance, risk management and corporate restructurings.
Professor Peter Goadsby
Professor Goadsby MBBS MD PhD DSc FRACP FRCP is the Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Facility and Professor of Neurology at King’s College London. He is also the National Lead for Neurological Disorders for the Clinical Research Network, NIHR UK, a Trustee of the Organisation for the Understanding of Cluster Headache (OUCH UK) and Chair of the Scientific Programme Committee, Migraine Trust International Symposium.
Steph Hayle
Steph joined the charity with a background in accessibility and working with young people. She was previously a Trustee at the University of York Student’s Union and was on the advisory board for Student Minds, where she specialised in student physical and mental health. She has been a UK delegate to the World Universities Network and has worked closely with local and national government bodies on improving support for both young and disabled people. She has also worked in fundraising for small charities addressing lesser-known medical conditions and has a co-authored paper published in the BMJ. She is currently undertaking her Master’s degree at the University of Edinburgh Law School and works as an accessibility consultant alongside her studies.
Dr Kay Kennis
Dr Kennis is a GP with a special interest in headache (GPwSI) in Bradford. She qualified from Oxford and undertook postgraduate training in medicine in Plymouth, where she obtained the MRCP, and then at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London. She opted for a career in Primary Care and trained in Bradford, obtaining the MRCGP and DFFP. She joined her current practice in Bradford in 2006, and is the clinical lead for women’s health at her practice. In partnership with colleagues from Primary Care and the Neurology Department at Bradford, she established a Primary Care Headache Service which is part of the Bradford Community Neurology Service. She has been a member of the British Association for the Study of Headache (BASH) GPwSI Headache Group since 2006. From 2010 until 2016 Dr Kennis was a member of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Guideline Development Group which developed and updated the current NICE guideline on headache management.
Pippa Kindersley
Pippa is a management consultant with McKinsey & Company in London. She has a background in medicine, completing her medical degree at both Cambridge University and King’s College London, as well as holding a BA in Archeology and Anthropology. Her medical experience includes working in elderly care, neurosurgery and emergency medicine, eventually specialising in Ear Nose Throat surgery. After involvement in several quality improvement projects and hospital transformations, she transitioned to management consulting, where she has worked with C-suite clients on topics such as corporate strategy, commercial due diligence and digital/financial transformations. She is also an LGBTQ+ leader across McKinsey Europe, global learning program facilitator, and leads the McKinsey medical elective program.
Dr Louise Rusk
Louise Rusk is a GP from Belfast, Northern Ireland. She graduated from Queens University in 2002 and completed her medical training in the Royal Group of Hospitals. After she completed her MRCP in 2005, she worked for 18 months in neurology and neurophysiology in the Royal Victoria Hospital. She then trained as a GP, developing a specialist interest in headache and in primary care neurology education. She has been actively involved in developing and delivering a neurology training day which is now a core element for all GP trainees in Northern Ireland. Louise has served on council for the British Association for the Study of Headache (BASH) as a co-opted and then elected member from 2014 to 2019. Louise works as a GP and GP trainer in a busy inner city practice in Belfast, Northern Ireland and in a headache clinic in a local district general hospital.
Wendy Thomas
Wendy Thomas is the former chief executive of The Migraine Trust, which she led for ten years. Wendy is a director of the Migraine Trust International Symposium (MTIS) and chairs the MTIS board. She was honorary treasurer of the International Headache Society (IHS) for eleven years and treasurer of the British Association for the Study of Headache (BASH) for ten years.
Mike Wakefield
Mike Wakefield spent his career within blue chip companies including Pan Am, United Biscuits and Anheuser-Busch. Following early retirement, Mike joined several trustee boards and was the chair of Migraine Action.