Sarah Sleet - Chief Executive
Sarah Sleet was appointed as CEO of Asthma + Lung UK in 2024, following five years as CEO at Crohn's & Colitis UK and 13 years as CEO at Coeliac UK. She cares deeply about health inequalities and the value of patient organisations in changing lives.
Over her career she has worked with a broad range of health and patient groups and European patient organisations, as well as healthcare professional bodies, government advisory and research bodies. She has also built expertise in education, social and economic policy, scientific research, income generation and campaigning.
Our executive team
James leads Asthma + Lung UK's fundraising and engagement, enabling us to deliver outstanding services and fight for everyone with a lung condition. He has nearly 25 years of not-for-profit experience, and although he started out in marketing and public relations, James has spent most of his career raising money for good causes around the world. He joined British Lung Foundation as Director of Fundraising prior to the charity’s merger, having previously spent over nine years driving income growth at Parkinson’s UK.
When he’s not raising money for Asthma + Lung UK, James spends his spare time keeping up with his two daughters, playing guitar and nervously watching Norwich City Football Club. James is also a Trustee at a local Mind association that serves the areas of Bedford, Luton and Milton Keynes.
Mike's passionate about how patient centred support services can improve people's wellbeing. He leads Asthma + Lung UK's services division, creating and developing our suite of support services to help people live well with their lung condition. He's worked in the not-for-profit sector across homelessness, child poverty and supporting adults with complex long-term medical conditions for over 30 years, and joined the British Lung Foundation in 2010.
Mike is also a keen 'fair weather' road cyclist and on dry weekends can be found exploring the quieter lanes and roads of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.
Samantha leads Asthma + Lung UK's research and innovation division, overseeing our own research and innovation spending and constantly pushing for better treatments and innovative technologies to support everyone with a respiratory condition.
She's passionate about ensuring more research spend is directed towards respiratory research and innovation and that patients are involved in research to maximise the chances of them benefitting from it. Samantha led a successful pan-European, multi-sector consortia to identify asthma research priorities and was the architect of the world-leading Asthma UK Centre for Applied Research. She advises and supports several high value-high impact respiratory research collaborations across the UK to ensure the findings add impact and value to the patient population involved.
Samantha joined Asthma UK in 2011. A nurse by training, she did a science PhD at Imperial College London and maintains her research activity through active participation in cutting edge research programmes across the UK. She has published extensively on asthma and allergy for over 25 years in high impact research journals.
She is a keen 5k runner, enjoys trying to get better at yoga and pilates and spends her weekends and holidays with family and friends in west London, Cumbria and southern Spain.
Mark joined Asthma + Lung UK in July 2025 as the Director of Finance and Corporate Services. His early career was predominantly spent in financial services where he worked for 25 years at GE, Barclays and then Santander in a range of roles covering finance, risk management, mergers and acquisitions, IT and other operational activities.
After a number of years working as Chief Operating Officer at a multi-academy trust in Leicestershire, Mark moved into the Third Sector where he spent the last 6 years as the Director of Finance, Strategy and Operations at the Motor Neurone Disease Association where he oversaw the charity doubling in size. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from this diverse group of organisations and is delighted to be able to play a role in Asthma+Lung UK’s continuing progress.
Outside of work, Mark is a keen baker and has just completed his second house renovation project which put his other passion of travelling on hold for a while.
Our Trustees
Tamara is a celebrated British businesswomen with a career in the marketing and advertising industry, where she has held leadership positions at some of the world's most prestigious agencies including Wunderman Thompson, Grey Group, McCann Worldgroup and Saatchi and Saatchi. Between 2001 and 2011 she served as chairman of Visit London, and in 2011 was appointed an OBE for services to tourism through her work with the organisation.
As well as her work for Asthma + Lung UK she is currently chairman of integrated content agency The 10 Group, chair of the ESG committee as a NED for Marks and Spencer and non executive director of Intertek and Marsh Mclennan, and from February 2023 will take up a non-executive director role at Reckitt Benckiser.
Caroline brings over 25 years’ experience in online strategy, digital transformation and marketing. Her previous roles include that of Chief Commercial Officer of Ennismore, Chief Digital Officer at Sun European Partners and Director of Digital Transformation at glh Hotels. Before that she held the role of Chief Operating Officer of MySpace International as well as senior positions at Expedia and Kingfisher. Prior to this she founded a pioneering e-commerce business in New York City. She started out her career as a consultant for the Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey & Co.
Caroline served for six years as a trustee of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and is a former Governor of the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust.
Victor’s career stared with an engineering degree from Cambridge University with practical and management training from the Ministry of Defence, followed by international consultancy at Bowaters Paper. Victor then moved to Michelin Tyre UK, gained an MBA in finance from Imperial College, London and became the UK Commercial Administration Manager. Victor then moved to the Michelin HQ in France where he spent the next 20 years contributing to, and often leading, various European and Group financial projects. His final post was as Group Contract Manager responsible for the outsourced finance partner.
Victor is currently the chairperson if the Breathe Easy North Staffs support group and volunteers in the workshops of Emmaus North Staffs. He has COPD, diagnosed in 2020.
Jamie qualified from University of Wales College of Medicine in 2000 and completed his MD examining comorbidities associated with COPD. He was appointed as Consultant Respiratory Physician in 2009 at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board where he set up and leads the bronchiectasis service.
He is the Health and Care Research Wales Respiratory Speciality Lead and National Clinical Lead for Rare Disease in Wales.
Jamie chairs the British Thoracic Society Specialist advisory Group for Cystic Fibrosis and the UK Cystic Fibrosis Trust Registry.
John Hannaford joined the Trustee Board in August 2023 and became Treasurer in June 2024.
John studied history at the University of Reading before qualifying as a chartered accountant with PwC and building a high-profile career in banking. He was a leading member of the UK investment banking team at Credit Suisse for some twenty years and latterly acted as a Senior Advisor at UBS.
He has worked in trustee roles at other charities, including Independent Age and Fight for Sight, informing their decision-making by bringing his knowledge, financial acumen and risk management skills to the table. John chairs the Finance and Audit committee as well as serving on the main Board.
David is Professor of Medicine at University College London (UCL), Honorary Consultant Respiratory Physician at University College London Hospitals and the Royal Free London Hospitals and NIHR Emeritus Investigator. He was Vice Provost (Health), Head of UCL Medical School and Director of the UCL Partners AHSC from 2015-2023.
He previously chaired the Respiratory Therapy Area Unit Board at GlaxoSmithKline and was Deputy CEO of the Medical Research Council (UK). David was a NED at the Royal Free London Hospitals, University College London Hospitals, the Francis Crick Institute, the Africa Health Research Institute, the British Heart Foundation, MedCity Ltd. and the Academy of Medical Sciences for various times between 2015 and 2024.
His research has focused on α1-antitrypsin deficiency and COPD.
Katherine is Director of Marketing and Transformation at Fenwick. Previously she was Head of Business Planning for Sainsbury's Argos, providing insight and governance for various steering groups and Board level committees.
Katherine has wide experience balancing customer, commercial and strategic initiatives and hopes to use this to support the partnership's future activity.
Niren is a Senior Portfolio Manager at Aviva Investors, responsible for managing liability hedging mandates for institutional investors. Prior to joining Aviva Investors, Niren was a Director within the Solutions business at BlackRock.
Niren began his career at KPMG LLP where he worked in investment and pension consulting. Niren is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.
Mike held CEO posts between 1989 until 2018 with his last full time role at StepChange Debt Charity, the UK's largest debt advice charity. He was CEO at Consumer Focus, the statutory consumer body; the Olympic Lottery Distributor and the Millennium Commission.
His early career was in the Department of Health, where he was the Private Secretary to the Minister of Health, and in HM Treasury and Cabinet Office. He was a Trustee of the Mental Health Foundation and Action on Smoking and Health. He is Vice Chair of the London Irish Centre Charity.
He received a CBE for public service in 2000 and is a member of the Council of Fellows of the University of Keele.
Crystal is a strategic charity leader with a background in audiology, health psychology and behaviour change. She is Director of Strategy at the RNID, where she leads organisation-wide strategy and health programmes across the UK. She has over 20 years’ experience spanning the NHS and the voluntary sector, with a strong focus on health equity, access to care and public engagement.
Crystal has led national campaigns addressing inequality in hearing services and has led research into the lived experiences of people with sensory loss. She holds an MSc in Health Psychology from UCL and has wide experience in charity governance, including time as Chair of Trustees for a London-based health and wellbeing charity during a period of strategic development and organisational change.
Crystal lives with asthma and brings a strong personal and professional commitment to reducing health inequalities linked to respiratory conditions. She is focused on improving access to care and outcomes for all.