Staff list
Rosie Phillips
Chief Executive, DHI
Rosie Phillips is Chief Executive of DHI. Rosie has worked in senior positions in the voluntary sector for the past 16 years, having worked as the Co-ordinator of Cricklewood Homeless Concern and set up DHI in 1999. In 2004 Rosie became a Fellow of the RSA, and went on to win an RSA Coffee House Challenge Award two years later for DHI’s ‘Mailcoach’ scheme. In 2006 Rosie won a “Women who Make a Difference Award” in Bath and North East Somerset as part of International Women’s Day Celebrations. She gained a distinction for an MSc in Strategic Management from the University of Bristol in 2007, and has gone on to publish and present research in the area of drug treatment, management and organisational values nationally and internationally.
Julie Hughes
Operations Director, Bath and North East Somerset
Before joining DHI Julie worked in housing and customer services for 26 years. She began as a housing officer and moved on to working directly with service users setting up tenants housing co-operatives. Over the past 10 years she has been a senior manager in public sector housing with overall responsibility for front line customer services, rent arrears, complaints and performance. She has led on equalities issues and developing equality schemes and action plans. She has an honours degree in German and a post-graduate certificate in counselling and psychotherapy. She has worked for DHI since 2008.
Esther Schmidt
Operations Director, South Gloucestershire
Esther qualified as a social worker in Germany and came to England in 1997. She has previously worked for various Criminal Justice services in Germany and the UK, and holds two Management Diplomas. She has experience in setting up and commissioning substance misuse services, which became a model of excellence with the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse. Esther joined DHI in 2010.
Mark Coates
Social Enterprise Development Director
Mark has worked as a solicitor at a leading London law firm. Having decided that he wanted to help run businesses rather than simply advise them from arm’s length, he made the move into industry, becoming Head of Legal and Business Affairs for a media production company, being promoted to Commercial Director working across the wider group of companies. In this expanded role, Mark gathered a wide range of experience launching and developing new businesses, for example setting up a new US office for a UK company, launching and growing a new graphic design agency, and launching a new music library and rolling it out internationally. His move to DHI reflects a longstanding desire to work in an area of social benefit and to use his skills for an end other than shareholder profit.
