Music for Mental Wealth appoints Christine Brown as Executive Director

18 January 2019 - Press release

Music for Mental Wealth (MMW), a community interest company dedicated to the prevention of mental health challenges in the music industry, today announced it has appointed Christine Brown as Executive Director.

Christine joins as the first Executive Director and will be responsible for devising the company’s strategy and leading the growth and development of its work in providing one-to-one coaching, group workshops and other prevention pathways. 

She will work alongside MMW Founder, Laura Westcott, in the role of Director of Partnerships, Head Coach and Facilitator Stewart Lane and Coach and Mentor Claire Horseman.

With an early career at Decca Records and a nine-year tenure at music charity Help Musicians UK (HMUK), where she rose up the ranks from a temp to Director of External Affairs, Christine has a wealth of experience within the music industry. Whilst at HMUK, she was at the heart of some of the organisation’s most transformational projects and initiatives including the Agenda 2021 strategy, the launch of the Northern Ireland office and the formation of Women in Music NI, the first UK chapter of the global organisation Women in Music.  

In late 2016, Christine spearheaded the ‘Can Music Make You Sick?’ academic study, the largest research into mental health in the music industry and in 2017, she led the most successful campaign in HMUK's history, ‘Music Minds Matter.’ This success continued with the launch and delivery of the ‘Music Minds Matter’ 24/7 support line and service for people working in music. She is a passionate mental health campaigner and advocate for change across the industry and has spoken at conferences across the UK and internationally.

Welcoming the appointment, Laura Westcott, Founder and Director of Partnerships, said “Christine is a powerhouse! She brought mental health to the forefront of the music industry’s attention after pioneering a research study that showed 71.1% of musicians suffered from panic attacks/anxiety, and 68.5% from depression.

Her passion for championing mental health issues, in the UK and globally, combined with her extensive knowledge of the music and charity sectors makes her an invaluable asset to MMW. We are excited to bring her on board to scale our work around the prevention of mental health problems across the music industry”.

Christine Brown added “MMW has been doing amazing work around prevention and I am privileged to step into the role of Executive Director to take Laura’s vision forward and work with the team to develop and promote this crucial area of mental health education and support.

I have had the pleasure of working with many passionate, committed and inspirational individuals and organisations across the globe. I’m looking forward to continuing conversations, collaborating and working in partnership, both in this new role and in other projects and initiatives I’ll be developing, in order to create a healthier music industry.”

Christine has already taken up the appointment.