Peter Basford, Co-founder of Innovation Labs

Peter is delighted to be the third patron of Suffolk Mind and has been passionate about supporting the organisation and its work since he was first introduced to The Mental Health Toolkit, our workplace wellbeing training programme, in 2015. At that point, Peter was the Area Director, Commercial Banking for Suffolk at Lloyds Bank and used the learning to help his team and contacts.

Peter has since started the Business Growth Coaches Network and more recently, co-founded Innovation Labs, a business Jon and the team work closely with him on.

Peter meets with many companies through his coaching, mentoring and non-exec work, and is an advocate of supporting business owners and their teams with both their mental health and their business growth plans. He also works with Combat2Coffee locally, which aims to support forces personnel.

Alongside these key roles, Peter is chair of the Finance, Insurance and Professional Services Group (FIPS) for Suffolk, an ambassador for Invest in Suffolk, the vice chair for Stowmarket Golf Club and, like Olly Magnus, a huge Ipswich Town fan.

Peter has seen first-hand stretch turn to stress at work and wants to prevent this happening to others. His father is currently suffering from dementia which is another area of mental health he is having to learn and adapt to.