The people behind the work
Anabranch Plus is built on a deliberate combination: people who have lived the experience alongside people who have spent careers building the professional infrastructure around it.
We do not believe people should be defined by their past. That principle shapes how we work and who we are. Our team brings together practitioners who understand both the professional requirements of commissioners and employers, and the realities faced by the people we support.
Omar Mentesh
Founder and Chief Executive OfficerOmar founded Anabranch Plus to build the route he could not find himself. He left school at 13, spent time in the criminal justice system, and came back to education as an adult, eventually earning a degree. That route taught him what most employability provision misses: people do not fail to progress because they lack ambition, they fail because nobody shows them where the door is or what is behind it. Anabranch Plus is built on the answer to that — confidence, then capability, then opportunity. Omar leads delivery across prisons and communities and sits on the Mindset-XR panel as a lived experience expert. He is a Londoner and works across the city and beyond.
Les Gill
Co-Founder and Chief Operating OfficerLes brings the operational discipline that turns a good idea into something a commissioner can rely on. He has spent his career in business planning, programme management and international trade, and holds an ILM Level 7 qualification in Executive Business Mentoring and Coaching through the Association of Business Mentors — the same standard our corporate mentors are trained to. At Anabranch Plus he is responsible for how the organisation runs: contracts, delivery infrastructure, quality and the systems that keep our work accountable to the people we serve and the bodies that fund it.
Lucy Hubbard
Head of Partnerships and PathwaysLucy builds the other half of the equation. A programme is only as good as what a participant can walk into at the end of it, so Lucy works with employers, training providers and education institutions to make sure those routes are real, open and held. She develops the relationships that turn an interest in social value into an actual vacancy, course place or interview and stays with participants through the point of handover rather than stopping at the referral.
How we work
Our team combines lived experience with professional expertise and not as a marketing point, but because it makes our delivery more effective. The people we work with respond to practitioners who understand their situation from the inside as well as the outside. Our commissioners and employer partners respond to practitioners who can speak their language and deliver to their requirements.