Kaleidoscope CEO
Martin Blakebrough
Martin was a Baptist Minister by profession, and holds a Master’s Degree in Community Care Management. More importantly than that though, he grew up as a Kaleidoscope Child and even lived in the Kingston Hostel. In 1993 he returned back to Kingston as the Minister of the John Bunyan Baptist Church, after being a Baptist Minister in Rossendale and a Community Worker in Canning Town. While a Minister he also took on the role of Deputy Director of Kaleidoscope.
In 1998 Martin was appointed to the helm of Kaleidoscope and was instrumental in establishing Kaleidoscope in Wales making Monmouthshire his home. During his time at Kaleidoscope he has been a Councillor in Kingston, an Executive Member for Young People and a Parliamentary Candidate for the Liberal Democrats in Monmouthshire. He is a Community Councillor in his neighbourhood and a keen runner.
GDAS Head of Operations
Rondine Molinaro
Rondine joined Kaleidoscope in 2005, after arriving in the UK from East Africa. Rondine has thrown herself into community drug and alcohol projects here, and began providing executive, commercial and operational leadership for our Birchwood Detox unit based in The Wirral in 2017. Rondine is now Head Of Operations for our largest project, Gwent Drug and Alcohol Service.
Rondine’s personal experience of addiction is the driver of her advocacy for service user rights and she is the organisational lead for service user involvement and co-production. She has an ILM level 5 in leadership and management. She has a Level 7 Diploma qualification in Fundraising, Volunteer Management and Communication.
Operations Director
Kaniz Malekin
Kaniz has worked in the charity sector for over 6 years at a senior level including as Client Services Director at Julian House providing executive leadership in homelessness and housing services across South West England. Services included supporting clients affected by substance use, criminal justice, domestic violence, street homelessness, CYP and mental health.
Prior to this Kaniz gained substantial experience of working across housing associations and Cardiff Council delivering much need housing and support services. Kaniz has legal qualifications, a Master’s in Strategic Management and is a Corporate Member of the Chartered institute of Housing. Kaniz lives in Cardiff with her family.
HR Director
Gareth Watts
Gareth moved to the sector in 2019 after adopting his little boy as he wanted to move to more values based work and immediately felt at home. Since then he has held several HR roles and joined the Executive Team at Kaleidoscope in February 2024 as the HR Director.
Prior to this, Gareth has a breadth of experience from roles within the corporate world and has some big ideas about the people agenda at Kaleidoscope. In his spare time, Gareth is a Trustee of Pride Cymru, which is an LGBTQ+ charity based in Wales. He is a vocal campaigner and advocator for the improvement of LGBTQ+ rights.
Finance Director
Geoff Thomas
Geoff is a skilled and experienced Chartered Accountant who qualified with EY. He has spent most of his career in Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer roles. Earlier accountancy firm experience included specialist audit and due diligence roles and secondment to a Government Department where he led the Internal Audit Team. He was a founder of KTS Owens Thomas, the Cardiff Chartered Accountancy firm that is now part of Azets. Subsequently Geoff founded and was the CEO of FD Systems, a company that became the largest UK reseller of Sage software.
This company was sold to K3 Business Technology group in 2012. Subsequently he has worked in a senior capacity with a number of fast growing companies including those in the Technology and Retail sectors. Geoff enjoys adding value to the multi-disciplinary teams that he works in, in particular providing a determined focus on delivery of high performance. He takes a hands on approach and collaboration and effective communications are central to his approach. He is competent in Business Strategy, Business Planning, Professional Accounting and Audit, Reporting, Compliance, Funding and Mergers & Acquisitions.
Governance & Clinical Services Director
Lisa Kieh
Lisa qualified as a Registered General Nurse in 1992 and initially specialised in HIV/AIDS and Tropical Diseases in Central London. This led to a 5 year spell working in post conflict humanitarian aid in West Africa and Timor-Leste. Returning to South Wales in 2003 to study for a masters degree in social policy and development, Lisa began to work directly with individuals who used alcohol and or drugs at harmful levels.
She has worked as a frontline community nurse, senior nurse manager and commissioner and played a key role in the expansion of Buvidal in Wales. Lisa has also had a senior nurse role in Registered Care for older adults and worked as a Professional Practice Adviser for the Royal College of Nursing Wales. Having worked with us in the past Lisa returns as our newly created Governance and Clinical Services Director.