Jonny Jacobs - Each time we share a story, we send a lifeboat of hope to somebody else

Jonny Jacobs CA, Financial Director EMEA at Starbucks, is a passionate advocate for positive mental health. In this podcast he speaks openly about his own struggles with mental health in his teens and talked about the importance of acknowledging challenges people may be experiencing in their lives. Mental health is not necessarily a subject that finance people often talk about, but after being asked to speak about it at a Chartered Accountancy event, Jonny was approached by people who found his talk inspiring. “Each time we share a story, we send a lifeboat of hope to somebody else,” he says.Helping and supporting others is not just a moral and social responsibility in leadership but also has a business case, Jonny argued. “Actually, a healthy economy is about our environment, our communities, our employees – and the health of our employees.” He cited figures which showed the global cost of mental ill health is one trillion dollars. In the UK alone, mental health-related issues carry a £40 billion cost to business and a further £80 billion in social cost. “If we don’t get the health of our workforce right, then how can we have really healthy economies?”