Emma Williams – MBE
CEO – Matthew’s Friends charity – Global
Director – Matthew’s Friends Clinics Ltd.
Emma is mum to Matthew (26) and Alice (24) and set up the Matthew’s Friends charity for medical Ketogenic Dietary Therapies in her son’s name in 2004 due to his incredible response to going on the diet.
Emma has worked full time in this field for nearly 20 years and has supported thousands of families using medical ketogenic therapies and is a leading advocate for these therapies being an International Patron of Diets for Epilepsy in India, as well as serving on the Executive Board for the Global Symposia for Ketogenic Dietary Therapies and The Lancet Commission for Epilepsy. Emma is also one of the leaders of the dietary therapies team for EpiCARE – the European Reference Network for Rare and Complex Epilepsies and she was recognised by The Queen and awarded an MBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list for her services to children with epilepsy.
Emma works globally with several branches of Matthew’s Friends now in operation and in 2011 her dream was realised of opening their own Clinic in the UK treating both children and adults. 2016 saw Matthew’s Friends extend their remit further to include the ‘KetoCollege’ side of the organisation which is a training programme and online tutorials for medical professionals who want to work in this field.
Together with her Co-director Julie Fountain, she is responsible for the smooth running of the clinics as well as contractual agreements and service level agreements, together with the development and running of KetoCollege.
She is also involved in Clinical Research, support and educational work with the families.