Non-executive directors
Professor Malcolm Grant CBE – Chair
As chair, Professor Malcolm Grant provides strategic leadership and ensures proper governance for the board. He is also the President and Provost of University College London. He is a qualified barrister and academic lawyer with wide experience of public service, including roles in the Local Government Commission, Higher Education Funding Council for England and as a UK Business Ambassador.
Ed Smith – Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit Committee
Ed Smith is one of NHS England’s Non-Executive Directors and has been appointed Chair of our Audit Committee. Ed is the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council at the University of Birmingham. He is the former Global Assurance Chief Operating Officer and Strategy Chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Before retiring he had a successful 30-year career with PwC, holding many leading board and top client roles in the UK and globally as a Senior Partner. He now holds board roles in education, sport, thought leadership and sustainable development, as well as a number of commercial interests.
He is Chairman of WWF UK and a member of its International Board and Audit Committee, Chairman of British Universities and Colleges Sport, a Member of Council and Treasurer of Chatham House, Deputy Chair of the Managing Partners Forum and Chairman of the Student Loans company. Ed is also a board member at the Department for Transport, where he chairs the Audit Committee, and is a member of the UK Competition Commission.
Ciarán Devane – Non-Executive Director
Ciarán Devane was educated at University College, Dublin, where he gained first-class honours in biochemical engineering. He also holds a Masters Degree in International Policy from George Washington University, Washington DC. He worked for ICI for eight years before joining Gemini Consulting, an international management consultancy firm. He has also served as Chairman of a major UK Housing Association. Ciarán joined Macmillan Cancer Support as Chief Executive in May 2007. He co-chairs the National Cancer Survivorship Initiative, sits on the board of the National Cancer Intelligence Network and is a trustee of The Makaton Charity.
Follow Ciarán on Twitter @ciarandevane
Margaret Casely-Hayford – Non-Executive Director
Margaret Casely-Hayford is Director of Legal Services and Company Secretary at John Lewis Partnership plc and a board member at the British Retail Consortium. She has previously been a Trustee and Special Trustee of Geffrye Museum and of Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity.
Dame Moira Gibb – Non-Executive Director
Dame Moira Gibb is a Civil Service Commissioner and until December 2011 was Chief Executive of the London Borough of Camden. She is also Chair of the Social Work Reform Board on behalf of Department of Education and Department of Health and Board Member of UK Statistics Authority. She has previously been President of the Association of Directors of Social Services and a member of the NHS Future Forum.
Naguib Kheraj – Non-Executive Director
Naguib Kheraj spends the majority of his time in the not-for-profit sector. He is engaged in a variety of agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network and is a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Aga Khan University, Chairman of the Aga Khan Foundation (UK) National Committee and Chairman of the Aga Khan Development Network Endowment Committee. He is also a member of the Investment Committee of the Wellcome Trust, the Board of Commissioners, UK-US Fulbright Commission, and the Board of Governors at The Institute of Ismaili Studies.
Naguib is a banker by background and over the course of his career served in a number of senior management and board-level positions in the international banking industry at Barclays, JP Morgan Cazenove, Robert Fleming and Salomon Brothers.
Lord Victor Adebowale – Non-Executive Director
Lord Adebowale is currently Chief Executive and company secretary of Turning Point. He is a cross-bench peer and Non-Executive Director at the Audit Commission. He is President of the Community Practitioners and Health Visitors Association and a Patron of Social Enterprise UK. He is also a Commissioner for the UK Commission for Employment and Skills and a member of the NHS Future Forum. His previous roles include being the Chief Executive at Centre Point, the youth homelessness charity.
Executive directors
Sir David Nicholson – Chief Executive
As Chief Executive of NHS England, Sir David Nicholson CBE leads the design and development of the new commissioning system. Before the formation of NHS England in April 2013, he was Chief Executive of the NHS from 2006. He previously held chief executive roles at NHS London, and three other regional health authorities. Having joined the NHS as part of its Graduate Management Trainee scheme, his 31-year career has included leadership roles in acute and mental health services.
He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2004 New Year’s Honours List for his services to the NHS and made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2010 New Year’s Honours.
Professor Sir Bruce Keogh – National Medical Director
Professor Sir Bruce Keogh is NHS England’s Medical Director. During the transition to new NHS structures, he has continued in his role as Medical Director of the National Health Service in England, responsible for clinical quality, policy and strategy and postgraduate education of doctors, dentists, pharmacists and clinical scientists.
Formerly, Sir Bruce had a distinguished career in surgery. He was President of the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain and Ireland, Secretary-General of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, International Director of the US Society of Thoracic Surgeons, and President of the Cardiothoracic Section of the Royal Society of Medicine. He has served as a Commissioner on the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) and the Healthcare Commission. He was knighted for services to medicine in 2003.
Jane Cummings – Chief Nursing Officer
Jane Cummings joins NHS England from NHS North of England where she was Chief Nurse and her key challenges included the development and maintenance of new systems of performance management and strategic leadership for nursing. She was also the lead director for the Quality Framework. Jane worked for the NHS for several years as a nurse, specialising in emergency care, before moving into general management. She has held a variety of clinical and managerial roles including Director of Commissioning, Director of Nursing and Deputy Chief Executive.
In February 2004, Jane was appointed as the national lead for emergency care with responsibility for improving waiting times and delivering the four-hour target in A&E. In January 2005, she was appointed as the National Implementation Director for ‘Choice’ and ‘Choose and Book’.
Follow Jane on Twitter @JaneMCummings
Bill McCarthy – National Director: Policy
Bill McCarthy is the National Director responsible for policy and was the Managing Director responsible for establishing NHS England. Bill has operated at board level in the NHS, central government and local government for the past 10 years. He is an economist by training. His most recent previous roles were as Chief Executive at NHS Yorkshire and the Humber, and Chief Executive at City of York Council.
Before that he was Director-General at the Department of Health (2005-07) responsible for health and social care strategy, system reform, and policy development and implementation. Earlier posts in different parts of the public sector included Director of Planning and Performance at a major teaching hospital.
Dame Barbara Hakin – National Director: Commissioning Development
Dame Barbara Hakin is the National Director responsible for overseeing development of the new commissioning architecture. She is also National Managing Director of Commissioning Development at the Department of Health, retaining this role during the transition to the new NHS structure. Dame Barbara was formerly Chief Executive of East Midlands Strategic Health Authority, and before that she was a PCT Chief Executive in Bradford. During this time she also held a broad range of national roles including Interim Director General of Commissioning in the Department of Health and Director of Primary Care in the Modernisation Agency.
Before moving into a full-time career in management in 2000, she was a GP in Bradford for over 20 years. Dame Barbara is well known for her role in the development of clinical commissioning, in particular the redesign of services to move care into the community and primary care setting. She has also championed services to reduce inequalities and has been instrumental in promoting the equality and diversity agenda.
Dame Barbara was made an OBE in 2000 and a DBE in 2008.
Follow Barbara on Twitter @BarbaraHakin
Paul Baumann – Chief Financial Officer
Paul Baumann is NHS England’s Chief Financial Officer. He joined NHS London, the Strategic Health Authority, in May 2007 after 22 years of experience of international financial management and strategic leadership at Unilever. He was NHS London’s first Director of Finance and Performance and more recently has held the post of Director of Finance and Investment. In this role he has overseen a significant financial recovery programme for London’s PCTs and Trusts and has focused on the development of strategies to deliver long-term viability and sustainability across the London health economy. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
Jo-Anne Wass – National Director: Human Resources
Jo-Anne Wass is responsible for human resources and organisational development. Jo-Anne’s career in the NHS spans more than 24 years, during which time she has held a range of roles in HR, training, leadership development, and communications. Jo-Anne has experience working in a range of organisations in Yorkshire and the North West of England, including secondary and tertiary providers, primary care trusts, health authorities, and most recently at the Department of Health. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and has a master’s degree in Strategic Human Resource Management from Durham University.
Follow Jo on Twitter @JoNHSCB
Tim Kelsey – National Director for Patients and Information
Tim Kelsey joined NHS England from the Cabinet Office where he was the first Executive Director of Transparency and Open Data. Tim is a leading advocate of a popular knowledge revolution in our public services and, in 2000, co-founded Dr Foster, a company that pioneered the publication of patient outcomes in healthcare. He is an internationally regarded expert in thinking differently about how digital and social media can transform the customer – and patient – experience in public services. In 2007, he launched NHS Choices, the national online health information service (www.nhs.uk) which now reports around 20 million unique users a month.
Tim was named a Reformer of the Year by the think tank Reform in 2012. Before Dr Foster, Tim was a national newspaper journalist and a television reporter. He worked for the Independent and The Sunday Times, as well as Channel 4 and the BBC.
Follow Tim on Twitter @tkelsey1
Richard Barker – Regional Director (North)
Richard joined NHS England from NHS North of England, where he was Chief Operating Officer. Prior to this he worked at NHS North East where he was the Director of Commissioning Development – one of the 10 regional development commissioners appointed to lead the NHS through the transition to its new structure.
His previous roles included Chief Operating Officer for NHS South of Tyne and Wear. This followed 10 years as an executive director within Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals. He began working in NHS management in 1984 and his career has included senior roles with a regional health authority, district health authority and in hospital management.
Dr Paul Watson – Regional Director (Midlands and the East)
Dr Paul Watson joined NHS England from NHS Suffolk, where he was chief executive. Paul has held a number of previous board-level posts including Director of Commissioning at East of England SHA, where he oversaw the largest financial and service recovery programme in the NHS. He has also held a number of national appointments including membership of the NICE Appraisal Committee and the Independent Reconfiguration Panel. Paul originally trained as a doctor at Cambridge University and is a qualified NHS consultant in public health medicine.
Dr Anne Rainsberry – Regional Director (London)
Dr Anne Rainsberry joined NHS England from NHS London where she was Director of People and Organisational Development and Deputy Chief Executive. Anne has worked in health for more than 20 years, both in general management and in human resources. She first became an HR Director in the NHS in 1995, holding a number of board-level positions in London. Anne joined the Department of Health in 2001, working first as Director of Workforce Development in the South East Regional Office and latterly the Department of Health and Social Care Sector, with responsibility for leading the delivery of workforce modernisation in the NHS and Social Care across the southeast and subsequently the south of England.
In 2004 Anne was appointed as Director of Human Resources for the Department of Health with responsibility for the department and its agencies, and for leading HR policy for its 26 arms-length bodies. In 2005 she was awarded a Doctorate of Business Administration with distinction.
Andrea Young – Regional Director (South)
Andrea Young joined NHS England from NHS South of England where she was Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer. Prior to this Andrea was Chief Executive of NHS South Central from October 2009 to October 2011, when the SHA merged with South East Coast SHA and South West SHA to form NHS South of England. Andrea was previously the Chief Executive of NHS Oxfordshire, a post which she took up in 2006. Early in her career she worked in research, health policy and public health strategy roles before taking on a series of increasingly senior roles in Oxfordshire Health Authority.
