Chair

Richard Meddings

Richard Meddings joined the Board of NHS England as Chair in March 2022.

From 2002 to 2014, Richard was a Group Executive Director at Standard Chartered, and Group Finance Director for eight years. Prior to that he was Group Finance Director at the Woolwich and Group Financial Controller of Barclays. He has in the past been Chairman of TSB Bank, served on the Board of HM Treasury, as a Non-Executive Director on the Boards of Credit Suisse, Legal & General, 3i Group, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group and at Deutsche Bank A.G. He has in these roles variously chaired Audit, Risk and Remuneration Committees. He has additionally sat as a panel member for HM Treasury on several Major Projects Reviews and undertaken Independent Commercial Assessments of DFID and of the FCO.

From 2004 to 2014, Richard was Chairman of Seeing is Believing, a charity focused on curing avoidable blindness. He was a Trustee, and more recently Deputy Chair, of Teach First from 2016 to January 2022 and served on behalf of the Department of Education, for four years as Chairman of the Hastings Opportunity Area.

He is an Associate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, attended Wolverhampton Grammar School and has a Degree in Modern History from Exeter College, Oxford. Richard is married, with three adult children, and lives in East Sussex.

Deputy chair

Wol Kolade

Wol Kolade joined us as Deputy Chair of NHS England on 25 March 2022, after serving as a non-executive director on the NHS Improvement board from August 2018 to March 2022.

Wol is the Managing Partner and Head at Livingbridge. He joined the firm in 1993 and is responsible for the leadership and strategic development of the firm – and takes an active involvement in the firm’s investments. He trained as an engineer, having studied civil and structural engineering at King’s College London and spent three years with Barclays in various head office roles, before joining Livingbridge.

Wol was formerly is a trustee of Somerset House Trust and a co-founder of the 10,000 Black Interns Initiative. He also sits on the advisory boards of Acorn Capital, Level 20 and the Prudence Trust.

Wol was formerly Chair of the £1 billion Guys and St Thomas’ Foundation, one of the UK’s largest medical endowments, and is also a member of the Scale Up Taskforce at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. He was appointed an Emeritus Governor of the London School of Economics in 2017 and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Exeter in 2014. Wol was awarded a CBE for services to financial services in the Queen’s 2021 Birthday Honours.

Deputy chair

Sir Andrew Morris, OBE, Hon FRCP

Sir Andrew Morris joined us as Deputy Chair of NHS England on 1 July 2022. Andrew joined the NHS Improvement board in August 2018 and served as the Chair of NHS Improvement between October 2021 to the abolishment of NHS Improvement in June 2022.

Sir Andrew has over 40 years’ experience in NHS management and has held a range of senior NHS appointments. He was appointed General Manager of Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in 1989 and was the Chief Executive from 1991 to February 2018.

Sir Andrew managed the establishment of the Ministry of Defence Hospital Unit in 1996 and successfully led Frimley Park’s application to become a Foundation Trust in 2005.

In 2014 he led the acquisition of Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to create Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust. He is a member of the Institute of Health Service Management and an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

He was knighted in January 2015 for services to public health.

Non executive director

Jane Ellison

Jane Ellison joined the Board of NHS England in February 2024.

From 2017 to 2022 Jane worked for the World Health Organization in Geneva. She served in the leadership team as Deputy Director-General Corporate Operations and, from 2019, as Executive Director, External Relations and Governance.

Before joining WHO, Jane was a Member of Parliament from 2010 to 2017. She founded the first All Party Group on Female Genital Mutilation in 2011 and served as Public Health Minister from 2013 to 2016 and Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 2016. She was ministerial lead on legislation including the plain packaging of tobacco, the ban on smoking in cars with children present, the mitochondrial donation regulations and the UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy (‘sugar tax’).

Jane was awarded WHO’s ‘World No Tobacco’ Day medal in 2016, jointly with a French health minister. She is a non-executive director of The Behavioural Insights Team, a trustee of Action on Smoking and Health, and a member of the global advisory council of a NGO, Tobacco Free Portfolios.

Before entering Parliament, Jane worked for the John Lewis Partnership for over twenty years, serving in various management roles. She was born and educated in Bradford, and studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at St Hilda’s College, Oxford.

Non executive director

Mark Bailie

Mark Bailie joined the Board of NHS England in February 2024.

Mark has an extensive background in developing digital strategies for consumer-facing businesses and has significant operational expertise in complex regulated environments. Since September 2020, he has been Chief Executive of the BGL Group, which owns Compare the Market, the UK’s leading digital comparison service; and French price comparison website, Les Furets.

Prior to joining BGL, Mark was on secondment from RBS to the Government’s NHS Test and Trace programme. He was previously an Executive Committee member at RBS, and during a ten-year tenure with the business, held positions including CEO of Bó, Chief Operating Officer, and CEO Capital Resolution.

Before re-joining RBS, Mark spent 10 years leading private equity investments in the UK, US, and South Africa across a wide variety of sectors. Mark worked in Audit and Corporate Finance at PwC between 1995 and 2000. He qualified as a chartered accountant in 1998.
Mark attended Aylesbury Grammar School and is a graduate of the University of Manchester, where he studied Economics. Mark is married with four children and lives in London.

Non executive director

Professor Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard

Professor Dame Helen Stokes-Lampard joined the NHS England Board in January 2024.

She is a frontline NHS General Practitioner (GMS partner) in Lichfield and a Professor of GP Education at the University of Birmingham. She has held several prestigious positions in the medical field, most notably serving as the Chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges from 2020-2023 (AoMRC) throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. AoMRC is the umbrella body for all medical Colleges in the UK and Ireland. She was Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners from 2016-2019.

Helen sits on many national advisory groups and boards including the Expert panel advising the National AI Security Institute (formerly the Frontier AI Taskforce).

She is also the founding Chair of the National Academy for Social Prescribing, where she is actively involved in shaping the direction of social prescribing, establishing an academic foundation for the movement, and forming alliances to increase its impact. She has a positive, energetic outlook and is a firm believer in the Harry Truman saying, ‘it’s remarkable what you can achieve when you do not care who gets the credit.’

Her contributions to General Practice and healthcare were recognised by the award of DBE (New Year Honours 2022). Subsequently she, along with several other ‘Dames’, have recently formed the Dames Commander Society (DCS), with the intention of using their collective influence for societal good.

Non executive director

Professor Sir Robert Lechler

Professor Sir Robert Lechler joined the Board of NHS England in February 2024.

Having stepped down from leading the Health Faculties at King’s College London and founding and leading King’s Health Partners Academic Health Science Centre for fifteen years, Sir Robert Lechler has embarked on a portfolio career co-chairing the Board of SC1, a life sciences cluster in South East London, chairing the Board of MiNA Tx, an RNA therapy company, acting as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Quell Therapeutics Limited, a cell therapy company, chairing an External Advisory Board for Birmingham Health Partners, and chairing the Board of Directors of the London Mozart Players. He is also an external advisor for an Executive Search company, Alumni Global.

In 2012 Robert was awarded a Knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday honours for Services to Academic Medicine and in 2015 he was elected as the President of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences, a post he held until 2020.  In addition, Robert was a Founding Board Member of MedCity, was a Board Member of the Crick Institute, and a Trustee of the British Heart Foundation.

He is a strong advocate of the Academic Health Science Centre model of university-healthcare partnerships. In recent years he has promoted the development of life sciences clusters, drawing life science industries into closer partnership with healthcare and academia. Doing this in a way that reduces health inequality and promotes population health is a pressing challenge for many countries in the developed world. This imperative has been further highlighted by the Covid pandemic.

Non-executive director

Mike Coupe

Mike Coupe joined the Board of NHS England in January 2021. Mike was appointed CEO of Sainsbury’s on 9 July 2014 and retired May 2020. Before that he was Group Commercial Director, with responsibility for Trading, Marketing, IT and Online. He became an Executive Director in August 2007 after joining the Sainsbury’s Operating Board in October 2004.

He joined Sainsbury’s from Big Food Group plc where he was a Board Director and Managing Director of Iceland Food Stores. He previously worked for both ASDA and Tesco, where he served in a variety of senior management roles.

Mike is currently Chairman of Oak Furniture Ltd, Harding Retail Group and New Look.

He was bought up in West Sussex and studied Physics at the University of Birmingham. He began his career as a Marketing trainee at Unilever.

Non-executive director

Baroness Mary Watkins

Mary joined the NHS England Board in January 2023.

She is a General and Mental Health Nurse with a Master’s Degree in Nursing and a PhD. She has held several clinical and higher education appointments.

Mary was Dean of Health Studies and Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Plymouth University, roles which involved development of the Peninsula Medical and Dental Schools.  She has held several non-executive board posts including as Deputy Chair of the South-West Ambulance NHS Foundation Trust.

As Alternate Chair of Nursing Now, a global initiative to raise the profile of nursing, Mary co-chaired the WHO Review of the State of the World’s Nursing in 2020.   She recently chaired the HEE Mental Health Nursing Workforce Review and the National Wound Care Strategy Programme (NHS England).

Mary holds an Emeritus Chair in Healthcare Leadership at Plymouth University, is a Visiting Professor of Nursing at King’s College, London and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing.

She currently chairs Look Ahead, a housing association that specialises in supporting vulnerable people, providing sheltered homes and services for homeless clients.

Mary was appointed as a Cross-Bench Life Peer in 2015 and is now a Deputy Speaker in the House of Lords.

Non-executive director

Jeremy Townsend

Jeremy Townsend joined the Board in October 2020 and is the chair of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee.

Jeremy has recently retired from his position of Chief Financial Officer of Rentokil Initial PLC after ten years with the Group. He was previously Group Finance Director of Mitchells and Butlers PLC and prior to that held various senior finance positions at J Sainsbury PLC. Jeremy started his career at Ernst and Young LLP and is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW). He is also a Non-Executive Director, Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee of PZ Cussons PLC, is a Trustee of parkrun Global and is interim Chief Financial Officer for Marks and Spencer.

Non-executive director

Sir David Behan

Undertaking voluntary work with single homeless people whilst at school in the mid-1970s provided David with the beginning of the ‘golden thread‘ that has run through his career -the commitment to make a contribution to a more socially just society. Initially this was as a social worker and over a twenty-five-year period he worked in five Local Authorities leading three as Director of Social Services.

He was President of the Association of Directors of Social Services in 2002.

In 2003 he became the first Chief Inspector of the Commission for Social Care Inspection. In 2006 he became the first Director General for Social Care in the Department of Health in England advising Ministers of both the Labour and Coalition Governments. During this period, he was responsible for a range of policy areas including social care reform and the development of the first dementia strategy for England.

As CEO of the Care Quality Commission from 2012 to 2018, he led a fundamental reform of the way health and care services were regulated.

From 2018 he has held several Non-Executive Director and Advisor roles with a number of public and private organisations across the health and social care system which currently include: Cera Care, HC-One limited, the London School of Economics Care Policy Evaluation Centre, the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Board and the international Sciana Leadership Programme. Between 2018 to 2023 he has chaired the Board of Health Education England. He is a Non-Executive Director of NHS England chairing the Workforce, Training and Education Committee.

Non-executive director

Professor Sir Simon Wessely

Sir Simon Wessely FMedSci FRS is the Interim Dean of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London, where he is also the UK’s only Regius Chair of Psychiatry. Since 1991 he has been a Consultant Psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley and also King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts.

After medical training at Oxford he obtained the MRCP in Newcastle, before moving to London to train in psychiatry at the Maudsley. He is an active clinical academic psychiatrist and was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1999, and became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2021. He is a Past President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (2013-17) and the Royal Society of Medicine (2017-2020).

After a Master’s and Doctorate in epidemiology, he founded the King’s Centre for Military Health Research. He remains the Honorary Consultant Advisor in Psychiatry to the British Army, and works with several charities for Veterans. Sir Simon chaired the government’s Independent Review of the Mental Health Act between 2017-19. He was the Director of the PHE NIHR Health Protection Research Unit for Emergency Preparedness and Response, which has been very active during the COVID-19 crisis, and continues to have a broad interest in how people and populations react to adversity and  occupational health and well being.

Non-executive director

Professor Sir Mark Walport

Professor Sir Mark Walport joined the Board of NHS England in January 2023. He is Honorary Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Imperial College and chairs Imperial College Health Partners and Imperial College Academic Health Sciences Centre. He is a trustee of Health Data Research UK.

He trained as a clinician scientist in Cambridge and London, and spent most of the first 25 years of his career as a practising rheumatologist and general physician. He became Professor and Head of the Division of Medicine at Imperial College in 1997.

In 2003 he was appointed Director of the Wellcome Trust, in 2013 Government Chief Scientific Adviser and in 2017 founding CEO of UK Research and Innovation. As the government chief scientific adviser, he advised on science, technology and engineering for many aspects of government policy. He chaired the scientific advice group in emergencies (SAGE) during the Ebola and Zika epidemics. He was appointed a member of the Prime Minister’s Council of Science and Technology (CST) in 2004, and co-chaired CST during his time as government chief scientific adviser. He was a founding Fellow and the first Registrar of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and is a Fellow and council member of the Royal Society and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Associate non-executive director

Tanuj Kapilashrami

As the Chief Strategy & Talent Officer of Standard Chartered, Tanuj leads the Strategy, HR, Corporate Affairs, Brand & Marketing, Property and Supply Chain teams. Leading at the intersection of corporate strategy, transformation, people and brand, she is responsible for how the Bank develops, executes and communicates its strategy. Prior to taking on this role in 2024, Tanuj was the Bank’s Chief Human Resources Officer.

Tanuj is a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Sainsbury’s PLC and a member of their Nomination and Remuneration Committees. She is a Board member of the UK Financial Services Skills Commission, a member of the Asia House Board of Trustees, and also on the board of Autumn, an integrated digital wealth, health and lifestyle solutions start-up.

Prior to joining Standard Chartered in 2017, Tanuj built her career in banking across multiple markets, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, India, and London.

Associate non-executive director

Suresh Viswanathan

Suresh has been the Chief Operating Officer at Nationwide Building Society since October 2022, leading their technology strategy and transformation, technology functions and broader Society central business services.

He has over 30 years of experience in technology and financial services, specialising in setting up complex global technology operations and integrations.

Suresh began his career at Citi Group, where he set up their branch-banking platform and led acquisition and integrations across Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa. He joined Barclays in 2008 as Chief Information Officer for Barclays Corporate Bank and then went on to lead Operations and Technology for Barclays UK, where he helped set up their ring-fenced bank. Between 2019 to 2022, Suresh was the Chief Operating Officer at TSB, overseeing digital transformation, and broader technology and corporate functions.

Amanda Pritchard – NHS Chief Executive

Amanda Pritchard is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NHS England, which leads the NHS’ work nationally to improve health and ensure high quality care for all. She is also accountable to Parliament for the NHS’ £150 billion of annual funding.

Her prior role was NHS England and NHS Improvement’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) and NHS Improvement’s Chief Executive. As COO, Amanda oversaw NHS operational performance and delivery, as well as implementation of the service transformation and patient care improvements set out in the NHS Long Term Plan.

Amanda was previously Chief Executive of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust from January 2016 to July 2019, having been Acting Chief Executive since October 2015. Prior to that she served as Chief Operating Officer at the trust for three and a half years.

Amanda joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ from Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust where she spent six years as Deputy Chief Executive, having previously held a variety of senior strategic and operational management roles there, including Director of Strategy and Service Development. Amanda joined the NHS through its graduate management training scheme in 1997 and has held a variety of other NHS management positions since then. She has also served as health team leader in the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit .

Julian Kelly – Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer

Prior to joining the NHS Executive Group, Julian was Director General Nuclear, leading the Defence Nuclear Organisation at the Ministry of Defence.

Previously he was Director General of Public Spending and Finance at HM Treasury, and has held a number of other senior roles including with the UK Border Agency, and in the private sector with HSBC.

He is a qualified chartered accountant and member of Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

Dr Emily Lawson DBE – Chief Operating Officer for NHS England

Dr Emily Lawson DBE is Chief Operating Officer for NHS England and a key member of the Executive team.

Previously, she was Head of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit and Director General of the Delivery Group. In this role, Emily led on delivery of the Prime Minister’s top priorities and improving public outcomes. She set up the Delivery Group as part of her personal mission to improve and professionalise delivery capability across government.

Emily previously worked at NHS England and Improvement where she led the operational delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine across England from its inception, returning temporarily to this role to lead the booster programme. She ensured the vaccine was rolled out in line with Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advice and ensuring fair and equitable access to maximise uptake across all communities. The national NHS Covid-19 vaccine programme was hugely successful preventing hundreds of thousands of hospitalisations and saving tens of thousands of lives.

Prior to leading the NHS vaccine programme, Emily was the Chief Commercial Officer, and previously the National Director for Transformation for NHS England and Improvement. As Chief Commercial Officer, Emily was responsible for procurement, estates, innovation, and other key commercial functions across the health service.

Before working in NHS England, Emily held multiple private sector roles including Chief People Officer at Kingfisher plc and Group HRD at Morrisons. She also spent 14 years at McKinsey working across several sectors leading transformation.

Emily has a career-long interest in ensuring women and under-represented groups have equal access to opportunities at work, leading McKinsey’s ‘Women Matter’ research for several years, being a founder member and previous Deputy Chair of the 30percent club, as well as acting as career advisor and coach for former colleagues across private and public sectors.

Emily was awarded a DBE in the New Year Honours List 2022 for services to the NHS, particularly for Covid-19.

Professor Sir Stephen Powis – National Medical Director

Since the start of 2018 Stephen has been National Medical Director of NHS England. He is also Professor of Renal Medicine at University College London. Stephen was appointed Interim NHS Improvement Chief Executive Officer on 3 August 2021.

Previously he was Medical Director (and latterly Group Chief Medical Officer) of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust from 2006 to 2018. Professor Powis was also a member of the governing body of Merton Clinical Commissioning Group for five years and a Director of Healthcare Services Laboratories LLP.

He is a past chairman of the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board Specialty Advisory Committee for Renal Medicine and a former board member of Medical Education England. He was Director of Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education for UCLPartners from 2010-13.

He is a past treasurer and trustee of the British Transplantation Society and a former member of the UK Transplant Kidney Pancreas Advisory Group.

Dame Ruth May – Chief Nursing Officer, England

Ruth is the Chief Nursing Officer for England and an Executive/National Director at NHS England. She is also the National Director responsible for infection prevention and control.

Ruth was appointed following her roles as Executive Director of Nursing at NHS Improvement, which commenced in April 2016, and Director of Nursing at Monitor, the healthcare sector regulator.

Prior to joining Monitor, she was Regional Chief Nurse and Nurse Director for the Midlands and East region in NHS England, where she championed the ‘Stop the Pressure’ campaign, which nearly halved the number of pressure ulcers in the region, improving care for patients, as well as delivering cost savings to the NHS.

Ruth is passionate about nurturing the next generation of NHS nursing, midwifery and allied health professions (AHP) leaders, encouraging professional development opportunities and working across the health system to put in place the optimal cultural conditions for all NHS employees to thrive. This includes advocating for improved mental health awareness in the workplace, championing volunteer activity to support the frontline workforce and being a vocal supporter of the NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard agenda and increased diversity across the NHS.

Ruth began her career with a variety of nursing roles before becoming a theatre sister at Frimley Park Hospital. She was Acting Director of Nursing at Barnet Hospital before being appointed the substantive Director of Nursing and Deputy Chief Executive with Havering Primary Care Trust.

In October 2005, she became Chief Executive of The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn, a post she held for two years. She has also been Chief Executive of Mid-Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust.

Dr Navina Evans CBE – Chief Workforce, Training and Education Officer

Dr Navina Evans joined HEE on 1 October 2020 from East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) where she had been Chief Executive since 2016.

She has over twenty years of clinical experience in psychiatry, medicine and paediatrics and previously held the positions of Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Operations.

Navina has worked as the Clinical Director for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services at ELFT. She has also been involved in medical education and provided pastoral care to medical students.

Navina acts as a trustee for Think Ahead Organisation which develops training programmes for mental health social work. She was awarded an honorary fellowship by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2020. She is a senior fellow at the Institute of Healthcare Improvement.

Navina uses her voice in support of staff wellbeing and coproduction with patients, advocating for the best possible quality of life and creating a culture of enjoying work for staff. She was awarded the Commander of the British Empire in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List for services to NHS Leadership and the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic community.

Dr Vin Diwakar – Interim National Director of Transformation

Dr Vin Diwakar is the Interim National Director of Transformation, leading the NHS’s work nationally in transforming the way that care is delivered, enabling the access to best care and outcomes for people that the NHS serves and the people who work in it.

Prior to this role Vin was the Medical Director for Transformation in NHS England, providing clinical leadership to improvement and transformation. Additionally while in this role Vin led teams supporting improvement and transformation of a number of different clinical areas including diagnostics, urgent, emergency, acute and planned care, and was responsible for improving clinical effectiveness.

Formerly Vin provided clinical leadership to London’s health and care system, and was a key member of the multi-professional regional team which led the capital through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vin has been in the NHS for 33 years, working as a consultant paediatrician in Birmingham.

Steve Russell – Chief Delivery Officer and National Director for Vaccinations and Screening

Steve Russell joined NHS England in February 2022 to lead the NHS COVID-19 vaccination and flu programmes. Before that Steve was Chief Executive of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust and he has a decade’s worth of board level experience in NHS organisations.

Before joining Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust he was NHS Improvement’s Regional Director for London. He started in the NHS as a graduate trainee in Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust where he worked for fourteen years before moving to London where he was Chief Operating Officer at South London Healthcare and Deputy Chief Executive at Barking Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust.

Jacqui Rock – Chief Commercial Officer

Jacqui was previously Chief Commercial Officer, Head of Corporate Services and Transition Director at the UK Health Security Agency. As a member of the NHS Test and Trace Executive Team, she was a driving force behind dynamic and rapid innovation and technology development in the supply chain.

Jacqui was formerly director for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation at the Ministry of Defence, and is a member of the Cabinet Office Commercial Function. She joined the UK government after 30 years in the financial services industry where she held multiple executive positions in companies including Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, Barclays and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Chris Hopson – Chief Strategy Officer

Chris joined NHS England in June 2022 as the newly created Chief Strategy Officer, responsible for NHS England’s strategy; policy; communications; stakeholder management including NHS England’s formal relationship with Government; health inequalities and a greener NHS.

Between 2012 and 2022 Chris was Chief Executive of NHS Providers, the membership organisation for the 220 NHS hospital, mental health, community and ambulance services trusts that collectively account for £105 billion of annual spend and employ 1.2 million staff.

Prior to this Chris was a Board Director at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and at Granada Media, subsequently ITV plc, mostly in communications and strategy roles. He was also the first political adviser at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and chief executive of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Chris is a graduate of the civil service High Potential Development Scheme, designed to identify and develop the next generation of top civil service leaders. He holds an MBA and honorary Doctorate from Cranfield Business School. He has held a range of non-executive roles including membership of the British Standards Institute (BSI) Standards Policy and Strategy Committee, overseeing BSI’s role as the UK’s national standards body, and chair of Foyer Federation, a UK national youth charity supporting homeless 16-25 year olds.

Dr Amanda Doyle OBE – National Director for Primary Care and Community Services

Dr Amanda Doyle OBE took up the post of National Director for Primary Care and Community Services on 13 June 2022. Amanda joined NHS England as North West Regional Director on 2 August 2021. Previously she was the Chief Clinical Officer for West Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), Blackpool CCG and Fylde and Wyre CCG. Amanda was also the Integrated Care System Lead for Lancashire and South Cumbria, leading a large health and care transformation programme across the patch.

Amanda has been a GP for more than 20 years, practising in a large practice in a deprived area of Blackpool, which, in addition to primary medical services, provides a range of urgent care services for patients across the Fylde Coast.

Amanda was the Co-Chair of NHS Clinical Commissioners from 2013 to 2018.

She was Senior Responsible Officer for the primary care component of the Long Term Plan and was involved in the leadership of the health inequalities, prevention and personalisation elements.

She was part of the national General Medical Services (GMS) Negotiation team in 2018 which delivered the reformed GMS Contract. Amanda maintains an interest in urgent care. She was for 10 years a Medical Director of the local GP out-of-hours service.

Amanda was awarded an OBE for services to primary care and commissioning in 2014.

Sir James Mackey – National Director of Elective Recovery

Sir James is National Director of Elective Recovery at NHS England

Since January 2024, Jim has been Chief Executive of Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. He is also Chair of the NHS Customer Board for Procurement and Supply.

From 2003 to 2023, Jim was Chief Executive of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, during which time (2015-2017) he was Chief Executive of NHS Improvement on secondment.

He was knighted in 2019 for services to healthcare.

Sarah-Jane Marsh – National Director of Urgent and Emergency Care and Deputy Chief Operating Officer

Sarah-Jane joined NHS England in January 2023. Previously she was Chief Executive of Birmingham Children’s Hospital for over 13 years, achieving an Outstanding CQC rating, before integrating with Birmingham Women’s in 2017 to create Birmingham Women’s and Children’s, the first such organisation in Europe.

In 2020, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Sarah-Jane was asked to become Director of Testing at the newly formed NHS Test and Trace and during 2021 she Chaired the National Health and Social Care Discharge Taskforce. Sarah-Jane has also led the NHS England Maternity Transformation Programme, the NHS England Children and Young People’s Transformation Programme, and the Genomics England New-born Screening Programme.

In 2022 Sarah-Jane received a CBE for her services to leadership in the NHS and an honorary professorship from the University of Birmingham in recognition of her contribution to science and research.

Her passions are exceeding the expectations of patients and citizens, while supporting leaders from all backgrounds to achieve their full potential.

Caroline Clarke – London Regional Director

Caroline was previously Group Chief Executive (2019 – 2023) and Deputy Chief Executive (2012 – 2019) at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, leading one of the largest teaching trusts in the country.

During her tenure, Caroline led the Royal Free London through Covid.

Prior to this, Caroline held senior positions including as Finance Director at multiple NHS trusts and as Associate Partner in KPMG’s health strategy team.

Caroline is a trustee of Overcoming MS and the Healthcare Financial Management Association, the representative body for finance staff in healthcare.

Passionate about both the NHS and London, Caroline started her NHS career as a finance trainee in 1991 and has lived in London for 35 years.

Anne Eden – South East Regional Director

Anne has been Regional Director of the South East region for NHS England since October 2017. She was Regional Director for the South region for NHS Improvement when the organisation was created in April 2016 and prior to that, she served as Director of Delivery and Development at one of its predecessor organisations, the NHS Trust Development Authority, since 2015.

She is lead for all regions on the national performance and delivery group for mental health.

Anne has more than 30 years’ experience in the NHS, starting her career as an NHS management trainee and has experience in acute and teaching hospitals, mental health, community and specialist services.

She joined Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust as Chief Executive in December 2006, and led the integration of the county’s acute and community services in 2010.

In 2012 she became a visiting professor at Buckinghamshire New University and adviser to the faculty of society and health, supporting the Institute of Applied Leadership’s MA in Leadership and Management programme.

Clare Panniker – East of England Regional Director

As a former nurse who has spent over 30 years working in the NHS, Clare joins East of England from Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, where she has been Chief Executive since the Trust formed in April 2020.

Clare’s frontline and leadership experience will be key to supporting NHS colleagues to provide better and more joined up patient care. She will lead the region’s work with integrated care boards and focus on improvements in the provision of healthcare and outcomes for the East of England, as well as shape future policy and strategy as part of the national executive team.

Dale Bywater – Midlands Regional Director

Dale is Regional Director of the Midlands and East region and prior to this he served as the Director of Delivery and Development at the NHS Trust Development Authority, since 2012.

Before that, Dale was the National Director of Provider Delivery at the Department of Health, the Director of Provider Development for the Midlands and East Strategic Health Authority (SHA) Cluster, and Director of Performance & Operations within NHS East Midlands.

He spent the first 10 years of his career working in a variety of senior operational roles within NHS acute hospitals.

Elizabeth O’Mahony – South West Regional Director

Elizabeth O’Mahony was appointed in 2019 as the NHS Regional Director for the South West.  As Regional Director her responsibilities include providing strategic and operational oversight of healthcare for the 6 million people and 125,000 NHS staff that live and work in the South West region.  She leads the NHS work regionally to improve the health of the population and ensure high quality care for all. Elizabeth is also highly committed to ensuring that the region is a great place to work within the NHS.

With more than 25 years’ experience in the NHS, Elizabeth started her career in NHS finance and has worked across a number of provider organisations and the intermediate tier at a regional and national level.  Elizabeth’s previous role was Chief Financial Officer at NHS Improvement, having previously been the Director of Finance at the NHS Trust Development Authority.  Before that Elizabeth was Director of Finance of the South West Strategic Health Authority and throughout her career she has developed financial and workforce frameworks that contributed to the success of the organisations she has worked in.

Elizabeth’s portfolio of experience is wide-ranging and includes financial turnaround, provider development, service reconfiguration and mergers and acquisitions.  She has been actively involved in the development of national policy and strategy for a number of years.  She is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

Richard Barker – Regional Director for the North East and Yorkshire and North West regions

Richard joined NHS England as North Regional Director in 2012.

Prior to this he was Chief Operating Officer of NHS North of England. Previous roles include Executive Director of Operations and Performance for North East Strategic Health Authority, Chief Operating Officer for NHS South of Tyne and Wear and Executive Director within Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals FT.

He began NHS management in 1984 and his early career included senior roles with the Regional Health Authority, District Health Authorities and Hospital Management.