Chair

Dr Penny Dash

Penny has focused her career on improving the quality and efficiency of health and care services in order to improve life expectancy and quality of life. She has worked as a hospital doctor and as a public health doctor and was previously Head of Strategy for the NHS and the Department of Health and Social Care.

Penny has extensive experience as a consultant/advisor to healthcare systems globally. She spent five years at the Boston Consulting Group and 20 years with McKinsey & Company where she was an advisor, partner and senior partner, leading McKinsey’s healthcare practice across Europe. She has sat on a number of boards – as vice Chairman of The King’s Fund, a Non-Executive Director on the board of Monitor, the Regulator of Foundation Trusts, and Chair of North West London Integrated Care Board.

Penny is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London. She has an MSc in Public Health Medicine and a MBA from Stanford Business School where she was a Fulbright Scholar.

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 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

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

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.

Sir James Mackey – Chief Executive Officer

Sir James took up the post of Chief Executive Officer on 1 April 2025.

From September 2021 to March 2025, he was National Director of Elective Recovery at NHS England.

From January 2024 to March 2025, Jim was Chief Executive of Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Jim was also Chair of the NHS Customer Board for Procurement and Supply but stood down on taking up this post at NHS England.

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

He was knighted in 2019 for services to healthcare.

Professor David Probert BA (Hons) MBA – Deputy Chief Executive Officer

David took up the post of Deputy Chief Executive Officer on 6 May 2025. He is also Chief Executive at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, a role he started in 2021.

Prior to this, David was Chief Executive of Moorfields Eye Hospital and before that held a number of executive operational and research leadership roles at The Royal Marsden and Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trusts.

David continues to present on a number of academic and training courses and is a Visiting Professor to the UCLH Global Business School for Health. David is a past Fellow at The Institute of Healthcare Improvement, Boston, USA.

Elizabeth O’Mahony – Chief Financial Officer

Elizabeth O’Mahony took up the role of Chief Financial Officer on 1 April 2025.

Her previous role from 2019 was NHS Regional Director for the South West.  As Regional Director her responsibilities included 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.

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.

Rob Checketts – Strategic Adviser

Rob took up the post of Strategic Adviser on 5 May 2025. He joined NHS Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board as Chief Officer for Policy in 2023 after working in Doha as Executive Director of Corporate Communications for Hamad Medical Corporation for 6 years.

Prior to working in Doha, Rob held director of communications roles at NHS Trust Development Authority and Birmingham Children’s Hospital. Before joining Birmingham Children’s Hospital in 2010, Rob worked in a variety of communications roles both within the NHS and Civil Service.

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.

Duncan Burton – Chief Nursing Officer for England

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

Prior to his appointment, Duncan held the post of Deputy Chief Nursing Officer for England and led the maternity and neonatal programme and the children and young people’s transformation programme, as well as nursing workforce policy and infection prevention and control. He delivered the Nursing International Recruitment Programme, which ensured we met the 50k nurse commitment 6 months early, and the Health Care Support Worker Recruitment Programme, which resulted in the highest number of healthcare support staff employed in the NHS on record.

Duncan has spent his entire career in nursing in the NHS and has held a variety of leadership and executive roles, including Executive Director of Nursing and Patient Experience at Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation where he led the successful development and implementation of the trust’s award-winning dementia strategy.

Duncan is passionate about improving patient care and experience, improving the population’s health, growing, developing and nurturing the workforce, and inspiring the next generation of nursing and midwifery professionals and leaders.

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.

Professor Meghana Pandit MBBS FRCOG MBA – Co-National Medical Director (Secondary Care)

Meghana was a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, Clinical Director and Divisional Director at Milton Keynes University Hospital before joining University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) where she was Chief Medical Officer from May 2012 to December 2018 and Deputy Chief Executive from 2015. Meghana was part of the team at UHCW that led the partnership with Virginia Mason Institute, Seattle, USA. Meghana completed an MBA at Oxford Brookes University (Distinction) and the Innovating Healthcare for Tomorrow Program at INSEAD, Fontainebleau (2015). Meghana was awarded the Founding Senior Fellowship of the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management in 2015, is Honorary Professor at Warwick University and Fellow at Exeter College, University of Oxford.

Meghana was appointed Chief Executive Officer at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH) in July 2022 (fixed term until substantive appointment in February 2023). OUH is one of the largest acute, university teaching hospitals in the country with 14,000 staff who deliver care on 4 sites and across 45 community locations. As CEO, Meghana made ‘people’, ‘patient care’, ‘performance’ and ‘partnerships’ her 4 key strategic pillars and has focused on the OUH People Plan, productivity and delivery of compassionate and excellent patient care underpinned by the highest levels of research and innovation, and through embedding quality improvement across the organisation.

Meghana has been appointed as Co-National Medical Director (Secondary Care) in the NHS Transformation Executive team and took up this important national leadership role on an 18-month secondment with effect from 1 April 2025.

Dr Claire Fuller MRCGP – Co-National Medical Director (Primary Care)

Claire took up the post of Co-National Medical Director (Primary Care) on 1 April 2025.

She qualified from St Mary’s Hospital in 1992, and throughout her career has remained a practising GP, with experience ranging from single-handed rural practice in Northumberland to large practices in Surrey.

In September 2023 she was appointed as the Primary Care Medical Director for NHS England.

Prior to that she was the CEO for Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care System, having held executive system leadership roles in Surrey for a decade, starting as a CCG chair before transitioning into accountable officer and CEO positions. While CEO Claire implemented the vision for integrated care within Surrey.

In November 2021 Claire was invited by former NHS England Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard to look at primary care within integrated care systems. The “Fuller Stocktake” was co-signed by all 42 ICS Chief Executives who committed to implementing the recommendations. Next steps for integrating primary care: Fuller stocktake report was published in May 2022.

Since joining NHS England, Claire has prioritised improving GP retention, improving the primary/secondary care interface, improving the awareness of patient safety issues within primary care and the creation of a network of GP leaders across England.

She led the clinical review of ADHD services, resulting in the formation of a national task force.

In October 2024, the Secretary of State and former NHS CEO asked Claire and Stella Vig to lead the #redtapechallenge, reporting back in early 2025 on ways to remove bureaucracy releasing time for clinicians, and Claire is the co-chair with Caroline Abrahams of one of the vision workstreams for the 10 Year Health Plan.

Claire is a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Health and Medical Science at Surrey.

Mark Cubbon – Elective Care, Cancer and Diagnostics Director

Mark took up the post of Elective Care, Cancer and Diagnostics Director on 1 April 2025. He is also Chief Executive Officer of Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.

Mark has worked in the NHS for his entire career. He joined the NHS as a nurse in Greater Manchester in 1992.

Prior to his role at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, Mark was Chief Delivery Officer for NHS England.

Mark has held a range of senior leadership roles in his career, including Chief Executive at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, regional Chief Operating Officer for NHS Improvement in the Midlands and East of England, and several director roles in London NHS trusts, including Moorfields Eye Hospital, Whipps Cross and Barts Health.

Glen Burley – Financial Reset Director and Accountability Director

Glen took up the post of Financial Reset Director and Accountability Director on 1 April 2025. He is also Chief Executive Officer of the Foundation Group of NHS trusts.

Glen began his NHS career in 1983 as a finance trainee, qualifying as a Chartered Public Finance Accountant in 1990. After reaching the position of Director of Finance for South Warwickshire Mental Health Services NHS Trust, he moved into an acute operational role when he became Director of Operations for the Surgical Division of University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust.

In 2003, he was appointed as Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive to Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and joined South Warwickshire in 2006, initially as Interim Chief Executive.

He has led South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust for a number of years whilst creating the Foundation Group. The group has grown to now encompass 4 trusts in the Midlands region which he is Chief Executive Officer of. Glen has held a number of national and regional roles including National Senior Responsible Officer for the Emergency Care Improvement Programme, National Delivery Advisor for Urgent and Emergency Care and currently chairs the Association of Groups.

Sarah-Jane Marsh – Urgent and Emergency Care and Operations Director

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.

Dr Vin Diwakar – Clinical Transformation Director

Vin took up the post of Clinical Transformation Director on 1 April 2025.

He leads the NHS’s work nationally to transform 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.

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

A former nurse who has spent over 30 years working in the NHS, Clare joined NHS England as the Regional Director for the East of England in 2022.

Clare was previously Chief Executive of Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust. The trust formed on 1 April 2020 following the merger of Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust, Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Prior to joining Basildon and Thurrock University Hospital in 2012, Clare was Chief Executive of North Middlesex University Hospital for nine years.

Clare mentors other aspiring NHS leaders from both clinical and management backgrounds and is Chair of Anglia Ruskin University.

Dale Bywater – Midlands Regional Director

Dale was appointed Regional Director for the Midlands region in 2018. Prior to this he has served as the Director of Delivery and Development at the NHS Trust Development Authority, National Director of Provider Delivery at the Department of Health, Director of Provider Development for the Midlands and East Strategic Health Authority (SHA) Cluster, and Director of Performance and Operations within NHS East Midlands.

During the first 10 years of his career, Dale worked in a variety of senior operational roles within NHS acute hospitals. He also has experience leading a number of national programmes, including the development of NHS treatment centres, and service improvement programmes to improve day surgery and operating theatre efficiency within the provider sector.

In 2018 he was awarded a CBE for services to NHS patients and taxpayers.

Louise Shepherd CBE – North West Regional Director

Louise joined NHS England in November 2024.

Her previous role, from 2008, was Chief Executive of Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, where she led a major transformation programme to provide a world leading health and wellbeing environment for children and young people.

Louise’s career spans over 30 years in the NHS. Previously Chief Executive of Liverpool Women’s Hospital, Louise first joined the NHS as Director of Business Development at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital in 1993.

Louise also chairs NHS England’s Children and Young People Transformation Board, which was established to oversee delivery of the Long Term Plan commitments to children and young people.

In recognition of her commitment to and passion for healthcare improvement, for children and young people in particular, Louise was awarded the CBE in 2017.

Fiona Edwards – North East and Yorkshire Regional Director

Fiona took up the post of Regional Director on 1 April 2025.

Her previous role was Chief Executive of Frimley Health and Care Integrated Care Board, where she led the system for over 5 years.

Prior to that role, Fiona was Chief Executive of Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. She has been a Chief Executive in the NHS for over 23 years.

During her career Fiona has held leadership roles within the private, voluntary, and not-for-profit sectors: she has been the national Chair of Cruse Bereavement Care and a national supported housing organisation, which provided both services and housing to the most vulnerable and excluded people in society.

Fiona has been a Trustee of the NHS Confederation since 27 July 2023 and was appointed as Chair of Advice Now (the foundation for public legal education) from 1 June 2024.

Sue Doheny – South West Regional Director (Interim)

Sue has over 15 years of board-level leadership experience in the NHS, spanning both provider and commissioning organisations across diverse health and social care systems. She has served as Regional Chief Nurse at NHS England since 2016 and joined the National Leadership Team on 1 April 2025.

Sue began her nursing career in London after training in Cardiff. Following the birth of her first daughter, she moved to Herefordshire to work as a community nurse in intermediate care. During this time, Herefordshire became the first area to have a Joint Chief Executive for both the Primary Care Trust and Local Authority, and Sue played a key role on the Joint Executive Team as Director of Quality and Nursing. She later took on senior leadership roles across the West Midlands, including Locality Director, Director of Operations, Director of Nursing, and Managing Director.

Passionate about driving quality and service improvement, Sue completed a Master’s degree in Health Service Improvement at the University of Birmingham. In her leadership roles, she continues to work collaboratively with stakeholders across the system to ensure that high-quality, patient-focused, and outcome-driven services are delivered.