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).

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Dr Emily Lawson DBE – Chief Operating Officer for NHS England (Interim)

Dr Emily Lawson DBE is Chief Operating Officer (Interim) 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.

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.

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 2017 he has also been Chief Executive of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, and is Chair of the NHS Customer Board for Procurement and Supply. Sir James was previously Chief Executive of NHS Improvement.

He was knighted in 2018 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.