Dr Geoffrey Harris – Chair

Dr Geoffrey Harris was appointed in July 2011 as the Strategic Health Authority Cluster Chair for NHS South of England by the Appointments Commission. Prior to that he served as South Central SHA’s Chair since 1 July 2006. Dr Harris is also a former Chair of Buckinghamshire Mental Health NHS Trust and was previously a Non-Executive Director at the merged Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust.

A former medical research scientist, he has worked for the Wellcome Foundation, HM Diplomatic Service, and as Director of the British Overseas Trade Group for Israel.

With a particular interest in Corporate and Clinical Governance, he also has served as a Member of the Public Health Laboratory Service (now the Health Protection Agency) and was, until April 2003, a Non Executive Director of Stoke Mandeville Hospital NHS Trust.

Dr Harris is a former Chair of the General Optical Council.

Charles Howeson – Vice Chair

Charles Howeson is well-known within the public, private and voluntary sector, serving in the Royal Navy for nearly 25 years before setting up his own successful property development company, followed by a retailing, wholesaling, warehousing and distribution company group.

He is currently Chair of the First Great Western Trains Advisory Board, and Chair of the Consumer Council for Water in the Western Region. In the private sector, he Chairs the Board of the Rowe Group and is Regional Chair of Coutts and Co bankers. Locally, Charles is Chair of the Plymouth Area Business Council.

Kate Lampard – Vice-Chair

Kate Lampard has previously worked as a barrister specialising in insolvency, company law and property matters. She has held several NHS appointments, as a non-executive director of West Kent Health Authority, Chair of Invicta Community Care NHS Trust, and Chair of Kent and Medway Strategic Health Authority.

Since 2006 she has worked as an independent associate of consulting companies Verita Limited and Foresight Partnership Limited undertaking investigations, inquiries and consultancy work for public sector organisations.

Additionally, Kate is a non-executive director and Deputy Chair of the Financial Ombudsman Service Ltd. She is also a trustee of the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, a large charitable grant-giving body and a non-executive director of RHS Enterprises Ltd, the commercial arm of the Royal Horticultural Society.

Professor West – Non-Executive Member

Professor West is currently Vice-Chancellor at the University of the West of England.

He was educated and trained in London as a Podiatrist and Podiatric Surgeon working in the NHS and private/commercial sector from 1980.
In 1995 he began work at the University of the West of England and over the past ten years has established one of the largest faculties of Health and Social Care in the UK, and built a vibrant academic teaching and research community which is closely linked to the NHS and local health communities.

Professor West is a Fellow of the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.

Alison Ryan – Non-Executive Member

Alison Ryan is Chief Executive of the Weldmar Hospicecare Trust, and was formerly Chief Executive of the Princess Royal Trust for Carers. She was a Non-Executive Director of the Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Social Care Trust.

Terry Butler CBE – Non-Executive Member

Terry Butler was Hampshire County Council’s Director of Social Services from 1988 to 2005. Nationally, he has regularly acted as a Government adviser and was seconded to the Department of Health in the early 1990s to help implement the community care reforms. He is a former member of the Home Office Advisory Board for Restricted Patients and Board of Governors for the National Institute for Social Work. Terry was appointed as a Non Executive Director for South Central Strategic Health Authority in July 2006. He is currently a Council Member of the General Social Care Council.

Joe McLoone – Non-Executive Member

Joe McLoone retired from Vodafone UK in 2005, after a successful 20 year career in the dynamic mobile communications industry. He has held senior strategy roles, and also led large multi-site service operations, most recently as Director of Customer Management for Vodafone UK.

A resident of Witney, Oxfordshire, his previous experience also includes roles in the Information Technology and Business Systems sector. Joe is currently an independent member of the West Oxfordshire District Council Standards Committee. He was appointed as a Non Executive Director for South Central Strategic Health Authority in July 2006.

Steve Tinton – Non-Executive Director

Steve Tinton was formerly a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) which he joined in 1970 from Cambridge University. For his last three years with PWC, he was in the Asian region where he was responsible for the oversight of risk management and quality policies and quality assurance programmes in over 17 countries. During his career Steve has led projects in a wide range of healthcare activities, including major hospitals and ambulance organisations, private healthcare hospitals and care homes.

Since 2006, in addition to his SHA roles, Steve has been a non-executive director and audit chair at OCS; a support services business including services to the healthcare sector. He has also been a quality assurance advisor to PWC and various national professional organisations, as well as a business advisor to growing companies. In 2007/8 he was also seconded to Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust for six months as a non-executive director and audit chair. Steve has recently completed a secondment as Interim Chairman of East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust following Stuart Wellings placement in July 2011.

Neil Churchill – Non-Executive Director

Neil Churchill is Chief Executive of Asthma UK and has worked in the voluntary sector for 20 years, including senior roles with Age Concern, Crisis, Barnardo’s and the Policy Studies Institute. He is an editor for the Smith Institute and has served on government committees for care and support reform, financial capability, pension reform and ageing strategy. Neil is currently a member of the Department of Health’s Respiratory Programme Board and a trustee of the Prisoners’ Advice Service. He has degrees from Cambridge University and London South Bank University and is a Research Fellow for the Smith Institute.

Sir Ian Carruthers OBE – Chief Executive

Sir Ian Carruthers was Chief Executive of the South West Strategic Health Authority, which was established in 2006 and has overseen the improvement in health and healthcare in the South West.

During his 40 year career, Sir Ian has worked at all levels in the NHS. He has been Interim NHS Chief Executive and has held Chief Executive posts in Dorset and Somerset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, together with other senior roles in Portsmouth, Plymouth, Southend and Blackpool.

Sir Ian has made many national contributions to healthcare. These have included being a member of the NHS Management Board, and the NHS Modernisation Board. He has served on several national advisory groups overseeing the restructuring of management in the NHS and led national reviews on financial strategy, patient safety, service reconfiguration, innovation and improvement.

Sir Ian was awarded the Order of the British Empire for services to health in 1997 and knighted in 2003.

Andrea Young – Chief Operating Officer

Andrea Young was Chief Executive of South Central Strategic Health Authority from 1 October 2009.

Prior to joining the Strategic Health Authority Andrea was the Chief Executive of NHS Oxfordshire, a post which she took up in October 2006. Early in her career she worked in research, health policy and public health strategy roles before taking on a series of increasingly senior roles in Oxfordshire Health Authority.

Bob Alexander – Director of Finance

Previous to his appointment as Finance Director of NHS South of England, Bob was Director of NHS Finance at the Department of Health from 2007. There he led on NHS financial policy and performance as well as being responsible for the national tariff programme and finance issues underpinning the Health Reform Programme. He continues to lead nationally on specific finance matters for the Reform agenda. Bob was a Strategic Health Authority (SHA) Finance Director from 2002 to 2007, first with Kent and Medway SHA then with South East Coast SHA.

Prior to this Bob held senior financial positions in both public and private.

He is CIPFA qualified and is currently a co-opted CIPFA Council member.

Dominic Hardy – Director of Commissioner Development

Dominic Hardy joined the South Central Strategic Health Authority in September 2010. Prior to this he worked at the Department of Health as Director of Quality and Productivity and previously as Project Director for the NHS Next Stage Review led by Professor Sir Ara Darzi.

Earlier in his career he held posts with PricewaterhouseCoopers and as private secretary to several senior Cabinet Ministers.

Dr Gabriel Scally – Director of Public Health

Prior to becoming Director of Public Health for NHS South of England, Dr Gabriel Scally was Regional Director of Public Health for the South West region from 1994. He was born, brought up and educated in Belfast and having studied medicine went on to train in general practice and in public health. He was Chief Administrative Medical Officer and Director of Public Health in the Eastern Health and Social Services Board from 1986 to 1993.

Gabriel is a non-executive director of the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse and holds two visiting chairs at the University of the West of England. He has co-authored the standard Textbook of Public Health, has edited a further book, contributed chapters to several and authored a substantial number of papers in professional journals.

Apart from public health, major interests are cycling and London Irish Rugby Football Club.

Dr Mike Durkin – Medical Director

Dr Mike Durkin was appointed as Medical Director of the South West Strategic Health Authority in 2006.

He qualified at The Middlesex Hospital and has held research and teaching appointments in London and Bristol. He was appointed to the faculty at Yale University School of Medicine where he was also an Attending Anaesthesiologist. He was Medical Director of Gloucestershire Royal NHS Trust from 1993 to 2002 where he has a consultant post in Anaesthesia. He was appointed as Medical Director and Director of Clinical Quality for Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Strategic Health Authority in 2002.

He is a member of the Department of Health Medical Board and in 2009 was appointed to be a member of the NHS Life Sciences Innovation Delivery Board. He is a member of the English Revalidation Delivery Board and sits on the Stakeholder Advisory Board of Patient Safety Direct. He was appointed to the NHS Innovation Challenge Prizes Expert Panel in 2010 and is a member of the Department of Health National Liver Disease Strategy Board.

Liz Redfern CBE – Director of Nursing

Liz Redfern has 34 years’ experience of nursing. She entered the profession as a cadet nurse in 1970 before qualifying in general and paediatric nursing in Manchester. Her career has taken her to Edinburgh, Cambridge and London and has included spending time as a ward sister, clinical specialist and clinical manager in neurosurgery and neurology; teaching and managing pre and post registration students.

She has been Director of Patient Care and Nursing at South West Strategic Health Authority since 2006. Prior to this she was Director of Patient Care and Nursing at Taunton and Somerset NHS Trust whilst fulfilling her responsibilities to Dorset and Somerset Strategic Health Authority as Chief Nurse on a part-time secondment basis.

Sue Webb – Director of Workforce Development

Sue Webb joined NHS South East Coast in 2006, as the Regional Nurse and Director of Clinical and Workforce Development, having previously worked at the former South East London SHA. She is also the SHA’s Deputy Chief Executive; leading the development of work to improve quality, innovation, productivity and prevention within the region’s health service and more recently overseeing NHS transition arrangements within the region.

Sue began her nursing career more than 35 years ago. She has held a number of executive nursing roles with additional operational and strategic portfolios. Sue’s current portfolio also includes the leadership of patient safety and clinical quality, care pathway redesign, service improvement, workforce modernisation, multi-professional education commissioning and equality and diversity.

Olga Senior – Director of Corporate Affairs

Olga Senior trained as a nurse and worked in operating theatres in Oxford and Bristol. She was awarded a Smith and Nephew scholarship in 1985 and studied in the USA. She moved into Health Service Management in 1990 and successfully completed an MSc in Public Service Management.

In 1996 Olga moved into the Department of Health as a Senior Civil Servant in one of the regional offices as Director of Corporate Affairs. In 2000 Olga took up the post of Head of Private Office, with responsibility for the six Ministers and Chief Executive of the NHS Private Offices.

She held the post of Director of Business and Corporate Affairs at Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority from May 2004 until the organisation merged to become South Central Strategic Health Authority on 1 July 2006. She was interim from July 2006 to January 2007, when she was appointed substantively as Director of Communications and Corporate Affairs.

Andrew Millward – Director of Private Offices / Communications

Andrew Millward began his career as a journalist, before moving into corporate public relations. He has experience of managing internal and external communications for a range of public and private sector organisations, including Reed Business Publishing, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and AEA Technology plc.

Andrew previously worked for the Department of Health for four years, managing strategic communications and change management.