Our Board, made up of our executive directors and non-executive directors, oversees the running of our hospitals, including:
Matthew was the Health Service Journal’s CEO of the year for 2024, in recognition of the progress we have made under his leadership. We delivered the most improved A&E performance in England in 2023/24 and left ‘special measures’ in May 2024.Before joining us in August 2021, Matthew worked for three years as CEO of Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, which provides a wide range of mental health and community health care in south east London and parts of Kent.
In 2016, he worked for King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, where he was managing director of the Princess Royal University Hospital in Bromley. Matthew has also held senior positions at NHS England, the Care Quality Commission and the MS Society.
You can read Matthew's weekly stakeholder updates here.
Fiona began working in healthcare at King’s College Hospital 30 years ago as a junior administrator. In the years since then, she has undertaken a wide range of strategic and operational leadership roles across the NHS and has delivered demonstrable improvements in clinical and operational services.
Andrew has a very long history with the Trust, having been born at the old Ilford Maternity Hospital which became part of King George Hospital, and grew up locally. He has been a consultant cardiologist at King George and Barts hospitals for 28 years and was recently Hospital and Medical Director at King George. He brings a wide breadth of experience in both clinical management and senior medical education roles. Andrew is also an honorary clinical professor at Queen Mary University of London.
Kathryn joined our Trust in January 2016 from Walsall Healthcare where she was the Director of Nursing.
She qualified as a registered nurse in 1984 and then as a registered sick children’s nurse in 1987.
Since that time she has held a number of senior nursing roles within secondary and tertiary care settings. Kathryn has led a number of national programmes including a focus on new roles and an independent review into children’s palliative care whilst working at the Department of Health.
Janine joined us in November 2022, having previously held various senior NHS roles including Strategic Head of Equality and Inclusion for the NHS in London and Co-Director of the COVID Legacy and Equity Partnership. Providing leadership and expertise for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), staff engagement and tackling health inequalities.
Janine has led culture transformation programmes in large and complex organisations across a range of sectors, including BSkyB, BT and Go Ahead Group.
Mike has a long association with our Trust. He grew up in Upminster, went to school in Hornchurch and did work experience at Oldchurch Hospital (now replaced by Queen’s Hospital). After university, he worked across the NHS, including at Great Ormond Street and Barts Health. He’s also worked for the strategic finance team at NHS England and was the Head of Finance for North East and North Central London.
Married with two children, Mike joined our Trust in 2019 and has been Director of Finance in recent years. He is passionate about delivering for patients through improving our finances and the services we offer residents.
David has worked in the NHS for most of his professional life. He was Chief Information Officer at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust when they introduced the Epic EPR in March 2023 and played a pivotal role in the opening of their pioneering Oak Cancer Centre.
He joined us in June 2024 to provide expert oversight for the roll out of EPR and the extensive digital transformation work associated with this.
Peter joined us in November 2017 after a career as a BBC correspondent and presenter where he was at the forefront of the organisation’s news coverage. As one of the BBC’s most senior journalists, he covered international and national events, politics, and the royal family.
Mehboob joined our Board in April 2021 and became our Acting Chair in July 2024.
Mehboob was elected as a Labour Councillor at the age of 27 and has had extensive experience in the public and private sectors. As Leader of Kirklees Council, Mehboob was the first British Muslim to occupy such a role and he transformed it into England's greenest council and saved £120 million through a comprehensive transformation programme. This achievement won Kirklees the prestigious Local Government Chronicle Council of the Year award.
Mehboob has also held other key positions including Chair of Local Government Yorkshire and Humber, Chair of the West Yorkshire Fire Authority, Chair of the Local Government Association Safer Communities Board and Vice-Chair of the Local Government Association.
From 1996 to 2015, Mehboob served as a Councillor in Kirklees. He then became a Councillor in the Royal Borough of Greenwich for the next six years. Since 2021, Mehboob has been the Director of Policy, Programmes, and Change at the London Borough of Redbridge. Previously, he was a senior manager at London Councils (the cross-party organisation that represents the city’s 32 boroughs and the City of London) where he worked closely with Sadiq Khan’s administration on policy and government relations.
In his spare time, Mehboob enjoys running, walking, volunteering and cooking.
Lesley has more than 30 years’ experience in senior leadership roles in local government. This includes spending the last 8 years as Chief Executive of Islington Council. During this time, she has led a workforce of 4,500, managed a range of successful services, and developed considerable experience of partnership working with both statutory and non-statutory organisations.
Lesley has worked extensively with local health partners in north central London at both STP and borough level, including the hospital trusts, CCG, GP Federation and GPs. She has worked with health partners on health and social care integration as well as developing a strong approach to prevention and early intervention.
She has a strong commitment to public services, combatting health inequalities and delivering excellence in health and care. She is delighted to have the opportunity to use the skills and experience she has gained in the public sector in the area where she has lived for 26 years.
Professor Hilary Thomas is a joint non-executive director (serving also at Barts Health).
As an academic and clinician, Hilary specialised initially in oncology and served as medical director at The Royal Surrey County Hospital.
Recent positions have included serving as chief medical advisor at KPMG LLP and she continues to work as a partner at PA Consulting.
Professor Sir Mark Caulfield is Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at Queen Mary University of London. He is also Vice Principal for Health, President Elect of the British Pharmacological Society and a non-executive director at Barts Health. He has joined our Board as part of our closer collaboration.
Sir Mark graduated in Medicine in 1984 from the London Hospital Medical College and trained in Clinical Pharmacology at St Bartholomew’s Hospital.
His research has focused on the genetics of hypertension and cardiovascular health, cancer and rare diseases. As Chief Scientist for Genomics England from 2013-2021, Sir Mark was instrumental in delivering the 100,000 Genomes Project and worked with NHS England to co-create the National Genomic Test Directory. He was awarded a knighthood in 2019 for his leadership of the 100,000 Genomes Project.
Marta has extensive experience of working at board level in the public and higher education sectors. Her board appointments include a member of Court for Heriot-Watt University and its Finance Committee, and member of Council for the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and its Audit Committee. She is a member of Court for Heriot-Watt University and its Finance Committee and a member of Council for the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and its Audit Committee. Marta is also the independent chair of the London Fire Brigade’s audit committee, and board member and audit committee chair of the Public Sector Audit Appointments Limited.
Marta was a senior civil servant and has many years of experience in the financial sector including as Chief Executive of the Pensions Advisory Service. She was made an Officer of the British Empire in 2006 for services to social housing.
Sue was appointed in August 2019. She was previously a Non-Executive Advisor for our Trust, having been appointed to that role in October 2017.
She is a qualified chartered accountant with more than 30 years’ experience in both the private and public sectors including periods working within the NHS and local government. She has led large capital programmes, including the delivery of a number of new health care facilities within Barking, Dagenham, Havering and Brentwood.
Sue has recently retired from her role as Chief Executive of Elevate East London. She continues on a part-time basis to provide commercial and leadership support to Agilisys Ltd, a leading provider in the technology advisory sector.
Caroline, who is one of our associate non-executive directors, has a special focus on wellbeing and on ensuring the Board always considers the impact that decisions will have on the health and wellbeing of staff.
After an earlier career in BBC radio production, Caroline worked in a variety of roles where she ran secondment schemes, news management and events.
Moving into human resources, she has held a number of HR Director roles in the public sector, media and architecture.
After recent senior HR leadership roles at the CBI, News UK and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Caroline is now Executive Director for People and Culture at Octavia, the housing, social care and community charity founded by Octavia Hill."
Ruth, who is one of our associate non-executive directors, works as a GP Partner in Upminster after beginning her training in Havering and working at Queen’s and King George Hospitals.
She is also a clinical director of Havering Federation which strives to work as a collective to improve care for all of their patients.
Ruth is passionate about creating partnerships between primary and secondary care so that every single patient experience is efficient, effective and positive.
