Harry Reilly, Interim Chair

Harry, who trained as an accountant with Deloitte in the mid-1970s, joined British Leyland Plc in 1982. His career in the automotive sector took him via Leyland Trucks, DAF Holland, Rover Group and BMW.

During that time Harry has taken the opportunity to take on broader management positions and when he moved to the Rover Group and BMW he spent time in the Far East, Australia and South Africa, as well as some of the more developed markets in Europe and America.

In 1999 Harry was made Managing Director of Land Rover UK, immediately prior to its sale by BMW. He subsequently joined Brintons as Finance Director and later Managing Director, tasked with turning around and rebuilding the group. Since then Harry has taken on a variety of positions alongside his advisory work. He supported a number of start-ups and since 2011 has been Chief Executive and now a Non-Executive Director of a Canadian group. Harry is soon to step down from his role as Chair of the British American Business Council in the Midlands. He is Chair of Ashwell Corporation and Biotronics Limited and recently joined the Board of Hurricane Modular Commerce as a Non-Executive Director.

Harry is passionate about Birmingham and the West Midlands and feels that the Trust is a real beacon of excellence, deserving of its strong regional and national reputation. Harry has played a pivotal role as a NED at the Trust, and from October 2021 took up the role of Interim Chair to continue his journey at UHB to support the region, patients and staff.

Professor David Rosser, Chief Executive

David qualified from University College of Medicine, Cardiff in 1987, worked in general medicine and anaesthesia in South Wales, moving to London in 1993 as a research fellow in critical care and subsequently Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology in UCLH. He was appointed to a Consultant post in Critical Care at University Hospitals Birmingham in 1996.

In 1998 he was appointed as Specialty Lead for Critical Care; as Group Director responsible for Critical Care, Theatres, CSSD and Anaesthesia in 1999; and as Divisional Director responsible for ten clinical services in 2002.

David was seconded two days per week to the NPfIT in 2004 and appointed as Senior Responsible Owner for e-prescribing in November 2005-April 2007.

In December 2006, David was appointed as Executive Medical Director of UHB, with responsibilities including Executive Lead for Information Technology. He has led the in-house development and implementation of advanced decision support systems into clinical practice across the organisation.

He took up the role of Deputy Chief Executive with responsibility for clinical quality at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (HEFT) in November 2015, in addition to the Medical Director role at UHB, and was appointed as Executive Medical Director of HEFT in March 2016. When the two trusts merged in April 2018, David continued in his role as Executive Medical Director and also became the Deputy Chief Executive for the combined Trust.

David was appointed as Chief Executive of UHB on 1 September 2018.

Mike Sexton, Deputy Chief Executive

Mike, who became Finance Director in December 2006, spent five years in the private sector working for the accountancy firm KPMG and had a spell in commissioning at the Regional Specialities Agency (RSA) before joining the Trust in 1995.

Over the past 19 years, he has held numerous positions including Director of Operational Finance and Performance and Interim Director of Finance.

Mike is also the executive lead for international affairs, commercial development, healthcare contracts, procurement, arts and charities.

Mike was appointed as Deputy Chief Executive in early 2020.

Professor Simon Ball, Chief Medical Officer

Simon was appointed as Chief Medical Officer in 2019. He trained in medicine at Oxford University and University College London, underwent postgraduate training in nephrology, dialysis and transplantation in North West London and was an MRC doctoral fellow in the Dept of Biology at Imperial College.

Appointed as a consultant nephrologist to UHB in 2001, he has been Clinical Service Lead in Nephrology, an Associate Medical Director and Director of Digital Healthcare. He was President of the British Renal Society between 2013 and 2016. His contributions to research and innovation include collaborations with academic and industry partners seeking to understand and quantify immune response in transplantation. More recently his interest has pivoted toward the curation and analysis of high value health data assets, such that in 2018 he became Health Data Research UK Research Director in the Midlands. This is based on his longstanding contributions to UHB’s development and implementation of electronic health care records, to improve the quality and effectiveness of patient care. This convergence of technology and quality management will remain an important part of his role as Chief Medical Officer.

Jonathan Brotherton, Chief Operating Officer

Jonathan joined Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (HEFT) in September 2014 as Director of Operations and was appointed to the Board of Directors in March 2015. When UHB and HEFT merged in April 2018, Jonathan became the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for Heartlands, Good Hope and Solihull hospitals. On 1 April 2019 he was appointed COO for the whole Trust and is responsible for the day to day running of its 4 hospitals, Birmingham Chest Clinic, Solihull Community Services and a number of ‘satellite’ units.

He joined the NHS in 1992 as a trainee paramedic in Worcestershire working clinically for 12 years before moving into management full time. He graduated from the University of Worcester with a Masters’ degree in management studies in 2007 and has worked in senior leadership roles in a number of Acute Hospital Trusts, regional Ambulance Services and the National Intensive Support Team.

Tim Jones, Chief Innovation Officer

After graduating from University College Cardiff with a joint honours degree in History and Economics, Tim joined the District Management Training scheme at City and Hackney Health Authority based at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London.

Tim joined UHB in 1995 as an operational manager in General Medicine and Elderly Care. He continued to work in Operations until 2002, when he undertook the role of Head of Service Improvement and led the New Hospital Clinical Redesign Programme, before being appointed to the role of Chief Operating Officer in June 2006.

In September 2008, he was appointed to the newly-created role of Executive Director of Delivery which incorporated board level responsibility for Workforce, R&D, Education. In 2019 Tim took on the role of Chief Innovation Officer which included responsibility for Research & Innovation, Education and Patient Services.

Tim is an Executive Director of Birmingham Health Partners, Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for the West Midlands Genomic Medicine Centre, SRO for the NIHR West Midlands Applied Health Research Centre and SRO for the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network, Tim is also a Steering Group member for “The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute” based at the University of Cambridge and funded by the Health Foundation.

Tim holds an MSc in Health Care Policy and is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham, Tim is also an Industrial Professor in the Warwick Manufacturing Group at the University of Warwick also acting as Course Director for their Master’s Degree in Healthcare Operations Management and Digital Healthcare Scientist undergraduate and apprentice programme.

Lisa Stalley-Green, Chief Nurse

Lisa graduated from Brunel University in 1990 with a BSc in Modern History & Politics. She spent nine years working in the Prison Service and private sector prisons in London, achieving a senior management post by the age of 25 and gaining a Masters in Business Administration from Hull University in 1999.

Lisa changed career and completed her nurse education on rotation between St Bartholemew’s, The Royal London and Homerton University Hospital (1999 – 2002). She became A Nurse Professional in 2002 having achieved a Diploma in Nursing, (Distinction) from City University/St Bartholemew’s.

Lisa gained six months’ experience in orthopaedics, and specialising in A&E nursing, as a Senior Nurse in Accident & Emergency at Homerton University Hospital between 2002 and 2005, with ALS (Advanced Life Support) and trauma courses completed. She was Senior Matron for Prison Health in the East Midlands for three years (2005 – 2008) before being appointed Service Manager Specialist Services at Nottinghamshire Community Health Services (2008 – 2010).

Lisa held the post of Chief Operating Officer for Newark & Sherwood CCG (2010 – 2012) before moving to Lincolnshire Community Health Services. Here, she was Deputy Chief Nurse and then Director of Nursing & Operations of a Trust which has been rated as Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission, prior to her taking up the role of Executive Chief Nurse at UHB.

Lisa is a Registered Nurse and member of the Royal College of Nursing, having completed her revalidation in 2017, and a Kings Fund Alumna.

Cherry West, Chief Transformation Officer

Cherry began her NHS career as a Healthcare Scientist - Clinical Physiologist - before moving into Operational Management 20 years ago. She joined University Hospitals Birmingham as Chief Operating Officer in August 2014, and has been the lead for delivery of patient services and operational performance through the Trust’s Clinical Divisions at QEHB; Following a period of nine years as Chief Operating Officer, in April 2019, Cherry was appointed to the role of Chief Transformation Officer across the whole of UHB, encompassing Healthcare Transformation, the digital agenda, long-term planning, Service Reconfiguration, Service Improvement & Quality Improvement Strategy, and Capital Developments.

Cherry’s aim is to deliver and maintain effective, high quality services, providing timely, evidenced based pathways and best possible outcomes to the patients we serve. She believes that in complex health systems this requires distributed leadership supported by digitally enabled services designed to ensure that patients receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time. Cherry is also the Executive Lead for the Cancer Pillar for Birmingham Health Partners, focusing on four key areas of work across primary and secondary care: How to achieve earlier cancer diagnosis; improving access to cancer diagnostics; use of AI to enable reporting opportunities; and translational research.

Cherry completed undergraduate studies at UMDS, London; an MSc at University College London; an MBA at Henley Management College; and a Diploma in Health Planning and Management through Birkbeck College, University of London.

Fiona Alexander, Chief Communications Officer

Fiona Alexander joined the Trust as Chief Communications Officer following 20 years in the media, most recently as editor of the regional newspaper The Birmingham Post. Her portfolio also includes patient and public involvement, reputational management, marketing and FT membership.

Prior to this appointment she was Business Development Director (Midlands) for Trinity Mirror plc, the largest publisher in Europe; editor of the Sunday Mercury; assistant editor of MATCH football magazine and reporter on the Reading Chronicle.

Julian Miller, Chief Financial Officer

Julian joined the Trust in May 2000, and has held a variety of posts including Divisional Finance Manager, Head of Financial Management and Planning and Deputy Director of Finance before becoming Director of Finance (non-Board attending) in October 2012.

From November 2015 until March 2018 Julian was seconded to the former Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (HEFT) as Interim Executive Director of Finance. Following the merger, Julian joined the Board of Directors of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust as Director of Finance and was appointed Chief Financial Officer in March 2020.

Having grown up in Sheffield, Julian studied in Birmingham and graduated with a BA (Hons) in Business Studies in 1995. He is an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, having qualified in 1999. Before joining the Trust in 2000, Julian held finance roles at a number of other NHS organisations in Birmingham.

David Burbridge, Chief Legal Officer

David joined the Trust as Director of Corporate Affairs in May 2007, following two periods of secondment to the Trust as Foundation Secretary.

A qualified lawyer since 1999, he has worked with law firms based in Birmingham, London, Oxford and High Wycombe, specialising in corporate and company law. Prior to qualifying as a solicitor, David worked in the HM Customs & Excise National Investigation Service, investigating major drug smuggling and serious VAT fraud.

His portfolio includes corporate risk and governance and health and safety.

Andrew McKirgan, Chief Officer for Out of Hospital Services

Andrew started his NHS career as a graduate on the NHS Financial Training Scheme in September 1992. Having completed the scheme in December 1995 and qualified as an accountant (CIPFA), Andrew moved into general management and operations and held a number of posts in the North West of England including Group Manager for Renal Services and General Manager for Women and Children.

He moved to UHB in April 2003 as the Deputy Director of Operations for Division 1 and in July 2006 assumed his first Director of Operations role. In 2009 he became Director of Operations, Division 2 and in April 2011 he became Deputy Chief Operating Officer. He was appointed Executive Chief Operating Officer in September 2012, then Director of Partnerships in 2014.

Andrew has recently assumed the role of Chief Officer for Out of Hospital Services in 2020, leading on integrated working with primary care and community services.

Stephen Chilton, Chief Digital Officer

Stephen Chilton is the Chief Digital Officer at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and Chairs the Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System Digital Board and the West Midlands Local Health & Care Record Board.

Since joining the NHS, Stephen has been a protagonist of operational and clinical led change supported by agile digital services that help deliver measurable improvements to quality of care and patient experience.

Prior to joining the NHS, he worked within private industry leading the use of quality management systems, business process redesign and digital services to support productivity and cost reduction.

He has accumulated 30 years of digital service knowledge that has enabled Stephen to combine leadership, best practice and innovation to deliver strategic alignment, underpin transformation, improve stakeholder satisfaction and drive digital beyond matching objectives to being that of a differentiator.

Mark Garrick, Director of Quality Development

Mark joined UHB in 2004 after completing the Australasian College of Health Service Executives (ACHSE) Health Management Internship Program. Working in a number of roles at UHB, Mark was then appointed Head of Medical Directors' Services in 2008.

The Head of Medical Directors' Services role provides management support to the Executive Medical Director who has Executive responsibility for Information Technology, Health Informatics and Quality which includes the Revalidation Support Office.

Mark took up the role of Director of Medical Directors' Services in 2015. This role involves the line management and leadership of the Health Informatics Department and is responsible for operational Informatics including data development, analytics, the information team, the health informatics research team and the Healthcare Evaluation Data (HED) team.

In 2018 Mark was appointed to the role of Director of Quality Development of the enlarged UHB (merger of UHB with HEFT). The role maintains the leadership of the Health Informatics Department with the additional responsibility for the Quality Development programme across the all sites and services that UHB operate. In early 2020, Mark’s portfolio was extended to include responsibility for the Trust Strategy, planning and performance and has the role – Director of Strategy and Quality Development.

Cathi Shovlin, Director of Workforce

Cathi joined the NHS at UHB, appointed as Deputy Director for HR in 2017 and then Director of Workforce.

Cathi is an English graduate and Communications postgraduate who started her career as a journalist before moving in to general management. From that she moved in to human resource management and organisational development. She has worked in private and public sector organisations, and has spent most of her career in human resources and organisational development in the social sector.

Cathi became a charity sector leader operating at Director level, specialising in employee relations, leadership and organisational development, and inclusion and wellbeing. She is a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Chartered Management Institute and the Institute of Leadership and Management, and an alumna of the Work Foundation’s outstanding leadership research.

She is a committee member of the West Midlands Healthcare People Management Association providing human resource development for the region, and is the Senior Responsible Officer for Workforce Transformation for the Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System.

Catriona McMahon, Non-Executive Director

Catriona is a physician with over 16 years’ experience in pharmaceutical medicine. She worked for AstraZeneca in the UK as their Medical and Healthcare Affairs Director until December 2014. She has wide experience of working as a national level board member in both the UK and Canada.

Catriona is passionate about the NHS, patient access to medicines and excellence in patient care. She was the Chair of the Medical Expert Network and member of the Innovation Strategy Board and Reputation Strategy Group of the ABPI, and co-chair of the MISG Clinical Research Working Group until December 2014. In addition, she is a former member of the NICE Appeals Panel and NICE Neuroscience Guidelines Review Panel.

As well as her role as a Non-Executive and Senior Independent Director for UHB, she is owner of, and an executive coach within, her own coaching business, specialising in supporting the development and delivery of senior leaders in the healthcare and life science sectors. She is also Lead Industry Member on the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC), working with both SMC and industry on health technology processes and processes improvement.

Catriona attended Edinburgh Medical School and, prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, she practised anaesthetics and critical care medicine in the north east of England for 9 years.

Jackie Hendley, Non-Executive Director

Jackie offers the Trust over 30 years of professional services experience, 11 as a KPMG partner, for clients in PLCs and private equity across a varied range of sectors both in the private and public sector. She has advised a wide range of Boards on tax, structuring, strategy, risk management and governance including operational restructuring and dispute mitigation. Combines commercial, accounting, auditing and tax background with Boardroom experience to offer constructive challenge and strategic advice, including challenge around what business will look like in the future and how to maximise potential. She also advises clients and teams in many industries, including: retail, manufacturing, automotive, property, not for profit, public sector and transport. Jackie is passionate about supporting her local community and has been involved with a number of schools and charities in the area and is committed to bringing people together to build capacity and opportunity.

Jane Garvey, Non-Executive Director

Presenter of "Woman’s Hour", Jane was brought up in Liverpool, moving to Birmingham in the early 1980s as a student to study English Literature. Her early experience of the NHS came through her mother, who was a receptionist at the Royal Liverpool Hospital and, after leaving University, Jane’s first job was as a Medical Records Clerk at the same hospital.

Jane then returned to the West Midlands and embarked upon her career in broadcasting. In 1994, Jane moved into national radio and after thirteen years at Five Live she moved to Radio 4 to present Woman’s Hour.

Jane, who has strong connections to the West Midlands, is keen to broaden her experience outside the "BBC bubble". She brings well-developed, high-level communications skills, developed over her very successful 20 year career in broadcasting. Jane’s experience has given her valuable exposure to interacting with both high-profile figures and the public.

Professor Jon Glasby, Non-Executive Director

Jon is a qualified social worker by background and works as Professor of Health and Social Care at the University of Birmingham, where he specialises in research, teaching and policy advice around joint working between health and social care.

From 2008 to 2015, he was Director of the University’s Health Services Management Centre (HSMC), and from 2015-20 was Head of the School of Social Policy. He has previously served as a Non-Executive Director (NED) at Birmingham Children’s Hospital (2010-2015) and Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust (2015-2018), has been a trustee of the UK Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE, 2003-2009) and is a NED of Birmingham Children’s Trust.

Jon is also a Fellow of the RSA, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, a Senior Fellow of the NIHR School for Social Care Research and Adjunct Professor at the School of Public Health, Curtin University, Western Australia.

Karen Kneller, Non-Executive Director

Karen started her career with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), initially as a law clerk then as a prosecutor and finally as a senior policy adviser. She subsequently moved to the Criminal Cases Review Commission, first as director of casework before becoming chief executive and accountable officer in 2012. She sits part-time as a judge of the Social Entitlement Chamber. She has a BA Honours in sociology, an LLB Honours in law, an MSc in criminal justice studies and is a practising barrister.

Mehrunnisa Lalani, Non-Executive Director

Mehrunnisa has a diverse background having worked for a range of public sector organisations from local Government to the prison service. She started her career working with older people and Black & Minority Ethnic (BME) communities experiencing mental health difficulties. She has more currently been director of inclusion for the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) leading on consumer affairs, corporate complaints and equality, diversity and inclusion.

Mehrunnisa has also held a number of non-executive positions in the health and voluntary sector including as a Lay member on the Leicestershire, Northampton and Rutland Strategic Health Authority, a four year term as Independent Lay Member of the Leicester City Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), and was a member of the East Midlands ACCEA.

Mehrunnisa is a Lay Member on the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapists (BACP) Fitness to Practice Panel and works as a consultant providing a range of organisational transformation and development services.

Mehrunnisa has a Postgraduate Diploma in Health Studies, an MA in Health and Community Development and a JNC Qualification in Youth and Community Work.

Professor Michael Sheppard, Non-Executive Director

After an early career as a clinical academic in South Africa, Michael received MBChB (Honours) and PhD degrees from the University of Cape Town. He was elected Founder Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1998.

Michael took up a lectureship at the University of Birmingham where he remained until 2013 becoming Professor of Medicine and then headed up the Division of Medical Sciences whilst also building his academic endocrine practice. Michael served most recently as Provost and Vice Principal and Dean of Medicine at the University of Birmingham.

Michael had a major clinical service commitment at University Hospital Birmingham, with an international reputation in pituitary and thyroid disease, publishing more than 250 papers. He has been a member of and chaired a number of UK and international committees and endocrine societies as well as roles at THE Royal College of Physicians, Medical Research Council and WHO. He was president of the Association of Physicians of Great Britain and Ireland, and holds Honorary Professorship at University of Birmingham. Michael was previously a Non-executive Director (NED) at Birmingham Children’s Hospital and currently Chair of the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network Board.

Debu Purkayastha, Non-Executive Director

Debu is Managing Partner at 3rd Eye, a Venture Capital and Private Equity firm investing in the technology, media and telecoms (TMT) sectors.

Debu is also Senior Advisor to EQT (global private equity fund, AUM $30B+) advising on late stage, big-ticket TMT private equity investments. Until 2017, Debu was Entrepreneur-in- Residence at Octopus Investments (global investment firm, AUM $8B+) doing early-stage technology venture capital investments.

Debu has significant Investment/M&A and operating experience - in US, Europe, Asia and Africa. Debu spent almost 6 years at Google, spearheading its M&A and Investment efforts including landmark acquisitions and investments globally. Debu also spearheaded Google's New Business Development team and was instrumental in launching several of Google's iconic products globally spanning multiple key strategic focus areas. Debu is a founding member of Google "Campus", the pre-eminent co-working space for startups in London's Tech City, which led to the "Google for Entrepreneurs" program.

Prior to Google, Debu headed Sabre's Corporate Development/M&A team (sold to TPG/Silverlake in a $5B transaction) and in a past life was a Technology/Media/Telecoms M&A Banker with Salomon Smith Barney/Citigroup in Wall Street, Silicon Valley and London.

Debu sits on the Boards of Cambridge University/Cambridge Enterprise, MercyCorps (global NGO) and Tadaweb (Cyber) - in addition to the Advisory Boards of Unilever, Sadara Ventures and Global Tech Advocates/Tech London Advocates plus the Technology Pioneers Selection Committee at the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Curriculum Committee at London Business School.

Debu used to be the Chairman of the Advisory Board of Veon (global mobile telco) and on the Boards of HTL/Scandic (largest hotel chain in Scandinavia), DataFlow (data verification), Fon (wireless), Mobile Planet (mobile apps) amongst others.

Debu has a MBA from London Business School and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.

Debu spends a fair bit of his personal time working with leading NGOs and governmental institutions in several politically sensitive and conflict zones focusing on economic development initiatives (primarily helping fund and build small businesses). A certified cricket nut and film fanatic, Debu is also passionate about white-water rafting and hiking.