Meet the Board

Chief Executive 

I was appointed as Chief Executive of North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust in January 2020 and have a number of years of clinical and executive director level experience working in the NHS at a local, regional and national level.

I have worked as an executive board director since 1992 across a variety of NHS sectors and my roles have included Executive Director of Patient Services for Newcastle Hospitals Trust, executive Regional Nurse/Director of Operations and Workforce for the Strategic Health Authorities and nationally as Director of NHS operations at both the Department of Health and NHS England.

I have also worked as the Regional Director for the North at the NHS Trust Development Authority which subsequently became NHS Improvement and prior to joining the Trust, I led, on behalf of the North East and Yorkshire region, the early phases of integration and transformation in the Tees Valley.

Having trained as a nurse, health visitor and midwife, I remain passionate about ensuring the delivery of safe, high-quality care for patients in parallel with development and supporting staff and services. 

Executive Medical Director

I joined the Board in January 2022 as Executive Medical Director.

I am the Trust’s Responsible Officer and Caldicott Guardian.

I am an experienced clinical leader and in my career to date I have held roles including:

• Executive Medical Director South Tees Hospitals 2016-2021
• Medical Director Friarage Hospital 2017-2021
• Deputy Chief Executive South Tees Hospitals 2017-2020
• Regional College Advisor and Council member Royal College of Emergency Medicine 2010-2016
• Training program Director for Quality Assurance Acute Care Specialties HENE 2010-2016
• Clinical Director Emergency Medicine 2006-2016 South Tees Hospitals
• Consultant in Emergency Medicine to date

Executive Chief Nurse

I joined the Trust Board in April 2021 as Interim Executive Chief Nurse and was appointed substantively to that position in July 2022. I am a registered nurse with 36 years' experience and for the last nine  years have held the post of Executive Chief Nurse of integrated provider organisations in London and North Yorkshire.

My clinical background is in Acute Medicine, Coronary Care and Medical High Dependency and Intensive Care.

I am passionate about providing exceptional outcomes and care for the people this organisation serves, delivered by skilful, respectful and kind colleagues.

Executive Director of Finance and Estates

James has 15 years’ experience as an NHS finance director in the regulatory, provider and commissioner sectors. His previous experience includes Chief Finance Officer at Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Director of Operational Finance for North Bristol NHS Trust, Director of Finance of NHS England (South Central), Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust and Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust.

Prior to joining the NHS, James was a Senior Assessment Manager for Monitor the Independent Regulator of NHS Foundation Trusts and worked for KPMG in Audit, Transaction Services and Private Equity and as the Global Executive for the Chemicals industry. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. 

Chair

I joined the Trust as Chair in February 2023.

I was previously a non-executive director of Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust where I served as Chair of the Finance Committee. A dual American and UK citizen, I am a former independent Copeland Borough Councillor in West Cumbria and former member of the Borough Executive.

I am a former director at the UK’s main nuclear site, Sellafield, and was the Executive Director for Capital Programmes and Projects at Heathrow, where I was responsible for the design and construction of Terminal 2. I was the Ministry Of Defence’s Commercial Director responsible for the procurement of all military hardware and contracted services. I am currently and advisor to the Hinkley Point Nuclear project board of directors.

I have lived in the UK for 20 years and have also been a resident in West Cumbria for many years. Prior to that I was a US Navy rear admiral and former Director of Logistics at the Defence Logistics Agency and was Chair of a mental health hospital in the United States. I am a Fellow of the Institute of Civil Engineers and the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply as well as Cranfield University.

Non-executive Director

I was appointed to the Board in September 2022. I am chair of the Estates & Procurement Committee, and a member of the Audit & Risk Committee.

I am the Chief Executive of the Cumberland Building Society and leading the UK’s 10th largest building society through a significant transformation programme to future proof its business and secure a sustainable future for its Members, Communities and People.

My background is as a senior business leader with 35 years’ experience in financial services. Before joining the Cumberland, I spent five years as Managing Director of AIB Bank in Northern Ireland and held a number of previous senior positions at Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB and National Australia Group.

My qualifications include holding an MBA from the University of Galway Ireland, being a Fellow of the Institute of Banking and a Chartered Director. 

Non-executive Director

“I was appointed to the Board in October 2022 and also chair the Audit & Risk Committee and am a member of the Finance Investment & Performance Committee.  I also serve on the Board of the University of Cumbria as a Non-Executive Director, and until recently was a Trustee of South Lakes Citizens Advice.

I have a career history spent, almost entirely, in the financial services sector. This encompasses over 45 years and has included time spent living/working in Greece, the U.S.A. and Germany as well as extended assignments in China and the Republic of Ireland. During this period I have worked for British, American, Greek and Irish businesses.

Since 2005 I have acted as an independent consultant providing a range of services to clients in the financial services sector. I am now semi-retired but hold two Non-Executive Director roles and continue to take occasional consulting projects.

Having moved to Cumbria in 2009, I have become increasingly involved in our local community as a Trustee of two charities and with Non-Exec roles at the University and the NCIC. My wife is Greek and we divide our time between Cumbria and Crete.”

I was appointed to the Board in November 2021.  I am Chair of the People Committee..

I was a Non-Executive Director with Blackpool Hospitals Trust from July 2016 to June 2022. During this period I served as Deputy Chair and Senior Independent Director of the Trust. I also served on a number of Committees and at different times chaired the Workforce Committee, the Finance Committee and the Audit Committee. I am currently the Chair of Riverside Housing Foundation Trust Board and a member of the Board of Trustees at St. Johns Hospice (North Lancashire and South Cumbria), leading on Finance and Resources.

Previously I served as Independent Chair of the Copeland Geological Disposal Community Groups 2020/2022 and Chair of Impact Housing Association (Cumbria) 2017-2020. I was Chief Executive of Lancaster City Council from 2000 to 2016 and immediately prior to that Executive Director of Social Services (adults and children) at Wakefield Metropolitan City Council from 1993.

I was appointed to the Board in April 2022.  I am a member of the Quality Improvement & Safety Committee, a member of the Audit Committtee, Non-Executive Director (NED) Maternity Champion and NED Armed Forces Champion.

As a registered nurse I have 37 years’ experience working in healthcare at a senior level both in the NHS and Military. Holding the rank of Group Captain, I left the Royal Air Force in 2021 after 27 years. During this time, I deployed to Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Karachi, Kuwait and Baghdad. I have undertaken leadership roles in a variety of roles including training, Governance and Assurance, commissioning, clinical and medical planning. I led the medical planning for multiple military global operations including Iraq and Afghanistan, the Ebola crisis in 2014 and the Covid-19 response for Defence Primary Healthcare in 13 military overseas bases. Having commanded at all levels, highlights include leading the RAF’s high readiness medical squadron, relocating the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court to Stanford Hall and working with the NHS as the Military Chief Nurse at QEHB Birmingham. In recognition of my leadership, I have been awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service (QCVS), the Associate Royal Red Cross (ARRC), the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)

I am currently the Chair of the national charity Nurse Lifeline and a member of the Defence Recovery Expert Advisory Panel.

Professor Jonathan Weber

I was appointed to the Trust Board in September 2024, and am Chair of the Quality, Improvement and Safety Committee and a member of the People Committee.

I am a clinician-scientist, specialising in Infectious Diseases as an honorary physician at St Mary’s Hospital Paddington and a Professor at Imperial College London.

I trained at the University of Cambridge and St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School. In 1982 I was awarded a Wellcome Trust clinical training fellowship to study the emergent AIDS epidemic and I have worked on HIV/AIDS and the other human retrovirus, HTLV, ever since. I was subsequently Lecturer at the Institute of Cancer Research and then Senior Lecturer in Infectious Diseases at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital. In 1990, I was appointed to the endowed Jefferiss Chair of Communicable Diseases and Genito-Urinary Medicine at Imperial College. My research has encompassed the development of antiretroviral therapy and currently the prevention of HIV infection through prophylactic vaccine development and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP).

I was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial 2017-23, and Director of the Imperial Academic Health Science Centre form 2015-2024. I am currently Co-Director of the Research Hub at the new Pears Cumbria School of Medicine in Carlisle, and a Professor at the University of Cumbria. I was awarded the CBE in 2024 for my contributions to global health research and I am a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. 

I was appointed to the Board with effect from October 2024 and  am Chair of the Finance, Investment and Performance Committee. I have extensive experience of working as an executive director in the civil service and in a non-executive capacity in Scottish Government. My specialisms include public financial management, risk management, corporate governance, sustainability reporting standards and internal and external audit. My most recent experience was as a CFO in managing public pensions with pension liabilities to the tune of £80bn and leading multidisciplinary teams in a government agency. This gave me exposure to projects involving re-engineering business processes with the aim of introducing a cloud-based, componentised, digital and outward facing systems architecture which included web enabled customer services and a new more customer-focussed target operating model.

Since leaving full-time education I have enjoyed a long career in public service starting in 1984. I have served as a district councillor, school governor, Treasurer of Citizens Advice Bureaux, member of a Community Health Council and trustee of charitable trusts. During this period I have worked in various senior roles for the Audit Commission, the NHS and Scottish Government. I now carry out a disciplinary assessor role for my accountancy body ACCA, and having qualified as a chartered director, I have assumed a number of non-executive roles. I also sit on the Bench in Cumbria as a magistrate.

In my spare time I do enjoy participating in sports and am addicted to a certain piece of software on my phone, which I hope one day might make me fluent in French, Spanish and German.