The Board steers us into an exciting future of innovation, while ensuring we deliver against the objectives licensed by NHS England. Our approach of close partnership working with our members - and the other elements of the NHS system - is underpinned by mutual Board representation. We are committed to joint decision making on 'who does what,' aligning resources, and undertaking joint work.
Download PDFOur senior leadership team brings a broad range of experience and skills to provide direction and oversight across our work. The executive team is accountable to our Board.
Fiona Driscoll
Chair
Fiona specialises in designing transformation strategies and operational plans to deliver success...
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Nicola Bent
Chief Executive
Nicola joined Health Innovation Wessex in April 2020 from the National Institute for Health and C...
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Frank Ratcliff
Director of Industry and Innovation
After a PhD in the genetics at the Sainsbury Laboratory, Frank quickly moved into commercial rese...
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Sarah Turl
Associate Director - Operations
Sarah has over 30 years’ experience in a variety of management roles, operating across the public...
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Richard Booth
Deputy CEO and Director of Innovation Adoption
Richard joined Health Innovation Wessex in March 2024 from his role as Director for Companion App...
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Charlotte Forder
Associate Director - Communications
Charlotte is the Associate Director - Communications for Health Innovation Wessex
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Leah Gallon
Associate Director Innovation Adoption (Dorset ICS locality)
Leah joined from an acute NHS trust where she was the Clinical Service Manager for Therapies
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Jo Murray
Associate Director Innovation Adoption - Strategic Programmes
Jo Murray is the Associate Director for Patient Safety. She has a portfolio of projects delivered...
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Joe Sladen
Associate Director Innovation Adoption - (HIOW locality)
Joe is the Associate Director Innovation Adoption - (HIOW locality) – this programme aims to supp...
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Emma Williams
Associate Director - Strategic Partnerships and Business Development
Emma is our Associate Director for Strategic Partnerships and Business Development
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Our staff come from a diverse range of backgrounds, including academia, frontline health and social care, research, analytics and NHS support services.
Kim Appleby
Senior Communications and Strategy Manager
Kim joined Health Innovation Wessex (formerly Wessex AHSN) in April 2023. Prior to this, she spen...
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Patrick Arnold
Programme Manager Innovation Adoption
Patrick Arnold is an Innovation Adoption Programme Manager with a focus on Primary Care.
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Rachel Bailey
Senior Programme Manager - Insight
Rachel Bailey joined Health Innovation Wessex in April 2022 as a Senior Programme Manager in the ...
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Ruth Barker (PhD)
Evaluation Programme Manager
Ruth joined the organisation in April 2021. She has ten years’ clinical experience working as a p...
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Sophie Barton
Evaluation Programme Analyst (on maternity leave)
Sophie joined the organisation in May 2019 with seven years’ experience of working in healthcare ...
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Jackie Chandler
Evaluation Programme Manager (Qualitative)
Jackie has a background in general and mental health nursing in both the NHS and voluntary sector...
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Geoff Cooper
Programme Manager Patient Safety
Geoff Cooper RGN MSc ILM & Q – PSC Programme Manager and Improvement Coach
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Jenny Curtis
Innovation Adoption Support Assistant
Jenny is an Innovation Adoption Support Assistant who joined Health Innovation Wessex in 2023.
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Cheryl Davies
Senior Programme Manager Innovation Adoption - (HIOW locality)
Cheryl Davies has worked for the NHS for over 18 years. Her background is in statistics and she h...
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Emmanuel Defever
Qualitative Evaluation Programme Coordinator
Emmanuel joined the Insight team in May 2022 as a qualitative evaluation programme coordinator.
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Angus Donald
Programme Manager, Industry and Innovation
Angus brings a wealth of commercial experience across a range of medical device categories and ma...
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Linda du Preez
Programme Co-ordinator Innovation Adoption
Linda is a Programme Co-ordinator for Health Innovation Wessex within the Innovation Adoption team.
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Katherine Gale
Evaluation Programme Manager (Qualitative)
Katherine is the Programme Manager for mental health. Katherine joined the organisation in Novemb...
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Holly Green
Patient Safety Programme Manager / Maternity & Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme
Holly joined Health Innovation Wessex in February 2024. She completed her BMid (Hons) degree in 2...
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Ani Haughton
Industry and Innovation Support Assistant
Ani Haughton is the Support Assistant for the Industry and Innovation team.
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Emily Hunter
Senior Programme Manager - Insight
Emily is the Senior Programme Manager for Insight. She is an experienced programme manager with e...
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Sam Kehoe-Coulter
EA to CEO & Strategic Programme Coordinator
Sam is Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer and has over 15 years experience in a w...
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Simeon Kent
Innovation Adoption Programme Coordinator
Simeon Kent is an Innovation Adoption Programme Coordinator who joined in 2022.
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Nikki King
Programme Manager Innovation Adoption
Nikki is the Workstream Lead for the NHSE Medicines Safety Improvement Programme. She is a regist...
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Amanda Lees PhD
Evaluation Programme Manager (Qualitative) - Insight
Amanda has a background in health and social care-focused research and evaluation, having worked ...
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Kathleen McCulloch
Senior Communications Officer
Kathleen is the Senior Communications Officer at Health Innovation Wessex. She began her career i...
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Robert Payne
Programme Manager Innovation Adoption
Rob studied Ancient History at Swansea University and graduated in 1998.
He spent four years w...
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Rebecca Player
Evaluation Programme Coordinator (Qualitative)
Rebecca is an Evaluation Programme Coordinator currently working within the NHS Insights Prioriti...
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Peter Rhodes
Senior Programme Manager Industry & Innovation
Peter is Senior Programme Manager for Industry & Innovation. He joined Health Innovation Wessex i...
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Fiona Robertson
Programme Manager Innovation Adoption
Fiona is a programme manager within Wessex Patient Safety Collaborative, and within Nationally Pr...
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Andrew Sibley
Programme Manager Evaluation (Qualitative)
Andrew undertook his PhD at the Centre for Innovation and Leadership, Faculty of Health Sciences,...
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Gemma Snell
Programme Manager Innovation & Industry Needs Assessment Service
Gemma is an Innovation and Industry Programme Manager. Her focus is to support innovators and to ...
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Heather Stacey
Senior Programme Manager Innovation Adoption - (Dorset locality)
Heather joined the Wessex Patient Safety Collaborative in February 2021 to support the Mental Hea...
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Caroline Thomas
Innovation Adoption Support Assistant
Caroline is a Support Assistant for the Innovation Adoption team, having initially joined our Pat...
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Anna Wykes
Programme Manager for Cancer Care
Anna initially joined the Wessex Patient Safety Collaborative (PSC) in August 2019 as a programme...
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Emma Wynn-Mackenzie
Innovation Adoption Support Assistant
Emma is an experienced Support Assistant with a range of administrative skills.
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