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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Bill Gillespie
Chief Executive
Bill is an experienced health manager who had worked at board level in health organisations in th...
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Nicola Bent
Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Innovation Adoption
Nicola joined the AHSN in April 2020 from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (...
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Dave Meehan
Finance Lead
Dave has worked in the Wessex NHS health system for almost 40 years and held board positions for ...
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David Kryl
Director of Insight
Dr David Kryl is the Director of Insight at Wessex AHSN. He is responsible for overall team strat...
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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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Charlotte Forder
Associate Director - Communications
Charlotte is the Associate Director - Communications for Wessex Academic Health Science Network.
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Leah Gallon
Associate Director - Strategic Programmes (Primary Care, Medicines Optimisation and Cardiovascular Disease)
Leah has joined us from an acute NHS trust where she was the Clinical Service Manager for Therapi...
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Jo Murray
Associate Director for Patient Safety
Jo Murray is our Associate Director for Patient Safety. She has a portfolio of projects delivered...
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Joe Sladen
Associate Director - National Programmes
Joe leads the AHSN’s Nationally Prioritised Innovations programme – this programme aims to suppor...
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Kathy Wallis
Associate Director - Strategic Themes (Healthy Ageing and Mental Health)
Kathy Wallis is Associate Director for Strategic Programmes (Healthy Ageing and Medicines Optimis...
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Emma Williams
Associate Director for Strategic Programmes
Emma leads on national and local programmes, which includes Virtual Wards, Environmental Sustaina...
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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.
Anu Dhir
Clinical Advisor for Cancer Innovation, Wessex Cancer Alliance and Wessex AHSN
Anu is a GP with a passion for transformation and complex change management within health systems...
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Patrick Arnold
Innovation Adoption Programme Manager
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 the AHSN Network in April 2022 as a Senior Programme Manager in the Insight ...
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Ruth Barker (PhD)
Evaluation (Qualitative) Programme Co-ordinator
Ruth joined Wessex AHSN in April 2021. She has 10 years’ clinical experience working as a physiot...
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Sophie Barton
Evaluation Programme Analyst (on maternity leave)
Sophie joined the AHSN in May 2019 with 7 years’ experience of working in healthcare analytics. S...
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Heather Bowles
Senior Programme Manager – Cardiovascular Disease
Heather Bowles is one of our Senior Programme Managers currently working within the Cardiovascula...
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Sofia Calado
Programme Assistant - Industry & Innovation (on maternity leave)
Sofia joined the Wessex AHSN in March 2020 as a Programme Assistant for the Industry & Innovation...
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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 & Improvement Coach
Geoff is a qualified nurse with a background in intensive care and coronary care nursing, special...
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Katya Craddock
Innovation Adoption Programme Manager
Katya Craddock joined the Wessex AHSN in May 2022 as an Innovation Adoption Programme Manager.
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Cheryl Davies
Senior Programme Manager Healthy Ageing
Cheryl Davies has worked for the NHS for over 18 years. Her background is in statistics and has w...
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Emmanuel Defever
Qualitative Evaluation Programme Coordinator
Emmanuel joined the Wessex AHSN Insight team in May 2022 as a qualitative evaluation programme co...
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Linda du Preez
Programme Co-ordinator Healthy Ageing
Linda is a Programme Co-ordinator for Wessex AHSN within the Healthy Ageing workstream.
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Richard Finley
Evaluation Programme Analyst
Richard works in the Innovation Insight team as one of our Evaluation Programme Managers performi...
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Sally Forbes
Programme Manager Mental Health
Sally qualified as a general nurse in 2000 at the University of Leeds. Her nursing career focused...
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Katherine Gale
Programme Manager Mental Health
Katherine is the Programme Manager for mental health. Katherine joined Wessex AHSN in November 20...
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Olivia Hamilton
Programme Manager - Digital & TEC (Care Homes and Community)
Olivia joined Wessex AHSN in July 2021 as a Programme Manager within the Primary Care Team, on se...
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Dr Robert Hull
Programme Manager Industry & Innovation
After working for a biotech start up, Robert gained a PhD in respiratory microbiology at the Univ...
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Emily Hunter
Senior Programme Manager - Insight (on maternity leave)
Emily is the Senior Programme Manager for Insight. She is an experienced programme manager with e...
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Sam Kehoe-Coulter
PA to CEO & Business Support
Sam is PA to the Chief Executive Officer and has over 15 years experience in a wide range of admi...
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Simeon Kent
Innovation Adoption Programme Coordinator
Simeon Kent is one of our Innovation Adoption Programme Coordinators who joined in 2022.
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Nikki King
Programme Manager - Patient Safety
Nikki is the Workstream Lead for the NHSEI Medicines Safety Improvement Programme. She is a regis...
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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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James Lynch
Patient Safety Support Assistant
James works as our Patient Safety Support Assistant, providing both administration and communicat...
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Kathleen McCulloch
Senior Communications Officer
Kathleen is the Senior Communications Officer at Wessex AHSN. She began her career in local gover...
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Martin Moth
Programme Manager – Nationally Prioritised Innovations
Martin works in the Nationally Prioritised Innovations team with a focus on both existing and upc...
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Caroline Norris
Programme Assistant & Q
Caroline joined Wessex AHSN in April 2018 in the role of Administration Lead for our Patient Safe...
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Robert Payne
Innovation Adoption Programme Manager
Rob studied Ancient History at Swansea University and graduated in 1998.
He spent 4 years work...
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Rebecca Player
Evaluation Programme Coordinator
Rebecca is one of our Evaluation Programme Coordinators currently working within the NHS Insights...
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Peter Rhodes
Senior Programme Manager Industry & Innovation
Peter is Senior Programme Manager for Industry & Innovation. He joined WAHSN in 2018 after a 30-...
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Fiona Robertson
Programme Manager- Patient Safety & Medicines Optimisation
Fiona is a programme manager within the Patient Safety Collaborative for the Adopt and Spread Saf...
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Rebecca Savage
Patient Safety Programme Lead | Maternity & Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme
Rebecca Savage is one of our Programme Managers currently working within the Maternity and Neonat...
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Andrew Sibley
Evaluation Programme Manager
Andrew undertook his PhD at the Centre for Innovation and Leadership, Faculty of Health Sciences,...
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Heather Stacey
Patient Safety Collaborative Programme Manager and Q
Heather joined the Patient Safety Collaborative in February 2021 to support the Mental Health Saf...
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Phoebe Woodhead
Analyst and Evaluation Programme Co-ordinator
Phoebe joined Wessex AHSN in April 2021 with over five years’ experience working in local authori...
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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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