Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors is a unitary board, and has a wide range of skills with a number of Directors having a medical, nursing or other health professional background. The Non-Executive Directors have wide-ranging expertise and experience, with backgrounds in finance, audit, estates, property, business development, primary care, organisational development and research. The Board believes that it is balanced and complete in its composition, and appropriate to the requirements of the organisation. The Board has overall responsibility for the implementation of our strategy, policy and performance through the forward plan and our values. 

The Board meetings are held bi-monthly and are open to the public. The agenda papers are published in advance and are available for the current year and previous years. The Board of Directors have a responsibility to declare relevant interests as defined in Sections 12.22 to 12.32 of our Constitution.

• Non-Executive Directors

  Paul O’Neill, Interim Chair

  

  Paul is Professor Emeritus at the Manchester University and Consultant Physician with special interests in elderly care and stroke medicine.  He has been the Head of School and Deputy Dean for the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences.  He received a National Teaching Fellowship and has published extensively in medical education and clinical research, as well as co-authoring six books.  Internationally, Paul was a member of Faculty for the Harvard-Macy medical educators programme and acts as an education consultant internationally.  On behalf of the Medical Schools Council, he led the work on devising a new selection system for the Foundation Programme implemented in 2012.  His has an interest in patient and public involvement in medical education and established the Doubleday Centre for Patient Experience at Manchester.  In 2013, he was awarded the President’s Medal of the Academy of Medical Educators for his achievements.  Paul continues to work extensively for the General Medical Council in quality assuring undergraduate and postgraduate medical education and is a Consultant at the Manchester University Foundation Trust.  Paul is the Chair of the Trust’s Education, Training and Research Committee.

  Tim Watkinson, Non-Executive Director

  

  Tim is a qualified accountant with over 25 years’ experience in senior audit positions in the public sector.  He was previously the Group Chief Internal Auditor for the Ministry of Justice and prior to that was a District Auditor with the Audit Commission, including terms of office in Lancashire County Council, Preston City Council and Chorley Borough Council.  Tim has led national teams and taken a lead role for the Audit Commission in the development of methodology for improving the performance of local authorities.  Tim has experience of working in major accountancy firms providing audit and consultancy services to the public sector including the NHS.  He has also been employed as an accountant and a Chief Internal Auditor within the NHS.

  Tim is the Chair of the Trust’s Audit Committee.  He is also the Non-Executive Board lead for Freedom to Speak Up and a member of the Rosemere Management Committee.  Outside the Trust, Tim is an independent member of the UK Statistics Authority’s Audit and Risk Assurance Committee.

  Jim Whitaker, Non-Executive Director

  Jim is an experienced Executive currently working at BT Enterprise, where he is Director of Project Management. During his career, Jim has led many large scale IT transformation programmes for customers in the UK and abroad; these have typically been high complexity and operationally critical in nature. He has worked with customers in many sectors including Government, Defence, Investment Banking and Retail. Jim is a Chartered IT Professional with the British Computer Society and holds project management qualifications, which include APM RPP, MSP and Prince 2. His areas of particular expertise are strategic planning, managing change, governance, and risk management. Jim is the Chair of the Trust’s Workforce Committee.

  Kate Smyth, Non-Executive Director

  

  Kate is a chartered town planner and worked in planning and economic development for many years in local authorities across the North West.  She then ran her own consultancy business for 25 years specialising in economic development and disability, and has extensive experience working in the public and community and voluntary sectors.  From 2012 to 2019, she was the Lay Member (Patient and Public Involvement) at Calderdale CCG.  Kate was also the equality lead and the lead for deprivation, poverty and housing.  From 2010 to 2019, she was an independent Board member (latterly, the Deputy Chair) at Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing and the equality champion.  She is currently a Lay Leader at Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Translational Research Centre and in 2019 was appointed to the North West Regional Stakeholder Network, established by the Cabinet Office Disability Unit.

  In March 2021, Kate was elected as Co-Chair of the Disabled NHS Directors’ Network.

  Tricia Whiteside, Acting Vice-Chair

  Tricia is a transformational leader with a wealth of financial services experience having held a number of senior leadership roles within large Fortune 500 and FTSE100 organisations.  Her experience gathered over 25 years includes owning aspects of global control frameworks and assuring compliance to the expected standards of control, establishing Strategic Change Portfolios, operational delivery of integration programmes following organisational merges/acquisitions and lead upon significant business transformation.  Over the last 10 years she successful established her consultancy business which provided interim management support, with focus on setting up new operational functions and building sustainable internal capabilities, creating portfolios of strategic change to improve operational performance and financial stability, strengthening governance and control regimes, consulting on risk management strategies, and positively responding to increased regulatory scrutiny.  Tricia is the Chair of the Trust’s Finance and Performance Committee.

  Victoria Crorken, Non-Executive Director

  Victoria is an experienced senior leader within public sector and commercial environments. With 26 years operational policing experience in Lancashire Constabulary, she has a deep understanding of the complex socio-economic and health challenges within local communities and has developed collaborative cross – sector partnerships to tackle inequality. Currently the Head of Risk for the Co-op Group Ltd, Victoria led the transformational change of the Crime, Security, Regulatory Compliance and Business Resilience strategy and her particular areas of expertise are stakeholder partnership collaborations, governance, risk management and regulatory oversight. Victoria has an MBA from the University of Central Lancashire Business School and is also the vice-chair of governors for Co-op Academy Leeds.

• Executive Directors

  Kevin McGee OBE, Chief Executive

  

  Appointed as Chief Executive from 1st September 2021, Kevin brings with him a wealth of experience within the NHS having held director and CEO positions for over 23 years.

  In addition to his role at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, Kevin is also the Chief Executive Lead for the Lancashire & South Cumbria Provider Collaborative.

  Earlier in his career, Kevin, who is a qualified accountant, was Director of Finance & Information for North Sefton & West Lancashire Community Trust (1998-1999) and Ashworth Special Hospital Authority (1999-2000).

  Kevin first came to Lancashire in 2000, joining University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay as the Director of Finance (2000-2004) before he became Chief Operating Officer (2004-2006) and then Acting Chief Executive (2006-2007).

  Kevin then moved to NHS North Lancashire as the Director of Commissioning & Performance Management (2007-2010).

  Kevin briefly left Lancashire for a four year stint to take up Chief Executive roles at Heart of Birmingham PCT (2010 - 2011) and George Elliot Hospital (2011 - 2014) before he returned to the County as Chief Executive at East Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust in 2014. In 2019 he also became CEO for Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and maintained responsibility for both Trusts until taking up his current role.

   

  Jonathan Wood, Deputy Chief Executive & Chief Finance Officer

  After graduating, Jonathan joined the North Western financial management training scheme in 1992 where he worked with a number of Health Authorities within Greater Manchester.  Since qualifying he has worked for a number of NHS organisations, including Salford Royal, the North West Strategic Health Authority, East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.  He has supported a number of hospital developments over the years and enjoys working with teams in resolving complex problems. Jonathan is also our Senior Information Risk Owner (SIRO) who has responsibility for our Trust’s information risks, information systems, networks and provides the focus for management at Board level

   

  Faith Button, Chief Operating Officer

  After graduating Faith joined the NHS and has worked in a number of acute Trusts in senior roles in London and the South with over 20 years’ experience.  She has a strong background in senior operational management and performance management having been a Director of Performance at her last two Trusts.  She joined the Trust in 2017 having been the Deputy Chief Operating Officer and was appointed to Chief Operating Officer in May 2019.

   

   

  Dr Gerry Skailes, Chief Medical Officer

  Gerry graduated from Guys Hospital in London and spent the early years of her medical training in London and the South Coast before moving to the Christie Hospital to undertake specialist training in Clinical Oncology.  She was appointed as a Consultant at the Royal Preston Hospital in 1997 with an interest in treating lung and gynecological cancers.  She has held a number of leadership roles within the Trust and North West region including Clinical Lead for the Lancashire and South Cumbria Cancer Alliance and Deputy Medical Director of the Trust.  Gerry continues to work as a Consultant in Oncology undertaking a weekly Acute Oncology ward round and is actively involved in a number of the ICP and ICS Committees.  Gerry was appointed as the Trust’s full-time Medical Director from March 2018 and is also our Caldicott Guardian.

  Sarah Cullen, Chief Nursing Officer

  Sarah is a Registered Nurse with experience in a variety of nursing and operational roles in a broad range of specialties. Sarah has spent 18 years of her career at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay and joined Lancashire Teaching Hospitals in 2017 as the Deputy Nursing, Midwifery and AHP Director becoming the Executive Nursing, Midwifery and AHP Director in 2019. Sarah is the Executive lead with responsibility for the hospital charity, governance, maternity, children and safeguarding. She is also a trustee of the post graduate education charity.

   

   

• Non-Voting Members

  Ailsa Brotherton, Director of Continuous Improvement & Transformation

  Ailsa joined the Trust in 2017 from Manchester Foundation Trust where she was the Director of Transformation for the Single Hospital Programme. Prior to this Ailsa was the Clinical Quality Director for the North of England with the Trust Development Authority/NHSI. She has also held a post-doctoral senior research fellow post, has a Masters in Leadership (Quality Improvement) from Ashridge Business School and is a Health Foundation Generation Q Fellow. Ailsa has extensive experience of designing and delivering quality improvement and large scale change programmes. During this year, Ailsa was awarded an honorary professorship in the School of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Central Lancashire and is working with our academic partners to ensure all our improvement programmes are evidence based and evaluated. She is a member of the Safety and Quality Committee, Education, Training and Research Committee and Workforce Committee and is a member of the national Improvement Directors’ network.

• Corporate Directors

  Gary Doherty, Director of Strategy

  Gary joined the Trust in February 2020 and is an experienced NHS leader having worked in operational and planning roles at a range of levels including Chief Executive. He has over 25 years NHS experience and has worked in both the English and Welsh NHS, mainly in hospital provision but also at a regional level for the Department of Health. Gary attends the Safety and Quality and Finance and Investment Committees.

   

   

  Stephen Dobson, Director of IM&T (CIO)

  Stephen joined the Trust in April 2020 from Greater Manchester’s Health and Care Partnership where he was the Chief Digital Officer.  Prior to this Stephen spent eight years as Chief Information Officer for Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust.  He has also spent over 10 years working for Pfizer Pharmaceuticals within the USA and UK within a variety of roles including Pharmacogenomics, Clinical Trials, Informatics and Knowledge Management.  Stephen has a PhD in Molecular Genetics and extensive experience leading digital programmes.  Stephen attends the Finance and Performance Committee.

   

  Naomi Duggan, Director of Communications & Engagement

  

  Naomi joined the Trust in April 2020 in this newly created Director post, having previously undertaken a similar role at University Hospitals of North Midlands from October 2016 where she was a member of the Board and Executive team.

  Prior to this, Naomi has had senior communications and engagement roles at Tameside and Glossop Primary Care Trust,  Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council  and within private sector retail.

  Naomi has run her own consultancy business and after her first degree she started her career as a Management trainee on the Blue Chip British Coal Corporation graduate scheme.  Naomi has worked on a number of transformational projects for the NHS including Better Care Together in Morecambe Bay and Healthier Together in Greater Manchester, as well as controversial retail schemes which needed positive engagement to win the hearts and minds of a range of key stakeholders in order to secure planning permission and political and community support.    

  A graduate of Leeds University, Naomi has an MBA from Leeds University Business School, a Postgraduate certificate in Marketing from Sheffield Business School and the Chartered Institute of Marketing Diploma,  and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

• Declared Interests

  The Board of Directors have a responsibility to declare relevant interests as defined in Sections 12.22 to 12.32 of our Constitution. The current register of all the interests declared by the Board is available here