Advisory Council
Staff College benefits from having an Advisory Council of eminent leaders from health and care, the Military, Public and Private Sector. Led by the Staff College Chairwoman, the Council provides advice, expertise and insight that contribute to our ability to design programmes that enable leaders to address the challenges of today and the future.
You can find out who is on the Council here:
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Liz Padmore
Chairwoman
Liz has extensive experience at Board level in private, public and not-for-profit sectors.
Throughout her career, she has specialised in scenario planning, strategic communications, CSR and relationship management. She was previously a strategy partner at Accenture creating and running their global strategic think tank.
Currently, Liz is Chairwoman of the British Red Cross; Chairwoman of Housing Solutions; Chairwoman of the Staff College (Leadership in Healthcare); a Governor and member of the Council of Management of the Ditchley Foundation; a Barclay Fellow at Green Templeton College ,Oxford where she chairs the Renumeration Committee; and she chairs the Remuneration Committee of Brasenose College, Oxford.
Previously, Liz chaired Hampshire Hospitals NHS FT for nine years and is a B member of YBI (Prince of Wales’ Youth Business International) having been a trustee for over 10 years.
Liz is also a member and previous vice chair of IWF UK; a member of Women Corporate Directors and an elected FRSA (Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts Manufacturing and Commerce).Liz read both Philosophy, Politics and Economics and Jurisprudence at Brasenose College, Oxford.
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Ajit Abraham
Principal, Staff College, Consultant HPB & Trauma Surgeon, Barts Health and Barts Health Executive Group Director for Inclusion and Equity
Read Bio +Ajit Abraham
Principal, Staff College, Consultant HPB & Trauma Surgeon, Barts Health and Barts Health Executive Group Director for Inclusion and Equity
Mr Ajit ABRAHAM MBBS, MS, MA (Medical Ethics & Law), FRCS, FRCS (General Surgery) is a Consultant General, Trauma & HPB Surgeon at the Royal London Hospital, Barts Health.
At Barts Health, he has held a number of strategic leadership positions including Executive CAG Director for Surgery 2014-16, Chair of the Boards of Surgery & Cancer 2017-18, and Barts Health Deputy Chief Medical Officer 2016-18.On surgical sabbatical 2018-19, he re-established and led the HPB surgical service at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Singapore delivering open and minimally invasive hepato-biliary and pancreatic surgical care to the local population.
Ajit has a special interest in clinical leadership, equity and inclusion, quality improvement, patient safety and education. He has an MA in Medical Ethics & Law from Keele University, UK, 2004. He was Health Foundation QI Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and Harvard from 2011-12. He has been Principal of Staff College since 2016.
He is an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at Queen Mary University London and was appointed the Barts Health Undergraduate Dean in 2020.Ajit was appointed as the first Barts Health Executive Group Director for Inclusion and Equity in April 2022, having co-chaired the Barts Health Group Inclusion Board with Group CEO, Dame Alwen Williams.
He has a longstanding ‘Hatha Vinyasa’ Yoga and ‘Vipassana’ meditation practice.
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Alex Bax
CEO, Pathway
Alex has worked to improve health and social care in London for many years. He is founding Chief Executive of Pathway – the homeless health charity created by Prof Aidan Halligan. He is also visiting fellow at the Institute of Health and Human Development at the University of East London and Chair of inequality campaign group My Fair London. He has been a senior policy advisor to two Mayor’s of London: on health, city planning and social policy. He has a Masters in London Studies, is a member of Faculty for Public Health, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and founder member of the Faculty for Homeless and Inclusion Health.
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Andrew Bennett
Consultant Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist, Sutton Health and Care hosted by Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust
Read Bio +Andrew Bennett
Consultant Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist, Sutton Health and Care hosted by Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust
Andrew is a Consultant Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist within Sutton Health and Care hosted by Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust. He provides expert clinical practice and leadership within Community MSK services, transforming the local framework for delivering triage and therapies, integrating first contact practice, digital health technologies, local leisure services, virtual multidisciplinary meetings, and referral pathways to spinal, orthopaedic, rheumatology and pain management services. He has gone on to take a lead expert specialist role within the Southwest London Integrated Care System. He is a non-medical prescriber, a member of the Musculoskeletal Association of Chartered Physiotherapists, and former Co-chair of the Consultant Physiotherapist Special Interest group within the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.
Andrew became National Clinical Director for MSK within NHS England in November 2019. He is the first Allied Health Professional to hold a National Clinical Director Role. He led the MSK response to the coronavirus pandemic working closely with professional and patient facing stakeholders and being recognised for championing co-production and driving integration across systems. He has gone on to take a lead role in recovery, leading the Best MSK health pathway improvement programme, working with Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) focused on improving pathways of care and enabling referral optimisation, and writing the improvement framework to help reduce community MSK waits whilst delivering best outcomes and experience. He has supported the Major Conditions Strategy work in collaboration with the Department of Health and Social Care, as the well as the delivery of the MSK related labour market measures announced in the 2023 Spring Budget. He completed his tenure as National Clinical Director in March 2024.
In April 2024 he became GIRFT National Clinical Advisor for Community MSK within NHS England focused on supporting systems to transform community based MSK services. He is also providing clinical leadership for the NHS England Digital Health Therapeutics Programme.
Alongside his roles within the NHS Andrew is also a member of the Advisory Council for the Staff College Leadership in Health Care Charity, a member of a number of MSK related research advisory groups and has been a visiting lecturer for the University of Hertfordshire, University of Birmingham and University College London.
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Charlie Brown
CEO, Staff College
Charlie has led the charity through its formative two years as Chief Operating Officer before taking up the role of Chief Executive in 2018. She has leadership experience as an executive board member and trustee within the third sector and through a variety of positions within the NHS in clinical services, clinical education, culture change programmes and leadership development.
Charlie is passionate about improving the quality of care for people and the experience of staff working within healthcare. She believes that developing greater awareness of, and placing more importance on, the quality of human interactions, relationships and leadership is the foundation of doing so. She has designed and delivered a wide range of senior leadership development programmes for leaders in health and social care in the UK and internationally.
Charlie is a Trustee of the Point of Care Foundation, a charity dedicated to humanising healthcare. She is also a Visiting Lecturer in Healthcare Leadership at City University.
Charlie started her career as an apprentice luthier (guitar repairer), gradually working her way up to running the largest independent guitar repairs workshop in Europe and working for musicians and bands from all over the world.
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Professor John Earis
Deputy Chair, Staff College and Director of Clinical Quality, University of Liverpool
Read Bio +Professor John Earis
Deputy Chair, Staff College and Director of Clinical Quality, University of Liverpool
Professor Earis trained at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine in London and has spent most of his working life in the North West. In 1982 he was appointed as a Chest and General Physician at University Hospital Aintree in Liverpool and led the development of Aintree Chest Centre, which is now widely recognised for its clinical innovation and research. As well as his clinical practice and research interests John has been closely involved with undergraduate and postgraduate education. In the 1990s he set up the respiratory medicine training programme in Mersey Deanery and in 2007 he was appointed as Director of Medical Education and Undergraduate Sub-Dean at Aintree. When he retired from Aintree in 2015 he became the Director of Quality for the School of Medicine in Liverpool introducing new quality assurance and evaluation systems to the undergraduate course. He has recently retired from this position but continues to work for the Undergraduate School.
He was made an Honorary Professor at Liverpool University in 2007 and in 2019 was awarded the title of Emeritus Professor. In 2016 he was delighted to be appointed Honorary Colonel of 208 Reserve Field Hospital (Army Medical Service). In 2013, working with Professor Aidan Halligan, John facilitated Staff College activities in the North West. Following Aidan’s untimely death John became Acting Principal of Staff College and continues his close association with Staff College as a Trustee and Deputy Chair of the Board of Trustees.
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Mr Mark Edwards
Core Faculty, Staff College, and Consultant Vascular and Trauma Surgeon
Mark Edwards is a Consultant Vascular and Trauma Surgeon based in London and the South East of England. He oversees a service improvement portfolio that includes the implementation and study of novel methods of integrating Serious Incident data in order to identify patterns and trends.
Mark graduated in Medicine from the University of London in 2003 and has worked within the NHS since. His practice as a Vascular and Trauma surgeon includes work in two specialist, tertiary care centres as well as several networked secondary care hospitals where his work interfaces with primary care.
During his training Mark undertook a two-year Safety and Leadership Fellowship linked to the work of the Staff College that saw the commencement of his work looking at the analysis of integrated Serious Incident data. This applied academic work, based upon complexity theory, has since been adopted by a number of healthcare bodies where it is being used to inform quality improvement processes.
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Major General Julian R Free CBE
Deputy Vice Chancellor (People Services and Operations), Lincoln University
Read Bio +Major General Julian R Free CBE
Deputy Vice Chancellor (People Services and Operations), Lincoln University
Despite being born in Plymouth into a Royal Navy family, Julian Free joined the Army and was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1986. He holds a B.Ed (Hons) (Exeter University) and a Masters in Defence Studies (Cranfield University). He has completed the Windsor Leadership Strategic Leadership Programme (2015-16) and the Leadership Centre’s Future Vision Programme (2016-17). He was appointed MBE in 2001, OBE in 2009 and CBE in 2012.
Julian Free deployed on operations to Kuwait, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Iraq, Cyprus and Afghanistan in UK, UN and NATO appointments and trained and served in the UK, Germany, America, Canada, Belize and Kenya. He commanded G Parachute Battery (Mercer’s Troop) Royal Horse Artillery on operations in Kosovo and Sierra Leone, 26th Regiment Royal Artillery on operations in Iraq and Cyprus and 4th Mechanised Brigade on operations in Iraq, which included Op CHARGE OF THE KNIGHTS. As a major general he served as Chief of Staff of the NATO Allied Rapid Reaction Corps and Commandant Joint Services Command & Staff College.
In April 2017 Julian joined the University of Lincoln as Deputy Vice Chancellor – and started to learn all over again.
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Dr Anwar Khan
Chair for Waltham Forest Training Hub (CEPN), visiting Professor of Medical Education, Samarkand State Medical Institute, Uzbekistan, and Clinical Lead I&R Scheme, National Recruitment Office
Read Bio +Dr Anwar Khan
Chair for Waltham Forest Training Hub (CEPN), visiting Professor of Medical Education, Samarkand State Medical Institute, Uzbekistan, and Clinical Lead I&R Scheme, National Recruitment Office
Dr Anwar Khan has been a GP and Trainer in London for over 30 years and is a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners. He has extensive clinical leadership experience, most recently as the Chair of Waltham Forest Clinical Commissioning Group (2013-19), Chair of the North East London Joint Clinical Commissioning Committee (2017-19) and Clinical Lead for Medicines Optimisation and Workforce Planning for the East London Health and Care Partnership.
Anwar has a particular interest in education and research. He has been an MRCGP examiner since 1996, runs post-CCT GP assessments as the UK National Clinical Lead for I&R Scheme and is the Clinical Chair and Director of Research and Education at the Waltham Forest Training Hub. He is a Senior Research Fellow at Kings College London, an Academic Fellow at University East London and Visiting Research Fellow at University of Winchester. He is also Senior Clinical Advisor, National Safety and Learning Lead (GP) at NHS Resolution.
Anwar has pioneered improvements in healthcare internationally. He is currently an Advisor in International Healthcare in India, Bulgaria, Turkey, Kazakhstan and is a Visiting Professor of Medical Education, Samarkand State Medical Institute, Uzbekistan.
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Caroline Laurie
Vice President of Responsibility, Burberry
Caroline is Vice President of Responsibility at Burberry leading the corporate responsibility agenda covering carbon and biodiversity, sustainable sourcing and materials, human rights and social impact, community and climate change.
Prior to this she was the Group Head of Sustainability at Kingfisher plc where she led the sustainability strategy across the business, driving the delivery of sustainable wood and paper sourcing and reforestation projects such as the Harapan rainforest in Indonesia. Caroline is a CIMA qualified accountant and joined the Kingfisher team in 2005, starting out as a buyer at B&Q she gained first-hand experience of ethical and sustainable sourcing for wood and paper products. Following a promotion to category manager she was instrumental in the decision to remove all gas patio heaters from sale across B&Q stores nationwide and later went on to help customers reduce their home energy use through intelligent product developments and installed solutions. Caroline has a passion for sailing and in her spare time you’ll often find her cruising and racing on the Solent.
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Professor Jim McManus
President of the UK Association of Directors of Public Health and Director of Public Health for Hertfordshire
Read Bio +Professor Jim McManus
President of the UK Association of Directors of Public Health and Director of Public Health for Hertfordshire
Jim McManus, OCDS, CPsychol, CSci, FBPsS, FFPH, FRSB, Chartered FCIPD, is President of the UK Association of Directors of Public Health and Director of Public Health for Hertfordshire, a county of 1.2million people. He is an Honorary Vice-President of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and President of the Guild of Health and St Raphael. Jim is a Visiting Professor at the University of Hertfordshire and formerly a Visiting Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics.
In addition to being a registered Public Health Specialist and Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health of the Royal Colleges of Physicians, Jim is a Chartered Psychologist and Chartered Scientist and Fellow of the British Psychological Society. He was a Generation Q Fellow at the Health Foundation and undertook postgraduate studies in leadership and quality improvement at Ashridge Business School.
He has worked in public mental health for some time. He is a member of the Crisis and Disaster Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society. He has worked in Community Safety and for three years worked for Nacro.Jim co-created the national public mental health collaborative for Covid-19, co-chaired the national review of suicide prevention plans in England and was a member of the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health’s programme on suicide and self-harm prevention competencies. He has just completed three years as Chair of the Behavioural Science and Public Health Network and was a co-author of the National Strategy for Behavioural Science in Public Health. Jim is a member of the national advisory group for the national HIV strategy. Jim is a Trustee of St Joseph’s Hospice, Hackney, one of the largest and oldest hospices in the UK.
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Paul Najsarek
Non-Executive Director, South East London Integrated Care System
Paul is the former chief executive of Ealing Council (until December 2021) where he led the Future Ealing transformation programme. He was previously acting chief executive and chief executive of Harrow and Bolton Councils respectively. His experience of partnership working includes leading for SOLACE on health and social care, regeneration for the West London Alliance, and adult services for London Councils. He is the CEO lead for Thrive LDN, London’s initiative to promote mental health wellbeing. He was the Audit Commission’s head of policy and was part of the central government team that drafted ‘Every Child Matters’ which has transformed England’s children services nationally.
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Michael Pantlin
Director of People and Digital, Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care System
Michael Pantlin took up the role of Director of People and Digital at Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care System in April 2021. Previously he was Group Director of People at Barts Health. Prior to that he was at Royal Surrey County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and the Royal Bank of Scotland in Commercial and Retail Banking sectors across England and Wales. Prior to this, Michael headed HR for the specialist brands of the Thomson Travel Group.
Originally, during his professional training, Michael spent some time working at the Mildmay Hospital, which specialises in palliative care for HIV/AIDs. He moved to the private sector knowing one day he wanted to return to a similar organisation.
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Toby Rowland CBE
Defence Medical Services Leadership Development
Toby is a senior leader, board member and chief executive with over 28 years’ experience in the Defence Medical Services. His most recent appointments have included Chief Executive for Deployed Hospital Care, Head of the Defence Medical Academy and a secondment to the National team of NHS Health Education England. On deployed operations, he has served as senior UK military healthcare commander in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
Toby’s current role within leadership development is focussed on driving forward initiatives to enhance healthcare leadership skills across the Defence Medical Services, with particular emphasis on improving leadership behaviours and organisational leadership culture. His interest in this field is underpinned by extensive experience as a Level 7 qualified coach and mentor and, certified Myers-Briggs Practitioner.
Toby’s early career was spent as a clinical research scientist operating across academia, the NHS and private sector. His professional interests include being an active Professor of Practice at the University of Cumbria, Visiting Professor at the University of Sunderland and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Prior to becoming a Trustee of The Staff College, Toby previously served for 3 years as a member of its Advisory Council. Toby was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2023 for serves to defence healthcare.
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Melanie Toyne-Sewell
Partner, Life Sciences
Melanie leads on financial communications within the life sciences team. She has 20 years of experience advising life sciences companies on financial communications. Prior to joining Instinctif Partners, she built and established the life sciences practice at the Hogarth Partnership. She was a partner in the Financial Dynamics (now FTI) Life Sciences team and a Director at Merlin Financial PR. She has extensive experience of capital market transactions and corporate issues. Before entering business communications, she was at Price Waterhouse where she qualified as a chartered accountant.
She has a BA in Biochemistry from Oxford University.
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Tracey Westley
Independent Training Facilitator
Tracey is an independent training facilitator and management consultant who has nearly forty years of experience in the NHS holding a variety of nursing roles in both acute and most recently community NHS Trust settings. Roles include good governance through effective risk management and quality improvement, with overall responsibility for clinical policy, clinical audit implementation and CQC compliance.
Tracey believes in teamwork and bringing together the strengths of people and networks to provide compassionate leadership resulting in improved patient safety and a positive experience of services.
She holds a Masters in Public Administration, a Post Graduate Diploma in Risk Management with an enquiring mind believes in continued development and provides mentorship to nurses developing senior roles in the workplace.
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Erica White
Programme Director for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust
Read Bio +Erica White
Programme Director for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust
Erica is a professionally trained senior change management professional with significant experience of end-to-end delivery on large complex projects and transformation programmes. Erica spent the first 20 years of her career in Banking, starting out in her home country of New Zealand before moving to Ireland and then onto the UK. Working in the same industry across multiple counties and cultures has given Erica a strong appreciation for the different life experiences and perspectives that individuals contribute.
Always wanting to pursue a career in healthcare, Erica found her way to Mid and South
Essex NHS Foundation Trust (MSE FT) in 2018. Since then, Erica has been involved in a number of complex programmes of work, including establishing the Outpatient Transformation Programme, the introduction of Robotic Process Automation to the Trust and the establishment and implementation of the innovative Menopause in the Workplace strategy for the Trust.Erica is a strong advocate for innovation in healthcare and the critical role it must play in increasing the pace and scale of change to deliver better outcomes for patients, supporting elective recovery and improving conditions for the NHS workforce. In Erica’s current role, she leads on the MSE Innovation Programme and its industry leading innovation fellowship which facilitates opportunities for real world test and evaluation of early-stage innovation.