Group Chief Executive: Simon Weldon
Having served as Chief Executive of Kettering General Hospital from April 2018, Simon Weldon was appointed as Group Chief Executive for both Northampton and Kettering General Hospitals from July 2020. Building on the significant improvements made at Kettering Hospital, which were recognised by the CQC in May 2019, Simon’s focus is on strengthening collaboration between the two hospitals to improve the quality of services for people living across Northamptonshire.
Simon originally joined us from NHS England, where he held the posts of Director of Operations and Delivery and, formerly, Regional Chief Operating Officer. He was responsible for overseeing the CCG regulatory regime, heading up the emergency planning function, supporting the urgent and emergency care transformation programme, and leading the information function across NHS England. Specialising in acute contracting and operational performance, Simon also has significant experience in public health, primary care and specialised commissioning
Medical Director: Andrew Chilton
Andrew was appointed as Medical Director in June 2010. Professor Chilton is a consultant gastroenterologist and hepatologist and honorary senior lecturer.
He is also a bowel cancer screening colonoscopist and therapeutic endoscopist. He has a strong interest in quality assurance authoring the national QA colonoscopy guidelines for bowel cancer screening and works at regional and national level in this area. He had held a variety of medical leadership roles and is interested in the strategic delivery of balanced, clinically effective, high quality care across the health economies.
Director of Nursing: Leanne Hackshall
Leanne is a senior nurse with 30 years of experience working in the NHS and remains passionate about patient care.
Leanne has a particular interest in the development of leadership in the nursing and allied health professional workforce to facilitate and grow competent and confident staff believing this to be the key in the delivery of a safe and positive patient experience.
Chief People Officer: Mark Smith
Mark joined the Trust in June 2014 to this key role, with lead responsibility for developing a highly skilled, trained and well-led workforce. In September 2019 he was appointed as Chief People Officer across both Kettering and Northampton General Hospitals.
Mark has the responsibility for creating systems and processes that engage all staff in living the values of the organisation.
Mark has held a number of roles in Human Resources within the NHS since 2004 and prior to this has held roles within the private sector.
Mark joined the Trust from his position as Director of People Development at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, where he led a cultural change campaign which resulted in consistently improving staff engagement outcomes throughout the organisation.
Director of Governance: Richard Apps
Richard joined the Trust in July 2018. This Role focusses on ensuring effective systems for patient safety, experience and learning, clinical effectiveness, health and safety, risk management, quality assurance, information governance, board assurance and corporate governance.
Richard previously worked in adult learning disability services in Northamptonshire before joining the NHS in Leicestershire in 2005. He has strong interest in patient safety and quality improvement having worked academically as an associate lecturer in healthcare governance at Loughborough University and establishing the academic and healthcare partnership the Leicestershire Innovation, Improvement and Patient Safety (LIIPS) unit hosted by the University of Leicester. Most recently Richard worked at NHS Improvement focussing on quality and performance improvement across a range of NHS Trusts. Richard is a Health foundation Q fellow.
Acting Director of Finance: Anil Pursooth

Chief Operating Officer: Joanna Fawcus
Jo joined the Trust as Chief Operating Officer in October 2018. Jo is originally from Northern Ireland and after finishing her education there she started her NHS journey in 1995. Jo has always had a fascination with the NHS and started her NHS career as an Information Analyst and then moved into operational management. Jo has worked in many acute providers across the East Midlands and other areas with her most recent role being Deputy Chief Operating Officer at James Paget Hospital in Norfolk.
Jo has also completed the Nye Bevan Executive leadership course and is passionate about leadership and engagement to deliver change and sustainable improvement.
Jo’s passions in life include football, music, attempting to play the guitar, road cycling & running. Jo also enjoys a challenge and is looking forward to being part of whatever challenges life at KGH brings!
Chief Digital Information Officer: Andy Callow

Andy became Digital Chief Information Officer with the Trust on April 8th 2019 and brings a wealth of digital experience to the role from a career spanning the public and private sector.
Andy was previously Programme Director for the innovative NHS App at NHS Digital and took the app from inception to availability in the app stores in a little over 12 months.
Prior to that he was the Head of Technology Delivery for the national NHS website NHS.UK, which receives c40m visits each month.
Andy has also held senior positions in the public and private sector, including five years as Head of Information and ICT for Children’s Services at Derbyshire County Council and over three years as a Director for EMPSN (East Midlands Public Sector Network), a network and application services company covering all of the East Midlands.
Director of Strategy: Polly Grimmett
