Chief Executive Officer: Deborah Needham

John joined KGH in February 2023 having been Deputy Medical Director at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust since 2015. He was appointed as a colorectal surgeon in 1996 initially at the Glenfield Hospital in Leicester, before moving to the Leicester General Hospital in 2006. He did his surgical training on the Leicester rotation and completed this at St Mark’s. He qualified from Emmanuel College Cambridge and Westminster Medical School and has held various educational roles including Critical Care Tutor at the Royal College of Surgeons of England responsible for the continued development and governance of the Care of the Critically Ill Surgical Patient course run throughout the UK and overseas. John is passionate about high quality patient care and empowering our staff to deliver this.
Outside of work he is a keen road cyclist and skier.
Jayne is an experienced nurse with over 30 years’ experience of working in the NHS, working in both acute and community care. Jayne is also an Emergency Nurse Practitioner, a Queen’s Nurse and has an MSc in emergency preparedness.
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.
Natasha is our Group Chief Digital Information Officer and brings with her a strong track record of leading engaged teams to deliver strategic change for the benefit of patients and staff.
Sam joined the Trust in October 2023 and has responsibility for corporate communications and engagement. He began his career as a journalist for international news agency Thomson Reuters before joining the NHS, where he has worked across several communications roles at mental health, community and acute trusts. He was the Assistant Director of Communications and Engagement at Milton Keynes University Hospital, leading the organisation’s communications response throughout the pandemic. Most recently, Sam was an Associate Director for communications and public affairs consultancy Lexington where he led a number of accounts for both national and international clients from the life sciences, MedTech and public sectors.
He is passionate about the strategic value communications and engagement teams can add across organisations and the impact that can have on improving patient experience, staff engagement and organisational transparency.
Richard joins KGH from Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) where he has been the Executive Director of Finance since 2016. As a Chartered Accountant, Richard has many years of NHS experience in a range of sectors including Strategic Health Authority, Oxford University Hospitals and East Midlands Ambulance Service. Richard holds a Maths degree and in 2012, was awarded Healthcare Finance Managers Association, Deputy Finance Director of the Year.
John joined UHN on 1st July 2023 as Chair, alongside this role he will retain his role as Chair of University Hospitals of Leicestershire, a role he has held since April 2021.
John has been a Chair in various NHS and Foundation Trust organisations for a number of years bringing a wealth of experience. This includes the role of Chair in an Integrated Care Board (ICB) setting, where John has linked with system partners to address challenges. John is looking forward to working more closely with our system partners, to bring us together to create a better service for the patients of Northamptonshire.
Prior to joining the NHS, John worked overseas in Africa and the Indian sub-continent as an agricultural and rural development economist on projects for the British Government, the World Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.
John’s roles within the NHS include:
Chair – Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Chair – North Midlands Hospitals NHS Trust
CEO – Derbyshire Royal Infirmary NHS Trust
CEO – Queens Medical Centre
CEO – John Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust
Chair – Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board
After studying Psychology, Alice started her professional career at KPMG, qualifying as a Chartered Accountant and later joining the specialist Financial Services Audit team. She later moved to working directly for a large Building Society Group, holding a variety of senior roles in the areas of Risk, Information, Strategy and Planning. Having always enjoyed the people development side of her work, more recently, Alice trained as an Executive and Career Coach, and now combines this freelance role with her other responsibilities, including her non-executive director role.
Alice was born in Kettering and has lived in the area for much of her life. Outside of work and looking after a young family, she is a keen singer, and is also active in children and families work in her local church.
Lise is a qualified GP who has also worked in public health medicine and in general management within NHS commissioning.
She believes her previous role as commissioner looking “into” Trusts will help her support KGH as a Non-Executive Director.
Trevor has extensive experience in the NHS and was Finance Director of Central and Northwest London NHS Foundation Trust.
He is a member of the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants and brings a wealth of experience in audit and finance to the Board.
Damien has 23 years experience in the IT service industry.
He has lots of experience in delivering services to public sector organisations and wants to use this opportunity to work in the public sector and share his experience of delivering complex and challenging change projects.
Chris is the Independent Review Officer for the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Accountable Care System Hospital Review and has a strong medical background.
Chris has held a significant number of senior posts including Chief Operating Officer, Medical Director and Chair in a number of NHS Trusts and Foundation Trust hospitals