Board of Directors and Board Meetings

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

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.

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.

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.

Nicola was appointed as Director of Finance & Contracting in June 2017. Nicola commenced her employment at the Trust in 2010 in the role of Business Partner taking up the Head of Financial Management in 2012 and was promoted to the role Director of Transformation.

Nicola has extensive financial & change management experience previously working for Northamptonshire Police and Cambridge County Council.

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!

Andy became Digital Chief Information Officer with the Trust on April 8^th 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.

Alan has worked in the NHS for 43 years in a variety of senior roles and has also run his own consultancy business supporting leadership and improving performance through coaching.

Alan is also the Chairman of Northampton General Hospital and has previously been Chairman of Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow and also of Hinchingbrooke Hospital. Before that, he has spent 24 years as a Chief Executive of a number of Strategic Health Authorities.

Alan has been involved in national work on public sector reform and research and development and was Vice Chairman of the NHS Confederation.

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.

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

Janet is CEO of the Academy for Healthcare Science, a UK wide organisation which brings together the entire Healthcare Science Profession to improve patient care and advance and promote the Healthcare science workforce.

Janet has a long career in healthcare, building on her work as a clinician, in Nursing and Midwifery, to move into teaching and later management. She has a wide portfolio of experience in executive, Chief executive and non-executive roles in public, private and third sector organisations.

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.

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.

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.

Liisa is a Finance Director at Jaguar Land Rover, a company she joined 17 years ago.  During her career as an operational finance partner she gained experience of the automotive sector and led innovation in a rapidly changing environment.  She finds creative, practical solutions that release value and improve performance.  Liisa believes her experience of improving profitability through transformation will help her support KGH on the journey to outstanding.

Lin’s professional background and training is as an educational psychologist and she spent over 20 years in Local Education Authorities working with children and young people, their families, schools and communities in order to improve their life chances.

She then joined the Civil Service in 2000 and fulfilled a number of policy and delivery roles, including working with ministers to take legislation through parliament and being responsible for the operation of the courts in the West Midlands. She has subsequently had a successful track record of strategic leadership as a director and Chief Executive of a number of public bodies.  She has led organisations responsible for the regulation of social workers, the development of the school curriculum, assessment and qualifications and the oversight of teacher training and development and most recently was Chief Executive of the Youth Justice Board.

She is currently interim Chair of Governors at De Montfort University and joins KGH for 6 months as part in the NHS Improvement NExT Director scheme.