Our Board of Directors and Trust Board Meetings

Richard Mitchell is Chief Executive of University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust and Chief Executive of the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire NHS Group. 

Richard is proud to work in his local hospitals, and he and his family live in Leicestershire.

Laura, joined University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN) as Chief Executive on 1 October 2024 from University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH), where she was Director of Strategy for seven years. 

Laura leads UHN across its two hospitals, working closely with Richard Mitchell, the Joint Chief Executive of UHN and University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) to deliver improvements to patient care, employment, research, education and finances.

Laura has delivered many achievements across her NHS career. At UCHL, she was responsible for the build and commission of two major new hospitals, including the commission of a proton beam therapy (PBT) service (one of only two for NHS patients in the UK). Laura has extensive experience in service redesign, business case development and project management. Prior to moving into strategy in 2014, she held several senior operational roles at UCLH, including the management of stand-alone sites. 

Laura is a Northamptonshire resident and has three primary-school aged children who were all born at University Hospitals of Northamptonshire.

Julie was appointed UHN Chief Nurse in July 2024 whilst keeping her Chief Nurse role at University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL).

Julie joined UHL in May 2022 from Sherwood Forest Hospitals (SFH), where she served as Chief Nurse since 2019. At the time the Trust was voted Health Service Journal Acute and Specialist Trust of the Year. It became a recognised centre for best practice in women and children's care and laid the foundations for the Nursing and Midwifery Pathway to Excellence accreditation scheme.  Prior to her role at SFH, she held the role of Deputy Chief Nurse at the University College London Hospitals for five years. 

Hemant joined NGH in 2017 as a Consultant Urologist. Since then, he has worked in a number of roles from Regional Director for the Royal College of Surgeons to the Trust Clinical Director for Cancer Performance. 

Following his appointment as Deputy Medical Director in 2020, Hemant has supported the organisation with some key initiatives from Governance to starting robotic assisted surgical services in Northamptonshire. He was appointed as Medical Director in July 2022, Hemant was appointed as UHN Medical Director in July 2024.

Sarah has worked in the NHS for over 20 years and her career has spanned community and acute providers, as well as working for both an integrate care board and the regional NHS England team.

Before joining UHN, she worked as a Director of Operation for East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust covering Urgent and Elective Care.

Sarah joined UHN in January 2024 as Interim Chief Operating Officer.  In September 2024, Sarah became UHN Chief Operating Officer.

Sarah joined University Hospitals of Northamptonshire in December 2024 from the Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board, having held the position of Deputy Chief Executive for Northamptonshire Clinical Commissioning Groups. Her role oversaw all aspects of contracting, performance and organisational development. 

Before joining the Northamptonshire Clinical Commissioning Group, Sarah was the Executive Director of Finance for Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Paula joined Kettering General Hospital as Deputy Director Human Resources and Organisation Development in September 2019 after a career in Human Resources spanning both public and private sectors, including 15 years in policing. Whilst working for Cambridgeshire Constabulary, Paula was part of the HR leadership team that brought together a collaborated Human Resources service across Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire police forces.   Paula was appointed Director Human Resources and Organisation Development in June 2020 and Group Chief People Officer in September 2022.
 
Paula is passionate about creating a sense of belonging in our organisation.  She believes leadership is about supporting teams and individuals to be the best they can be: by ensuring people are healthy and well in the broadest sense; are able to be themselves in the workplace, bringing all their skills and expertise to their role; and are supported and developed to reach their potential.

Polly joined KGH in 2017 leading the Strategic Development of the hospital. Polly now has responsibility for leading the Strategic Development of the two hospitals. This includes being the executive lead for the redesign and rebuild of our sites, including the new hospital programme at Kettering and community diagnostic centres across Northamptonshire. Polly’s role also includes setting and delivering how our care provision needs to develop across the county to be fit for our patients of the future, and developing relationships with other partners, to ensure patients in Northamptonshire receive an integrated approach to all their care needs and remain as well as possible.

Polly has a particular interest in Health Inequalities and ensuring our care is particularly focused on those who need us most. 

Polly has a wide experience in different types of acute providers, community and commissioning organisations, with broad experience in operational management, structural organisational change and delivering major strategic and capital programmes. roles in different acute providers and has also worked in commissioning and community services.

William joined University Hospitals of Leicester and University Hospitals of Northamptonshire in August 2024, after previously being the CDIO at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton. He has 16 years of NHS experience across acute trusts, NHS England and NHSX. William’s expertise has seen him lead digital transformation from complex acute environments to national programmes. His particular focus on ensuring the voice of colleagues and patients drives what and how technology is used in the organisation. William is focussed on delivering the digital and data strategy across the group and leading the use of new digital technologies and approaches to better support colleagues and patients. Outside the Trust, Will lectures for Imperial College London on the NHS Digital Academy as a Leading Digital Health Practitioner. He is also the digital lead for the East Midlands Acute Provider collaborative (EMAP).

Andrew’s commercial background is in retail where he held a variety of senior positions including Directorships at Marks & Spencer, Chief Merchandising Officer at Asda-Walmart and Chief Commercial Officer at Wilko. He has also worked in South Africa where he started his own Retail Consultancy and partnered with Woolworths SA. He retains a close connection with the retail sector through his advisory work with corporate investor institutions.

Andrew was appointed Group Chair University Hospitals of Northamptonshire and University Hospitals of Leicester from July 2024.

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.

Alice was appointed as a Non-Executive Director for University Hospitals of Northamptonshire from 1st September 2024.

A graduate of St. George’s, London in 1988, Simon completed GP training in Leicestershire in 1992, spending 18 months of that training in various UHL locations, then working at various times as a GP partner, retainer, salaried doctor and locum.

In 2005, Simon joined Keele Medical School, holding various roles including co-lead of Final Year and Director of Curriculum and more recently was a Clinical Associate Professor at Nottingham Medical School, before finally completing his circular trip back to Leicester when appointed as a Chair in 2019 and where he has been Head of School since July, 2023.

Simon is also a GMC Education Associate Team Leader (contributing to the quality assurance of new medical schools), former Treasurer of the International Clinical Skills Foundation (an Australian Registered Charity set up to improve the clinical education of health professionals in low-middle income countries), Editor-in-Chief of the journal Education for Primary Care, a past Chair of the Association for the Study of Medical Education’s Educator Development Committee, and a co-founder and former Treasurer of the UK Clinical Reasoning in Medical Education group.

An ASME Medical Education Innovation Award winner, Simon has more than 200 academic outputs in the form of peer reviewed publications, book chapters, presentations, workshops and seminars at regional, national and international conferences, and higher education institutions.

His research interests include clinical reasoning and the transition to qualified practice.

Jill became a non-executive director (NED) at UHN in September 2024, having served as a NED at NGH from May 2018 and across both the boards in the same role since December 2023.

She is a registered nurse and has worked as a midwife and health visitor. She has had experience in all sectors of healthcare, clinically and managerially within primary and secondary care. 

Jill has served several boards as a Director of Nursing/Chief Nurse over a period of 12 years. As a UHN board member, she is the Maternity & Neonatal non-executive board champion for NGH and has also been the lead for safeguarding and complaints.  She was previously Chief Nurse for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CCG and has been a Maternity Clinical Lead within the national Maternal and Neonatal Health Safety Collaborative.

Jill is a member of the Clinical Quality Safety and Performance, Remuneration and Appointments, Group Digital & Transformation, Strategic Development and Audit Committees.

Denise joined the NGH Board in February 2020 and was appointed as a Non-Executive Director for University Hospitals of Northamptonshire from 1st September 2024.

As an Executive Resourcing and OD professional, Denise is highly experienced at working with Boards and Executive teams in an advisory and developmental capacity. Qualified to Level A and B in Occupational Testing, Myers Briggs and ILM 7 Executive coaching studies, Denise has held posts at Director level across sectors.

Throughout her consultancy career, Denise has led and delivered on executive and NED recruitment, major Culture Change projects, organisational structure reviews and Executive coaching. Through her earlier career in the private sector, Denise developed strong business development and commercial skills, and a clear understanding of Customer Focus. 

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.

Trevor was appointed as a Non-Executive Director for University Hospitals of Northamptonshire from 1st September 2024.

Caroline Stevens started her career as a community pharmacist in Leicestershire and Northamptonshire, moving into hospital pharmacy management. She later became an operating theatre manager and hospital Managing Director.

In 2009 she moved in the charity sector as a senior director at The British Lung Foundation, then Chief Executive at a children’s disability charity. Since 2019 she has been the Chief Executive at The National Autistic Society, a UK wide charity supporting autistic people and their families.

Caroline lives in Northamptonshire. She is a mother of three adult sons, including Jack who is autistic, has severe learning disabilities, and has complex support needs requiring full support 24 hours per day. The experience of being a carer and securing appropriate health and care services for her disabled son has shaped many aspects of her life and career. This makes her determined to strive for safe, high quality health services that are accessible to all.

Caroline was appointed as a Non-Executive Director for University Hospitals of Northamptonshire from 1st September 2024.

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.

Damien was appointed as a Non-Executive Director for University Hospitals of Northamptonshire from 1st September 2024.