WWL Board of Directors
Our Board of Directors operates according to the highest corporate governance standards. It is a unitary board and has a wide range of skills and experience. The non-executive directors have wide-ranging expertise and experience, including backgrounds in finance, audit, primary care and education. The board considers that it is balanced and complete in its composition, and appropriate to the requirements of the organisation.
- Upcoming Meetings
Upcoming Board of Directors' Meetings
Please note that the start time of each meeting is subject to change. This will be updated on the website in advance of the meetings.
Once the agenda and papers are available they will be published under the 2023 meeting section.
06 December 2023 - 1.15pm
- Chair and Chief Executive
Silas Nicholls Chief Executive Officer
Contact: Christine Swann - 01942 82 2196
Silas is an experienced Chief Executive and NHS leader who began his NHS career as a graduate management trainee. He has since held a wide range of general management posts, including commissioning roles in health authorities, management of community services and extensive hospital management experience.
Silas’s first Chief Executive post was at University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust (UHSM) in 2016, having joined the organisation two years earlier as Chief Operating Officer. More recently he has been Chief Executive of Southport and Ormskirk Hospitals NHS Trust until joining Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust, on 28th October 2019 as Chief Executive.
In addition to CEO role at WWL, Silas is the Chair of the North West Leadership Academy and the Co-Chair of the System Operational Response Taskforce for Greater Manchester.
Qualifications:
LLB (Hons) Law
MBA
Mark JonesChair
Contact: Christine Swann – 01942 82 2196
Mark has a long-standing and respected international and domestic career in the pharmaceutical industry, and since retiring has gained experience as a Non-Executive Director at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (LHCH).
People, organisational culture and values are central to Mark’s approach, and during his time working closely with hospital executives and management at LHCH, he helped to develop strategies, business cases and the planned delivery of the National People Plan, with a particular focus on addressing equality and diversity challenges.
Mark has worked as Company President for national companies in Germany, Canada and the UK, later serving as Regional Vice President for Southern Europe, reporting to the main board of AstraZeneca. He was also a board member at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) and Chair of Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Programme (QIPP) committee, representing the industry in discussions on this topic with the NHS.
During his time in Canada, Mark was a Non-Executive Director of the Kids Brain Health Board of Canada and worked with the Canadian government to help launch a charitable foundation for children’s mental health.
- Executive Directors
Mary Fleming
Deputy Chief Executive
Mary joined the Trust in January 2008 as Operational lead within the Division of Surgery. She became a member of the Board in March 2016 as the Chief Operating Officer and was appointed as the Trust’s Deputy Chief Executive in April 2021.
In addition to her Operational and IM&T responsibilities, Mary also leads on issues of organisational importance, such as the approach to staff engagement, as well as acting as Chief Executive in the absence of Silas Nicholls.
Mary worked in the private sector before moving into healthcare and has worked in acute provider organisations across Greater Manchester and Yorkshire. Her experience in working across both the private and public sector brings a strong focus on ensuring services are organised around the needs of the patient with the goal of improving cost and quality. WWL is renowned for its performance against the NHS Constitution Standards, a reflection of staff’s commitment to delivering the very best care possible.
Mary joined the flagship Nye Bevan Aspiring Director Leaders’ Programme and successfully completed the Executive Health Care Leadership Programme with the NHS Leadership Academy. She has studied Social History and Sociology and has a PGC in Managing Health and Social Care.
Qualifications:
PGC in Health and Social Care Management
Executive Healthcare Leadership ProgrammeTabitha Gardner
Chief Finance Officer
Tabitha joined the trust as Chief Finance Officer in March 2023 and brings a vast amount of knowledge and experience to the role having worked in NHS finance at various different Trusts in the North West.
From 2019, Tabitha held the role of Director of Finance at the Rochdale Care Organisation, part of the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA), where she delivered significant investment into the organisation as part of the Rochdale elective surgical offer. Prior to this, Tabitha spent eight years working as the Deputy Director of Finance for the North West branch of NHS England and during this time she led the financial management for Specialised Services which delivers numerous rare and complex services.
She has also held finance leadership roles at Wirral NHS Foundation Trust, The Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust and spent some time outside the NHS working at KPMG.
Juliette Tait
Chief People Officer
Juliette (Jules), joined the Trust as Chief People Officer in August 2023.
Most recently, Juliette, worked at Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH), undertaking a variety of roles in Human Resources (HR) and Organisational Development (OD). In 2019, Juliette was the Deputy Director of HR & OD before taking on the role of Executive Director of Human Resources.
Beyond this, Juliette is proud of her extensive and varied career in the people profession, having gained experience in leading teams that support apprenticeship delivery, workforce development and other specialist areas, as well as a significant period with Greater Manchester Police.
Above all, Juliette is passionate about people and works hard to raise the voice of staff to help create the best working environment possible, ensuring people feel well equipped to deliver safe and compassionate care to our patients.
Juliette started her career journey as an Apprentice and, over the years, has completed a range of professional qualifications, most recently being awarded Chartered Member status of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Richard Mundon
Director of Strategy and Planning
Richard is a very experienced public servant spending the majority of his career in the health sector. He has a degree in biological sciences and is a qualified accountant. He spent 25 years in the Department of Health joining in 1986 and working in a wide variety of roles in Birmingham, London and Leeds across a range of policy, management and corporate disciplines.
Richard has worked with Ministers, had multi billion pound budget responsibilities, led large change programmes, developed performance management and planning regimes and was head of profession for programme and project management. Amongst his many roles, he can list Project Manager on the 2000 NHS Plan and Director of Operations.
Richard joined the Trust in 2012 where he led projects on private patients, temporary staffing, back office functions and occupational health commercialisation. He became Acting Director of Strategy and Planning in December 2014 before being appointed as Director of Strategy and Planning in August 2015.
Qualifications:
BSc (Hons) Biological Sciences
ACMA CGMARabina Tindale
Chief Nurse and Director of Infection Prevention and Control
Rabina joined the trust as Chief Nurse in February 2021. Rabina is dual qualified RN and RSCN with a clinical background in Emergency Care. Having held several nursing leadership roles in Yorkshire, the North East and Mid Essex, she has joined us from University College London Hospitals NHS FT where she was Deputy Chief Nurse for 4 years.
Rabina firmly believes outstanding care can only be delivered through investing in our staff, providing a psychologically safe environment to work in and enabling them to reach their full potential. Rabina is an advocate for Human Factors in health care and is passionately committed to the equality, diversity and inclusion agenda.
Qualifications:
RN/RSCN
Executive MBAProf. Sanjay Arya
Medical Director/ Consultant Interventional Cardiologist
Dr Sanjay Arya joined the Trust in November 2000 as a Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, providing a high quality, evidence based and patient focussed comprehensive cardiac service. Sanjay’s areas of interest are coronary artery disease, coronary intervention, heart failure, arrhythmia, syncope and cardiac assessment for non-cardiac surgery and professional footballers.
Sanjay is a keen teacher, dedicated to the teaching and training of doctors and other healthcare professionals. Sanjay was the Foundation Programme Director for seven years during which he raised the profile of doctor teaching and training at WWL. Dr Arya holds the position of Examiner for the Royal College of Physicians and at Manchester Medical School. He is Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, Edge Hill University and the University of Liverpool. Sanjay has published several publications, delivered talks throughout the country, and is an active member of various cardiovascular organisations which aim to reduce the incidence and improve the management of cardiovascular disease.
Dr Arya has held the position of Medical Director for the Medicine Division since 2012. During this period Sanjay ensured high-quality care was provide for patients through various quality initiatives and via the implementation of 7 day working in the Trust. Sanjay is currently the Chair of the Emergency and Acute Medicine Group for the North West Sector under the Healthier Together initiative. He is working towards the provision of high quality standardised care across Bolton, Wigan and Salford hospitals. Dr Arya was the Chair of the North West England Heart Failure group during which he ensured patients with heart failure received high-quality care. Sanjay is the Vice Chairman of the British International Doctors Association, UK and was the Editor of the Journal of BIDA for six years until December 2016.
Sanjay has been working as Interim Joint Medical Director since August 2016, before being appointed to the substantive post of Medical Director in April 2017. Dr Arya’s immediate priority would be to improve staff morale, provide safe, effective care to his patients and work towards making WWL a financially viable Trust.
Qualifications:
MBBS (Hons), FRCP (London), FRCP (Glasgow)Anne-Marie Miller
Director of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement
Anne-Marie has 15 years’ experience in senior communications and engagement roles at Acute and Community NHS Provider organisations across North West England. During this time, she led the complex communications and engagement programme for the merger of University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust (UHSM) and Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CMFT) to create Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT), the largest Foundation Trust in the country.
Prior to joining the NHS, Anne-Marie held stakeholder engagement roles at UNITE Group Plc and was Vice-President of Liverpool Student’s Union. Anne-Marie also holds an Executive Award in Health Care Leadership following the completion of the Nye Bevan programme and is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
Qualifications:
DipHE Consumer Studies
PG Dip Public Relations
Executive Award in Health Care LeadershipPaul Howard
Director of Corporate Affairs
Paul began his NHS career in 2001 with the then Greater Manchester Ambulance Service, qualifying as a paramedic and undertaking a range of clinical roles before taking up the role of Corporate Governance Manager with North West Ambulance Service. Since then, Paul has worked in Company Secretary roles within the acute health sector and in the education sector and in 2014 he was named Company Secretary of the Year in the not-for-profit sector by the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators. In the same year, Paul coordinated the development of new national rules on behalf of NHS Providers which allowed votes in elections to FT councils of governors to be cast online or by text message to increase participation and engagement. Paul is the executive sponsor for LGBTQIA+ inclusion here at WWL.
Qualifications:
LLB (Hons) in Law
LLM in Legal Practice with specialism in Intellectual Property
ParamedicContact
To contact any director, please email company.secretary@wwl.nhs.uk
- Non-Executive Directors
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Lynne LobleyContact: Company Secretary - 01942 82 2027
Lynne has held Non Executive board appointments in three very different Trusts. Her roles have included those of Deputy Chairman and Senior Independent Director. Until recently, she was a member of the Senior Management Team, Cheshire and Mersey Deanery (postgraduate medical education). Lynne was also a member of the Deanery Integration Board, bringing the NW Deaneries together into Health Education England. During the same period, she was a member of the Local Workforce Action Board, which facilitates workforce planning and training for existing and new models of NHS care.
She began her professional life as a graduate trainee in local government. Moving into further education, she progressed through the lecturing grades to principal lecturer, before taking on executive and director roles. During this time she worked in partnership with external private sector organisations to deliver wide ranging transformational change and innovation.
Lynne is passionate about creating a joined up, sustainable, health and social care service for the future.Dr Terence Hankin
Contact: Company Secretary - 01942 82 2027
Terry has a lifetime career in the NHS, qualifying in 1989. His last appointment was as Medical Director to Southport and Ormskirk Acute NHS Trust. Prior to that role he was a full time Consultant in Critical Care and Anaesthesia at St Helens and Knowsley Acute NHS Trust for 22 years. He has a wide experience in a variety of Clinical and Managerial roles supporting Clinicians and Doctors in Training. He has a demonstrated commitment to supporting patients, families and driving the quality of care delivered by Medical staff.
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Ian Haythornthwaite Contact: Company Secretary - 01942 82 2027
Ian was previously the Chief Finance and Operating Officer for BBC Nations and Regions with overall responsibility for the effective delivery of all BBC operations outside of London, and before this he was the BBC’s Director of Finance. Prior to joining the BBC, Ian was the Deputy Chief Executive of the North West Regional Development Agency where, among his responsibilities, he led on the economic regeneration of Cumbria and the management of all European funding for the North West of England. Ian was Pro Vice-Chancellor at the University of Central Lancashire from 1999 until 2003.
Ian is a Fellow member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, with extensive public sector management experience and chairs our Audit Committee. He is also chair of the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS FT.
Lady Rhona Bradley DL
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Contact: Company Secretary - 01942 82 2027
Rhona has 25 years’ experience in the criminal justice system with the National Probation Service in Greater Manchester and Cheshire and led the establishment of multi-agency youth offending services in Halton and Warrington Borough Councils. She has held a number of roles in social services, including director roles in both adult and children’s services. Currently Chief Executive of Addiction Dependency Services, Rhona was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Greater Manchester in 2010.
Clare Austin
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Contact: Company Secretary - 01942 82 2027
Clare is the Associate Dean for Research and Innovation and the Director of Medical Education at Edge Hill University as well as the Chair of the Management Group of the Postgraduate Medical Institute. A Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Clare holds a BSc and PhD in Pharmacology and has been involved in medical education for many years. She is particularly interested in the use of reflective learning in personal and professional development.
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Francine Thorpe Contact: Company Secretary - 01942 82 2027
Francine has had a long career in the NHS; her most recent post was Director of Quality and Innovation at NHS Salford Clinical Commissioning Group. As well as working as a commissioner, she has held senior leadership roles within acute hospitals, primary care and community services. Francine has a clinical background as a physiotherapist and during her career worked as a Physiotherapy Advisor to the Lead Allied Health Professional at the Department of Health. Over the last few years she has been involved in the development of integrated health and social care across the Salford locality and led a large quality improvement programme focused on medication safety, safer care homes and safer handover across care settings. With a keen interest in healthcare quality, safety improvement and safeguarding, Francine has also recently been appointed as an Independent Chair for one of the Greater Manchester Safeguarding Adults Boards.
Julie Gill
Contact: Company Secretary - 01942 82 2027
Julie has worked in senior roles across the public sector, including local government, housing, regeneration, policing and education and is currently a Chief Officer at Cheshire Constabulary, taking the lead on Business Services for Cheshire Police as part of the Chief Constable’s leadership team.
Julie has many years of experience at board level covering finance, commercial and property management, change and digital strategy and HR workforce planning, across the various roles. Prior to working with the police, she has held Director of Resources roles at Cheshire West and Stoke councils, as well as wide ranging roles within the education sector and a national housing provider. - Board Papers 2023
Detailed below are the Board of Directors agendas and supporting documents for meetings during 2023.
The majority of our reports are in PDF format unless otherwise stated. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your PC to view these documents. If you would like a copy of the meeting papers then plese contact the Company Secretary team on the below e-mail address and they shall arrange a copy of the papers to be sahred with you.As part of the plans in place to keep our staff and members of the public safe, our board meetings may be held by videoconference. We will still publish all papers on this website along with a meeting link to allow you to join virtually. We appreciate your understanding on this matter. If you would like any further information, or wish to attend the meeting please email Company.Secretary@wwl.nhs.uk
01 February 2023 - This meeting will be taking place via Microsoft Teams Video conferencing
05 April 2023 - 1.30pm
07 June 2023 - 2pm
02 August 2023 -1.45pm
04 October 2023 - 1.15pm
- Board Papers 2022
Detailed below are the Board of Directors agendas and supporting documents for meetings during 2022.
Agenda's and other key reports are available in a wide variety of formats to meet local user needs (e.g. different languages, large print, speaking version). We appreciate your comments on how we can further improve our reports.
The majority are in PDF format unless otherwise stated. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your PC to view these documents.As part of the plans in place to keep our staff and members of the public safe, our board meetings may be held by videoconference. We will still publish all papers on this website along with a meeting link to allow you to join virtually should you wish to. We appreciate your understanding on this matter. If you would like any further information, please email Company.Secretary@wwl.nhs.uk
02 February 2022 at 1:15pm
30 March 2022 at 1pm
06 April 2022 at 1:15pm
08 June 2022 at 1:30pm
03 August 2022 at 1:15pm - Please note this meeting will be held via Microsoft Teams
05 October 2022 at 1:30pm
07 December 2022 at 2pm
- Board Papers 2021
Detailed below are the Board of Directors agendas and supporting documents for meetings during 2021.
Agenda's and other key reports are available in a wide variety of formats to meet local user needs (e.g. different languages, large print, speaking version). We appreciate your comments on how we can further improve our reports.
The majority are in PDF format unless otherwise stated. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your PC to view these documents.As part of the plans in place to keep our staff and members of the public safe, our board meetings will be held by videoconference until further notice. We will still publish all papers on this website. We appreciate your understanding on this matter. If you would like any further information, please email Company.Secretary@wwl.nhs.uk
November
September
July
May
March
January
Agenda
Chief Executive's Report
Bi-Annual Staffing Review Paper 1
Bi-Annual Staffing Review Paper 2
- Board Papers 2020
Detailed below are the Board of Directors agendas and supporting documents for meetings during 2020.
Agenda's and other key reports are available in a wide variety of formats to meet local user needs (e.g. different languages, large print, speaking version). We appreciate your comments on how we can further improve our reports.
The majority are in PDF format unless otherwise stated. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your PC to view these documents.As part of the plans in place to keep our staff and members of the public safe, our board meetings will be held by videoconference until further notice. We will still publish all papers on this website. We appreciate your understanding on this matter. If you would like any further information, please email Company.Secretary@wwl.nhs.uk