Our Board

Martin was appointed Chair of the Trust in November 2023.

Martin started his career in the NHS as a trainee hospital administrator. In 1983, he commissioned and opened East Surrey Hospital and, in 1986, moved into general management with responsibility for the East Surrey Learning Disability and the mental health services, transforming the services from being institutional-based to community-based, leading the unit to become an NHS Trust in 1994, when he became its Chief Executive. He subsequently went on to serve four more Trusts (Nottingham Healthcare NHS Trust, Hampshire Partnership NHS Trust, Tees, Esk & Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, and Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust) as Chief Executive, up to his retirement in 2021. His career is characterised by leading service modernisation, quality improvement, and organisational development. Since his retirement, Martin has undertaken voluntary work for the charity Zarach, supports Yorkshire Cancer Research, and is a Governor of Leeds Beckett University.

Simon is the Chief Executive of the Trust – a role he started in August 2019 – and since July 2022, he is also a Provider Partner Member to the NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.

Simon joined the Trust from Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, where he has been Chief Executive since 2016.

He has more than 25 years’ experience in the NHS, which he joined in September 1989 as a general management trainee in Greater Manchester. 

After roles across Yorkshire he went on to be successful in number of senior positions.  His first Chief Executive post was for the Doncaster Central Primary Care Trust in October 2000 and he was appointed Chief Executive of the former Bradford and Airedale Teaching Primary Care Trust (now NHS Bradford and Airedale) in October 2006.  Following his time in commissioning organisations he became Chief Executive of Sheffield Children’s Hospital.

Declaration of interests
Provider member (designate) of Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
Trustee – MediCinema (a charity that supports cinemas in hospitals)

Karen was appointed as Medical Director for the Trust in November 2022.

As Medical Director Karen is responsible for the appointment, development and professional leadership of medical and dental staff.  Karen acts as the Responsible Officer for the Trust and is responsible for medical leadership including professional standards, appraisal and revalidation and appointments.  She also has responsibility for medical education, patient safety, clinical audit, medication safety, clinical risk and medico-legal matters.

Karen graduated from Birmingham University with a medical degree in 1990. She then worked in posts in paediatrics in Birmingham, London and Yorkshire. She was appointed to a consultant paediatric post with an interest in emergency paediatrics at Pontefract General Infirmary in 2001 after obtaining her Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training. Her career at Pontefract, which became part of the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals Trust, saw her develop into an accomplished medical leader. In 2014 Karen became the Medical Director, a post that she has left to join York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Karen comes to us with a wealth of experience in medical leadership, quality improvement, patient safety, clinical reconfiguration and is passionate about multi professional education.

Declaration of interests
Nil

Dawn joined the Trust as Interim Chief Nurse in July 2023.  

Dawn is the former Director of Nursing and Quality at Mid Yorkshire Teaching Trust and has held this board position since June 2022. She has previously been the Deputy Director of Nursing and Quality a role which she held between 2015 and 2022, and several other senior leadership roles across West Yorkshire.

An experienced nurse and service leader, she started her career as a registered adult nurse at Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust before moving into clinical strategic leadership and transformational work.

Dawn is passionate about the quality of services patients receive and the impact that well led and motivated staff have on the compassion and care we give to our patients and communities. Dawn’s key focus is to further develop a culture across organisation’s that sets patient safety at the heart of what everyone does by engaging colleagues to be the very best that they can be.

Polly became Director of Workforce and Organisational Development in February 2019.

She joined the Trust in September 2015 as Deputy Director of Workforce reporting into the Chief Executive.  Her portfolio includes Human Resources, Organisational Development, Workforce Development, Occupational Health, Research and Equality and Diversity.

After graduating from Durham University in 2000, Polly began her career in Financial Services.  In 2002 she joined the NHS working for Great Ormond Street Hospital, where she trained in Human Resource Management.  Polly joined Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust in 2009 and progressed to Deputy Director of Workforce and Organisational Development before she left in 2015.

Polly is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD.

Declaration of interests
Nil

As Chief Digital and Information Officer James leads digital transformation of the Trust integrating with the Humber and North Yorkshire ICS.

He is responsible for the delivery of the strategic digital capabilities required to underpin new models of care provided across the Trust and the integrated care system.

James is also responsible for the delivery and maintenance of our digital infrastructure and providing assurance to both Trust and ICS board in this regard, which includes assurances around cyber security, service continuity and information governance.

James joined the Trust from NHS Digital where he had several different roles on the executive team and was central to the delivery of many of the national NHS IT systems and services and commercial frameworks, such as the NHS App, NHS.UK, NHS 111, NHS Summary Care Records and the GP IT Commercial Framework to name a few.

Declaration of interests
Member – Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society

Jenny was appointed as a non-executive director in 2017.

Jenny is a qualified chartered accountant and brings over 30 years’ experience gained of the private, public and charitable sectors.  From 1997 until her retirement in October 2016 she was chief executive at The Retreat psychiatric hospital in York.  She also has extensive non-executive experience.

Declaration of interests
Independent Member of Audit Committee, York St John University
Member of Court, University of York

Lorraine was appointed as a non-executive director of the Trust in 2018.

Lorraine is a GP and brings 30 years’ of experience of direct patient care.

In recent years Lorraine has been involved as GP representative within NHS Vale of York Clinical Commissioning Group and The Humber, Coast and Vale Sustainability and Transformation Partnership.  She is the founder directory of City and Vale GP Alliance and she has supported the development of collaborative working between the Trust and primary care.

Declaration of interests
Trustee – Friends of St Monica

Steve has been a consultant cardiologist in the NHS with more than 25 years’ experience in direct patient care.

He brings extensive experience as a previous Trust Board executive and also senior roles in other NHS organisations and the charitable sector.  Steve has a strong interest in education in health care and also the development of safety and quality in patient care.

Declaration of interests
Nil

Lynne was appointed as a non-executive director in 2018.

Lynne brings over 26 years’ of experience in the public and private sector, having held a wide-range of leadership positions with a particular focus in the network and IT sector.

Declaration of interests
UNICEF Baby Feeding Institute Guardian for YTHFT

Helen is a solicitor and spent her executive career in the private sector as General Counsel and Group Secretary of large, complex listed companies and latterly at the Co-op Group. The majority of her career was spent in consumer-facing organisations going through periods of significant change and having executive responsibility for legal, compliance, governance, risk, audit and corporate affairs functions. Her roles also involved extensive stakeholder engagement.

Since stepping away from her executive career she has concentrated on non-executive roles with a focus on education, community, well-being and the natural environment. She has a strong commitment to supporting diverse and inclusive organisations.

She is a Council member at the University of Leeds, where she chairs their remuneration committee. She also chairs the Yorkshire and North-East Advisory Board at the Canal and River Trust which provides green and blue spaces in communities across the region.

Julie Charge has worked at the University of Salford since 2014, originally as the Executive Director of Finance, but has most recently taken up the role of Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer.

Julie oversees the professional services of the University, including Finance, Strategy, Estates, Digital IT, Student services and Marketing.

Julie qualified as an accountant in 1995, completing her Master’s in Business Administration in 2009. she has over 30 years of experience working in Finance. She’s worked in a variety of Public and Private sectors including Health, Manufacturing and Higher Education.