Board of Directors
Sir David Nicholson – Chair
Sir David Nicholson joined the Trust as chair on 1st September 2022. He is also currently chairman of Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, having taken up his position there in May 2021. David stood down as chair of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust in August 2022.
Sir David Nicholson’s career in NHS management has spanned more than 40 years and included the most senior posts in the service. He was chief executive of the NHS for seven years from 2006-2013 and then, following a major national restructure, became the first chief executive of the organisation now known as NHS England from 2013-2014.
Since his retirement from the NHS in 2014, he has taken on a number of international roles providing advice and guidance to governments and organisations focused on improving population health and universal healthcare coverage.
He has worked in China, Brazil, the USA, Europe and the Middle East, independently, and in association with the World Health Organisation, and World Bank. Sir David chaired the State Health Services organisation of the Republic of Cyprus and more recently was also the chairman of the Metropolitan Group of Hospitals, Nairobi.
Sir David is chairman of the Universal Health Coverage Forum of the World Innovation Summit for Health. Other roles include adjunct Professor of Global Health at the Institute of Global Health Imperial College, Advisor to the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin and Lancet Commissioner to Global Surgery.
His contribution to healthcare was recognised by the award of the CBE in 2008, and he was knighted by Her Majesty the Queen in 2010. He lives in Worcestershire with his wife and two children.
Diane Wake – Chief executive
A nurse by background, Diane has worked in the NHS for over 40 years. She has been a chief executive in the NHS for over 12 years. She joined The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust as Chief Executive in April 2017. Diane trained as a nurse between 1984 and 1987 and has an extensive background in nursing, occupying senior leadership positions in surgical specialties of urology, colorectal, vascular, and breast surgery. Diane has a wealth of experience in both clinical practice and leadership roles.
She was previously chief executive at Barnsley Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust from 2013 to 2017 and interim chief executive at the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust, where she also worked as chief operating officer and executive nurse from 2007.
Diane has a passion for improvement, patient safety and high-quality care and has knowledge and expertise in implementing robust governance processes. She is inspired by making a difference for patients and staff.
Adam Thomas – Executive chief strategy and digital officer
and deputy chief executive
Adam rejoined the Trust in 2009 and brings more than 15 years of NHS experience in clinical and senior management positions to his executive role.
A graduate of Aston University, Adam qualified as a pharmacist and proceeded to undertake postgraduate qualifications in clinical pharmacy, independent prescribing and digital healthcare leadership. He worked in medical oncology at The Dudley Group and brings a special clinical interest in improving cancer outcomes for the Black Country. He is also a registered IT professional, holding a Fellowship of the British Chartered Institute for IT professionals. Adam has recently completed a Masters degree in Digital Health Leadership, focussing on how intelligence can address population health inequality.
He is established as a digital leader within the region and a strong advocate for collaborative connected care systems. He continues to support strategic agendas as well as quality improvement. Adam is the provider collaborative board lead for digital, data and technology. He speaks at a national level on digital leadership, as well as digital-data strategy in health and care.
Lowell Williams – Non-executive director 
Lowell was the chief executive officer of Dudley College of Technology from 2008-2019 and led the college to an Ofsted Outstanding rating in the 2017 inspection.
In January 2018, he was named as one of seven appointments to the government’s advisory group, the National Leaders of Further Education, which is made up of principals from colleges who have been rated good or outstanding. Lowell led the creation of Dudley’s Academies Trust.
Karen Brogan – Interim chief people officer
Karen first joined the Trust in 2019 and has worked in HR for just over 15 years. She has extensive experience of working within the NHS, having previously held roles at Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust and Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust.
Prior to joining the executive board, she held the role of director of operational HR, and has helped shape our Dudley People Plan, our staff health and wellbeing service and our behaviour framework. She has also helped to establish our important staff networks, which continue to have positive engagement across our diverse staff communities. Karen also led on the development of the vaccination programme for the Black Country.
Karen is passionate about the Trust’s people strategies and successfully implementing these for the benefit of our staff and patients.
Liz Hughes MBE – Non-executive director
The Dudley Group welcomed Liz to its board in December 2019. Liz is deputy medical director for Health Education England and a consultant in chemical pathology and metabolic medicine at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals Trust and honorary professor at both the University of Birmingham and University of Aston and visiting professor at Worcester University.
Professor Hughes established the physician associate role in the NHS, a role that many hospitals now have within their workforce, securing the first ever non-medical faculty at the Royal College of Physicians. She is proud that when it first began in 2015 there were 183 and now there are just over 2,500 physicians associates employed in the NHS.
Medical education and training is a passion for Professor Hughes who has also established a GP training scheme with the Chinese government and developed speciality medical training within the Middle East.
Liz is a national expert in the treatment of inherited lipid disorders and is one of the founder members of the national charity HEARTUK with which she has worked extensively with multi professional healthcare professionals and patients.
In 2016, the aviation profession honoured Liz for her contribution towards training doctors in aerospace-related medicine. She was the winner of the Improving Safety in Medicines Management category in the Patient Safety Awards 2013.
She has held a number of national roles including chair of Academic Careers and Research Evidence.
Julian Hobbs – Medical director
Julian has joined us from Royal Liverpool where he has been deputy medical director and has been since 2013. Julian is also a deputy medical director and leads on Mortality for Cheshire and Merseyside area team at NHS England.
Julian is a consultant cardiologist by background and has worked at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital alongside his current roles. Julian has had extensive experience in medical management roles for several years. He grew up in the Midlands area and is looking forward to returning, and hopes to fit in some running and cycling in Cannock Chase.
Julian said, “I am looking forward to being part of a Trust that is so well known for delivering safe and effective care and I am keen to get out and meet as many staff as possible. I am looking forward to being part of the new Electronic Patient Record project which will make systems more efficient and release more time for patient care.”
Gary Crowe – Non-executive director and deputy chair
Gary was most recently a university professor of Innovation Leadership at Keele University Management School. He previously held senior commercial positions in strategy, business transformation and risk & financial management as a director and management consultant in the financial services sector.
Gary holds a number of external board appointments, and has served as an independent non-executive director with another NHS trust since 2015. He is a qualified chartered banker and fellow of a number of professional organisations and learned societies.
Karen Kelly – Chief operating officer and deputy chief executive 
Karen joined us in January 2018 from Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust where she held the post of executive director of operations.
A graduate of Keele University, Karen qualified as a nurse in 1993 and worked for more than 23 years at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire where she held a variety of roles including the first matron role for Urgent and Emergency Care before moving into managing the Directorate of Emergency Care.
Prior to joining us as a COO Karen has been involved in overseeing a range of large scale service developments and improvement projects. She became part of the transformation team tasked with turning around Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust – becoming head of nursing there in 2010. Following this, she held the post of medical nurse director, followed by deputy director of operations at The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital Trust.
Karen is passionate about leadership development and wo
rking alongside people to promote quality of care being delivered that ensures our patients are safe.
Vij Randeniya – Non-executive director
Vij is an experienced non-executive director within the health service. He is deputy chairman of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust and sits on the governing body of Aston University. Vij is a trustee of the Royal Society for Public Health and former chief fire officer for West Midlands Fire Service. Vij has substantial experience of large-scale project management, leadership and change management.
Vij was awarded the OBE in 2006.
Catherine Holland – Non-executive director 
Catherine is a writer, speaker, coach/mentor and facilitator, developing the practice of senior leaders. A member of the Golden Egg Academy, she is currently writing a children’s book.
Catherine is an associate consultant with ‘Amara Collaboration’, a contributing author to’ Street Smart Awareness’ and ‘Inquiry in Action’; and co-designer and facilitator in transformational leadership development retreats.
A former social worker and trainer and assistant director in social services, Catherine worked for 14 years in the Probation Service, first as a director for corporate services and later as chief executive of Staffordshire and West Midlands Probation Trust, the second largest probation trust in the UK.
Catherine designed and led West Midlands Probation through a successful performance and culture turn-around programme, and project managed the merger with Staffordshire Probation, the new Trust going on to be recognised for excellence and awarded four stars by the British Quality Foundation.
Catherine led SWM Probation Trust through extensive and challenging changes brought about by the Government’s Transforming Rehabilitation programme, becoming chief executive of Staffordshire and West Midlands CRC, and later the newly formed Reducing Reoffending Partnership.
Martina Morris – Chief Nurse
Martina is originally from Slovakia, where she began her nursing career, qualifying as an adult nurse in 1994. Martina then worked in intensive care and operating theatres and in early 1998, moved to the United Kingdom (UK). In late 1999, Martina decided to settle in the UK and after completing a period of adaptation, she secured her first registered nursing post in the UK on critical care unit at the Wrexham Maelor Hospital in North Wales in late 2000. In 2005, Martina relocated to the Midlands region and developed her career focusing on practice development, quality, safety and standards, underpinned by robust governance. In her career, she has worked in a variety of senior roles in acute providers and regionally, within the Midlands and East region.
Martina prides herself in being an authentic and compassionate leader with a proven track record of quality improvement and change management skills, which have enabled her to deliver improvements to nursing and wider services and improve patient outcomes and experience. Her expertise includes, operational and strategic nursing and midwifery agendas, practice development, quality improvement, governance, patient safety, patient experience and engagement, workforce assurance and development.
Martina is passionate about ensuring that staff are supported, empowered and equipped in their roles to provide a high-quality patient care and experience and drive continuous and outcome focused improvements. She is also very keen on ensuring that patient voice is heard and opportunities for patient engagement and co-production are maximised.
To consolidate her nursing leadership and experience, Martina successfully completed the national Aspiring Directors of Nursing talent pipeline programme in 2020, facilitated by NHS Improvement and NHS Leadership Academy.
Kat Rose – Director of integration
Kat joined the Trust in April 2022, bringing with her more than 15 years of NHS experience in programme management, strategy implementation and delivering healthcare transformation.
Before joining the Trust, Kat held the role of programme director at Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care, working on several million-pound projects. Prior to that she was associate director of strategy and planning at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust where she worked closely with system partners and managed the strategy, PMO, improvement and planning teams. Prior to this she performed the same role at Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
Kat began her career project managing large scale new builds for the NHS before moving into strategic planning and service transformation.
Andy Proctor – Director of governance
Andy is our director of governance. He joined us from University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust where he was their director of quality, clinical governance, risk and compliance.
He started his NHS career in the Ambulance Service in 2005 and undertook a range of clinical roles as a paramedic and then later in his career became assistant chief ambulance officer and director for quality improvement at West Midlands Ambulance Service.
Andy has also worked with the Care Quality Commission for eight years being involved in 19 inspections. Andy has extensive experience within governance, compliance and regulation and is passionate about patient safety and ensuring we provide high quality care.
Professor Anthony C. Hilton – Associate non-executive director
Anthony joins us from Aston University where he is currently Pro-Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean of the College of Health and Life Sciences.
A microbiologist by background, Anthony has held academic posts at the University of Birmingham and Aston University. Professor Hilton is a regular contributor to print and broadcast articles and has been recognised by several prestigious awards for his teaching and science communication activities. He is keen to bring his experience of training healthcare professionals and collaborative clinical research to the Trust.
Jo Hanley – Non-executive director
Jo joined the Trust as a non-executive director in June 2023.
A graduate of the University of Edinburgh, Jo has held a range of senior leadership positions across the Commercial Banking, Group Operations and Wealth/Private Banking divisions of Lloyds Banking Group where she has worked for some 20 years. Jo currently leads the Data Office for the global Corporate Markets business, prior roles include leading risk, customer servicing and operations functions and also delivering large scale transformation and integration programmes. Prior to joining Lloyds Banking Group, Jo worked at the Black Country Chamber of Commerce advising businesses to trade internationally.
Jo has significant global experience having lived and worked in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States in addition to working across Asia and Latin America. Jo has expertise in establishing and leading centres of excellence/shared service functions and outsourcing arrangements, strategy development, delivering regulatory change in addition to business and service improvement.
Jo is a diversity and inclusion advocate, currently co-chairing the Midlands Branch of Women in Banking & Finance (Social Enterprise) and is passionate about supporting and enabling people to realise their potential. Jo has a strong connection to Dudley having grown up in the area.
Chris Walker – Interim Director of Finance
Chris Walker joined the Trust in 2009 as deputy director of finance and we are happy to announce that he joins the board as interim director of finance, bringing with him over 30 years of experience working within the NHS.
Chris was born and educated in Dudley and continues to live local. Chris began his career as a trainee accountant in 1992 with the West Midlands Regional Health Authority based in Birmingham.
Chris’s first substantive role was with South Birmingham Health Authority and then in 1994, after Trust’s were first established, went to work for Southern Birmingham Community Health NHS Trust as a financial accountant based at West Heath Hospital in Birmingham. In 1996 he moved to South Birmingham Mental Health Trust at Monyhull Hospital. During his time there, he qualified as an accountant and took on the role of deputy director of finance. Chris gained experience of working through various mergers involving the organisation as well as the Trust becoming a Foundation Trust.
In 2009 he joined The Dudley Group as deputy director of finance. Chris’s role has expanded over the last fifteen years to include managing the Trust’s estates team and leading on the management of the Trust’s PFI contract. Chris became the Trust’s operational director of finance in 2023 as well as taking the lead role for capital for the Black Country ICS.
Anne-Maria Newham – Non Executive Director
Anne-Maria’s previous roles include executive director of nursing at Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and has previously held the role of deputy chief executive at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
She is currently chair of a healthcare company that provides care for children with life limiting illnesses in their own home. She was awarded a Florence Nightingale Leadership award and a travel scholarship, enabling her to learn from major institutions around the world on best practice for nursing care.
She was awarded a Churchill Fellowship and travelled to New Zealand to look at integrated care including end of life care and compassion in practice.
Anne-Maria has spoken at several international conferences including the Nursing World Conferences in Las Vegas and Rome. She was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Honours in 2018 for services to nursing.
Dr Ita O’Donovan – Non Executive Director
Ita is a social psychologist by background and a former local authority chief executive in unitary authorities in London and the Midlands. Most recently she was a full-time interim strategic director and corporate director with a city council.
Ita also has experience working with chief executives and leaders in Northern Ireland in 2014/2015 during the establishment of 11 new councils. Between 2011-2013 she was appointed as senior expert for the European Cooperation for Stronger Municipalities in Kosovo advising the Ministry of Local Government Administration, working with mayors and directors of eight municipalities in the Central Region.
Ita started her career as an academic at the School of Public Policy, University of Birmingham in 1985. There she undertook extensive consultancy in developing countries seeking to implement public sector reform projects at national, regional and local levels of government. She returned to this work from 2010-2019, working in China, Bangladesh and emerging economies.
Peter Featherstone – Non Executive Director
Peter is a pharmacist by background and an experienced non-executive director, who has previously held senior leadership positions across NHS bodies and local government authorities in transformation, service efficiency, service improvement, and corporate governance.
Residing and working within the West Midlands for the majority of his professional life, Peter has developed a nuanced understanding of the local health and social care landscape, including the specific challenges and opportunities it presents, and is passionate about improving health outcomes, addressing health inequalities, and improving access to care across diverse communities.
Dr Mohit Mandiratta – Non Executive Director
Dr Mohit Madiratta qualified as a GP through the Dudley VTS scheme in 2013. He has spent the last 10 years working at Feldon Practice in Halesowen, where he enjoys the role and responsibility as a GP partner.
His role in primary care has allowed him to gain invaluable insight into the health needs of local people and this has been furthered by his involvement in healthcare commissioning (in CCGs and the ICB) since 2016. Mohit enjoys educating our future doctors as a GP trainer and he also supports a national ‘Rebuild General Practice’ campaign where he has spoken to MPs in Westminster highlighting the issues which primary care currently face.
Mohit has held a variety of leadership roles including board-level positions and was a governor at the Trust between 2020 and 2024.
He is passionate to improve the health outcomes for the population and believes that influencing wider determinants of health is integral to achieving this, as such he has provided clinical advice to ‘Thrive into Work’ since 2018 to support those with long term physical and mental health conditions back into employment.
