Our board

Betsy has extensive experience leading complex, customer-facing organisations across the private and public sectors. Before joining NHSBT in March 2019, she was the Chief Operating Officer at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Betsy spent 12 years at Centrica/British Gas in a range of senior roles, including Strategy Director for British Gas.

Peter brings a wide breadth of skills and experience to the board having held a range of senior posts in the private, public and voluntary sectors. He was a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP until 2010 and President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales from 2002 to 2003. In the health sector, he served as Chair of the Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust from 2011 to 2016, and Chair of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) from 2016 to 2022.

Deirdre is Professor of Paediatric Hepatology/Consultant Paediatric Hepatologist at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. She has significant Board experience, most notably in the Health Research Authority, General Medical Council, Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs (SaBTO).

Jo was most recently People Director at Sky and joins us with 25 years’ experience in Human Resources. She is also a Trustee for Middlesex Learning Partnership Multi-Academy Trust and the London School of Mosaic.

Phil is a Non-executive Director with several organisations mostly in health and education across the private, charitable and public sectors. His executive career has been in commercial, marketing and transformation roles with BP, MARS and Shell, both in the UK and across Europe. Phil now has various NED roles with the NHS, and currently is Chair of the NHS Transformation Unit, Vice Chair of Healthwatch England and NED with the Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS FT.

Charles is Professor of Haemato-oncology at the University of Birmingham and Director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant Programme at University Hospitals Birmingham. As well as extensive research interests, he has significant Board experience, including the UK Stem Cell Strategic Oversight Committee and Anthony Nolan. He was awarded the CBE for services to medicine and medical research in 2016.

Helen is an experienced leader within NHSBT and was General Manager of Tissue and Eye Services for 12 years. She has a track record of delivering innovation and modernising services. She was previously an auditor for the British Standards Institute, assessing quality management systems across both the public and private sector.

David joined as a Director in 2020 from Starbucks Coffee Company where he was responsible for digital customer experiences and engagement across EMEA. Previously he held a number of commercial leadership roles at Virgin Atlantic Airways in the UK, Kenya and China.

Deborah joined us from Public Health England where she was Chief People Officer. She has experience developing and implementing leadership programmes for the Department of Health. As an associate partner with Accenture she led a number of large-scale change programmes. Deb was also Senior Responsible Officer on the Public Health Reform consultation, leading a transfer of 11,500 colleagues to the new UK Health Security Agency.

Paul joined us after a long career with Procter & Gamble in a variety of manufacturing and quality roles. He has worked in multiple countries across the globe where he has developed a wealth of supply chain and leadership experience.

Experienced in transformation, strategy and operations, Gerry has held a number of leadership roles across manufacturing, collection, business transformation and marketing. Prior to joining NHSBT, Gerry led the commercialisation of several Local Government functions.