Meet our board

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.

Rachel brings a breadth of skills and experience to the board, having held strategy; digital; transformation; data and technology executive posts in the private, public and charity sectors. Taking a commercial and customer focus in her current role as Chief Information Officer in central government – specialising in innovating operating models and continuous improvement. Previously an IBM and Deloitte management consultant, Rachel shaped and led global technical transformation programmes of scale in Financial Services, Sporting Events and Retail for brands such as London 2012 Olympics, RBS, Royal London, Swinton Insurance, Aviva, Barclays, Cooperative Bank and Lookers.

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.

Caroline brings significant business, technology and transformational leadership experience gained across a range of industries including pharmaceutical, medical devices, consumer electronics and IT services. She has been a non executive board member at NNIT since 2018.

Lorna is a Professor of Transplantation and Head of Deanery of Clinical Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. She is also an Honorary Consultant Transplant Surgeon at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh.

Until very recently, Penny was HR Director for Fibre Network Delivery at Openreach and held a previous role as HR Director of Infrastructure Projects at Network Rail.

Ian was a Trading Director at Travis Perkins and previous roles have included Chief Financial Officer at Copart and Jessops.

Jo is an experienced public servant and chief executive whose early career was spent in the Home Office, undertaking work around public service reform. She has held a number of leadership roles across local government and the civil service. She joins NHSBT from the Ministry of Justice where she was the Second Permanent Secretary and before that Chief Executive HM Prison and Probation Service, responsible for delivering prison, probation and youth custody services in England and Wales. Jo has been the Chief Executive of two councils – firstly Bridgend in Wales and secondly Bath and North East Somerset. Jo has a PhD in public service reform.

Wendy is an experienced Strategy, Transformation and Technology leader who has worked across the private and public sectors and multiple industries. Wendy joined NHSBT from NHS Digital where she was the Executive Director of Product Development and before that Executive Director roles in National Security. The initial part of Wendy’s career was in the private sector leading technology change for organisations such as BP, Thomson Reuters and Astra Zeneca. Wendy has experience working as a trustee in the charity sector including as Chair of The Board of Trustees at Breast Cancer UK.

Carl joined our organisation in October 2022 from NHS Digital where he was Chief Financial Officer from 2013-2022, leading their finance and estates functions. Before this Carl worked at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) for 17 years, where he worked as an economic adviser before training as a Chartered Global Management Accountant and transitioning to finance and commercial roles. Prior to his career in the DHSC Carl studied for a MSc in Health Economics, and before becoming a student he trained and worked as a Registered General Nurse.

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.

Stephanie has a wealth of experience in cybersecurity and has worked with the BBC World Service, the Home Office and many other national and international organisations. She is the founder of Seidea, a community interest company addressing underrepresentation of women from ethnic minority backgrounds in cybersecurity.

Bella is an experienced senior leader with 25 years’ experience, having worked at two FTSE100 companies, Marks & Spencer and Sky, as well as in City consultancy. She brings broad business experience, having led strategy, communications, sustainability, Diversity and Inclusion, commercial and operational areas.

Nicola is an experienced leader, mentor and coach with a proven successful track record of ambitious and visionary leadership. Nicola received an OBE for services to Women in Business and Workplace Equality. She is the Senior Vice President; Mid-size and Cluster Markets – Europe at GSK.

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.

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.

Rebecca joined as a Director in 2020, having previously spent her career working in strategy and transformation leadership roles for global brands in retail and leisure industries - specialising in digital and commercial change.

Denise has extensive experience in the fields of nursing, quality, risk, safeguarding and public health. Since 2019 she has been Chief Nurse, Director of Quality, Director of Infection Prevention and Control (DIPC) for CSH Surrey (Social Enterprise), as well as being Executive Lead for Quality and Assurance for North West Surrey Alliance for the past two years. Prior to this she worked nationally with the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) team and public health within NHS commissioning and local authority.