Trust Board members

Yemisi Gibbons joined Croydon Health Services as Chair in January 2023. As a pharmacist, she brings over 20 years’ of NHS experience and a passion for ensuring clinical excellence for all patients.

She was previously a Non-Executive Director at both Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust and North East London Foundation Trust (NELFT) where she helped create and embed a patient safety culture, championed and advocated diversity and compassionate leadership in each Trust and created opportunities for both organisations to share best practice and work in collaboration.

In addition to her wide-ranging roles within the NHS, Yemisi is also Chair of a London-based domiciliary care company, bringing expert knowledge from her time in the independent sector.

Yemisi also sits on the Fitness to Practice committee of the General Pharmaceutical Council and previously served as a member of the Lord Chancellor’s advisory sub-committee for Central London. 

Yemisi’s insight into the challenges facing the social care sector along with her extensive NHS experience brings a much-valued perspective to Croydon as the Trust continues in its ambitions to join up health and care and improve support for local residents.

Matthew Kershaw has almost 30 years of experience within the NHS and in 2018 was appointed as the first place-based leader for health in the country, helping to bring together local health and care services in one of London’s largest boroughs.

Matthew joined Croydon Health Services NHS Trust in 2018 to lead major transformational change to tackle health inequalities and deliver ambitious quality improvement programmes. Prior to this, Matthew was a Senior Fellow at The King’s Fund, where he played a key role in developing the ambitions for integrated care to better meets the needs of patients and local people. He has also held a number of senior leadership roles, as Chief Executive at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust, where he led the Trust out of Quality Special Measures and Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust.

He has worked nationally at the Department of Health to develop delivery plans for the 18-week waiting time target and being the first trust special administrator. His career has also seen him work with the Care Quality Commission and Health Education England. Matthew is also the Senior Responsible Officer for urgent care, diagnostics and the COVID-19 vaccine programme across South West London.

Sola joined Croydon University Hospital in Autumn 2023 as a Non-Executive Director. She brings 15 years Board leadership experience from a number of NED, lay advisory and Trustee roles in health and social care and across the wider public sector. She is currently a Non-Executive Director at SWL & St George's Mental Health Trust, where she chairs the People Committee.

She chairs the Anti-Racist Strategy and Implementation group for the SW London ICS and brings additional insights from her roles as a National Professional Advisor for the Care Quality Commission and independent chair responsible for safeguarding and health inequalities within two Local Authorities.

Sola has significant operational and management consultancy experience across national and local government alongside advisory work with organisational teams on systems working, workforce and OD, transformation and culture, leadership development and stakeholder engagement. She was the London regional service improvement lead and national equality advisor to the NHS for the Department of Health.

She also served as a member of the Lord Chancellor’s advisory sub-committee for London West. She was awarded an MBE in 2013 for her leadership role tackling inequalities for marginalised and racialised communities and has throughout her career been committed to social inclusion and achieving health equity, working in partnership with grassroots organisations to harness the assets within local communities to bring about meaningful change

Saurabh Das is a Chartered Accountant and brings more than twenty years’ experience in providing board-level strategic finance and governance advice to organisations across sectors. He is currently a Principal at Avison Young, a global commercial real estate advisory company.

He is also a Trustee at Primary Science Teaching Trust (a registered charity) and Chairs their Finance and Compliance Committee. Previously, Saurabh held senior finance and commercial roles in the public and private and sectors, including at the Cabinet Office and Department of Health. He has worked closely with Ministers, Chief Executives and Finance Directors across Whitehall departments and agencies.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, having gained his qualification at PricewaterhouseCoopers UK. He holds an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from the University of Oxford and a BA (Hons) in Mathematics from the University of Delhi.

 

Stephen Dilworth has extensive experience in financial services, marketing and communications having held senior executive positions in Foresters, Bank of Ireland and Leeds Permanent. Since 2015, Stephen has served as Non-Executive Director within the NHS, including Acting Chair at Oxleas Foundation Trust, Joint Chair for the South London Partnership and Chair for Oxleas Property Partnership.

Stephen holds a first degree in Economics and History, as well as another in Financial Services and is a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Banking and the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

In a voluntary capacity, he chairs the Bromley Neighbourhood Police Panel. In 2012 he was elected as a Community Champion for the London Borough of Bromley and has been selected as one of Manchester University’s Volunteers of the Year.

Paulette Lewis brings over 30 years of healthcare experience with her to the Non-Executive Director role. Having worked in many different roles, including as a Director of Midwifery and Children Services and Executive Director of Nursing, Paulette is a versatile and well-rounded leader and director.

In addition to her professional experience, Paulette has also been recognised for her charity work. In 2002, she received the Social and Humanitarian Award and in 2014 was awarded with an MBE for her work supporting the improvement in maternal and infant mortality rates in Chad.

 

Rona brings extensive skills and experience from a long career in the social housing sector undertaking a range of executive leadership roles. She has specific expertise relating to older people gained from her time as Deputy CEO at Hanover Housing Association and as Executive Director of Governance and Compliance at Anchor Hanover Housing Association. Prior to that, at the Housing Corporation Rona was responsible for the successful delivery of the social housing investment programme in London as well as the regulation of some of the largest housing associations in the sector.

Rona also has very significant non-executive experience gained in different organisational settings in the housing, charity and health sectors. She has played a governance support role on a number of Boards and has acted as a statutory appointee to a Board on behalf of the regulator to assist in organisational recovery. Rona has previous experience of the health sector having been a Non-Executive Director in Lewisham and the South East London PCTs where she sat on the Finance, Audit and Integrated Governance committees.

For six years Rona chaired the Equality & Diversity Board Advisory Group of the Homes & Communities Agency, holding the main Board to account in meeting its public sector equality duties. Rona is also a previous chair of both the Horizon Housing Group and the Bexley Thameside Partnership Board and a former Trustee of Seeability and Homeless International.

Anil is a former barrister specialising in public and private Children Act, Family and Matrimonial Finance law, with an expertise advocating on behalf of unaccompanied minors fleeing persecution.

His entrepreneurial career includes being the founder and CEO of Starbucks Coffee’s first global franchise.

In a voluntary capacity, Anil has been a carer for children with life limiting conditions at Naomi House Hospice; supported adults towards the end of their lives at Oakhaven Hospice; a mentor to children in care; an independent member of a fostering panel; and governor at a 2-13yrs school.

As a Non-Executive Director, Anil sits on the boards of Sussex Partnership Foundation NHS Trust; a local authority owned SEND school; a local authority owned social care company; as well as a health care community interest company serving a population of over 1 million users. His focus is the equitable access to health care services and narrowing health inequalities especially amongst the most disadvantaged in our community.

 

Professor Andrew Rhodes joined the Trust in October 2021. After more than 30 years of experience in the NHS, Andrew now brings his medical expertise to Croydon.

Over the years, Andrew has held a number of leadership positions in the health service including being Chief Medical Officer for St George’s, a Regional Clinical Director at NHS England and Improvement (London) for Critical Care and Diagnostics, Medical Director at South West London Acute Provider Collaborative and a Clinical Chair for the Humber Acute Services Review.

Andrew takes on the role of being the Trusts university representative to oversee the highest standards of clinical education and training for the next generation of healthcare workers at Croydon University Hospital. He will also be responsible for challenging the Trust’s leadership team in decision making to ensure they are focused on delivering excellent health and care for local people.

Dr Subhro Banerjee was appointed as our substantive Medical Director in May 2022. He is now the responsible officer accountable for the Trust’s medical workforce and for providing clinical leadership at Board level. 

Dr Banerjee has worked in Croydon for more than nine years, and has been a Consultant in Emergency Medicine at Croydon University Hospital since 2013. Prior to this, he completed two out of his five Specialist Registrar years at Croydon, whilst completing his emergency medicine specialist training in South West London.

He continues to work in the Emergency Department one day a week, in addition to his duties as Medical Director.

Deborah Kelly appointed as Chief Nurse Officer (CNO) for Croydon Health Services NHS whilst Trust  Chief Operating Officer steps down after half a decade in Croydon.

Following a formal recruitment process, Deborah Kelly has been appointed as our new Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) Director of Infection, Prevention and Control (DiPC) and Executive Director of Midwifery, Allied Health Professionals and Quality for Croydon Health Services NHS Trust. Deborah was previously the Chief Nurse for Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust.

With over 35 years NHS experience, Deborah has held a number of senior nursing and managerial roles at major London teaching hospitals. Since qualifying as a nurse in 1985, Deborah has gained experience in a range of leadership roles in community, acute and tertiary services, including as Deputy Chief Nurse for Barts Health NHS Trust and working in the Middle East as the Deputy Chief Nurse and Chief Nurse for Informatics at Sidra Medicine, Doha Qatar.

Simon Haben brings more than three decades of experience in both the public and private sectors. Simon has held a number of executive positions in both human resources and operations functions where he has used his particular strengths to identify strategic but practical solutions to issues and deliver transformation. Simon was most recently the Human Resources Director of Strategy and Services at the Royal Mail.

His career began in the London Borough of Croydon, working in the Council’s Chief Executive Offices during the 1990’s in a variety of roles focused on productivity improvement, organisational change, research and policy creation.

In addition to his executive career, Simon has been a Governor of the City of Westminster College, during which time the Ofsted rating was raised to ‘good’. He is also a non-executive director of Magnox Ltd, which is responsible for the safe decommissioning of nuclear sites.

Mike Sexton was appointed in November 2019 as the Joint Chief Finance Officer, across both Croydon Health Services NHS Trust and NHS Croydon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). Prior to this appointment, Mike had been Chief Finance Officer at Croydon CCG since April 2013.

Mike’s leadership was instrumental in the 7-year financial recovery of the CCG, with all special measures withdrawn in 2019. Mike will continue his commitment to Croydon in working across both organisations, helping to ensure best value as we continue closer working to improve the health and care of one London’s largest boroughs.

With professional accounting qualifications awarded in both New Zealand and the United Kingdom, Mike brings a wealth of experience having held NHS board-level finance roles in both commissioner and provider organisations in south west London

 

Liz joined the Trust in 2022 as Director of Operations for Urgent and Emergency Care to guide the organisation through a challenging winter period. 

Liz trained as a nurse and specialised in Renal, ITU, Site Management and Emergency Planning, spending most of her career working in London and the South East, both in the NHS and private practice.

Over the last 7 years she has worked in many areas across the country working in the roles of Director of Medical Division and Deputy COO, and is happy to continue a rewarding career in Croydon.

Hilary joined as the Managing Director for Community Services and Integration in July 2024. She is the Croydon Place lead for commissioning and the transformation of Primary and Community Care, Medicines Optimisation, Mental Health, Learning Disability and Children and Young People. Hilary also oversees the delivery team for the One Croydon Alliance and the transformation programmes underway to join up care and build on assets across health, care and the voluntary sectors within the community to address health inequalities.

Prior to this role, Hilary was the Croydon and Behavioural & Developmental Psychiatry Service Director at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and has over five years’ experience working within the Croydon health system. An occupational therapist by background, she has 30 years of health care experience in direct clinical and leadership roles within the NHS.

 

Steve Garside joined us on 14 August 2023 as our new Director of Corporate Governance and Company Secretary. In his role, Steve will be responsible for ensuring that the Trust has the highest standards of corporate governance in place, and will be advising and supporting the Board and Senior Management Team on all corporate governance related issues. He will lead a team responsible for the Trust Secretariat, Risk Management, Legal Services and Information Governance.

Steve started his career in accountancy and audit, before joining the NHS in 2005 and working in a variety of senior governance roles. His more recent roles were as Director of Corporate Governance at South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board.

If you would like to contact the CHS Board members, please send an email to CH-TR.CorporateGovernance@nhs.net.