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.

Email: matthew.kershaw1@nhs.net

As a Non-Executive Director at the Trust, Jamal is a member of the Finance Committee and Chairman of the Croydon Health Charity.

Jamal brings valued commercial, digital technology and healthcare experience, having spent more than 25 years in a variety of strategic, operational and innovative service development roles within the largest UK healthcare organisations, including Boots UK and LloydsPharmacy.  He has also led the growth plans of several start-up companies.

Jamal is currently the CEO for MedAdvisor UK, one of the world’s largest Software as a Service (SaaS) digital medicines management platforms, whose goal is to help people make the best use of their medication.

Jamal is a strong advocate for promoting equality, diversity and inclusion and supports programmes to inspire BAME leaders onto board positions. He mentors a number of chief executives and students. He has also been appointed “Entrepreneur in Residence” at Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialisation arm of the University of Cambridge, which supports great ideas come to market.  

Jamal is a trained pharmacist and was designated a ‘fellow’ of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, for his services to the Pharmacy profession in 2018.

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.

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.

Email: andrewrhodes@nhs.net

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.

Email: subhro.banerjee@nhs.net

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.

Email: simon.haben@nhs.net

Lee McPhail was appointed as our Chief Operating Officer in September 2019, and is the latest senior leadership position to bring our Trust and NHS Croydon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) closer together to maximise the resources available for the frontline.

Lee has more than 20 years’ experience within the NHS, including leading operational roles at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, Bart’s Health NHS Trust and prior to this, North Middlesex University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Lee first joined us in October 2018 as the Programme Director for Integration. He became the Trust’s Interim Chief Operating Officer in November 2018.

Email:  l.mcphail@nhs.net

Mike Sexton was appointed in November 2019 as the Joint Chief Financial 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

Email: mike.sexton@nhs.net

Interim Chief Nurse, Director of Infection, Prevention and Control (DiPC) and Executive Director of Midwifery, Allied Health Professionals.

Having worked at Croydon since 2020 as Deputy Chief Nurse and Director of Nursing, Nicola has stepped into the Chief Nurse role for an interim period whilst a substantive Chief Nursing Officer is recruited.

Registered as a general nurse, Nicola has significant experience with working in emergency and unplanned care. She has held a number of senior nursing posts in SWL and Surrey hospitals championing patient safety and quality care through continuous quality improvement methodologies.

Nicola is passionate about workforce development and has a keen interest in education and career opportunities along with ensuring staff are enabled to deliver the best care they can within an environment where they feel supported and valued.

Email: Nicola.shopland@nhs.net

Hilary joined as the Interim Joint Director of Transformation and Commissioning in June 2023. 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.

Email: Hilary.williams@swlondon.nhs.uk

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.

Email:  steve.garside@nhs.net