Our Board

Biraj is serving as Acting Chair, having first joined the organisation as an Associate Non Executive Director. Having spent more than 25 years in the investment and commercial banking industry, working at a senior level with some of the biggest international banks, he is proud to have a successful track record of financial, strategic and people leadership.

Biraj decided to retire from finance & banking in May 2019 in order to spend more time involved in charity work, public sector work and socially engaged endeavours. Biraj has since served as Non Executive Director for a large acute NHS Trust in Hertfordshire and understands the challenges being faced by patients and healthcare providers, especially during and following the pandemic, and now has a strong personal interest in mental healthcare, especially the provision for young people.  

In his spare time, Biraj is learning to play the guitar, practicing tai-chi and, along with his wife Beth, enjoys long country walks with their two dogs, Bruno and Enzo.

Ellen joined the Trust on 1^st May 2025 as Chief Executive, bringing with her a wealth of experience from her previous role as Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Strategy and Transformation at NHS Gloucestershire.

Ellen has a strong track record of working in collaboration with a wide range of partners, including the voluntary and community sector. She is known for being driven, dedicated and passionate about making things better for people, whist caring and compassionate to the core.

A key part of Ellen’s work in Gloucester has been establishing a Clinical Programme Group (CPG) approach to service improvement and redesign, alongside clinicians, other health and care professionals and patient representatives. She has always placed a real focus on preventing ill health, developing integrated person-centred care and supporting people to maintain independence.

Career background

Robert took up post with the Trust on 1 July 2011 as Director of Finance. He previously worked for the NHS Walsall, initially as Director of Resources from October 2008 and then from November 2010 as Interim Chief Executive.

Robert is qualified accountant and joined the NHS with the 1998 cohort of the national financial management training scheme, having previously worked in general management within the private sector.

I have over 20 years’ experience working in the National Health Service, and took up the role of Medical Director in 2018. Together with the Director of Nursing, I am responsible for quality of care and delivery of the clinical strategy in the Trust. I am responsible for the professional standards of doctors, dentists and pharmacists in the organisation and I oversee medicines management and psychological interventions. I am the Chief Clinical Information Officer and Caldicott Guardian. I am a consultant psychiatrist by background and undertake clinical work in the Learning Disability service in Worcestershire. Previously, I was the National Professional Advisor for Learning Disability at the Care Quality Commission and Chaired the Quality Network at the Royal College of Psychiatry. I am also a Medical Member of the First Tier Tribunal for Mental Health and the Lead Editor for learning disability and mental health at MindEd, Heath Education England. My interest areas are in systems leadership, strategy development, mentoring, advancing equities and population health management. I am also an active clinician researcher and have contributed to several book chapters, peer reviewed publications and national reports.

Elaine has been in public services for more than three decades as an Organisation Development & HRD professional. She’s worked in Local Government, for a national and European public sector consultancy, and has lectured in Higher Education on programmes such as the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. More recently, Elaine has worked in the Police Service and has consulted to the organising committee for the Commonwealth Games 2022 and regional local government authorities.

Natalie joined the Trust in April 2022 from Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust where she was Deputy Director of Nursing and led the Trusts COVID-19 vaccination programme. Previous to this, Natalie was Head of Healthcare at HMP Birmingham, where she was responsible for operational and clinical management for the health services within the prison. Natalie is an RMN, has previously managed children’s mental health services, and has been a nurse consultant in mental health inpatient services. Natalie holds executive responsibility for Nursing, Allied Health Professionals, Psychological Professions, Safeguarding, Quality and is the Director for Infection Prevention and Control (DIPC).

Matthew is responsible for clinical service delivery and emergency planning. He joined the WHCT in May 2019, from Solent NHS Trust - where some of his previous roles were Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Clinical Director for Mental Health Services and Operations Director. He has worked in the NHS since 1990 and is a Registered Mental Health Nurse. He holds an MBA from the University of Leicester.

Gill joined the Trust from Birmingham and Solihull mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, where she was Company Secretary/Head of Legal Services. She qualified as a solicitor in 1994 working in local authorities in Warrington, Gloucestershire and Birmingham, undertaking a broad range of legal work. She moved into the NHS in 2007 working in a specialist Mental Health Trust.  She is responsible for corporate governance in the Trust. 

Sue was appointed in May 2012. Her Directorate responsibilities include strategy and business development, business planning, the Programme Management Office, marketing and communications, patient self-management and community engagement. Prior to a secondment to the Strategic Health Authority in 2011, Sue was, from 2009, Lead Commissioner for mental health services in Worcestershire. Prior to this role, she was a national director for Turning Point, a leading social enterprise, Sue has over 30 years of business development experience in the health and social care field across a range of sectors.

I have been in the NHS for over 25 years. Starting in a clinical role, I moved into the digital space as part of the National Programme for IT, which is where I have continued to build my career over the past 16 years.

I joined the Trust in April 2020 as Deputy Chief Information Officer, bringing with me 6 years of being both an Associate Director and Director of IT of the managed IT service for the Acute Trust, Mental Health Trust and Primary Care across Gloucestershire. Previous to this I had delivered a number of high-profile digital projects and programmes of work, including the deployment of a LIMS system across all Health Board throughout Wales.

I have a passion for taking a digital vision and making it a reality, ensuring the solutions deliver benefits for clinicians and patients or service users alike. The role of Director of Digital/CIO is vital to ensure the Trust continues to provide digital transformation, working with clinicians, colleagues and partners to ensure the optimisation of our digital and data services.

Career Background:

I am excited to join Herefordshire & Worcestershire NHS Trust as Director of Improvement.  I have held a variety of senior roles within the NHS, both within commissioning and provider organisations. Throughout my career in the NHS I have worked in a range of urgent care and planned care settings, always bring a focus to how we might improve or transform services, underpinned by strong programme management and oversight.  Before working in the NHS I worked for 10 years in industry in a range of commercial and strategy roles.

What drives me:

I am passionate about people.  Without our great staff who go the extra mile every day for their patients we would not be able to provide high quality care.  I work to ensure we are creating a Compassionate and Inclusive Culture and the environment allows the delivery of efficient and effective care. When we are happy at work we are able to focus more of our energy to those who need us, out patients.

Outside of work:

My family is the most important thing to me so my time is spent in helping one of my son’s football team and acting as a taxi.  As a family we like to go to the cinema and going for walks in the Wye Valley.  In my spare time I like to swim, run and reading science fiction novels

I worked as a clinician in the NHS for many years and I am committed to supporting our teams to provide an excellent clinical experience for our patients. I chair the Quality and Safety Committee which oversees and provides assurance that we are delivering safe and effective clinical services. I also sit on the group that supports and advices our Medical Director in his role as Trust Responsible Officer to ensure our medical, dental and pharmacy clinicians are safe and supported practitioners. I am a member of Workforce and Audit committees as there are many crossovers issues discussed in these committees and the quality of patient care.

Dr Onyinye Okonkwo, GP Senior Partner at the Wand Medical Centre in Highgate in Birmingham, was appointed to the Trust as a Non-executive Director in early 2025. Dr Okonkwo is an accomplished health and care leader with a rich history of service in Birmingham and Solihull dating back to 2001. This includes serving as GP member of the Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Partnership, Chair of the system-wide Birmingham Lewisham African Caribbean Health Inequalities Review Taskforce and Executive Member Birmingham Local Medical Committee.

Dr Okonkwo has trained in a number of locations including the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, the University of Warwick and the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health. Dr Okonkwo is also involved in the training and assessment of GPs through the Royal College of General Practitioners as well as Undergraduate medical students for University of Birmingham and Aston University Birmingham.

Career background

After initially qualifying and working as a solicitor in private practice, I set up my own HR and Employment Law consultancy over 20 years ago. In my capacity as an employment law consultant, I help organisations to operate in a fair and legal manner. I also run a management training and development company, with the aim of ensuring that managers have the tools and skills to enable them to get the best out of their teams. This has given me a breadth of experience of working in the private and public sector, across a variety of settings including health, fire services, housing associations, education and multi-national organisations.  

What drives me

I am a firm believer that nobody should wake up dreading to go to work on a daily basis, and as Chair of the Workforce Committee and Non Executive lead for Freedom to Speak Up, I am keen to help make our Trust a great place to come to work. Research has repeatedly shown that happy people deliver better services; what better reason to do all we can to give our staff a safe, respectful and ultimately rewarding experience.   

Outside of work

I live on the Worcestershire borders, and spend much of my time on the Malvern Hills, hiking, running (slowly!), and generally feeling very fortunate to live in such an extraordinary part of the world.

Career Background:

I previously worked for 30 plus years in the UK Civil Service in a wide variety of roles. In 2011 I moved to the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise sector (VCSE) to become Chief Executive of Worcestershire Association of Carers - a local charity supporting unpaid carers. I've also been a VCSE representative on the Worcestershire Health and Wellbeing Board, the Herefordshire & Worcestershire (H&W) Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (and subsequently the H&W Integrated Care Partnership and Assembly). I'm currently 'semi-retired' also doing some freelance facilitation and supporting the Worcestershire VCSE Alliance.

What drives me:

I am passionate about making sure that patients, carers and all of us as residents of H&W have the opportunity to have meaningful conversations about what matters to us, and that we factor this into the design and delivery of services. Tackling unfairness and finding ways to include people who for whatever reason fall societal 'norms' the drives me to look for new and better ways of collaborating to tackle health inequalities.

Outside of work:

I love most sports, have played hockey for Herefordshire and cricket for Middlesex and Worcestershire - I still play some veteran's cricket when I can. I'm a qualified lawn bowls coach, like learning just for the sake of it, enjoy exploring the UK in my camper van and am looking forward to having more time to spend with family in semi-retirement. 

Career Background

I am currently Membership Director of the Girls’ Schools Association, having been Headmistress of Bolton School for 10 years. I continue to work with a number of schools as a Governor or Trustee, including Bolton Impact Trust, an Alternative Provider. I am also Safeguarding Governor at Bolton University. 

What drives me

I am committed to ensuring the best outcomes for children and young people. As a carer for my mum, I am also motivated by a desire to support older members of the community and their families. I believe that good governance enables the delivery of appropriate strategic outcomes, rooted in the needs of the local population. 

Outside of work

I enjoy walking in the Malvern hills and enjoying the beautiful countryside around Evesham

Colin Horwath is a qualified accountant, who has spent his career working with the public sector. He was a partner with KPMG, based in Birmingham, for 20 years, leading audit and advisory assignments. His internal responsibilities included heading the national public sector practice.

Since leaving KPMG he continued his involvement with the public sector, serving as Deputy Chair of Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust until May 2018. He is currently a Non-Executive Director of Birmingham Children’s Trust, as well as a partner in a small executive recruitment and search firm, and Governor of a High School in Stafford.