Board of Directors

Aruna was appointed as Trust Chair in 2024 for a term of three years. She brings to the Trust a host of boardroom experience, both as an executive and a non-executive, with particular expertise in governance.

She has had a 25-year career in banking and finance, with responsibility for global risk and control, developing particular expertise in the implementation of governance, risk and compliance frameworks. She was Managing Director and Global Head of Operational Controls at JP Morgan and is a Senior Associate at The Value Circle, which provides governance, leadership and strategy development across a range of sectors.

Through a decade of experience as a non-executive director, Aruna has experience from a variety of different sectors including housing and education. She continues to serve as a non-executive director at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust having also previously served as a non-executive director at St George’s, Epsom and St Helier Hospital Group.

Qualifications: BSc in physics and computer science from Kings College London- 1st class honours degree - commonwealth science prize 

Aruna was born in Sri Lanka and educated in India and the UK.

Andrew (pronouns: he/him) is an immunologist who began his career at Tenovus Research Laboratories as a Beit Memorial Fellow, before becoming a Research Fellow at the National Institutes of Health in the USA.

Between 1992 and 2013, Andrew was employed at Imperial College London/Royal Postgraduate Medical School in various roles including Director of the Graduate School. He moved to Brunel University London to be Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Education and International. In his five-year tenure, he led their developments and improvements in employability, student recruitment, and portfolio review, developed an international student strategy, and led the annual planning round for the University.

Andrew undertakes project and consultancy work in healthcare, ethics and education, as well as being an executive coach. He is co-chair of the UK Committee on Research Integrity. He is a Non-Executive Director of the Health Research Authority and a Non-Executive Member of NHS England’s Workforce Training and Education Committee. He is also Chair of Oxford Business College.

Qualifications: MA from the University of Cambridge, M.Sc from Henley Business School, PhD from the University of Southampton, DSc from Imperial College London. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists, the Higher Education Academy, the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Society for Biology. 

He was awarded an MBE for services to research participants and research ethics.

Appointed in June 2023, Denise has four decades of experience in technology and transformation across a range of business sectors including Banking, Retail, the NHS, Airline and Tour Operations. She has been a panel advisor to corporations focussing on specific aspects of technology strategy and policy. Most recently she was Chief Information Officer with dunnhumby, a global retail data science company based in London. In 2021 she was recognised in the Global 100 Chief Information Officer awards.

In 1997 she was appointed Chair of Governors of Brockham Primary School and currently volunteers as a data ethics advisor for DataKind a UK based charity. 

Vivek has over 30 years of experience in senior roles across a range of sectors, including Education, Hospitality and Consumer Products. He was formerly the Managing Director for U.K. Education at Oxford University Press and is now pursuing a MSc in Environment, Politics and Development at SOAS, University of London.

Vivek was born and raised in India and moved to the U.K. in 2011. He has been the governor of a special needs school and a private online school and a council member of the Publishers Association. He is a trustee of CRY UK.

Qualifications: MBA (Indian Institute of Management), Bachelor of Commerce (Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics)

Appointed in April 2022 for a term of three years.

Carol qualified as a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young LLP and subsequently worked in international development. She has over 25 years experience as an accountant. Since 2012, she has worked across a number of NHS clinical commissioning groups in Sussex as a lay member for governance.

Carol has also been a charity trustee and is currently a trustee of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute. She has written and spoken widely on health issues and is co-author of a book on a common long-term health condition.

Qualifications: BA Hons (Oxon) English Language and Literature, ACA, Foundation Certificate in Transactional Analysis.  Level 6 Diploma in Psychotherapeutic Counselling – Carol is an accredited member of the National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society.

Sue has worked in the NHS since 1982, initially starting as a nursing auxiliary in older age. She is a dual registered nurse in both mental health and physical health. She has predominantly worked in mental health covering a wide number of clinical areas. She has held various clinical positions and leadership roles with the latest being Director of Mental Health in the Essex area. 

Sue has a passion for fairness, justice and equality. She has worked regionally and nationally focusing on equality and diversity.

She was the Programme Lead for gender equality in mental health for the South East region. She moved on to work nationally holding the position of National programme lead for gender equality before taking on the role of deputy director for all equality strands nationally. These roles focused on the implementation of national policy. Whilst working nationally Sue was seconded into the Home Office to work with other government departments on a cross-governmental strategy focused on violence and abuse against women and children. 
 
Sue joined Surrey and Borders Partnership Trust in January 2023 and will focus on quality and equality. 
 
Qualifications: Registered Mental Health Nurse; Registered General Nurse; Diploma in Nursing (Higher Award); Non-medical prescriber (V300); Master of Business Administration.

Appointed May 2024.    

Graham was appointed Interim Chief Executive in 2021 and was appointed substantively as Chief Executive in 2022, having previously been our Chief Finance Officer and Deputy Chief Executive. His ambition is for the Trust to go from ‘good to great’, and that much of what we need to do to reach that goal is simply about changing our approach to problems and slightly adjusting our thinking. It will lead to better clinical care, a happier workplace and fewer people finding our services difficult to access.

Graham joined the Trust in February 2015 from Leonard Cheshire Disability, a charity which provides support for disabled people, where he was Chief Financial Officer. During his time as Chief Financial Officer, Graham worked very closely with the Chief Executive in developing future plans and managing the day-to-day performance of the charity. 

He started his career in 1995 with British Airways and then with food retailer, Safeway, working across a wide number of finance roles including supply chain, retail, operations and change management and has played a significant role in implementing efficiency projects.

Qualifications: BA in Economics, Leeds University; MA in Transport Economics, Leeds University. Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants

Helen joined the Trust in 2012 as Director of Innovation and Therapies and was promoted to Chief Innovations Officer & Chief Therapies Officer in December 2014. In 2021, Helen was appointed Deputy Chief Executive. Helen’s responsibilities include Communications, Speak Up Guardian, and Psychological and Allied Health Professions.

In system work, Helen is the senior responsible officer for mental health in the Frimley integrated care system and is Deputy Chair of the Surrey Heartlands Mental Health Delivery Board and the lead for the emotional wellbeing and mental health priority of Surrey's Health and Wellbeing Strategy. Helen is also the lead for the Surrey Heartlands ICS Health Tech Accelerator which involves a partnership with the University of Surrey, the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Academic Health Science Network, and industry.

Helen is a consultant clinical psychologist and began her career in learning disability services, followed by roles in the National Schizophrenia Fellowship and a multi-agency child, young people and family service. She was a senior lecturer in clinical psychology at the University of Birmingham for 10 years. 

Qualifications: B.Sc. (First Class Hons) in psychology from the University of Birmingham, awarded clinical doctorate (Clin PsyD) in 1997, Postgraduate Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership 

Areas of Responsibility:

• Clinical Strategy
• Therapies and Allied Health Professions
• Innovation, Transformation & Business Development
• Research & Development
• Systems Partnership & Leadership
• Quality Improvement

Dr. Emma Whicher is a consultant psychiatrist with broad experience in medical leadership. She has previously worked as the Medical Director of South West London and St Georges NHS Trust, as London Regional Medical Director at NHSI and as Medical Director at North Middlesex University Hospital, leading the trust response to Covid with executive colleagues. Most recently she has been working as Clinical Director of Transformation at North London Partners ICS, leading the transformation of paediatric, maternity and neonatal services in NCL. Throughout she has continued to practice clinically as a psychiatrist. 

She has led a number of large strategic projects including as Co-chair of the London Strategic Clinical Network for Mental health, the development of the London Health Based Place of Safety Standards and at NHSI the implementation of 7-day service standards in London. Emma is especially passionate about working with patients, families and communities, to improve the care people receive and reduce health inequalities.

Jo Lynch is our Chief Nursing Officer and Caldicott Guardian. Jo is also the nominated individual for the Care Quality Commission.

Jo’s career reads like a recruitment advertisement for the way this Trust offers opportunities: she joined the predecessor of this Trust in 1993 as a healthcare assistant in the Dorking community mental health team before starting nurse training. She did 90% of her placements working for the organisation that became Surrey and Borders and then started to work for us, working her way through the organisation in many varied roles, both on the wards and in community settings.

From 2019 Jo was our interim Deputy Chief Nurse, was appointed substantively in 2021 then appointed as Chief Nursing Officer in 2022. She is particularly passionate about bridging the gap between frontline care and support and strategy with the golden thread of ensuring that the voices of the people we serve, and the pressures and concerns of our nursing staff play their part in driving forward our strategic ambitions. Jo is driven by her personal values of engagement and building relationships which mirror the lifelong relationship we so often have with people and their families.

Qualifications: Registered Mental Health Nurse, MSc in Healthcare Leadership with distinction

Areas of Responsibility:

• Nurse leadership
• Quality, Risk & Safety
• Nominated individual for Care Quality Commission
• Physical Health including Infection Control
• (DIPCE)
• Complaints
• People’s Participation and Experience
• Volunteering
• Legal Services & Mental Health Act
• Use of Force Act Lead
• Caldicot Guardian
• Carers Lead
• Connect Network

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Lorna was appointed to post in April 2017, and was previously Divisional Director at Central and North West NHS Foundation Trust. She comes from Australia with a background in health and adult social care and commenced her career in the UK in adult social care in 2006. Commenced in the NHS at Board level at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust following a six-year period as a Director of Adult Social Care she also held housing and public health responsibilities. Working in the Victorian Department of Health, she was responsible for policy and commissioning for Mental Health, Older People and Primary Care. In Mental Health she oversaw the review of the Mental Health Act, the implementation of Clinical Outcome measurement and a new clinical information system in 23 Mental Health Trusts.

Qualifications: Maitrise es Lettres, Paris V, Sorbonne University; Master of Arts (Honours), Melbourne University; Cycle International Court, Ecole Nationale d’Administration.

Areas of Responsibility

• Operational clinical service delivery
• Social Work leadership & management
• Delegated Commissioning
• Specialised Provider Collaboratives 
• Emergency Planning (EPRR)
• New Hospitals Programme
• LGBTQ+ Executive sponsor

Lei comes from a medical background and is a qualified accountant and project manager. She joined the Trust in November 2020 as Director of Finance, following her appointments as Interim Chief Finance Officer and Director of Finance at London Clinical Commissioning Groups and Integrated Care Systems where Lei advised Boards on all aspects of financial strategy and financial management, providing financial leadership in operational matters and collaborative working cross the system on service transformations and development of new service provisions. Before her career in NHS, Lei spent over six years with PricewaterhouseCoopers, working on audit and assurance reviews across a wide range of commercial and public sector clients.  

Lei is passionate about delivering real health and wellbeing improvement for communities, and is a keen campaigner of diversity and inclusion in public services. She is also a Board Trustee of a national charity, Cruse Bereavement Care.

Qualifications: Executive MBA candidate, University of Oxford; MSc in International Health Management, Imperial College London; BSc in Health Administration of Public Affairs (with clinical training in general medicine), Beijing University of Chinese Medicine; Associate Chartered Accountant (ACA) of Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW); PRojects IN Controlled Environments (PRINCE2) Practitioner of AXELOS.

Areas of Responsibility

• Financial Management & Financial Services
• Procurement & Commercial Services
• Contracts Management
• Facilities Management

Non-voting member

Cheryl joined us in 2021 after some years of working outside the NHS. In her previous role, she was the Director of Human Resources for the not-for-profit organisation Certitude, a leading adult social care provider for people living with learning disabilities, autism, mental health support needs and their families and carers. They support over 1,600 people in 15 London boroughs. Cheryl worked for Certitude for four years and was a member of their Board and Executive Leadership Team. 
 
Before this, Cheryl held several other HR leadership roles stretching back to 1999, including HR Director at Royal Holloway University; Director of HR Consultancy, Organisation & Staff Development at University College London; Director of HR for Lewisham College; and HR Director of both The Learning Trust and The Terrence Higgins Trust. Cheryl began her career in local government and the NHS.

Areas of responsibility:

• Workforce development & planning
• Human resources
• Occupational Health
• Staff Engagement & Whistleblowing 
• Staff Health  & Wellbeing 
• System leadership of strategic workforce planning and development

Non voting member

Julie joined the NHS in 1992 as a graduate management trainee and has since held multiple operational and strategic roles. 

She started with Surrey Hampshire Borders, our founder Trust, as Service Development Manager in 1998 and when the Trust merged with North West Surrey and Surrey Oakland’s (to form Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust) Julie was responsible for the merger and integration. 

Julie was Director of Corporate Affairs until November 2011 when she took the role of Assistant Chief Executive. Since April 2017 Julie has been the Director of Governance and Planning, and her responsibilities in this role include our Board and Council, as well as our corporate governance structure and the strategic planning for our annual operational plan. 

Julie has a degree in English Literature and Language from the University of Reading and holds a certificate from the Institute of Health Management. 

Areas of responsibility:

• Company Secretary
• Corporate Governance
• Board Assurance Framework
• Board of Directors 
• Council of Governors
• Strategic Planning
• Project Management Office
• Disability Network

Non voting member

Susie Gray joined the Trust in 2016, having previously run her own business providing commercial real estate strategy advice to private and public sector organisations. This is her first role in the NHS since qualifying as a Chartered Surveyor in 1990. Her previous roles include Portfolio Director at Land Securities, Director at Laing Property and President of CoreNet.

Susie has applied her commercial and property background to the challenge of providing Mental Health Services in high-quality care and healing environments that support the well-being of people who use services, carers and staff.

Qualifications: BSc (Hons) Urban Land Administration, Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Master of Corporate Real Estate.

Areas of Responsibility:

• Property portfolio and asset management
• Facilities management
• Capital investment programmes
• Environmental Health & Safety
• ICS Estates Board

Andy was appointed as Deputy Chief Operating Officer in July 2021. He previously worked in a variety of leadership roles within our operating divisions. He also held a role to help develop mental health plans across Surrey Heartlands and Frimley Health Integrated Care Systems. He enjoys taking on new challenges and supporting service changes (such as the Community Transformation Programme or the development of Safe Havens).

Andy is a qualified social worker and was previously a manager within adult social care at Surrey County Council. He started his career as a volunteer playscheme worker for children who have learning disabilities for a local charity.

Qualifications: LLB Hons (University of Manchester); Diploma in Legal Practice, Diploma in Social Work and Post-Graduate Certificate in Strategic Leadership. 

Justine was appointed to the role of Director of Services for Children and Young People in September 2017. 

She started her NHS career in 1992 when she qualified as an Occupational Therapist at Brunel University. With a passion for mental healthcare Justine brings extensive clinical, operational and strategic experience of the full range of mental health services including Children and Young People’s Services, Adult Mental Health, Dementia Care and Specialist Services.

Previously, Justine was a Service Director at Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust for over 13 years. More recently she worked with South Kent Coast and Thanet CCG’s, together with GPs and other primary care colleagues, in the development of Enhanced Primary Care Services.

Qualifications: Diploma of the British Association of Occupational Therapists (DipCOT), College of Brunel University (1992), Post Graduate Diploma in Leadership and Management, Salomons, Christ Church College and Canterbury University (2001), Nye Bevan Programme – Leading Care 111, NHS Leadership Academy Award in Executive Healthcare Leadership (2015).

Philippa is a qualified social worker and was appointed as Director of Services for People with Learning Disabilities in November 2017.

She has extensive experience of partnership working, commissioning, and creating new models of care.

Philippa was previously responsible for running provider services across five London boroughs, and has held senior roles in Surrey County Council and Croydon Council. Her areas of interest include recruitment, retention and succession planning, and she is looking forward to supporting our Director of Workforce in delivering their strategy.  

Qualifications: Diploma in Social Work, BA Hons in Health and Social Care, Diploma in Management Studies.

Sharon Gregory is Director of our Older People's Mental Health Services and Specialist Services.

Before working here, Sharon was Community Services Director at London North West Healthcare Trust. She started her career at the Birmingham GP Multifund and has worked at a senior level across a variety of hospitals including the Oxford Radcliffe, St George's Hospital in south west London and Kingston Hospital, managing a range of clinical services. Additionally, Sharon has worked in both primary care and mental health in North Kent.

During her career, Sharon has undertaken secondments as a Mental Health commissioner at West Kent Health Authority and worked as Corporate Support Director at Guys and St Thomas' Hospital.

Qualifications: Sharon has a BSc (Hons) Chemistry and Biology and an MSc Business Administration and Personnel Management. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Claire became the Director of Hospitals and Specialist Services in 2023. Before this, she worked extensively in the Learning Disability Division and then the Mental Health Division for Surrey and Borders.

Claire is passionate about providing quality person-centred care for all and involving families and people who use services at every level of the organisation. She is keen to work with staff to ensure they feel valued and supported in the division.

Claire has a nursing background and is registered as a Learning Disability Nurse and a Mental Health Nurse. She joined the trust in 1996 and has worked as a ward manager, modern matron, service manager and Associate Director.  She also trained as a DBT Therapist and has completed a MSc in Healthcare Leadership. 

Qualifications

Registered Mental Health Nurse, Registered Learning Disability Nurse, MSc in Healthcare Leadership