The NHS North West London Board operates to a constitution and is responsible for arranging health services in the area. The Board is led by Penny Dash as our Chair. Below is a list of our Board members.
Board Chair: Penny Dash
Non-Executives
- Anita Charlesworth
- Simon Perry
- Geoff Skingsley
- Kunal Patel (NExT Director)
Executive Directors - Statutory
- Chief Executive Officer: Rob Hurd
- Chief Finance Officer and Deputy Chief Executive: Steve Bloomer
- Chief Medical Officer: Dr Charlotte Benjamin
- Chief Nursing Officer: Jennifer Roye
Partner Members
- Primary care partner member: Dr Genevieve Small
- NHS providers partner member: Lesley Watts
- Mental health services partner member: Claire Murdoch
- Local authority: Vacant
- Local authority: Cllr Neil Nerva
- Local authority: Cllr Jane Palmer
The NHS North West London Board also has named participants from partners within the Integrated Care System – NHS Trusts, Local Authorities, Borough Based Partnerships and other ICS Leaders.
Click here to download the NHS NW London Board structure chart.
View the register of interestsYou can find our public register here. |
Details of our board meetings can be found here.
Penny has focused her career on improving the quality and efficiency of health and care services in order to improve life expectancy and quality of life in multiple countries across the world.
She has worked as a hospital doctor and as a public health doctor in NW London, as a senior manager in the NHS and as an advisor/consultant to a wide range of organisations across the healthcare landscape.
Penny was a partner with McKinsey & Company from 2009-2021. As a Senior Partner, she led McKinsey’s healthcare practice across Europe and supported improvements in health and care in multiple parts of the UK, wider Europe, Africa, Australia, Asia and North America. She has previously spent time as Director of Strategy of the NHS and the Department of Health, vice Chairman of the King’s Fund and a Non-Executive Director on the board of Monitor, the Regulator of Foundation Trusts.
Penny is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London. She has an MSc in Public Health Medicine and a MBA from Stanford Business School where she was a Fulbright Scholar. In 2011, Penny was voted “Advisor of the Year” from Health Investor Magazine.
Non Executive Members
Anita Charlesworth is the Director of Research and the REAL Centre (Research and Economic Analysis for the Long term) at the Health Foundation, and Honorary Professor in the College of Social Sciences at the Health Services Management Centre (HSMC) at the University of Birmingham.
She is a health economist and has a background in government and public policy. Before joining the Health Foundation in May 2014, Anita was Chief Economist at the Nuffield Trust (2010–14) where she led the Trust’s work on health care financing and market mechanisms. Prior to that she had roles as Chief Analyst and Chief Scientific Advisor at DCMS (2007–10), Director of Public Spending at the Treasury (1998–2007), and worked as an Economic Advisor at the Department of Health and for SmithKline Beecham pharmaceuticals.
She has worked as a non-executive director in the NHS – for Islington PCT (2007–2011) and The Whittington Hospital (2011–2016).
Anita was specialist advisor to the House of Lords' Select Committee on the long-term sustainability of the NHS in 2016/17, and has recently been appointed as an expert adviser for the Health and Social Care Select Committee and also sits on the expert and advisory panel for the Independent Review of Criminal Legal Aid. Anita is Chair of the OHE Policy Committee (2020) and is also a Commissioner for The Lancet Global Health Commission on Financing Primary Health Care.
Anita has an MSc in Health Economics from the University of York. She is a Trustee for Tommy’s, the baby charity, and also a Trustee for the Office of Health Economics. She was awarded a CBE in The Queen's 2017 Birthday Honours List for Services to Economics and Health Policy.
Simon is an experienced non-executive director, board committee chair and advisor. His current roles include being a non-executive director of the Parkdean Resorts Group, Bibby Financial Services Ltd, Anmut Ltd and Pungo Ltd (t/a Joy).
Simon is a chartered accountant and an economics graduate and was an EY senior partner for 28 years until 2016. Previous roles include Managing Partner (CEO) of EY’s UK Transaction Advisory Services division, EY’s Global Head of Private Equity and a governor of the University of Plymouth.
Simon has both UK and international experience working on business transformation, mergers and acquisitions and performance improvement building and transforming businesses and teams working with diverse talents to create successful organisations.
Geoff studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and Oxford University, where he read PPE, before starting a marketing career at Procter & Gamble.
He moved to L’Oréal in 1986, where he has spent the last 36 years, with marketing and general management positions in the UK, the Netherlands and India (the latter being a new market entry).
In 1999 he returned to Europe to manage L’Oréal UK & Ireland as Managing Director and in 2005 he joined the Executive Board of L’Oréal in the Paris Headquarters as Executive Vice President - Human Resources, a position he held for 6 years before becoming Zone Director for the Middle East & Africa.
Since June 2016 he has been Chairman of L’Oréal UK and Ireland.
Apart from positions at L’Oreal, Geoff is a director at the Médecins Sans Frontières Foundation and a trustee of the International Voluntary Service Organisation (VSO). He also holds roles on the CBI London Council and the Leadership Council of Said Business School at Oxford.
With over 20 years of experience within the financial services industry, Kunal has deep expertise spanning across investment banking, management consulting and asset management. Having held senior positions within capital markets, he has strong commercial, product and technical knowledge that has been harnessed through experience gained at leading organisations such as Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and Squarepoint Capital. This also includes helping to shape industry level change through participation on trade associations and advocacy with regulators (FCA/BAFIN). As a former Partner and UK head of a private equity portfolio company, Kunal built a team from the ground up and led both the development of strategy and subsequent execution.
Kunal has an MSc in Accounting and Finance. With thought leadership being a personal avocation, he has written several articles, featured in prominent industry publications and has regularly visited University College London to deliver guest lectures on their postgraduate finance programme.
Most recently, Kunal has become a member of the ‘Future Impact Finance’ community at Better Society Capital, with the overall objective of supporting to solve for some of society’s biggest social challenges.
Executive Directors - Statutory
Rob brings decades of experience to this key leadership role. He worked at the North Central London (NCL) ICS where he was on secondment from his role as Chief Executive of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust (RNOH), jointly leading the NCL response to the pandemic in partnership with local authorities. This included NCL’s learning on its ‘rapid accelerator’ response to improving waiting lists. At RNOH, Rob led the high profile national programme ‘Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT)’ as part of the National Clinical Efficiency Programme for NHS England
Steve became Chief Financial Officer at North West London CCGs & ICS in November 2020. He was previously the Chief Financial Officer for the North West London STP. Steve has held a wide range of senior roles across the NHS and before moving to North West London was the finance lead at a number of London hospitals.
Charlotte has a wealth of experience from a wide perspective gained from some 20 years as a GP partner, coupled with 10 years of system leadership at Board level. She currently sits at the primary and secondary care interface in her role as co-Chair of the NCL-wide interface group and the Royal Free primary-secondary care group.
Charlotte played a strong role in the North Central London ICS and CCG and has worked to build and be at the heart of a professional clinical leadership community in her patch. An advocate of the necessity for a strong patient voice across Barnet, she also developed the role of clinical SRO for the NCL estates programme, using this programme to advance system transformation. In addition to her role as Chief Medical Officer, Charlotte will maintain her clinical role as GP Partner at St George’s Medical Centre, Hendon.
Partner Members
Genevieve was brought up in Harrow and has been a Partner at the Ridgeway Surgery since 2001. She has worked as the Named GP for Safeguarding Children in Harrow since 2005 and was a Clinical Director in Harrow CCG since its inception. She is passionate about strong community healthcare and helping the people of Harrow to access quality health services that are responsive to their day to day needs.
Lesley is chief executive of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and was also chief executive of the North West London Integrated Care System (ICS) until November 2021. A nurse and midwife by training, Lesley has extensive executive managerial experience, having led the Trust since 2015, and was previously chief executive for East and North Hertfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group. In 2020, under her leadership, the Trust was awarded a CQC rating of Outstanding for well-led and use of resources.
Over 20 years NHS experience holding various clinical and managerial posts in inner London mental health services. Claire has played a key role in planning new models of service and contracting. She has broad experience in partnership and professional development work.
Registered mental health nurse, honours degree in social policy.
Cllr Neil Nerva, Cabinet Member for Public Health & Adult Social Care, London Borough of Brent
Cllr Jane Palmer, Cabinet Member for Health & Social Care, London Borough of Hillingdon