NHS INNOVATION ACCELERATOR - Key Persons
Adrian Downing specialises in supporting private, public and charitable healthcare organisations to achieve their potential growth. Over the last twenty-five years he has worked with businesses ranging in size from 2 to 25,000 employees, across multiple industries, helping them to develop and deliver their strategies and resolve operational issues. He works extensively with senior management teams, owners and investors to ensure what they are doing on a day-to-day basis helps to deliver their strategy in the most effective way.
He has held a number of commercial Executive and Non-Executive positions in healthcare including Nuffield Health, Benenden Hospital, Orthopaedic Research UK (Chair), Essential Parent Limited (Chair) and Chelsea Community Hospitals School.
He holds a BA from Kings College, London and a Masters in Medical Demography from the London School of Hygiene.
Professor Lord Kakkar is Professor of Surgery at UCL, Honorary Consultant Surgeon at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Director of the Thrombosis Research Institute in London. He completed his medical education at King's College Hospital Medical School, University of London and was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1992.
Lord Kakkar was created a life peer in March 2010 and was appointed to Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council in December 2014.
Lord Kakkar's research interests include prevention and treatment of venous and arterial thromboembolic disease and cancer associated with thrombosis.
He is also the former Chairman of UCLPartners.
Ben is a London-based doctor and Co-founder of Cera, a multi-award-winning technology company transforming social care. He formerly advised the CEO of NHS England, co-founding the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) and NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme.
He has a strong interest in research with over 100 peer-reviewed publications and 50 academic awards. Ben has advised a range of organisations, from start-ups to multilaterals, including the Swiss government, Bain & Company, the Experiment Fund and the WHO. He is Chairman of the UK Medical Students' Association (UKMSA) and has authored three medical books.
Ben was educated at Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard universities. He was listed in WIRED's top 10 Innovators in Healthcare and was named Disruptive Leader of the Year (2017) by Information Age.
In 2020, Ben received a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) award for his services to Health and Social Care Technology.
Job Titles:
- Medical Director for Professional Leadrship
Celia Ingham Clark is the Medical Director for Professional Leadrship and Clinical Effectiveness at NHS England. She trained in Cambridge and London, and was appointed as a consultant general surgeon at the Whittington Hospital in 1996. After early work in medical education she developed an interest in quality improvement and this took her through several medical management roles to become Medical Director of the Trust from 2004 to 2012.More recently she worked as national clinical director for acute surgery and enhanced recovery, and as London regional lead for revalidation and quality.For two years from 2014 she was the NHS England Director for reducing premature mortality, and in 2016 became the Medical Director for Clinical Effectiveness. In 2018 this extended to also include Professional Leadership.
In 2013 she was awarded an MBE for services to the NHS.
Dr Mark Jenkins is co-founder of Oviva, a digital therapeutics company revolutionising access to care and health outcomes in diet-related condition treatment, in particular Type 2 diabetes and obesity.
Mark qualified as a medical doctor from Guy's, King's & St Thomas School of Medicine and completed an academic foundation programme in nephrology at Guy's & St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust. Seeing that the majority of challenges in healthcare are business problems, he moved to the Boston Consulting Group to deepen his commercial knowledge.
From 2015-2023 Mark has led the growth of Oviva in the UK, treating over 100,000 NHS patients and winning over 100 NHS services contracts across England, Scotland and Wales, and growing a team to 330 staff across clinical and central functions. He also oversaw Oviva's UK clinical evidence strategy, with a recent success of Oviva being recommended by NICE for NHS Specialist Weight Management services. Mark is also an NIA alumnus, from the 2017 cohort.
Job Titles:
- Business Development
- Chief Operating Officer of the Francis Crick Institute
Dr Sam Barrell is Chief Operating Officer of the Francis Crick Institute, one of Europe's largest biomedical research institutes. She previously held posts as Chief Executive of Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, a NHS global digital exemplar site, and Chief Clinical Officer at South Devon and Torbay Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). Prior to that, Sam trained at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School before working as an anaesthetist and then a GP.
Sam holds Non-Executive Director positions at Assura plc, a FTSE 250 real estate investment trust specialising in healthcare premises, and the York Health Economic Forum. She was included in Cranfield University's 100 Women to Watch 2020, a supplement of the Female FTSE Board Report. In 2014 Sam was awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours for her services to clinical commissioning and integrated care.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Founder
- Member of for Entrepreneurs Only
- Regulatory & Legal
Gary Gallen is the CEO and founder of rradar, a firm with UK and international reach, currently with offices in Hull, Birmingham, Leeds and Glasgow. He's a trusted legal advisor, a technology innovator and a disruptor of the legal market. He's also recognised on the international stage, having accepted invitations to speak on law and technology in the US and other countries.
Before setting up rradar, Gary had established himself as one of the UK's leading corporate defence lawyers, specialising in regulatory and corporate governance matters, and has been instructed on numerous sensitive and high-profile cases defending companies facing criminal prosecution and investigation. He remains a highly respected and knowledgeable source on the state of the regulatory regime in the UK and brings his expert perspective to legal responsibilities and duties for directors, shareholders, boards and matters of corporate context. He has been instructed by and worked extensively with the insurance industry, concentrating on the issues raised by business risk.
As the founder of a start-up business, with a vision of what the legal industry could become, he has taken rradar from a standing start, helping to lead the business through private equity investment and exits. He has already built rradar to over 140 people and a turnover exceeding £10 million, and it continues to grow at a great rate, forging valuable partnerships with influential national and international organisations.
In addition to his legal practice, Gary has passionately embraced the digital revolution and worked hard to embed its benefits within the legal sector. He is a sector guru and visionary who understands and is keen to develop the potential of technology, its application in commercial models and the internationalisation opportunities that it offers.
He has appeared as a professional speaker at a number of technology events, including the IBM Festival of Disruption, the Open Data Science Conference (ODSC) and CognitionX, a major Artificial Intelligence conference. He is also a Tech North Advocate, working with technology companies in the North of England. Under his leadership, rradar has placed in the top 50 fastest growing tech companies in the North of England in the Northern Tech rankings four years running.
Gary is a member of For Entrepreneurs Only (FEO) a significant regional business organisation with members across the UK dealing with business opportunities and challenges. Collectively, those entrepreneurs manage businesses with a turnover of more than £3bn each year.
Gary has also been recognised for his outstanding leadership and entrepreneurial vision, winning or achieving finalist status in many national and sector awards. He won Spectator Economic Disruptor of the Year and Barclays Entrepreneur of the Year Regional Awards and has been shortlisted as a regional finalist in both the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2021 and the Great British Entrepreneur Awards for the category of Disruptor of the Year 2021 (he won the Regional Final in 2019)
Jack is Co-Director at the NHS Innovation Accelerator. He leads the NIA's system engagement efforts. In partnership with the Health Innovation Network, ICS's and NHS England, he helps to scale solutions on behalf of our NIA Fellows.
Jack began his career in finance with the Roche Group, gaining experience in Diagnostics and Pharmaceuticals in Europe and North America. He then moved to the world of digital health start-ups, leading commercial strategies in multiple health tech organisations, from early-stage to exit, including former NIA fellow and the world's largest social network for health, HealthUnlocked.
Prior to joining the NIA, he led multiple national initiatives at Novartis Biome such as the role out of patient management technology and innovative at home testing.
Job Titles:
- Non - Executive Director With Medway NHS Foundation Trust
Jenny is a Non-Executive Director with Medway NHS Foundation Trust and Chair of the Medway Innovation Institute. She sits on committees for The Design Museum and Egypt Exploration Society; on the global advisory board for Business of Data; is a mentor and advisor with Imperial College's Imperial Venture Mentoring Scheme and the Engineering Faculty's Imperial Technology Experts Service; and an advisor to various start-ups in the FinTech, MedTech and social impact space.
Job Titles:
- Head of Genomic and Precision
Joanne M. Hackett is the Head of Genomic and Precision Medicine at IQVIA and previously was the Chief Commercial Officer at Genomics England.
Dr Hackett is a clinical academic, entrepreneur, investor, and a strategic, creative visionair with global experience spanning successful start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Aside from her curious passion for life and positivity, Joanne is known for building innovation, driving personalised medicine and leading through fast paced, complex changing ecosystems and integrations. Joanne's goal is to contribute in bringing the world novel, cost effective and simple health care solutions, and she is particularly keen on building the case for prevention, open science and citizen genomics. She has extensive global experience across academic, business and clinical institutions, and enjoys sharing her experiences with the Boards she sits on as well as companies she provides strategic advice to.
Joanne has been publicly recognised for her relentless pursuit of revolutionising healthcare and has recently been named one of the top six Influential Leaders in Healthcare by CIO Look, the Accenture Life Science Leader of the year 2019, Freshfields Top 100 Most Influential Women 2019, One HealthTech 2018 Top 70 Women in the NHS, Pharmaceutical Market Europe's 2018 30 women leaders in UK healthcare and BioBeat 2017 Top 50 Women in Biotech Award. Joanne believes in human courage and perseverance against the odds, and demonstrates that positive change, whether in a company or in one's personal life, can be carved out from even the greatest of trials. As a believer of ‘health = wealth', Joanne is an internationally known yoga instructor.
Karen plays a key role in the running of the NIA programme, supporting the team with recruitment, events and meetings, managing the NIA inbox and diary management, responding to Fellows requests and administrating financial tasks including invoices, POs and MOUs. She also supports the NIA's reporting process for our governing boards and liaises with Fellows on production of their Sprint plans.
Job Titles:
- Investor
- Director in Nesta Impact Investment Team
- Investment
Manish is an Investor, having been involved in venture capital and private equity for nearly two decades, both as an investor and a consultant.
Most recently Manish has been a Director in Nesta Impact Investment Team, working across sectors and leading the Healthy Ageing investment partnership with UKRI. Manish was responsible for Nesta's investments in MEL Science, and has also led various portfolio investments to exits including Futuregov, Q Doctor, BeApplied, Sumdog, Empiribox, Digital Assess, and Synopsis Healthcare.
Prior to Nesta, Manish has worked at Sovereign Capital, Terra Firma Capital Partners and Aureos Capital. At Sovereign Capital, his main focus was on buy and build investments in Education and Healthcare, and he was involved in investments such Hillcrest (Outcomes First), GSM, Astrum and Lifetime as well as bolt-on investments for Eden Futures and World Class Learning. Manish started his career in marketing at Colgate Palmolive followed by strategy consulting at Accenture.
Michal is the Communications Manager for the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) and is responsible for supporting Fellows, events and strategically growing the brand.
With over 4 years of experience in health technology marketing and a degree in graphic design, she brings a unique blend of strategic insight and creative flair to her role. Her keen eye for visual storytelling and brand enhancement, coupled with her hands-on experience with patients and medical professionals, enriches her contributions to the NIA team.
Mindy is Co-Director at the NHS Innovation Accelerator. She is responsible for the programme's execution while providing guidance to innovators. Her journey began in 2013 when she joined UCLPartners, eventually transitioning to the NIA in 2017.
She has spent much of her extensive career working in the health and life sciences sector, holding senior leadership and operational roles across health and higher education institutions. She began her healthcare career overseas, running a private primary care practice before continuing her career in the UK establishing the organisational structure of a department focused on alternative therapies education at prestigious institutions such as the University of Oxford, and King's College London.
Mindy's experience includes leading Board-level governance, supporting Executive teams to drive organisational and programme efficiencies as well as leading infrastructure projects and cross-functional collaboration. She is passionate about supporting innovators in addressing the challenges faced by the NHS, patients, and the health and social care sector, and breaking down barriers to achieving successful health outcomes through scaling innovation.
Outside of work, Mindy is the mother of two boys and a Trustee of a primary school Parent Teacher Association. She has a First-Class BA (Hons) in Communication, Media and Culture, and holds a qualifying Law Masters.
Nicholas is a health and life sciences VC with a background in clinical medicine and corporate law. He started his career as a surgeon and subsequently as a sector specialist has held senior roles in a number of leading European private equity and venture capital firms. As well as corporate advisory, academic and honorary visiting positions, he is a frequent speaker, panellist and lecturer at Cambridge University, Judge Business School, Cass Business School and Stanford Graduate School of Business. Nicholas has been an expert adviser to the government in several recent high-profile reviews and has worked in the UK healthcare policy and regulation.
Nicholas holds qualifying degrees in medicine and law, a master's degree from Imperial College London and an MBA from London Business School.
Job Titles:
- Business Development
- Vice President, Health at University of Warwick
Professor Sudhesh Kumar is Vice President, Health at University of Warwick. He was previously Dean of the Warwick Medical School. He is also Non-Executive Director on the Boards of NHS Digital and University Hospital Coventry & Warwickshire Trust.
He is a clinical endocrinologist by background with 22 years experience as a Consultant Physician in the NHS. His interests include developing novel approaches, including medical technology to managing obesity and diabetes that has helped to transform and improve patient care and treatment.
His expertise includes diabetes and obesity, and has broad ranging expertise in various research methodologies, education and training and also adoption of novel technology based solutions. He has published over 240 papers and six books on these subjects.