NHS CHARITIES - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Trustee
- Audit Partner in the Financial Services Practice at EY
Amarjit Singh (Jeet) is an audit partner in the Financial Services Practice at EY leading its Extended Assurance offerings to Wealth & Asset Management firms. In addition, Jeet has recently been appointment Blockchain Assurance Leader for EMEIA. In the past Jeet has held governance roles in EY as Chair of the EMEIA Partner [Governance] Forum as well as sitting on the Global Governance Council of EY.
He is a passionate supporter of Diversity and Inclusion, having been named one of the top 100 BAME Leaders in business in 2018. He continues to sit on the various D&I committees at EY whilst supporting D&I efforts across the City. Previously Jeet was a trustee of the Winnicott Foundation, a charity supporting the neonatal units in the Imperial NHS Trust, a cause close to his heart with his daughter being a premmie on the unit where he saw first hand the dedication and service that NHS Staff give every day for us all.
Job Titles:
- Trustee
- Chief Executive of St George 's Hospital Charity
Amerjit Chohan is the Chief Executive of St George's Hospital Charity. He's responsible for creating a high performing organisation with significant visibility and engagement across a wide range of stakeholder groups. He managed through the charity's new brand which is now positioned the charity as the 11th most loved charity brand in the UK. He was previously the Director of Development & Communications at Imperial Health Charity. Amerjit is a highly experienced and highly motivated CEO and Board Member with over 25 years experience in the not for profit sector. He is extremely adaptable and accomplished in setting strategy, managing £m budgets. He's able to communicate at a senior level whilst presenting in a focused and persuasive manner.
Amerjit brings key talents including strategic thinking, audience and major donor development. He is a strong leader with excellent organisational skills who is entrepreneurial and is able to provide leadership across all areas.
Whilst at Imperial Health Charity Amerjit led on the NHS Big Tea campaign (from concept to delivery within less than a year). Amerjit also secured NHS Charities Together to be the beneficiary charity for the Daily Mail Health Hero Awards.
Amerjit was previously Deputy Chair for the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, a charity that transform the lives of young people through the power of world class athlete mentors delivering personal, social and emotional development programmes.
Job Titles:
- Director of Communications
- Trustee
Antony Tiernan is an award-winning Director of Communications who served over 20 years in the NHS, including at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and London Ambulance Service, where he also led the London Ambulance Charity.
Antony also served as a Director of Communications at NHS England, leading on a range of major initiatives, including the NHS's 70th and 75th anniversaries in 2018 and 2023 respectively.
Antony has worked in a number of national charities including Breakthrough Breast Cancer.
In 2018, he was named by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations as one of the UK's top 70 PR people and is included in PR Week's annual ‘Power List'.
Antony is a keen runner, loves to travel and enjoys reading.
Chris is currently the CEO of the national animal charity Blue Cross Charity. Prior to this, Chris joined the Royal Free Charity in the autumn of 2010 as its first Chief Executive. As the Chief Executive of the Royal Free Charity, Chris oversaw the strategic change of the organisation from a grant making body to direct service provider, merging other organisations into the Charity and growing the income by 300% to over £40m. Together they were the primary reasons why he was identified as one of the five rising stars of the third sector by Charity Times in 2014.
Previously he was the Director of Business Development at the Fire Fighters Charity where he grew the charity from £3m turnover to over £9m. He was also responsible for the rebranding of the organisation, the restructuring of its 2000 strong volunteer network and a major expansion of its beneficiary base. The work he and his team undertook resulted in them being voted the "UK's Fundraising Team of the Year" in 2008/09 by the Third Sector, as well as being nominated as the best charity brand development. Chris was also voted one of the top two fundraisers in the UK in 2005/06 by the Charity Times magazine.
Chris has also worked for the National Farmers' Union as both their Marketing Manager and Business Development Manager. He was educated in both the UK and the USA and completed his MBA in 2001. Chris was awarded an MBE in the 2023 King's Birthday Honours list for services to the NHS.
Job Titles:
- Director of Strategy and Impact
Chris joined NHS Charities Together in 2022 having spent the previous ten years working within the NHS working in both national policy roles at NHS England, and more recently leading a strategic transformation team in an integrated health system in Greater Manchester. Prior to joining the NHS, Chris was CEO of a charity in West Yorkshire supporting disabled children, young people and their families.
Chris is passionate about tackling inequality, harnessing the power of people and communities to drive change and the role the voluntary sector can play in health, care and wellbeing.
Outside of work Chris is a Director of award winning charitable leisure trust Active Tameside and a Trustee of the Manny Cussins Foundation.
Job Titles:
- Trustee
- Chief Executive of NHS Employers
Danny Mortimer has been Chief Executive of NHS Employers since November 2014. NHS Employers is the voice of employers across the English NHS, and leads work relating to workforce policy and practice. He also serves as deputy chief executive of the NHS Confederation, of which NHS Employers is part.
Danny first worked in healthcare as a porter and a CSV care assistant before becoming a management trainee in Stoke-on-Trent. He worked in the NHS in Bath and Brighton before taking up his first director post in West Sussex. He then worked in Executive roles in hospitals in Hertfordshire and Nottingham before joining NHS Employers.
Danny is a Chartered Companion of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, a Trustee of the Employers Network for Equality and Inclusion and the NHS Retirement Fellowship and chairs the Cavendish Coalition of social care and health organisations.
Ellie Orton has been Chief Executive of NHS Charities Together since July 2018. She was instrumental in leading the charity's award-winning Covid Urgent Appeal during 2020 and has since led a complete transformation within the charity. This was recognised by being awarded Charity Times Outstanding Individual Achievement Award in 2021; Association of Project Management Outstanding Organisational Award in 2021 and being named in HSJ top 100 CEOs in 2021 and Charity Times most pioneering CEOs.
Previously she was CEO at a Coventry based charity working with vulnerable and sexually exploited women, and interim CEO at the Jon Egging Trust, supporting young people with barriers in their lives to reach their full potential. Ellie is passionate about social change and the African philosophy of Ubuntu, which literally translates as ‘humanity'. She loves beaches, running, and her family, including the dog. She was proud to be awarded an OBE in June 2021 for services to the NHS.
Job Titles:
- Director of Finance and Operations
Gemma joined NHS Charities Together in December 2021 and leads on Finance, HR, IT and Governance. Gemma had been the Director of Finance and Facilities, and Company Secretary, at The Myton Hospices since 2015, where she played a role in commissioning with the local CCG additional in-patient beds in the Myton Hospice in Coventry with a different model of care to that already being provided by the Hospice. Gemma also led on a charity governance review, cost improvement programmes and service redesign projects during her time at the Hospice.
Prior to this role, Gemma had been in various roles within NHS Finance for ten years working mainly at local Acute Trusts in the Midlands, her last role being Head of Management Accounts for George Eliot NHS Trust.
Gemma is passionate about the NHS and ensuring that the funding is spent in the most appropriate manner with the upmost benefit to patients and their loved ones, whilst ensuring that staff are looked after and valued.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Chief Executive of Imperial Health Charity
Ian Lush has been Chief Executive of Imperial Health Charity since December 2014, having previously been the Chief Executive of the Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) for 11 years. Following an MA in music at the University of York, he started his career as a viola-player with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, subsequently moving into arts management, including as Marketing Director of the Barbican Centre, and Managing Director of the London Mozart Players for eight years before joining the AHF.
Ian was Lead Governor of Great Ormond Street Hospital Foundation Trust from 2012-15 and served on its strategy and redevelopment boards. He founded and directed ‘Discovering Places', one of the major projects of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad and was Deputy Chair of the Heritage Alliance from 2005-13. Apart from work and his family, Ian's main recreations revolve around sport, playing Middlesex League tennis and going to watch football, cricket, tennis and athletics, and he is also a keen cook. Ian was awarded an OBE in the 2021 New Year's Honours list for charitable services to the NHS.
Jane has been Director of NHS Lothian Charity since 2011, having previously served as the Director of Fundraising at King's College Hospital. Following a BA in Music at the University of York and a postgrad at the Royal College of Music, she followed a career combining teaching music, playing the French horn semi-professionally and arts management, before joining the charity sector as a Concerts Manager at Sargent Cancer Care for Children. Jane took on the role of Director of Fundraising for King's in 2004, after experiencing life-saving care at that very same hospital for her daughter.
Jane provides vision and leadership to NHS Lothian Charity, and is responsible for setting strategic direction and leading cross-functional teams to deliver the Charity's long-term strategy and operational plans. The charity is considered best in class in Scotland, and leads the way nationally on the delivery of both arts in health and greenspace programmes, volunteering and staff wellbeing. In 2018 Jane's experience of leading a large endowment led to her involvement in OSCR's published guidance on trustee investment, and she was part of the Scottish Government review of NHS Charity governance.
At NHS Lothian Charity she set down the foundation blocks for the award-winning fundraising team, and whilst at King's College Hospital Charity, she led several large capital fundraising appeals, and through early involvement in the Association of NHS Charities from the mid-2000s supported the first round of membership development and growth, including establishing the Fundraising Mutual Interest Group.
Aside from work, Jane has two teenage children, a musician husband and a Labrador; she enjoys cooking, weight lifting and hill-walking.
Jayne has spent more than 30 years in human resources and organisational development, working in executive roles with the Boots Company, Whitbread, Royal Mail, Punch Taverns and Barratt Developments. Until June 2015 she was director of people and organisation development at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. Jayne runs executive coaching consultancy Calabash where she supports executives and organisations in culture change, engagement and transformation in a wide variety of private and public sector businesses. Until June 2021 she was a non-executive director at London Ambulance Service NHS Trust, and a trustee at St John Ambulance.
Jayne was appointed Non-Executive at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston in June 2019 before taking on the role of Chair in April 2021.
Jayne holds an MSc in human resource development from Nottingham Trent University, a certificate in coaching from Henley Management College and is a Fellow of the Institute of Personnel and Development.
Kirsty oversees the North Wales NHS Charity, Awyr Las Blue Sky and charitable partnerships for the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.
Kirsty taught English in Taiwan, Colombia and Spain and held a voluntary position with a charity supporting street children in Colombia before returning to the UK to take on an internship and then a permanent role with the Charities Advisory Trust. Kirsty went on to become the Fundraiser for Wales for the Alzheimers Society and then the Major Gifts Manager for Bangor University before joining the Health Board in North Wales as the Head of Fundraising for the North Wales NHS Charity, Awyr Las.
A former trustee of Students Supporting Street Kids, Kirsty recently became Director of Macsen and Partners Ltd, which provides consultancy services for voluntary sector organisations.
Kirsty is a mother of three and enjoys walking in Snowdonia with her family in her spare time.
Louise joined NHS Charities Together in January 2021 from Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust where she had been Director of Fundraising since 2009. She started her career at the National Institute of Conductive Education, then ChildLine, followed by leading the British Heart Foundation's Central England events team, before moving to Mencap. Louise was also a former Chair of the NHS Charities Together Fundraising Mutual Interest Group.
Job Titles:
- Director of External Affairs & Communications
Sarah has a strong track record in not-for-profit and public sector leadership, with over twenty years' experience of delivering successful marketing and communications strategies for the likes of the NHS, Macmillan Cancer Support and Lambeth Council. She was Director of Engagement at national research charity Fight for Sight before joining NHS Charities Together in January 2021.
Sarah leads the external communications strategy, shaping the NHS Charities Together brand and engagement with charity members, supporters and other key stakeholders.
Job Titles:
- Director of Business Services
Stuart first joined what is now NHS Charities Together as a member in 2003 when he was Chief Executive of Birmingham Children's Hospital Charity. He has worked for the organisation in various capacities, including three years as Chairman, and has been Director of Business Services since July 2020, undertaking a number of governance and organisational roles, including acting as Director for Grants in 2022.
Stuart is a passionate advocate of good governance and sharing of best practice to allow charities to do the best they can for their beneficiaries and continues to provide advice and support to charities. He is also a Member of the Charity Tribunal which hears appeals against decisions of the Charity Commission.
Job Titles:
- Charities and Partnerships Manager for Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
- Joint Deputy Chair
Tim is currently Charities and Partnerships Manager for Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. He has worked in the voluntary sector for over 30 years for organisations involved in young people, the arts, social inclusion, health, and medicine. At YHA he was instrumental in securing £17 million in funding to develop Do it 4 Real summer camps for 10-16 year olds, which had a real impact on the thousands of young people who took part. Tim became involved in NHS charities in 2009 and has worked for Derby and Burton Hospitals Charity, leading it through the pandemic and Leicester Hospitals Charity, where he established a strong track record of successful appeals for all areas of the hospital's work.
Tim had an earlier career in television, media and theatre as an actor, writer and theatre producer, working with actors such as Sylvester McCoy, Barbara Windsor and Ian Lavender. Having left the theatre he realised the theatre never quite left him, so in his spare time he writes and directs pantomimes for the South Darley Players, and occasionally directs other amateur theatre groups. He plays guitar and writes music and likes to go fell-walking or cycling in the Peak District whenever he can.
He is a Member of the Institute of Fundraising, and was Chair of the Association of NHS Charities Fundraising Mutual Interest Group for five years.