ST MARK'S HOSPITAL FOUNDATION - Key Persons
Professor Ailsa Hart trained in medicine at Oxford University and was awarded a First Class Honours Degree in 1992 and the George Pickering Prize for Medicine and Surgery Proxime Accessit in 1995 and prizes for outstanding achievements. She achieved Membership of the Royal College of Physicians in 1998 and trained in Gastroenterology and General Internal Medicine in London. She also worked at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam in 2004. She achieved her PhD in 2005 with Imperial College, London funded by a Wellcome Trust Fellowship. She became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 2013.
Job Titles:
- Consultant Gastroenterologist
She was appointed to the consultant staff of St Mark's Hospital in 2008 and became a Clinical Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London, having been awarded a highly competitive Clinical Senior Lectureship by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. She is currently Director of St Mark's Hospital Inflammatory Bowel Disease Unit, which has around 5000 patients, and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at Imperial College.
Her clinical work covers the spectrum of gastrointestinal diseases, with a particular interest in inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis). Her research interests focus on intestinal immunology and bacteriology aiming to further our understanding of the pathogenesis of inflammatory intestinal disorders.
She combined a busy clinical practice with research, both clinical trials in IBD and translational research. In particular at St Mark's, she runs the "Fistula Research Group", the "Pouch Research Group" and the "CRC surveillance Research Group". She links with laboratories within Imperial College, particularly the Antigen Presentation Research Group, whose focus is on human intestinal dendritic cells and their role in homing and compartmentalisation of the immune response. She has piloted faecal transplantation as a treatment for refractory pouchitis funded by the Eli and Edyth Broad Foundation. She is coordinator of the British Society of Gastroenterology "Gut Microbiota for Health" Expert Panel and a member of Imperial College "Centre of Digestive and Gut Health".
She is involved in teaching and training both nationally and internationally and has lectured by invitation at over 200 meetings. Her research work led to the publishing of two books, with "Inflammatory Bowel Disease - an Evidence-based Practical Guide" selling over 2500 copies and being a best seller at national and international meetings. She has also published over 100 papers and book chapters. She is a member of national and international IBD committees and consensus groups.
She has received a number of awards including first prize in an "Emerging Leaders in Gastroenterology" competition, the Novartis Foundation bursary and prizes awarded by the British Society of Gastroenterology and the United European Gastroenterology Society for outstanding research contributions. She is one of five members of the Clinical Committee of the European Crohn's and Colitis Organisation (ECCO); on the IBD (inflammatory bowel disease) Committee for the British Society of Gastroenterology, UK Patient and Public Involvement Lead for Gastroenterology for the CRN; Sub-Dean of St Mark's Hospital; and collaborates widely across the UK particularly within the UK IBD Genetics Consortium.
She was elected onto the International Organisation for the study of IBD (IOIBD) in 2014. The IOIBD, whose aim is to promote the health of those with IBD worldwide, is the only international organisation dedicated to the study of these illnesses. The IOIBD's mission statement is to "promote the health of people with IBD worldwide by setting the direction for patient care, education and research." This is a highly prestigious appointment, as only 50 physicians and surgeons worldwide have been elected onto this organisation.
Job Titles:
- Consultant Staff at St. Mark 's Hospital
- Professor
- Specialist
Professor Brian Saunders is a specialist gastrointestinal endoscopist and luminal gastroenterologist. His main clinical interests are the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of intestinal diseases through flexible endoscopy. He has performed >20,000 colonoscopies and has a particular interest in therapeutic colonoscopy (especially advanced polypectomy), endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) and endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD). Much of his work also involves colonoscopic screening and surveillance of those patients at increased risk of developing colorectal cancer.
Professor Saunders was appointed to the consultant staff at St. Mark's Hospital in 1997 and became Chief of Endoscopy in 2003. In the same year he led the successful St. Mark's bid (£1.1 million) to become a National Endoscopy Training Centre and he chaired a National workgroup looking at quality assurance and performance assessment for screening colonoscopy. As Director of the Kennedy-Leigh Academic Endoscopy Unit at St. Mark's he helps supervise a team of 12 research clinicians working on new techniques to improve the management of gastrointestinal diseases through the use of flexible endoscopes. World firsts include development of electromagnetic scope imaging, use of mucosal dye to enhance polyp detection, use of electronic imaging to characterize colonic polyps in vivo and development of novel endoscopic devices and techniques to enhance safe endoscopic polyp/early cancer resection.
From 2005-2009 he was Dean of the Academic Institute at St. Mark's Hospital and since 2006 he has been Director of Bowel Cancer Screening for NW London.
Professor Saunders qualified from University College Hospital in 1988 and was trained in general medicine and then gastroenterology and endoscopy in London and Melbourne Australia. He achieved MRCP in 1991 (FRCP 2002) and was awarded an MD from the University of London in 1996 for his work into "making colonoscopy easier" which formed the basis of his award for the Hopkin's Endoscopy prize from the British Society of Gastroenterology in 1996. He has authored/co-authoured more than 130 scientific papers, written >20 book chapters and has given more than 100 invited lectures or live demonstrations of endoscopy throughout the world. In 2002 he gave the Foundation lecture at the British Society of Gastroenterology on "therapeutic colonoscopy" and was the J Edward Berk lecturer at the American College of Gastroenterology in 2004. He is an International Committee Member of the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, Committee member of the British Society of Gastroenterology Endoscopy Research Group and faculty member of the European Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. In 2005 he was guest editor of the journal North American Clinics of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and has co-authored the classic text "Practical Gastrointestinal Endoscopy".
Catherine is an experienced investment professional with 20+ year career across financial services and private equity. She is part of the founding team at ARMEN, a private equity firm focused on GP stakes launched in 2022. She heads up the London office and leads the investment activities in Northern Europe.
Prior to this, Catherine co-founded Larchpoint, a family office, where she oversaw European investments. Before Larchpoint, she was at SVG Capital, a PE firm based in London, where she led numerous investments on a global basis. She was included in the Financial News "40 under 40 Rising Stars in Private Equity" in 2013.
She began her career in Public Equity Research at Deka, in Frankfurt and has a Master in Management from HEC Business School in Paris.
Catherine lives in London and enjoys spending time with her two children, one of whom has been a patient at St Mark's Hospital.
Dr Andrew Latchford is a Consultant Gastroenterologist at St Mark's Hospital and assistant director of the Polyposis Registry with a specialist interest in upper GI endoscopy.
Simon Gabe is a Consultant Gastroenterologist at St Mark's Hospital in Harrow. St Mark's has a National and International reputation in disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, especially inflammatory bowel disease, nutrition and intestinal failure, endoscopy and complex surgery. He Co-chairs the supra-regionally funded Intestinal Failure service, one of two centres in the UK funded to provide this service. He was appointed as Senior Lecturer at St Mark's and Imperial College in 2000. Since 2005 this has become an NHS appointment. His MD thesis was on intestinal permeability in critical illness and he also has an MSc in Clinical Nutrition.
Dr Gabe has a wide clinical experience in dealing with complex inflammatory bowel disease, especially with fistula development as well as intestinal failure, clinical nutrition and home parenteral nutrition.
His academic and research interests include nutrition in its different guises (nutrition screening, hormonal control of appetite, modulation of parenteral nutrition in intestinal failure, nutritional treatment with enterocutaneous fistulae), home parenteral nutrition (survival & different growth factors), intestinal transplantation, intestinal tissue engineering.
Dr Gabe gives around 30 invited lectures per year, based in nutrition, inflammatory bowel & liver disease. In addition, Dr Gabe is Honorary Treasurer and Caldicott Guardian for BAPEN and Secretary of the St Mark's Foundation. He recently co-founded the National Adult Small Intestinal Transplant Forum together with Addenbrooke's Hospital and has an honorary contract at Addenbrooke's as a visiting specialist.
Margaret Vance is a Nurse Consultant in gastroenterology in the Wolfson unit for Endoscopy, St Mark's hospital, a world centre of endoscopy excellence. She is a consultant endoscopist with a specialist interest in complex colonoscopy and bowel cancer screening. Maggie was the first woman to be accredited as a bowel cancer screening endoscopist in the UK in 2005.
Margaret's work includes leading a large team of specialist nurse endoscopists. She is the deputy director of the London bowel cancer screening hub and works with Public Health England screening and quality assurance service as a clinical professional advisor for colonoscopists in London.
Carolynne Jane Vaizey was educated at Cape Town University and then trained in General and Trauma Surgery up to Consultant level in Johannesburg. On returning to this country in 1992 she worked as a Colorectal Surgical Fellow in a District General Hospital and took the UK surgical examinations. She then took up a research post at St Mark's Hospital to obtain an MD through the University of London.
At the beginning of 1998 she became a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at the Middlesex & University College Hospitals in Central London and Honorary Senior Lecturer at University College London. In 2003 she took up a new post as Consultant Surgeon at St Mark's Hospital and Honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College.
Miss Vaizey has particular interests in the management of intestinal failure and surgical disasters, severe Crohn's, faecal incontinence, anal surgery and functional bowel disease. She is the Lead Surgeon for Intestinal Failure at St Mark's and Director of the Physiology unit. She is also the Divisional Clinical Director for the division of surgery, St Mark's, anaesthesia and theatre for LNWUH NHS trust. She has written 18 book chapters on her specialty interests and has over 150 papers and editorials published or in press.
She is the Chair of the European Society of Coloproctology's Guidelines Committee and a member of their Executive and Research committees. She Chairs the Committee for Commissioning Guidelines for Faecal Incontinence for NHS England and has been a core member of the Clinical Team advising NHS England on Intestinal Failure Services in England.
Job Titles:
- Consultant
- Surgeon
- Surgeon to St. Mark 's Hospital
Ian Jenkins was appointed as Consultant Surgeon to St. Mark's Hospital in 2008 following training in Coloproctology/ Surgical Oncology in the West of Scotland and St. Mark's Hospital. He studied at the University of Glasgow and spent two years in post-graduate research at the University Department of Surgery, Western Infirmary, Glasgow.
He is a high volume laparoscopic Colorectal Surgeon with interests in colon and rectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease and enhanced recovery with an evolving interest in complex & recurrent cancer. His interests centre on improving the quality and rapidity of recovery of patients after major and complex major surgery for both benign and malignant bowel disease.
He has strong commitment to training and education and is a National Laparoscopic Colorectal Trainer. He has published and presented widely on colorectal and intestinal diseases and is involved in collaborative research in cancer surgery, Enhanced Recovery and Surgical Training. He is the Clinical Lead for colorectal cancer in St. Mark's and Northwick Park Hospitals.
Sharad Rathke has spent 25 years working in the Private Equity/Financial Services industry and brings deep organisational and management experience across Finance/Investments, Strategy, Governance and Risk.
He is a co-founder and former Partner at Larchpoint Capital LLP, a London based PE firm. Prior to Larchpoint, Sharad worked at SVG Capital plc, a £1bn FTSE 250 PE investor as a fund manager and head of M&A. In addition, Sharad is a member of the Strategic Advisory Board of Digital+ Partners and a Trustee of The Doon School English Charitable Trust Foundation. He qualified as a chartered accountant with Arthur Andersen.
Sharad is a keen cyclist and participated in several endurance rides across Europe with consultants and advocates of St. Mark's, raising awareness and funds for research to help cure bowel disease.
Sharad joined the Board in December 2015
Job Titles:
- Trustee
- Non Executive Director and Chair of Remuneration at Investec Bank PLC
- Non Executive Director and Chair of Remuneration at Investec Bank PLC and of AIM
Moni Mannings is a Non Executive Director and Chair of Remuneration at Investec Bank PLC and of AIM listed Breedon Group PLC. She is also Deputy Chair of the UK's largest children's charity, Barnardo's, and Founder Trustee of The Felix Dennis Foundation, a literary arts charity promoting poetry and other spoken word art forms.
Moni was previously a board member FTSE250 companies Polypipe Group plc and Dairy Crest PLC, a Board member of Cranfield University and of the SRA, the UK's largest legal services regulator. Until 2017 Moni was Chief Operating Officer of IP data analytic company Aistemos Limited and prior to that was a senior partner and Head of Banking at international law firm Olswang LLP having enjoyed a career spanning over three decades in legal private practice.
Moni considers herself very fortunate to be in the care of Consultants working in The Wolfson Unit for Endoscopy at St Marks Hospital.
Moni joined the board in September 2019 and in 2024 she was awarded an OBE in the King's New Years Honours awarded for her capacity as founder of EPOC- Empowering People of Colour and for services to cultural philanthropy to business and to charity.
Trustee
Moni Mannings is a Non Executive Director and Chair of Remuneration at Investec Bank PLC and…
Professor Faiz holds, or has held, various leadership positions at a national level. He is the ex-Chairman of the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland (ACPGBI) IBD subcommittee and Chair of the national Ileal Pouch Registry.He has contributed twice towards guideline development for the ‘IBD Standards' and also NICE in 2015. Prof. Faiz has Chaired an international gastrointestinal surgery initiative of Global Comparators - a benchmarking and quality improvement group comprising sixty highly recognised worldwide academic hospitals (2014-2018).
Sir Tom has had a 40 year career with PricewaterhouseCoopers which included experience of Charities.
He joined the board in June 2017.
Sue spent two years in full time research at St. Mark's Hospital with an Imperial Cancer Research Fund Fellowship. She was based in the Polyposis Registry and worked on various clinical aspects of desmoid disease in familial adenomatous polyposis as well as studying the genetic changes within these rare tumours. The resulting MD thesis won the Raymond Horton-Smith Prize for the best thesis of the year at Cambridge University, and won the Leeds Castle Polyposis Group Young Investigator Award.
She completed her surgical training in the South West Thames Region, at St. Mark's Hospital and at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. She then spent three years as a consultant at the Royal London Hospital before returning to St. Mark's. During this time Sue set up a family cancer clinic to provide services for inherited or potentially inherited colorectal cancer in the North East London Cancer Network. Sue's practice covers most aspects of colorectal and anal surgery. Her main subspecialist area of expertise is in inherited colorectal cancer syndromes and she is the Director of the St. Mark's Hospital Polyposis Registry.