Our executive team

Chief executive

Professor Tim Orchard, chief executive

Tim, a consultant gastroenterologist, was appointed chief executive of Imperial College Healthcare in 2018. He was previously medical director and divisional director for medicine and integrated care at the Trust, which he joined as a registrar in 2000. He is currently also chair of The Shelford Group, a collaboration between ten of the largest teaching and research NHS hospital trusts in England.  

He undertook his undergraduate medical degree at the University of Cambridge, trained at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School and was a research fellow at the University of Oxford.  

Tim is professor of gastroenterology at Imperial College London and is renowned for his ongoing research and teaching in the field of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). He has been the chair of the IBD section of the British Society of Gastroenterology and national representative on the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation. He has a Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy and, in 2000, was honoured with the Ralph Noble Prize by the University of Cambridge. 

During his time as chief executive, Tim has been focusing particularly on developing a collaborative, inclusive and kind organisational culture, and the Trust has seen significant improvements in its CQC ratings and staff engagement scores. Tim has also been developing the Trust’s strategic partnerships with Imperial College London and others to help embed research and innovation in all aspects of the organisation’s work, supporting the creation of a new life sciences hub at St Mary’s Hospital and an increased five-year funding award of over £95m for the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre.

Register of interests

• Professor at Imperial College London
• Member of the NICE Panel of Experts
• Director, Imperial College Health Partners
• Loyalty interests with pharmaceutical advisory boards
• Medical advisor: NW London Crohn’s and Colitis UK

Board executive directors

Professor Raymond Anakwe, medical director

Raymond is a consultant in trauma and orthopaedic surgery and medical director at Imperial College Healthcare. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh and undertook his surgical training in the Edinburgh Orthopaedic and Trauma Unit and the South-East Scotland region. He undertook further sub-specialist fellowship training in hand, wrist and elbow surgery and has particular expertise in these areas, for adults and children. He came to the Trust as a consultant in 2013. He undertakes clinical research here and with Imperial College London and is regularly invited to lecture and teach internationally.

Raymond was a medical officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps of the British Army for 24 years travelling widely, working with committed and excellent teams and learning from colleagues across professional groups, in different and challenging environments.

Raymond has a focus on quality of care and services, medical education and patient safety. He has previously been a non-executive director for another large NHS trust where he was the board safety champion for maternity and neonatal care, supporting a program of improvement and development. Raymond is committed to teaching, training, and clinical research, as well as delivering a high-quality patient service.

Register of interests

• Private practice: Self employed, Imperial College Healthcare Private Care, Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth, and Cromwell Hospital

Claire Hook, chief operating officer & deputy chief executive

Claire joined the Trust in 2013 as divisional director of operations for medicine and integrated care, before moving into the executive team as director of operational performance in January 2019. In July 2021, Claire was appointed chief operating officer, and in January 2024, she became deputy chief executive. Prior to this, Claire spent over 10 years working in senior roles in the NHS and the independent sector and has experience in both informatics and operational management. 
 
Claire graduated from the University of Lancaster with a BSc in Geography and subsequently went on to obtain an MSc in Health Economics, Policy and Management from the London School of Economics. In 2017 she won a leading and developing people award from the London Leadership Academy and was recognised as the Director of the Year for the third/public sector in the Institute of Directors London & South region awards in 2020.  Claire also has several years of experience as a charity Trustee.

• Director, Hook Medico Legal Limited

Professor Julian Redhead, medical director

Julian joined the Trust full time in 2004 as a consultant in emergency medicine, after spending four years as a consultant at Ealing Hospital. He became chief of service for emergency medicine at the Trust in 2008. He also serves as the national clinical director for urgent and emergency care.

He has held various roles during his time at the Trust, including clinical programme group director for medicine, divisional director for investigative and supporting sciences, associate medical director for professional development and interim chief executive.

Julian is currently also medical director of the Fortius Clinic, trustee to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, secretary to the British Association of Immediate Care for London and a Care Quality Commission specialist adviser.

Register of interests

• Trustee, Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
• Director, Stadium Doctors Ltd
• Shareholder, Fortius Clinic
• Medical director, Fortius Clinic
• Specialist adviser, Care Quality Commission
• Major incident doctor, London Ambulance Service
• Doctor, Chelsea Football Club
• Shareholder, Opus Clinic
• CQC inspector
• Trustee, Imperial Health Charity
• Clinical private practice: Fortius Clinic and Imperial College Healthcare Private Care

Professor Dame Janice Sigsworth, chief nursing officer

Dame Janice Sigsworth is the Chief Nursing Officer at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. She joined the Trust from the Department of Health, where she was Deputy Chief Nurse (England). With a clinical background in respiratory medicine and long-term conditions, Janice holds a BSc in Nursing and an MSc in Health Service Management. She also holds honorary professorial appointments with King’s College London, Buckinghamshire New University, and Middlesex University.

Her priorities at Imperial have been to prepare nurses and midwives to lead the delivery of compassionate, high-quality care, with a strong focus on improving the experience of staff and patients to enhance nursing and midwifery outcomes. A key milestone under her leadership was achieving the global Pathway to Excellence® designation in July 2024, making Imperial the largest NHS acute trust to achieve this status. Janice is now leading the roll-out of the programme across all Imperial’s hospital sites to embed a positive practice environment that supports nursing and midwifery excellence.

With a career spanning over three decades, Janice has a proven track record of delivering continuous improvement in clinical outcomes and patient experience. She has championed the integration of education and research into practice, fostering positive practice for staff and students to improve care for patients.

Janice served as the clinical strategic advisor for the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) during its review of midwifery pre-registration standards and remains a member of the NMC Midwifery Panel. She is also a member of the Shelford Safer Nursing Care Tool Steering Group and the Shelford Chief Nurses Group and is the national professional lead for embedding genomics into nursing and midwifery practice.

Janice was awarded a CBE in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours in recognition of her outstanding services to nursing and a damehood in the 2024 King’s Birthday Honours for her contribution to genomics in nursing and midwifery practice.

Register of interests

• Honorary professional appointments, King’s College London, Bucks New University and Middlesex University
• Member of Shelford Safer Nursing Care Tool Steering Group
• Member of Shelford Chief Nurses Group
• National professional lead for nursing and midwifery genomics

Jazz Thind, chief financial officer

Jazz joined the Trust in 2020. She is a qualified accountant and joined the NHS in 1993 in a junior finance role. Since then, Jazz has taken up a number of NHS roles covering the breadth of the finance function and has been in finance leadership roles across both NHS provider and commissioning organisations.

The majority of Jazz's NHS career has been at Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust where she was appointed to the director of finance role in 2016. Jazz took up a secondment post at the Trust as the interim chief financial officer in January 2020, and was appointed to the role permanently in December 2020. Post-graduation and prior to joining the NHS, Jazz worked in retail and HMC.

Register of interests

• Director of OPS (Oxleas Prison Services)
• Director of ToPP (The Oxleas Property Partnership).

Executive directors

Professor Rajarshi Bhattacharya, divisional director for surgery and cancer

Professor Rajarshi Bhattacharya, consultant orthopaedic surgeon and clinical director for trauma, has been appointed divisional director for surgery and cancer following an internal recruitment process. 

Having completed his specialist surgical training with the Northern Deanery, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Raj moved on to specialist knee surgery and trauma fellowships, in Edinburgh and Southampton. He joined Imperial College Healthcare as a consultant in 2010 and was subsequently appointed as honorary clinical senior lecturer at Imperial College, London. He took on the clinical director post in 2016.

Professor Frances Bowen, director of medicine and integrated care division

Frances joined the Trust's hospitals in 2000, when she was appointed consultant in respiratory and general medicine at Hammersmith and Charing Cross hospitals and became the Trust cancer lead. Frances studied medicine at the Royal Free Hospital in London. Following medical rotations at Hammersmith and The Brompton she was appointed MRC Fellow at the Royal Free, where her work led to a PhD in HIV medicine.

In 2005 she became lead clinician for respiratory medicine and then in 2008 chief of service for clinical infection and respiratory medicine. In 2015 Frances became clinical director for acute and specialist medicine at Charing Cross Hospital where she still works clinically in fast track respiratory clinics and takes part in the acute medical on call rota.

Jeremy Butler, director of transformation

Jeremy joined the Trust in November 2018. He has been an independent consultant since 2009, leading and supporting change projects in the NHS and in healthcare and other sectors in the UK and overseas.

Jeremy began his career in manufacturing before spending seven years in senior roles for management consultancies KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers. In the past decade as an independent consultant, he has worked on a wide range of projects, including most recently as lead for flow and integration programmes for healthcare organisations in Canada, and Australia and in the NHS.

Robbie Cline, chief information officer

For the last four years, Robbie has been the joint CIO for London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust and The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Before that, he was director of ICT programmes at Imperial College Healthcare. In those two roles, he provided leadership for the implementation of the single electronic patient record (EPR) system across the four trusts in the acute provider collaborative.

Kevin Croft, chief people officer

Kevin joined the Trust in August 2018, having previously been director of people and service improvement at Epsom and St Helier University Hospital NHS Trust.

Prior to this, Kevin worked across north west London as director of workforce transformation and, before that, as director of organisational development and HR at North Middlesex University Hospital. During this period Kevin also served four years as the UK president of the Healthcare People Management Association, the professional association for HR staff in the NHS. 

Kevin is also the founder of the London Healthcare People Management Academy — providing professional development programmes to London's NHS HR professionals, and, the creator of the APPRECIATE approach to people management — providing practical tasks for managers to improve staff engagement and team working.

Michelle Dixon, director of engagement and experience

Michelle joined the Trust in 2014. She has over 25 years’ experience as a professional communicator in the health and wider public sector and prior to joining the Trust, she was director of communications at the British Medical Association.

She has also held the posts of interim director of communications at the Cabinet Office, director of communications at The King’s Fund, head of public affairs for the Royal College of Nursing and director of communications and fundraising for homelessness charity Crisis.

Nick Fox, commercial director

Nick joined the Trust in November 2016 as director of Imperial College Healthcare Private Care, and he leads the private patient activities across all of our hospital sites.

Prior to joining the Trust Nick worked for BMI, the largest independent group of hospitals in the UK as an executive director.

He moved into healthcare after senior board director roles in a variety of different companies, both in the UK and internationally. His career began in marketing for one of the biggest global brands at the time, before moving into business management. 

After a stint in private equity backed organisations focusing on mergers and acquisitions he joined Nuffield Health to help redevelop one of their flagship hospitals and to work on their strategic plans for health and wellbeing. 

Peter Jenkinson, director of corporate governance and Trust secretary

Peter joined the Trust in April 2018, with over 15 years’ experience in corporate governance in the health sector. 

He has worked in various NHS trusts, holding the posts of director of corporate affairs at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and trust secretary roles at West London Mental Health NHS Trust and Winchester & Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust. He has also worked in other public and private sector organisations, including central government departments, membership organisations and the IT industry. 

Peter is a chartered secretary and also has an MBA from the Open University.

Professor Bob Klaber OBE, director of strategy, research and innovation

Bob joined the Trust as a consultant in 2009. He is a paediatrician.

Bob studied at the University of Cambridge and Bart's and The London School of Medicine, before completing his postgraduate training in paediatrics in hospitals across London. He has also trained as a medical educationalist in quality improvement and, through an MD at University College London, in mixed methods research. He is a professor of practice (population health) at the School of Public Health, Imperial College London, a member of the NHS Assembly and a trustee of the Nuffield Trust.

In his current executive director role, he is responsible for strategy, research, innovation and improvement across the Trust. This also involves clinical leadership around redevelopment, sustainability, improving population health, developing the Trust’s role as an anchor institution and improving health equity. He continues to work as a consultant paediatrician at the Trust and as part of Connecting Care for Children, an integrated child health programme in north west London. Bob is also one of the leaders of Kindness in Healthcare, a network of 1400 people from 34 different countries.

Dr Amrish Mehta, director of women’s, cardiac, clinical support and sexual health services

Amrish joined the Trust in 2005 as a consultant neuroradiologist. He completed his subspecialty training at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London and Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston.

Before this appointment, he spent five years as clinical director of imaging at the Trust. He is also clinical director for imaging across the North West London Integrated Care System and West London Integrated Care System and for NHS England/Improvement across the London region.

Eric Munro, director of estates and facilities

Eric joined the Trust in November 2023, having previously been director of capital estates and facilities at King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Prior to this, Eric worked with a number of public sector organisations and corporate clients, providing strategic and leadership support on capital projects, estates management and facilities management. He also worked for a number of years as a director for estates, capital and facilities at Edinburgh Napier University, University of London and St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and West London NHS Trust.

Eric is an active member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and former chair of the 132 Squadron Air Cadets Civilian Committee.

Dr Matthew Tully, redevelopment director

Matthew joined Imperial Healthcare NHS Trust to lead the redevelopment programme in 2020. He has nearly twenty years’ experience delivering major complex healthcare projects in London with a total value of circa £2bn.

Matthew’s first executive role was Redevelopment Director at Barts Health delivering the £1.2bn new hospital programme creating the 750-bed major trauma Royal London Hospital and specialist cancer and cardiac centre at Barts. Matthew moved to GOSH in 2012 undertaking the master planning for the site and delivering phases 2 and 3 of the redevelopment.

Prior to joining the NHS Matthew worked at Partnerships UK (now the IPA) working on the procurement of major government infrastructure projects.