Ian Smith, Chair
With a career spanning healthcare, publishing, construction, strategy consulting and logistics, Ian has over 40 years’ experience leading highly complex multinational companies including a number of chief executive roles.
Previously Executive Chairman of Four Seasons Health Care and Chief Executive of the General Healthcare Group, Ian has an in-depth knowledge of the healthcare system and patient needs, particularly in terms of acute, psychiatric, and elderly care.
Ian was also Chair of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust from 2017 – 2019 and is currently a Non-executive Director at the Ministry of Defence.
Karen McDowell, Chief Executive, Surrey Heartlands Health and Care Partnership
Karen was appointed Chief Executive for the Surrey Heartlands ICS and Integrated Care Board (ICB) in February 2024, a position she held as Acting Chief Executive since September 2023. Prior to this Karen had been ICS Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive.
From 2018 – 2021, Karen was the Surrey Heartlands CCG Chief Finance Officer and system finance lead and was also the CCG’s Deputy Accountable Officer since its inception in April 2018. Karen’s previous director experience includes urgent and emergency care, primary care, emergency preparedness, resilience and response, communications and engagement, governance, performance and assurance, ambulance commissioning and the Covid-19 vaccination programme.
Karen became a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in 2003. Previous roles include Chief Finance Officer at NHS Guildford and Waverley CCG (from April 2013), NHS Merton CCG and Deputy Director of Finance for NHS Sutton & Merton.
Karen has held a number of senior roles in London and Greater Manchester over the last 20 years, including NHS Waltham Forest, NHS Sutton and Merton and NHS Manchester PCTs in both financial and management accounting.
Michael Parker CBE, Non-Executive Member
Michael is a fully qualified accountant with an impressive career history and is currently Chief Executive Officer at Parkers Chartered Certified Accountants. With a strong interest in the NHS, he was Chairman at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust for nine years and has also spent time as a Board member at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital NHS Trust as well as the Food Standards Agency. Made Commander of the British Empire in December 2010, Michael is President of the Sickle Cell Society and was also Chairman of the Royal College of Nurses Institute, as well as holding other advisory positions to the Royal College of Nurses.
A Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) Michael is extremely experienced in leading financial strategies to facilitate growth with a track record of transforming organisations and influencing at national level. He is an Honorary Fellow of King’s College, London, and Honorary life member of the Institute of Risk Management.
Michael will chair the Audit Committee.
Peter Collis, Non-Executive Member
An experienced civil servant, Peter has an impressive non-executive career and has worked with the NHS in Surrey since 2013. Currently independent Co-Chair of the Surrey Heartlands Strategic Finance and Assurance Board, he held roles as Lay Member for Governance and Acting Chair at the previous NHS Surrey Downs CCG. He is the Senior Independent Director at Newable Ltd, where he also chairs the Audit and Nominations Committees. Previously Chief Executive of HM Land Registry, Peter worked as Finance Director at the Employment Service and as Private Finance Director at the Highways Agency bringing a wealth of governance and financial experience to this new role. Peter has dual British and German nationality and is involved with a number of organisations promoting British – German relations. Peter and his wife, Jan, live in Surrey and have three adult children and one grandson.
Peter will chair the Strategic Finance and Assurance Committee.
Lynette Nusbacher, Non-Executive Member
An experienced strategist with a passion for public services, Lynette has extensive experience advising boards and executive committees in the public, private and charitable sectors on both strategy and governance. Currently a board-level consultant leading Nusbacher & Associates Ltd, Lynette’s impressive career has included working at both the Cabinet Office and Ministry of Defence as well as the University of Toronto. Lynette is a Fellow of the Religious Life Advisory Board at the University of Surrey and is an educational broadcaster for a number of sources including the Discovery and Smithsonian Channels. She lives in the Surrey Hills with her two daughters, and she is a lay reader and Sunday school teacher at Weybridge Synagogue.
Lynette will take on the role of Senior Member and Deputy Chair.
John Marsh, Non-Executive Member
An Associate Partner at management consultants EY, John has a successful track record of Chief People officer roles, including Group HR Director of the Home Office, with a wealth of experience at delivering complex workforce transformation programmes with a particular interest in organisational design, culture and talent management. He has worked with NHS Digital on their people agenda and has spent time working with NHS England and other DHSC arms-length bodies. John’s career also includes time working at a number of Government departments including the Cabinet Office, Home Office and the Prison Service. John has lived with his family in Surrey for the last 20 years.
John will chair the Remuneration Committee.
Sara Hurley, Non-Executive Member
Sarah joined the Board with over 30 years’ experience in leadership roles, supporting the MoD, NHS England, Health Education England and Department of Health and Social Care. Passionate about patient experience and improving health outcomes, Sara is on the Board of Trustees at the Global Child Dental Fund and holds the role of Non-Executive Director at Peninsular Dental, a social enterprise working in the South West.
Her previous roles include the Chief Dental Officer for England, Commanding Officer/Chief Executive for the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine focused on improving health outcomes for injured military personnel, and principal health advisor at the Army’s HQ Regional Command at Aldershot supporting military communities in the UK and abroad. Having lived in a variety of towns and villages within the Surrey Heartlands footprint for over 30 years she and her family have now settled in the Guildford and Waverley ICP area.
Sara will chair the Quality and Performance Assurance Committee.
Dr Charlotte Canniff, ICS Joint Chief Medical Officer
Dr Charlotte Canniff has been a senior Clinical Leader in the Surrey system for nearly 10 years. Originally Clinical Chair of North West Surrey and more latterly of Surrey Heartlands from its inception in April 2020, she has championed the voice of Surrey citizens in all the decisions she has been engaged in. As Vice Chair of the Surrey Health and Wellbeing Board, she was integral to the development of the 10 year Health and Wellbeing Strategy and led the delivery of a cross system Palliative and End of Life Care Strategy.
Charlotte is passionate about clinical and professional leadership and engagement setting up the Surrey Heartlands Health and Care Professional Executive, influencing national strategy in this area. She has led on primary care transformation across the system and in the ongoing development of our now thriving 25 primary care networks, also working at national level with NHS England. A true clinical leader, Charlotte has supported the development of system-wide clinical networks, enabling them to thrive as active, multi-professional networks with a strong voice.
A senior partner at a large GP practice in North West Surrey, Charlotte is passionate about high quality, accessible primary care with a special interest in women’s health, paediatrics (particularly neurodiversity and child and adolescent mental health) and in managing complex frailty and end of life care. More recently she acted as the strategic clinical lead for Covid-19 including the vaccination programme, the set-up of Covid@home and virtual wards and the digital transformation of primary care.
Professor Andrew Rhodes, ICS Joint Chief Medical Officer
A Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (and the Trust’s previous Medical Director), Andrew is currently the Critical Care COVID incident director and clinical director for Diagnostics for NHS England (London), seconded from his position as Medical Director of the South West London Acute Provider Collaborative. He is also an Honorary Professor of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine at St George’s University of London.
Andrew has research interests in the fields of haemodynamics, surgical outcomes, sepsis and antibiotic delivery. He is widely published in these areas and is regularly invited to lecture on these subjects all around the world.
Andrew has held leadership roles at both a national and an international level. He is a past president of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) and has held elected positions on the Council of both the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (FICM) and the Intensive Care Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He is a non-Executive Director at Croydon University Hospitals NHS trust and vice-chair of Kent Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance charity.
Clare Stone, ICS Director of Multi-Professional Leadership and Chief Nurse
Clare has been a nurse in the NHS for nearly 30 years, working in many settings and across systems to deliver and improve healthcare. She has led transformation across healthcare in Surrey, promoting quality and clinical effectiveness through leadership and a strong commitment to high standards of care.
Clare has led and implemented a number of key quality improvement initiatives both locally and regionally, including the previous Surrey Heartlands CCG Quality Strategy, the national Safe Care pilot and Covid-19 response to testing and PPE (personal protective equipment). She contributes to the National Quality Board, which focuses on using system thinking approaches to influence culture, leadership, improvement and multi-agency working.
Her portfolio includes quality and safety leadership, which encompasses assurance and oversight of care delivery across Surrey Heartlands. She is also the responsible executive lead for a number of multi-professional portfolios including improvement and engagement, medicines optimisation, safeguarding and women and children’s services.
Dan Brown, ICS Chief Finance Officer (Interim)
Michael Pantlin, ICS Chief People and Digital Officer
Michael joined the NHS in 2008, after a successful career in the private sector, including IT, travel and banking industries. Before this, as a trainee in his profession, Michael spent four years in palliative and HIV care in East London, where he grew a personal interest in health, care and well-being. In deciding to return to this field, Michael joined the NHS as an HR Director – first for Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust and then nearly nine years on the Board for the Barts Health Group of hospitals. In his final year with Barts, Michael led various aspects of the pandemic response – including the Nightingale hospital, but the most important of which was the well-being of their many teams.
Over time, Michael has enjoyed leading significant organisational development and workforce strategy, including digital deployment systems.
His interest in health has led him to Surrey Heartlands, where he feels able to shift his focus to population health and the gaps between organisations where staff and patients can sometimes fall.
Graham Wareham, Mental Health Representative
Graham is the Chief Executive of Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, having previously held the roles of Chief Finance Officer and Deputy Chief Executive. His ambition for the Trust is to go from ‘good to great’, believing that much of what is required is about changing the organisation’s approach to problems and slightly adjusting its thinking, leading to better clinical care, a happier workplace and fewer people finding services difficult to access. Graham joined the Trust in February 2015 from Leonard Cheshire Disability, a charity which provides support for disabled people, where he was Chief Financial Officer. During his time as Chief Financial Officer, Graham worked very closely with the Chief Executive in developing future plans and managing day to day performance of the charity.
Graham started his career in 1995 with British Airways and then with food retailer, Safeway, working across a wide number of finance roles including supply chain, retail, operations and change management and has played a significant role in implementing efficiency projects. He is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, with a BA in Economics and an MA in Transport Economics.
Joanna Killian, Partner Member for the Local Authority
Joanna was appointed Chief Executive of Surrey County Council in 2018. She has worked in partnership with the Council Leader, Tim Oliver, to modernise the council, building strong financial foundations and improving service quality for residents. Her focus on partnerships has enabled the council to contribute to a thriving Integrated Care System in Surrey, as well as building to strengthen the economy, address the impact of climate change and tackle inequalities.
In June 2021, as part of the Government’s intervention of Liverpool City Council, Joanna was appointed by the Secretary of State as Local Government Improvement commissioner. Joanna currently holds this role alongside her SCC Chief Executive role.
Prior to joining SCC, Joanna worked at KPMG, where she led relationships with local and regional government, working on innovative devolution and public service reform programmes. Joanna joined KPMG in 2015 from Essex County Council, where she was the Chief Executive for nearly 9 years.
Joanna has more than 30 years’ experience in the public sector and has deep experience in delivering transformational change, cost reduction and service improvement. She started her career in social housing and regeneration - she has deep knowledge and expertise in these fields. In her spare time, she is Chair of St Mungo’s, a large charity with a mission to support people who experience street homelessness and eliminate rough sleeping.
Louise Stead, Partner Member for NHS Trusts and Foundation Trusts
Louise is the Chief Executive Officer of Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust, a role she has held since September 2018. Prior to this she was the Deputy Chief Executive Officer and was Director of Nursing from 2011, where she was pivotal to the Trust achieving a ‘good’ rating from the Care Quality Commission in 2018. Louise has been the Place-based Leader for Guildford & Waverley Health & Care Alliance since December 2020; she is also Chair of the Surrey and Sussex Cancer Alliance, and of the Surrey Heartlands Provider Collaborative Board.
Louise is a specialist advisor to the Care Quality Commission and has participated in carrying out well led reviews at other NHS trusts.
Louise originally qualified as a registered nurse in 1988. With a varied career in a number of London teaching hospitals Louise is an experienced nurse in cardiology, cardiovascular surgery, hepatobiliary and pancreatic medicine and surgery, haematology and coronary care. She has an MSc in Professional Practice (Leadership and Management) and is a visiting professor at the University of Surrey.
Dr Pramit Patel, Partner Member for Providers of Primary Medical Services
Pramit has been a GP since 2011 and is a Partner at Greystone House Surgery in Redhill, Clinical Director for Care Collaborative Primary Care Network in East Surrey, Founder of Alliance for Better Care GP Federation, currently Chair of the PCN Network, NHS Confederation and is on the board of Trustees of NHS Confederation.
As a GP, Pramit always champions high quality integrated care, with primary and community care being front and centre for care outside hospital and working alongside hospital colleagues to integrate whole system patient pathways. He leads on the development of our 25 Primary Care Networks locally with our primary care directorate as well as nationally having strong connections with NHS England. As a clinician he has a particular interest in care of the elderly as well as managing complex care and minor surgery procedures and also trains junior doctors.
Pramit will be leading implementation of the Fuller Stocktake for Surrey Heartlands which focusses on creating thriving neighbourhood teams bringing health, care, voluntary sector and local authority colleagues together to serve the needs of our residents.