Board of Governors

The board is responsible for setting strategy, ensuring that there are the necessary financial, human and physical assets to meet those strategic aims, monitoring the performance of the group, overseeing risk management, and setting the group's values.

The governors delegate day-to-day executive authority to the Group Chief Executive.

Members of the Board of Governors are:

Russell Hardy

Russell was appointed Chairman of the Board of Governors on 20th June 2012. After starting his career as a business economist for Unilever and then moving into strategy and planning consultancy at Deloitte Haskins & Sells, Russell moved into retail management in order to put the theory into practice. Initially he joined Kingfisher, where he held a number of roles including Deputy Finance Director for Comet and was involved in its M+A team before joining the Board of Safeway as Fresh Food Director. At Safeway he played a key part in the turnaround of the business, which led to an invitation to run Dollond and Aitchison opticians, ultimately taking that business through to a sale. Following that he joined Blacks Leisure Group as CEO leading that business for three years. 

Russell is currently Chairman of the South Warwick NHS Foundation Trust and the Multiple Sclerosis Trust. He is also a Trustee of the UK Acquired Brain Injury Forum. Russell is a member of the Audit Committee, Finance and Investment Committee, the Executive Remuneration Committee, the Governors’ Remuneration Committee and Chair of the Nominations Committee.

David Lister

David Lister joined Nuffield Health in January 2014. He has been the Chief Information Officer for the National Grid since 2009 and a Board member of e-skills, the UK Sector Skills Council since 2008, is a non-executive director on both the Department of Work and Pensions' Departmental Board, and Interxion SA. David was Group Chief Information Officer for the Royal Bank of Scotland 2008-2009 and Chief Information Officer for the Reuters Group 2004-2008. Prior to this David had similar roles at Boots plc, Glaxo Wellcome plc and Guinness plc / Diageo plc. Currently David is Deputy Chairman for the Board of eSkills UK and a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Interxion (a US listed Technology company).

Guy McCracken LVO

Guy became a Governor of Nuffield Health in January 2010 and is a member of the Finance and Investment Committee, the Nominations Committee and the Executive Remuneration Committee. Following a degree in Food Technology from Reading University the majority of Guy's career has been in food retailing. He was a plc Board Director and Joint Managing Director of Marks & Spencer plc after which he was Chairman of Duchy Originals Ltd. Most recently Guy was Chief Executive of Food Retail of The Co-operative Group where he led the transformation of the business culminating in the acquisition of Somerfield. 

He is currently a Non-executive Director of Branston Limited.

Fiona Driscoll

Fiona became a Governor of Nuffield Health in January 2010. She is Chair of the Audit Committee and a member of the Finance and Investment Committee and the Executive Remuneration Committee. She began her career in management consultancy focusing on economics, marketing and communications with a number of different agencies before becoming a highly successful Managing Director for The Rowland Company, a Saatchi & Saatchi subsidiary and then CEO at Ogilvy, Adams and Rinehart, again leading the organisation through a major turnaround. 

Fiona then worked in private consultancy before joining the Defence Evaluation Research Agency working on the development of the business model prior to privatisation. She was then appointed Strategy Director for Hedra Plc, a public sector consultancy. More recently Fiona has held a number of non-executive directorships for organisations including the Horse Race Totaliser Board (The Tote) Altala Group Ltd and Thomson Intermedia Plc. She also works in an advisory capacity for a number of Government initiatives.

Joanne Shaw

Joanne joined the Board of Governors in July 2011. She is now Chair of Nuffield Health’s Board Integrated Governance Committee and a member of the Nominations Committee. She is also Chairman of Datapharm, a leading provider of digital medicines information to the NHS, the pharmaceutical industry, patients and the public. Joanne sits on the board of the Money Advice Service and she is a director of the British Board of Film Classification.

Joanne has a strong interest in the use of new communication channels for health and medicines. In her professional roles and in her writing for health publications she is known for advocating partnership between patients and health professionals and supporting people to make better informed choices about their health.

After serving on the management board of the Audit Commission, she became Director of Medicines Partnership, a Department of Health initiative to improve the use of medicines in the NHS. She previously worked internationally as a strategy consultant with the Boston Consulting Group, advising large global companies on strategy, and implementing major change programmes.

Dame Denise Holt

Dame Denise Holt joined Nuffield Health in 2013, having previously acted as British Ambassador to Mexico and Spain. She is a member of the Board Integrated Governance Committee. After leaving the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, where she was Global Human Resources Director, Dame Denise developed a non-executive portfolio in the private and public sector, and with not-for-profit organisations. Dame Denise also has experience of working with a number of healthcare organisations, which is invaluable to Nuffield Health. Her special interest in the challenges faced by an ageing society, are particularly pertinent.

Martin Bryant

Martin Bryant joined Nuffield Health in 2013, adding to his wide non-executive portfolio, which includes posts with the Government Procurement Service and the Scout Association. During his career he held posts with the Home Office and FTSE 250 companies including Boots the Chemist, where he led on business development. He has extensive experience of strategy and marketing, together with a strong understanding of how to position an organisation. Martin is Chair of the Finance and Investment Committee of Nuffield Health and a member of the Audit Committee.

He is also currently a guest lecturer on Nottingham University’s MBA programme. Martin is a Trustee of Vision Aid Overseas Charity, Non-Executive Chairman of Scout Shops Limited, Non-Executive Chairman of Wesleyan Bank and Non-Executive Director of Wesleyan Assurance Society.

Honorary President: John Evans FRICS

John was elected the Honorary President of Nuffield Health in 2010, having been a member of Nuffield Health since 1983 and a Governor from 1988-2010. John was Chairman of the Trustees of the Nuffield Health Pension and Life Assurance Scheme from June 2001 to December 2011.

He is a consultant to and was previously senior partner in the firm of Beresford Adams Commercial (Chartered Surveyors). He is also a member of the Council of the University of Chester and is chairman of its Finance & General Purposes Committee. John lives in Cheshire and has a long association with the Nuffield Health Grosvenor Hospital in Chester.