Global thought leaders from academia, clinical practice, professional services and industry

Simon is one of Academic Health Solutions' co-founders. His diverse experience in senior level executive search includes CEO and board-level appointments in higher education, international development, research life sciences and healthcare.

Simon holds a first class degree from the University of Oxford and an MBA from the London Business School (including a semester at the Tuck School, Dartmouth College). He is a member of the Advisory Council of the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics and Public Life at the University of Oxford. Throughout his working life he has been very active in the Global Development sector having been Chair and Trustee for a number of internationally leading INGOs.

Dan is one of Academic Health Solutions' co-founders. His areas of expertise are senior level executive search, primarily CEO and Board-level appointments, in the education, health and social care, not for profit and private equity sectors.

Dan holds a first class honours degree and an MPhil in Economics and Politics of Development, both from the University of Cambridge, where he was a member of Jesus College. A Cambridge University rugby blue, Dan played first class rugby for a number of years and represented Cambridge, Oxbridge, Rosslyn Park and Surrey.

Dan is the Chair of the Governing Body of the Guildford High School for Girls and a former member of the Local Governing Body of Lambeth Academy; and an Ambassador for Prostate Cancer UK.

John is one of Academic Health Solutions' co-founders. He has over 20 years' experience of developing and leading successful academic health alliances.

Until August 2015, John led the School of Life and Medical Sciences at University College London (UCL) as Vice Provost (Health) and Academic Director of UCLPartners - the academic health science system that subserves a population of 6m. He is the Immediate Past President of the Academy of Medical Sciences in the UK.

Under his leadership, UCL achieved the status of the most powerful biomedical research grouping in the UK, and UCLPartners is having material impact on the health of the local population.

A former NHS Trust Chief Executive, Malcolm has led the development of Grant Thornton’s Health and Life Science practice over the last three years prior to which he was Chief Executive of Cambridge University Health Partners and worked internationally as a member of KPMG's Global Healthcare Centre of Excellence while a health practice leader in Australia. Malcolm brings vast experience of the health sector, life sciences and service transformation alongside deep knowledge of the Professional Services Advisory function.

Dr Andrew Haynes has over 36 years of experience in the NHS, with more than 20 years as a consultant Haematologist. He is the immediate past Executive Medical Director at Sherwood Forest Hospitals.

Dr Haynes has extensive experience in ICS strategy formulation and implementation. He was responsible for the creation of a multipartner collaboration in Nottinghamshire which became a Vanguard in the national New Models programme, a multiprovider alliance bringing together secondary, community and primary care. The Vanguard eventually became an Integrated Care Partnership (ICP), for which Andrew was the Clinical Lead and sat on the Partnership Board working closely with Social Care, Local Councils and Voluntary Groups.

For the last 15 months, Dr Haynes has been the ICS Executive Lead, in which role he created and chaired the system Chief Executives Group, including Local Authorities with whom he has fostered strong working relationships. Dr Haynes also sits on the Midlands Regional System, Transformation and Recovery (STaR) Board and Midlands Leadership Team which bring together senior NHS, NHS England and Local Authority Leaders to oversee performance and transformation. Andrew has worked extensively with national and regional regulators to shape system development.

Anna is Director of Quality Development at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Anna supports NHS teams across the UK to lead complex quality improvement work and to scale and spread innovations. Anna provides improvement coaching, training, board and executive development and leadership of improvement programmes, working with organisations such as the Health Foundation, NHS Improvement and the Royal College of Physicians. Anna has practised quality improvement in healthcare settings for over 15 years, using improvement methods that embrace co-production and patient experience measures.

Prior to this role Anna was executive Director of Quality for the West of England Academic Health Science Network where she led large scale improvement work to get evidence into practice in fields as diverse as stroke prevention, pre-term birth, tissue viability, mental health, renal and musculo-skeletal disease. Anna also established an academy to train NHS staff and patients in innovation and improvement methods including the launch of the Health Foundation’s Q programme in the West of England.

Anna is a Health Foundation Improvement Fellow, Ashridge Business School alumni in Leadership for Improvement and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bath Centre for Healthcare Innovation and Improvement and the University of West of England. Alongside her work in improvement Anna maintains her clinical practice as a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist in the NHS, innovating new approaches to healthcare.

Deenan Pillay has been a clinical academic in virology, and is currently Emeritus Professor of Virology at UCL, having recently also served as Pro-Vice Provost (International). His major research and clinical interest through his career has been HIV transmission, antiretroviral therapy, and emergence of drug resistance. In 2013 he became Director of the Wellcome Trust funded Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa., from where he led the merger with the HHMI-funded KwaZulu Natal Research Institute for TB and HIV (KRITH) to form the Africa Health Research Institute- a 650-person cross disciplinary institute addressing epidemiology, pathogenesis, and interventions for HIV and TB, returning to UCL in 2019. He has previously held several senior leadership positions, including as Director of the NIHR UCLH/UCL Biomedical Research Centre, and Programme Director for UCL Partners. He is an Emeritus NIHR Senior Investigator.

He has led several large research consortia, recently focusing on global genetic surveillance of HIV, and has served on a number of expert advisory committees on COVID, as well as previous pandemic threats

He is currently a Trustee Board member of the Pirbright Institute, and a Non-Executive Director of North Middlesex University NHS Trust.

John Ainsworth is Professor of Health Informatics at the University of Manchester, UK and Director of the Health eResearch Centre (www.herc.ac.uk). His research focuses on harnessing computing technology to enhance data science, applying data analytics to improve health services, and applying emerging computing technologies to create novel healthcare interventions. Current projects include distributed ledger technology, AI, conversational agents, IoT and machine learning. He is also the director of the Connected Health Cities programme (CHC, www.connectedhealthcities.org), an initiative to unlock the power of information to transform health and social care services across the North of England. He has pioneered the development of learning health systems in the UK through the CHC programme, motivated to remove the barrier between healthcare service and research thereby enabling rapid innovation. He has a successful track record in translating his research into innovation and economic development. He was a founder and the CTO of Northwest eHealth (www.nweh.co.uk), noted for the Salford Lung Study, and from his research into mobile apps for managing symptoms in schizophrenia he founded the social enterprise Affigo CIC (www.aiffgo.io).

He has a varied career with degrees in Physics, Cognitive Science, Health Informatics. Prior to his academic career he worked in industry for ten years, designing and development networking equipment for telecommunications and data networks. He is a fellow of the British Computer Society. John is involved in numerous research projects, but with a singular focus: to use computing and information technology to improve the health of the population.

An experienced executive, Lucy has held leadership roles in public health, population health strategy and wider public service for over 14 years.  A clinician by background, Lucy has worked at a senior level in both provider and commissioner settings, as well as in partnership with a number of academic institutions, publishing on matters ranging from undergraduate specialist medical training, to public health funding, to the importance of continuity of care and challenges regarding GP access. 

Lucy sits on the Health Council at the Think Tank Reform contributing to their ‘Reimagining Health’ programme and also on the national Intelligent Health and Sport England Partnership Advisory Panel.

Professor John Connell graduated in Medicine from the University of Glasgow in 1977 and MD in 1986. Following this, he held clinical research/clinical scientists posts in Melbourne and Glasgow. He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed papers on aspects of adrenal function and cardiovascular disease. From 2000–2008 he held Clinical Director posts in Acute Medicine in West and North Glasgow and was Senior Clinical Endocrinologist in the Western Infirmary in Glasgow, with a major interest in disorders of the adrenal gland. In 2009, he was appointed to the post of Dean of Medicine at the School of Medicine, University of Dundee and became Vice Principal for Research at the University and Head of the College of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing in January 2012. He was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1999, and was a member of its Council from 2006–9, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2002, where he is currently Fellowship Secretary. He chairs the Education and Training Advisory Board for the General Medical council; and is Vice Chair of the British Heart Foundation Programme Grants and Chairs committee. Prof Connell was the former Chair of NHS Tayside Board.

Professor Jean McEwan is a Consultant Cardiologist at Nuffield Health Brentwood hospital.  Professor Jean McEwan is a general cardiologist, working within the cardiology service at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. Cardiology is the branch of internal medicine dealing with disorders of the heart and blood vessels.Jean is on the GMC specialist register in Cardiovascular Medicine and General (Internal) Medicine.  She is a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology.  Her GMC number is 2548027.

The majority of Professor McEwan’s academic career has been spent in research relating to the pathophysiology of vascular disease, on which she has published extensively. Over the past five years her academic activity has been dedicated to the delivery and development of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education.

For over 20 years Professor McEwan worked at University College London and was a consultant cardiologist at UCL Hospitals and the London Heart Hospital.  Between 1st October – 31 December 2012 she held the post of Interim Dean of the UCL Faculty of Medical Science, pending the arrival of the new definitive appointee.  From April 2014 she took up an appointment the Vice Dean, Education, at the University of Exeter Medical School.

For eight years, until her move from London, Professor McEwan was the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) of Edinburgh’s Regional Adviser for the Greater London area, and in that role participated in the consultation processes of the College.

As a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London, Professor McEwan was the Improving Working Lives (IWL) Officer, and Chaired the Intercollegiate IWL Committee from 2008-11. She was the Clinical Lead for Handover, contributed to the RCP London Handover Toolkit, and is widely consulted on the processes involved in effective handover.Professor McEwan understands many of the issues related to work/life balance and gender changes in the medical workforce. She was Vice President of the Medical Women’s Federation, 2012-13 and while at UCL she was the Academic Lead for the Athena Science Women’s Academic Network (SWAN) (http://www.athenaswan.org.uk/) in the School of Life and Medical Sciences at UCL. 

Dr Anita Donley is a consultant physician in acute medicine. Her most recent role in the NHS was Chair of Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; she is a Trustee at Imperial Health Charity; Senior Associate at the Good Governance Institute; Senior Clinical Advisor to Visionable Ltd, and Principal Advisor to Academic Health Solutions (working with Grant Thornton and the NHS to formulate strategy and implement integrated health and care at system and organisational level). She is a founder mentor for the National Clinical Entrepreneur Programme (NHS Accelerated Access Collaborative).

Anita’s previous roles include Independent Chair of the Mid and South Essex STP/ICS; Clinical Vice President of the Royal College of Physicians leading the Future Hospital Programme; Medical Director of the Revalidation Team for DH England; NHS National Clinical Director for VTE; Human Genetics Commissioner; and Health Professionals lead for the WHO Global Patient Safety Programme on medication safety.

Anita has led work for the Chief Medical Officer on policy development and implementation across government departments at national and local level, including a report for the UK Border Agency regarding the healthcare of individuals in UKBA custody (published February 2013). In addition to work for DH England, other government departments, and non-statutory bodies, she has advised Ministers and parliamentary groups, worked closely with parliamentarians, and has twice given evidence at Health Committee hearings. Anita adheres to the Nolan principles in her work.

Anita has developed a broad network spanning the healthcare professions in the UK, the General Medical Council, Royal Colleges, the Department of Health, local government, patient groups, parliamentarians, and providers and commissioners in both public and private sector in health and social care. Anita is experienced in a variety of media, including print, radio and television at national level, and in engagement with consumer groups at national level on a wide range of issues.

Louise is currently University Professor of Health and Society at the University of Amsterdam. Before that she was President of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the University of Applied Sciences until April 2015, President of the Health Council of the Netherlands until April 2012, President of the Academic Medical Center (AMC-UvA’s) Executive Board and Dean of the UvA’s Faculty of Medicine for almost 10 years.

Louise was trained in medicine and public health in Groningen and at Johns Hopkins and obtained her PhD from the Erasmus University (EUR). As a researcher she worked at the University of Leuven and at the EUR. She also served as a policy staff member at the Dutch Ministry of Health.

In 1991, Louise was appointed Professor of Social Medicine at the AMC/UvA. From 1995 to 1997 she was a member of the Scientific Council for Government Policy. From 1997, she served on the Executive Board of the AMC-UvA and also held the position of Vice-Dean. In 2001, she was appointed President of the Executive Board of the AMC-UvA and Dean of the UvA’s Faculty of Medicine.

Since August 2017, Andrew has been the inaugural Director of Health Data Research UK, the multi-funder UK Institute for health and biomedical informatics research that will capitalise on the UK’s renowned data resources and research strengths to transform lives through health data science. He is seconded from his position as Professor of Medicine, and Vice Principal of Data Science at the University of Edinburgh, having taken up position in August 2014. Prior to this, Andrew was Dean of Medicine at the University of Dundee. 

Andrew was Chief Scientist at the Scottish Government Health Directorate (2012-2017) and has served and chaired numerous national and international grant committees and Governmental bodies.

John Eu-Li Wong, Isabel Chan Professor in Medical Sciences, is Senior Vice President (Health Affairs) at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and Chief Executive of the National University Health System (NUHS). A medical oncologist-haematologist, John obtained his MBBS from NUS and did his residency and fellowship at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, where he was the Chief Resident in Medicine, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

John is actively involved in the development of Biomedical Sciences as a key pillar of Singapore's economy, as well as the development of Singapore's first Academic Health System linking the National University Hospital and its national specialty centers with the National University of Singapore's medical, nursing, dental, and public health schools under one unified governance to develop a fully integrated health system focused on value, innovation, and sustainability to address Singapore’s current and future healthcare needs.

John is actively involved in the M8 Alliance of Academic Health Centers, the Association of Academic Health Centers – International, the Global Genomic Medicine Collaboration, the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the International Editorial Board of the American Journal of Medicine.

Melvin has been the Chief Executive Officer of Karolinska University Hospital since October 1, 2014. Professor Samsom has been department Chairman and division Chairman at the University Medical Center Utrecht, then becoming CMO, and in 2011 Chief Executive Officer of Radboud University Medical Center.

Melvin has had a distinguished career, both as a Scientist and as an Administrator and is Professor of Gastroenterology. He is as recipient of a prestigious personal grant from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, he has conducted research at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in Australia and the Mayo Clinic in the United States, as well as in the Netherlands.

Michael is Honorary Professor and Honorary Consultant Gastroenterologist at UCL Medical School, University College London. He was formerly Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex until 2016, Principal of St George’s, University of London, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Glasgow and Dean of the Faculty of Clinical Medicine at Bart’s and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Michael was founding chairman of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) between 1998 and 2003, and is Vice Chair and a member of the Board of the UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO). He is a member of the governing board of the UK medical regulator, The General Medical Council.

Peter is an internationally experienced scientist and enterprise specialist working from the United Kingdom and Australia. A biochemist by background, he studied at the Universities of Queensland and Cologne and was a Fellow in Biochemistry at Stanford.

In Australia, Peter is on the Board of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), chairing its Board Science Excellence Committee and is Director at Hear and Say Ltd, a social enterprise, chairing its Board Strategy Committee.

Elsewhere, Peter is a Member of the Entrepreneurial Universities Initiative (New Zealand), a Fellow of the California Technology Council and advises a start-up based in Bern.

Peter has strong interest in understanding the best processes for delivering benefit from science, and the particular role of civil society in those processes. He has accumulated considerable international experience including Board Member of Innovation Australia (chairing the Biological Sciences and Innovative Grants Committees), Member of the Alberta Research and Innovation Authority, and Member of the Australia – New Zealand Biotechnology Fund.

Peter has broad experience in commercialisation of scientific research, including previous roles as Chair of Griffith (University) Enterprise and the General Manager of IMBcom (University of Queensland).

Dr. Wartman served from 2005 – 2018 as the 3rd President and CEO of the Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC), a non-profit global association based in Washington, DC that seeks to advance health and well-being through the vigorous leadership of the multifaceted institutions that educate the next generation of health professionals, conduct cutting edge biomedical and clinical research, and offer comprehensive patient care from the basic to the most advanced levels. Prior to assuming this position, he was Executive Vice President for Academic and Health Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. Dr. Wartman’s career in academic medicine also includes chairing a department of medicine at two institutions and being the founding director of a division of general internal medicine.

Dr. Wartman, an internist and sociologist, is board certified in internal medicine and a Master of the American College of Physicians. He received his AB from Cornell University and his MD and PhD degrees from Johns Hopkins University. He was also a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Johns Hopkins and a Henry Luce Scholar in Indonesia.

He is recognized internationally for his work involving the organization and management of academic health centers, where he has taken the lead on many critical issues, including the need for alignment among an institution’s clinical, research, and education programs. In 2008, he founded AAHC International™ (AAHCI), a global organization dedicated to improving health and well-being worldwide. In 2012, he edited Confluence of Policy and Leadership in Academic Health Science Centers, published by Radcliffe Press, which for the first time provided a comprehensive overview of the academic health center enterprise. He authored in 2014 a new guide, Searching for Leadership: Best Practices for Academic Institutions that describes characteristics of successful leaders and a detailed analysis of the process to select them. In 2015 Elsevier published The Transformation of Academic Health Science Centers, the definitive work on the future of these vital institutions, which he edited and also contributed. In 2016 Dr. Wartman founded the AAHC Thought Leadership Institute to offer healthcare leaders around the world in-depth views and analyses of seminal issues transforming 21st century medicine. He also initiated that year the Aligned Institutional Mission (AIM) Program to provide a platform for academic health centers to capture the important synergy and benefit resulting from the optimal alignment of their education, research and clinical programs. He has authored many forward-thinking articles involving the future of the health professions, the interface between medicine and machines, and the need to change medical education.

He has received numerous awards and honorary degrees, including the 2015 Johns Hopkins School of Medicine’s Distinguished Medical Alumnus Award and the 2018 Special Recognition Award of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Louise is currently University Professor of Health and Society at the University of Amsterdam. Before that she was President of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the University of Applied Sciences until April 2015, President of the Health Council of the Netherlands until April 2012, President of the Academic Medical Center (AMC-UvA’s) Executive Board and Dean of the UvA’s Faculty of Medicine for almost 10 years.

Louise was trained in medicine and public health in Groningen and at Johns Hopkins and obtained her PhD from the Erasmus University (EUR). As a researcher she worked at the University of Leuven and at the EUR. She also served as a policy staff member at the Dutch Ministry of Health.

In 1991, Louise was appointed Professor of Social Medicine at the AMC/UvA. From 1995 to 1997 she was a member of the Scientific Council for Government Policy. From 1997, she served on the Executive Board of the AMC-UvA and also held the position of Vice-Dean. In 2001, she was appointed President of the Executive Board of the AMC-UvA and Dean of the UvA’s Faculty of Medicine.

Between September 2010 and April 2012, Louise was President of the Health Council of the Netherlands. From April 2012 until April 2015, she was President of the University of Amsterdam and the University of Applied Sciences.

Michael is Honorary Professor and Honorary Consultant Gastroenterologist at UCL Medical School, University College London. He was formerly Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex until 2016, Principal of St George’s, University of London, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Glasgow and Dean of the Faculty of Clinical Medicine at Bart’s and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Michael was founding chairman of COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) between 1998 and 2003, and is Vice Chair and a member of the Board of the UK Research Integrity Office (UKRIO). He is a member of the governing board of the UK medical regulator, The General Medical Council.

Edward Hillhouse is Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Leeds, where he served as Dean of the School of Medicine and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health. He has also held full Professorships of Medicine at the University of Warwick, where he helped to establish the medical school, and Cornell University in New York. He trained in London, Oxford, Boston and Melbourne and has a long standing interest in the power of Academic Health Systems to transform clinical practice. He has put this into practice in Qatar where he led the establishment of the 1st National Academic Health System by forging a partnership between several universities, primary care and a network of general and specialist hospitals. For the last decade, he has been closely linked with the Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC) in Washington DC, helping them to expand globally and to launch the Aligned Institutional Mission (AIM) Program, which supports members to improve healthcare delivery through closer alignment of the academic and clinical missions.

Dr. Mingxing Hu is Director of Medical Technology (UCL/China) at University College London; Investment Director of Nord Engine Capital; and Partner of Dynamic Bridge Capital. He is an advisor to both UK and Chinese governments to promote the collaboration between the two countries, in healthcare in particular, and has close relationships with healthcare systems in other parts of South East Asia, most notably Indonesia.   

Mingxing has 20 years’ experience in healthcare and life sciences sectors with various companies and research organizations in both the UK and China. He has broad experience across medical imaging, drug development, CRO services, medical devices as well as developing business into international markets. He has been leading and participating in a number of projects supported by the Royal Society, National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Wellcome Trust, Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and European Union’s FP7 programme, as well as the ones sponsored by industry partners. He holds 5 patents in the area of medical imaging.

Alejandro is Scientific Director of Anthony Nolan (the first register of bone marrow donors in the world); he has held the Academic Chair of Haematology at the Royal Free Hospital and the UCL Cancer Institute since 1997, and is Pro-Vice-Provost (Regional) for Latin-America at University College London.

Alejandro is an internationally respected and influential scientist in the field of stem cell transplantation, and histocompatibility and immunogenetics, whose seminal research work has been the platform on which many recent advances in bone marrow transplantation have depended. His research has impacted upon clinical practice and has influenced the development of new tissue typing reagents by healthcare industries, and has defined viral and tumour specific targets that are used worldwide in vaccination and cell therapy. As President of the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation from 2010-2014, his achievements in this role are recognised worldwide.  He is co-author of over 570 peer-reviewed publications

Alejandro is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences; Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and of the Royal College of Pathologists, where he has been active as an advisor on Mexico, and also to governments, institutions in the UK and Latin-America for more than 25 years.