Trust Board

David was awarded an O.B.E in 2006 for services to the NHS, has held a number of very senior roles in the NHS including Chief Executive of East Kent University Hospitals NHS Trust between 1999 and 2006 and Chief Executive of St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust between 2006 and 2011.

From 2011 to 2015 David was Chief-Tertiary Hospitals Group of the Hamad Medical Corporation in Qatar. On return to the UK and retirement from full time Executive duties, David was appointed as a non-executive director of Liverpool Women’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. David is a Trustee of Yoakley Care, a charity based in Margate, Kent, which manages alms houses and a care home.

Declared interests – A Director of Yoakley Care Share Ltd and Yoakley Care Trustee Ltd, a charitable company that manages almshouses and a care home. His daughter Emma is a Director at PWC Consulting who sometimes works with the public sector.

Simon Weldon joined SECAmb as Chief Executive on 24 April 2023.

He has a wealth of leadership experience, with an NHS career spanning more than 20 years across acute and commissioning sectors.

Prior to being appointed as SECAmb Chief Executive, he was Group Chief Executive of University Hospitals of Northamptonshire Group, serving in the position from 2020 and leading the trust to university hospital status.

Prior to this position, Simon was Chief Executive of Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust where he led the organisation out of quality special measures.

Declared Interests – None

Simon Bell joined SECAmb as Chief Finance Officer from 1 March 2024.

He has more than 27 years of financial leadership in the NHS, with 13 years as a Director of Finance. Before joining the Trust Simon worked in the South West and North East and Yorkshire regions of England, latterly as a Place Director of Finance with an Integrated Care Board. Prior to that Simon was the Chief Finance Officer in two different Clinical Commissioning Groups and helped lead both organisations out of financial special measures and back to delivering break-even financial plans.

Simon is responsible for the Finance, Procurement, and Estates Teams.

Declared Interests – None

Dr. Oaten, a qualified Emergency Medicine Consultant since 2017, started working at Salisbury Hospital and was appointed as Clinical Lead for the Emergency Department in 2018. In March 2020, she took on a part-time role as Deputy Medical Director at East Midlands Ambulance Service. In October 2021, she was promoted to Deputy Clinical Director of Medicine at Salisbury Hospital, while still remaining active as an Emergency Consultant and serving as a Trauma Team Leader on shifts.

Declared Interests –

North Bristol NHS Trust. Southmead, Bristol, Regional Trauma Team Leader, started 01/06/2022 – Ad hoc 12 hour shifts at weekend covering the region from major trauma. Expectation is to work around 6 shifts a year and this is shared

QUALSAFE Awards, Position Held: Review Panel Member for First Aid Publication, Date Employment Commenced: September 2018, Clinical review of a first aid publication refreshed on a regular basis to ensure in line with current guidance. Days worked: 1/year maximum.

Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust. Position Held: ED Consultant Date Employment Commenced: 01/08/2017 hours: 1PA contract a week (16 hours a month clinical shifts only mainly done at weekends to maintain ED Consultant skills and competencies.

ACOS Medical, Codford, Position Held: Company Director and Medical Lead Date Employment Commenced: September 2016, hours: Company that is CQC registered and provides medical cover to private events e.g. large festivals. There are no NHS contracts held and no intention to look at any expansion into this area. Company also supplies clinical governance/CQC support to a number of Companies that work on the NHS framework across the Country locally these include Elite Medical and Ambulance (Hailsham) and MEDi4 (Crawley Down) who are based within the SECAMB footprint. There are other Doctors who can support with those specific in the SECAMB locality should there be a conflict e.g. patient safety case / concern raised. Provision of clinical governance to Wiltshire Police and provision of a named Doctor as part of a service level agreement. Days worked:  Variable – split with other Directors and personnel in Company mostly at weekends and highly seasonal mainly in the summer no impact to SECAMB completed in days off/annual leave.

Emma’s career in the health service spans 25 years during which she has gained experience in frontline roles, service improvement, governance, commissioning, and senior leadership.  She is committed to improving both patient outcomes and staff experience as the public health remit evolves.

Emma is the Trust’s Accountable Emergency Officer.

Declared interests – Emma’s husband, David Williams, is Head of Emergency Planning, Response & Resilience. She does not line manage David – he is part of one of her wider teams, recruited through formal standard Trust processes.

Sarah joined SECAmb in April 2024 as Interim Director of HR & OD.

Prior to joining the Trust, Sarah was Regional Deputy Director of Workforce at NHS England (South East), with strategic leadership for the workforce transformation and workforce supply across integrated care systems in South East. Sarah has over 20 years’ experience in senior HR roles both within the Civil Service and the NHS. Sarah is an experienced system leader, delivering people and culture change programmes at both system and organisational level, and is passionate about people development and how we best support staff wellbeing & experience at work to enable better patient care.

Declared Interests: none.

Originally from Barcelona and an aeronautical engineer by training, David now lives in Kent and joins SECAmb after a decade of working in the aviation industry. With a focus on operations planning and management, logistics and improvement, David has worked across airlines and air handing operators in Spain and most recently at London City Airport since 2014 where he was previously Director of Operations Strategy and Planning. This role saw him work in a number of key areas including developing forecasting and modelling capability within the airport and delivering a number of improvement initiatives using technology and process changes to increase capacity.

Declared interests:

Companies with influential role:

• Kintsugi Therapeutics (Minor shareholder & board member)
• Biointaxis (Minor shareholder, non-executive director business advisory role)
• Leukos Biotech (Minor shareholder, CEO)
• Affirma Bio (Minor shareholder & board member)
• ONSTX Olavide Neuron (Minor shareholder & board member)
• Janus Project (owner)
• Other Companies with minor shareholding (<25k€ investment or <5% capital): Oxolife, Methinks, Devicare,  Zecardio, Nuubo, BHV Partners)
• Investor in healthcare specialized VC funds Asabys Partners, Inveready, Alta Life Sciences

Father (Luis Ruiz-Avila) is involved in the biomedical sector, focussed in entrepreneurial, executive and investor activities, in early-stage drug discovery and development, helping companies transition from clinical proof into global pharmaceutical development and eventual commercialisation.

Margaret is a paediatric  nurse and leader who has worked in the NHS for 40 years with extensive experience in senior operational and professional leadership roles across all healthcare systems and sectors including acute, community & mental health providers.

Declared Interests – none.

Michael brings with him a wealth of experience of audit and financial oversight across the public sector. Until 2017 he was Chief Operating Officer of the National Audit Office. Michael has also been responsible for a number of evidence-based reports to Parliament related to the health sector, including on the financial performance and sustainability of the NHS, hospital-acquired infection, dementia, end-of-life care and autism. Since retirement, Michael has focused on his role as a trustee and honorary treasurer of Cruse, the bereavement charity.

Declared interests –

Board member and chair of Audit Committee of Medicines and Health Care Products Regulatory Agency

Interim Co-Chair of the MHRA.

Howard has been a member of SECAmb since 2014. Formerly working as Chief Financial Officer for Southern Water with frontline staff and some emergency response. He has also worked in senior Finance positions for various large utility organisations including the energy business, Eon UK  and also a UK transport business, part of RATP, which included running bus services in London with c.3,000 employees. Howard was instrumental in leading the transformation of Southern Water to become more commercial and efficient without compromising quality of service.

Howard brings strong financial and commercial experience including input into bids, contract negotiations, competitor analysis and industry benchmarking and believes that his experience can help the Trust on its journey to become ‘outstanding’.

Declared interests – None

Subo has a varied career in complex education, clinical and regulatory executive roles and has held several non-executive roles.

She brings extensive knowledge and experience of strategic business change, organisational development, education and training and transformation programmes to deliver commercial revenue, gained in both the charitable and public sectors. Her PhD is in Clinical Immunovirology from Imperial College London.

Declared Interests – Non-Executive Director Bromley Community Interest Company, Non-Executive Director for the Crown Prosecution Service.

Paul, from Bexhill, East Sussex, has more than 25 years’ board-level experience, most recently as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. He has spent more than a decade as a CIO in local authorities and has also worked with numerous ‘blue chip’ companies in the private sector.

Paul joins SECAmb to provide scrutiny and support in the important and growing area of strategic digital and IT development.

Declared Interests – Trustee for Myeloma UK

A registered nurse by background, Liz Sharp has more than 30-years’ background in both the public and private health sectors. She brings with her a wealth of knowledge in delivering and improving patient outcomes and experience.

Until 2018, Liz was the National Director of Clinical Services for BMI Healthcare, an independent provider running 54 hospitals. Her executive career includes her working in partnership with the clinical education team to develop an in-house associate practitioner programme, enhancing governance through introducing an electronic risk-based reporting system for staff, and leading large-scale change programmes including building a care and rehabilitation centre and developing clinical strategy.

An experienced non-executive, she remains a Trustee of the Queen Elizabeth’s Foundation for Disabled People and is both Chair of its Care, Quality and Safety Committee and the Board’s Safeguarding Lead.

Declared Interests – Board Trustee, Queen Elizabeth’s Foundation for Disabled People ( Care and Rehabilitation Services, Mobility and Residential Services Charity), Board Director, The Grange 2016 ( Supported living in Kent), Member of the Royal College of Nursing, Professional registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council

Max Puller holds the position of Group Director, Business Strategy and Communications at FTSE 250 listed, global IT and technology services provider, Computacenter. Prior to joining Computacenter in February 2024, Max was Business Transformation Director at global communications consultancy, BCW, where he specialised in organisational change and employee experience.

Max’s background includes previous positions such as Head of Colleague Communications and Engagement at Tesco Bank, Employee and Change Communications Director at Sodexo, and Chief Communications Officer at the UK Ministry of Defence. Before joining SECAmb, he served on the Board of the Salvation Army in the UK and Ireland, providing counsel on reputation, marketing, and fundraising matters.

Declared Interests:

• Full-time employed as Group Director, Business Strategy and Communications at Computacenter, who frequently work with the NHS and wider public sector.

• Director and Governor of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (pro-bono).

• Postgraduate Executive MBA candidate at the University of Surrey.