Our team | North East and North Cumbria NHS

Our team

Professor Sir Liam Donaldson

Chair

A recognised international champion of healthcare quality, patient safety and public health. A former vice-chair of the World Health Organisation’s executive board. He is the World Health Organisation’s envoy for patient safety and chairman of the independent monitoring board for the Polio Eradication Programme. Previously he was the chief medical officer for England and the UK’s chief medical adviser, from 1998-2010. In the 1980s and 1990s he was regional director for public health and regional manager of the former northern regional health authority.

Read more about Professor Sir Liam Donaldson

Samantha Allen

Chief executive

Samantha joins us from the South East where she has been chief executive of a NHS Mental Health and Learning Disability Trust for the last five years. Prior to this Samantha has worked in a range of operational management and leadership roles across healthcare. She is also chair of the Health and Care Women Leaders Network at the NHS Confederation, a member of The Kings Fund General Advisory Council and a member of the Chartered Management Institute Board of Companions.

Executive leadership team

Dr Neil O'Brien

Executive medical director

David Purdue

Executive chief nurse

Professor Graham Evans

Executive chief digital and information officer

Claire Riley

Executive director of corporate governance, communications and involvement

Annie Laverty

Executive director of people

Aejaz Zahid

Executive director of innovation

Dave Gallagher

Executive director of place based delivery (Central and Tees Valley)

Mark Adams

Executive director of place based delivery (North and North Cumbria)

Jacqueline Myers

Executive director of strategy and system oversight

Jon Connolly

Executive director of finance

Non executive directors

Professor Eileen Kaner

Currently director of the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) for the North East and North. Her research aims to improve health and well-being via the development and evaluation of interventions focused on reducing risk due to alcohol, substance use and links to mental health problems. You can read more about Professor Kaner here.

Jon Rush

Jon Rush is chair of the North Cumbria Integrated Care Partnership System Leadership Board and is a strong advocate for involving people in service change and improvement and working with the third sector. You can read more about Jon here.