Our people

Piers has been Health Innovation East’s Chief Executive since April 2018.  He has led a transformation of our business, doubling our headcount and increasing our impact for patients, the wider NHS and the health and life sciences industries in our region. From 2019 to 2021 Piers served as Chair of the Health Innovation Network (formerly the AHSN Network) , comprising 15 member organisations and 800 staff.  He also set up and led a team at the Department of Health for six months at the start of the pandemic,  reviewing and implementing new COVID-19 testing technologies, working alongside Cabinet Office colleagues, the diagnostics industry and the UK’s most senior scientists.

Piers is a regular speaker at national and international conferences on innovation in the NHS and wider health and care.  He was previously a Partner in management consulting at KPMG, where he led the firm’s Management Consulting practice in healthcare. He also worked with client management teams in healthcare, higher education and social housing on the biggest issues facing their organisations.

Piers is a Chartered Accountant and previously spent ten years in KPMG’s transaction services practice in his earlier career, supporting private and public sector clients in major commercial deals. He holds a MA in Classics from Balliol College, Oxford, and two recent qualifications in Executive Coaching from Henley Business School.

“The UK is home to some of the most brilliant researchers and innovators in healthcare and life sciences. At Health Innovation East we are privileged to work in a region which has more than its fair share of world-leading universities, start-ups and larger companies, as well as the outstanding researchers and practitioners in our NHS. However, in common with the rest of the UK, we need to get better at scaling these solutions so that they are deployed more widely and more quickly into our health and care system. I am proud to lead Health Innovation East and to play our part in solving this challenge.”

Jag provides clinical governance oversight into Health Innovation East’s programmes of work and is a strong and passionate advocate for the potential of technology to deliver better care and more effective services.

Jag was appointed as a consultant in newborn intensive care at Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) in 1996 and was in active practice until 2012. He was also the executive medical director at CUH for nearly 10 years with a very wide-ranging portfolio. Jag was then director of digital at the Trust, supporting the development of the IT infrastructure and services needed for patients and staff, including an integrated electronic patient record.

He has been an honorary fellow of the Judge Business School since 2018, from which he holds an executive MBA in business administration, is a non-executive director at Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and a Trustee at Macmillan Cancer Support and an Associate at Deloitte.

“Great ideas only make an impact when they are put into practice. The best ideas will have obvious patient benefit. If we can clearly articulate evidence of this benefit to the healthcare system, clinicians can make an informed decision with their patients.”

Sarah oversees the delivery of Health Innovation East’s programme of work from NHS England, delivery of real-world evaluations and a range of contracted activity from health and care partners.

Sarah is also appointed to the Implementation Lead role for the NIHR East of England Applied Research Collaborations (ARC) and works with partners in both the ARC and the Health Innovation Network to support the implementation of promising applied health and care research. She is the NIHR Mental Health Implementation Network team (MHIN) co-lead for implementation of evidence-based solutions, working in sites in Norfolk, Yorkshire, and Greater Manchester.

Sarah works closely with the National Wound Care Strategy Programme on behalf of the network of 15 Health Innovation Networks on implementing, testing and evaluating lower limb pathway recommendations. This comprises of scaling real-world evaluation across 8 sites in England.

Sarah has held numerous strategic NHS roles since qualifying as a clinical psychologist. She was the regional lead for the national dementia strategy before taking up a patient safety and safeguarding leadership role at NHS England. Her diverse portfolio at Health Innovation East represents her enjoyment of working in complex programme delivery across multiple systems to benefit workforce and patient populations.

“I was drawn to Health Innovation East having experienced the difficulties for myself of developing and implementing a national digital app for frontline practitioners and want to help make adoption as effective as possible. I really enjoy leading a diverse team that are implementing change at scale and pace, across the spectrum of prevention, diagnosis and treatment, and who support change to become embedded into routine ways of working.”

Mark’s role spans both Health Innovation East and Cambridge University Health Partners (CUHP). His role includes leadership of a portfolio of projects to develop capacity and capability in the region to integrate data to gain insights that inform health and care delivery and clinical research. He is Director of the East of England Sub-National Secure Data Environment (SN-SDE) programme and sits on the East of England NHS Digital Portfolio Programme Board.

Starting out as an information analyst, Mark has over 20 years’ experience working in the NHS across a range of operational, information, contracting and performance management roles. He is experienced in leading complex projects and programmes within and across hospitals, commissioning, third sector, and research organisations.

“Recent advances in clinical imaging, pathology and genomic technologies have led to remarkable progress in understanding disease, but the power of these technologies cannot be fully realised until the immense volume of data generated can be integrated, then analysed. Our projects are all in pursuit of this aim, to improve health whilst keeping data safe and protecting the privacy of individuals.”

Caroline leads our quality improvement workstream including the Eastern Patient Safety Collaborative. Caroline also supports our evaluation service and delivers some of our external commissions, typically working with an on behalf of NHS organisations.

Caroline has 20 years NHS experience and has held quality improvement, information analytics and performance management roles in multiple NHS trusts, strategic health authorities and the Department of Health, working on several national improvement programmes, including the successful Healthcare Associated Infections programme.

She is passionate about empowering the workforce with the right skills and time to do quality improvement for the benefit of patients, carers and staff.

As shared in our most recent Impact Review, there has been lots of patient safety improvement delivered in the last year. She is particularly proud of the improvement work underway in Maternity and Neonatal services as the impact on babies and families when things go wrong can be unimaginable. Our work with Integrated Care Systems on the implementation of the new Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) will enable organisations to co-create QI projects to really tackle the big safety problems in each system.

Caroline holds a postgraduate diploma in leadership and management in public services and is an Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Improvement Advisor.

“I am passionate about empowering frontline staff with quality improvement skills to test and embed improvements. They often already know the key things that need to change, yet we don’t always allow them the voice or freedom to improve the quality and safety of patient care.”

Helen is a dynamic, values-led health and social care senior leader with over 20 years experience of transforming services. She has a passion for tackling inequity through co-production and has worked in some of the UK’s most deprived communities to embed change and innovation. ​

Helen joined Health Innovation East in September 2016 as Director of Network Leadership, three years later she was promoted to Chief Operating Officer, then following our decision to establish professional consultancy services she transitioned to Director of Business Development and Deputy CEO. In her role Helen oversees programme reporting and assurance, communication and engagement, human resources and health and safety. ​

“We can achieve so much more by working together. Our role is to empower diverse voices and convene all partners to ensure we are building health and care services that work for everyone.”

Tracy has extensive experience in healthcare leadership in the region, including sixteen years in roles at boardroom level. Before taking up the role of Chair, Tracy served as a non-executive director at Health Innovation East for the two years.

Tracy left her role as Chief Executive of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust in 2021 after a 38-year NHS career, in which she started as a radiographer before she moved into operations and management. As well as her qualifications in radiography, she holds an MBA and a management qualification from the Institute for Health Service Management.

“We’re in an ideal place to work with our region’s integrated care systems to bring those innovations with the biggest potential to the fore to deliver a positive impact on our patients and workforce. This means maintaining a focus on what those innovations on the horizon might be and using evidence and data, alongside feedback from citizens and patients to ensure we’re getting it right and that we’re continuing to improve how we support our region’s healthcare services and innovation community.”

Andrew Hine is a healthcare, consulting and commercial leader with over 30 years’ experience in the UK and internationally. He has held senior management and C suite roles in the NHS, in two different ‘Big 4’ consultancy firms and with an international digital healthcare company. Originally from South Wales, Andrew worked for 12 years as a frontline operational manager and trust board director in the NHS in Wales and England for before joining KPMG in 2004 to launch its UK health consulting business. He was a partner at KPMG for 12 years before moving to Ernst & Young as the senior partner of EY’s healthcare business in the Middle East and North Africa for 4 years. After leaving the Middle East Andrew was the Vice President of Sales for Babylon Healthcare, one of the world’s leading digital healthcare companies. Andrew lives in London with his wife and four children.

Gary has been a GP in and around Peterborough for the last 15 years. He initially trained as a dentist and then after his medical undergraduate training spent several years in various hospital posts, mainly in surgical specialities, before undertaking his specialist GP training.

He is on the executive team of NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough ICB (Integrated Care Board), as Chief Clinical Improvement Officer Gary was Chair of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group between 2016 and 2022, Vice Chair (External Affairs) of the Royal College of General Practitioners(2019-2022) and a former member of the Council of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.

Gary recognises the privileged position these various roles give him to really understand the challenges in primary care through a number of different lenses with frontline, local, regional and national context.

“I am passionate about identifying proven technologies and tools to facilitate the delivery of great care to individual patients and to maximise the efficiency of care provision across systems. Translation into, and adoption by, general practice teams can be frustratingly slow. Understanding and overcoming the frontline challenges in speeding this process up is a key reason I am delighted to join the Board of Health Innovation East”

Julian is a bioscientist and politician, with many years’ experience as an NHS non-executive. He is currently Director of the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College, Cambridge. His academic work used genomics and biophysics to study unusual structures of DNA. In particular, DNA of particular sequences can form four-stranded knot-like structures called G-quadruplexes, which can function as genomic switches, turning genes on and off. These are important as potential anti-cancer drug targets.  His involvement in politics, has included serving as a County Councillor in Cambridgeshire, a member of the executive of the East of England Regional Assembly, and then as Member of Parliament for Cambridge. As an MP, he was particularly noted for his work on civil liberties, science, cycling, and technology policy. Julian joined the Board of the NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group from 2015-2022, serving variously as Audit Chair and Deputy Chair, overseeing £1.8 billion of annual expenditure. He continues as Chair of the Ethics Committee for NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. He is also a Director of the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd, and has a Ministerial appointment to the Home Office Biometrics and Forensics Ethics Group, where he chairs the AI Ethics Working Group. He has also advised a range of technology companies about ethics and governance, including being Founding Chair of the Independent Panel of Reviewers of DeepMind Health.

Lindsey has over 20 years’ experience working alongside executive level authorities in life sciences, charities and the NHS. She is an accomplished project manager, having led several high profile award-winning national healthcare projects and has also contributed to the development of national policy. In addition to these achievements in 2012 she co-founded a healthcare consultancy firm specialising in creating bespoke solutions to address problems in health and social care. Prior to setting up this consultancy she held various senior roles within the pharmaceutical industry contributing to patient advocacy, policy change, programme development, strategy development, and multi-sector partnership working.

Lindsey has a BSc Hons in biology and has held significant board appointments mainly within the health sector including as a board member, chairperson and vice chair. Lindsey’s currently a non-executive director, director, trustee for two charities and a member of the NHS England chemotherapy clinical reference group.

‘The majority focus of my board positions has been in championing the public and patient voice at a national and regional East of England level. I am passionate about patient experience, patient leadership, collaboration and co-producing innovative ways to support the delivery of care that are sustainable in the long term. I am very much looking forward to applying this experience to my NED role within the Health Innovation East’.

Michael is the associate dean of innovation and professor of applied dementia research at the Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia. His research focuses on improving diagnosis, disease progression tracking and symptom management in dementia.

His research group employs various research methodologies (clinical, cognition, neuroimaging and genetics) as well as disease interventions (pharmacological and non-pharmacological) for their research studies. He is working in close collaboration with other scientists as well as old-age psychiatrists, neurologists, nurses, clinical psychologists and speech and language therapists approach dementia from a multi-disciplinary angle.

“It’s vital that we support an innovation culture across academia, clinical services and industry, with service users being central to this triangulation. I truly believe that innovation can be a platform to bring these partners closer together and make a difference in many people’s lives by allowing concerted and complimentary approaches to the healthcare challenges facing our society.”

Richard is a clinician by background. Over the last 25 years he has held clinical and academic posts at Kings College, London, the Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Guys and St Thomas’s NHS FT, Addenbrookes Hospital, and University of Cambridge. He has held strategic NHS posts at local, regional, and national level. He co-developed PneumaCare Ltd, an innovative medical device company with Cambridge University Engineering Department. Although he has stepped down from clinical service, he continues to be active at national level imputing into the NHSE CYP’s Transformation Team, working for Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital Consulting and several NHS and non-NHS organisations at a commercial or advisory level. He is a non-executive director of Cambridge Community Services, and an associate director of Eclipse, a company that has expertise in population health management, risk stratification and large-scale quality improvement.

Piers has been Health Innovation East’s Chief Executive since April 2018.  He has led a transformation of our business, doubling our headcount and increasing our impact for patients, the wider NHS and the health and life sciences industries in our region. From 2019 to 2021 Piers served as Chair of the Health Innovation Network (formerly the AHSN Network) , comprising 15 member organisations and 800 staff.  He also set up and led a team at the Department of Health for six months at the start of the pandemic,  reviewing and implementing new COVID-19 testing technologies, working alongside Cabinet Office colleagues, the diagnostics industry and the UK’s most senior scientists.

Piers is a regular speaker at national and international conferences on innovation in the NHS and wider health and care.  He was previously a Partner in management consulting at KPMG, where he led the firm’s Management Consulting practice in healthcare. He also worked with client management teams in healthcare, higher education and social housing on the biggest issues facing their organisations.

Piers is a Chartered Accountant and previously spent ten years in KPMG’s transaction services practice in his earlier career, supporting private and public sector clients in major commercial deals. He holds a MA in Classics from Balliol College, Oxford, and two recent qualifications in Executive Coaching from Henley Business School.

“The UK is home to some of the most brilliant researchers and innovators in healthcare and life sciences. At Health Innovation East we are privileged to work in a region which has more than its fair share of world-leading universities, start-ups and larger companies, as well as the outstanding researchers and practitioners in our NHS. However, in common with the rest of the UK, we need to get better at scaling these solutions so that they are deployed more widely and more quickly into our health and care system. I am proud to lead Health Innovation East and to play our part in solving this challenge.”