Kathryn Riddle - Chairman
Kathryn was chair of South Yorkshire Strategic Health Authority before joining NHS Yorkshire and the Humber in 2006. Kathryn is a magistrate on the Sheffield bench, a past High Sheriff of South Yorkshire and a deputy lieutenant of South Yorkshire. She has a long association with health, having been chairman of Community Health Sheffield and Sheffield Health Authority.
Kathryn was chair of the SHA’s remuneration and terms of service committee and was the non-executive representative on the delivering healthy ambitions maternity and newborn pathway leadership board.
Kathryn is pro-chancellor and chairman of Council at the University of Sheffield and honorary colonel for Sheffield OTC.
Sir Peter Carr - Vice chairman
Sir Peter was chairman of North East Strategic Health Authority. He has been involved with NHS organisations since 1990 and was chairman of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Strategic Health Authority from 2002, until it merged with County Durham and Tees Valley Strategic Health Authority on 1 July 2006. From 1990 to 1994 he was chairman of the former Northern Regional Health Authority.
Before becoming involved with the NHS, Sir Peter had a distinguished career in the diplomatic service, based in Washington DC, which followed senior national positions with Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) and the Commission on Industrial Relations.
He also chaired the national occupational pensions board taking it through a period of reform following the Robert Maxwell affair. Sir Peter retired from the civil service as regional director of the Department of Employment and leader of the city action team which coordinated the activity of government departments in the northern region.
Sally Cheshire - Vice chairman
Sally was appointed chair of NHS North West in February 2011.
Following a degree in european studies and spells teaching in France and visiting the former East Germany, Sally opted for a business career. She qualified as a management accountant at Proctor & Gamble and worked in roles as divergent as the factory finance manager or UK cleaning product and manager of the UK's profit forecast division, working directly for the UK finance director. She went to GEC Marconi Materials Technology as an accountant and in 1994 joined Deloitte as a management consultant working across the UK, Europe and the US mainly in manufacturing.
Sally is chair and trustee of her local branch of the Samaritans. She has also been appointed a non-executive member of the Humam Fertilisation & Embryology Authority (HFEA).
Professor Peter Fidler - Non-executive director
Professor Fidler is vice-chancellor and chief executive of the University of Sunderland. Since 2002 until the formation of the North East Strategic Health Authority, he was a non-executive director of the former Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Strategic Health Authority. Professor Fidler is chair of the National Glass Centre at Sunderland and a non-executive director of Sunderland ARC Regeneration Company and Codeworks, the North East regional centre of excellence for digital media and technology.
Alan Foster - Non-executive director
Alan was appointed as audit chair of NHS North West in March 2011 having joined the strategic health authority in July 2006. He retired in 2004 after spending almost 40 years in industry, including 15 years as managing director of MEL Chemicals, a company making Zirconium products. He also sat on the executive board of its parent company.
Previously, Alan worked for the National Coal Board, IBM, Tube Investments, British Aluminium and Alcan, following his studies at Oxford University and the Cranfield School of Management.
Alan is a business mentor for the Prince’s Trust, helping young people to set up their own businesses.
Sarah Harkness - Non-executive director
Sarah was appointed as a non-executive director of Yorkshire and the Humber Stategic Health Authority in December 2007.
Sarah’s background is in corporate finance, having spent nearly 15 years in a city merchant bank and four years leading the andersen corporate advisory team in Yorkshire and the North East. Sarah spent four years as a main board director of a specialist executive recruitment firm, and has also served on a variety of not-for-profit boards including The Sheffield Theatres Trust and Eureka! the museum for children, in Halifax. She was previously a non-executive director of Rotherham Priority NHS Trust and is a member of the University of Sheffield Council and audit committee.
Sarah was chair of the Yorkshire and the Humber Strategic Health Authority’s independent investigations committee (a standing committee of the SHA board), sat on the provider development board and was the non-executive representative on the delivering healthy ambitions children’s service pathway leadership board and the staying healthy pathway delivery board.
Professor Oliver James - Non-executive director
Professor James has a long career in medicine and education. He was pro-vice chancellor of the Faculty of Medical Sciences at Newcastle University from 2004 to 2008, and has previously acted as senior vice president of the Royal College of Physicians, amongst other high profile posts.
Professor James is currently a senior fellow at Newcastle University, where he is carrying out research on epidemiology and liver disease, as well as on the quality of health and life among 85-year-olds in Tyneside. He is chair of the Sir James Knott Trust, one of the largest charities in the north east, which aims to improve the conditions of people living and working in the region.
Denis Lidstone - Non-executive director
Denis started his career as an apprentice electrical fitter at Devonport dockyard and went on to work at all levels in the ship building and air defence industries, from the shop floor to chairing board meetings.
In a career focussed on programme management he was involved in rationalising the 190-acre Vickers shipyard site in Barrow. Later he became partnering director of BAE Systems, where he stayed until his retirement in 2005.
Since then he has been working as a business consultant, particularly as an accredited reviewer for the government on projects at key stages in their progress.
Ian Walker - Non-executive director
Ian is the managing director of Rotary Electrical Services and chairman of Rotary Engineering UK. As well as this he is involved in a number of local community activities, including trustee of the Sheffield Burgesses Trust. Ian is also chairman of Ashdell School, and of Japan Christian Link (a missionary society). In addition, Ian is the regional co-ordinator for the Alpha course.
Ian was chair of Yorkshire and the Humber SHA’s audit committee and was the non-executive representative on the delivering healthy ambitions long term conditions pathway leadership board.