Our Non-Executive Directors
Graham Ward, Deputy Chair and Non-Executive Director
Graham is a Chartered Accountant who worked in the accountancy profession and industry before moving into management consultancy where he worked for 16 years with PwC and Deloitte as a senior director and then as Commercial Director at the University of Nottingham, a position he held for 9 years until October 2013.
He has extensive NHS non-executive director experience starting in November 2004 at Nottingham City Hospital NHS Trust followed by Nottingham City PCT/CCG from March 2007 until November 2015. Graham was then appointed in December 2015 as a Non-Executive Director at Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where he also chairs the Audit Committee
Graham now runs his own consultancy business and also holds positions as a board member and vice-chair with Acis Group (a housing association) and as a non-executive director with Mission Room Limited, a technology company based in Nottingham, in addition to the NHS roles.
Dr Claire Fernandez, Senior Independent Director and Non-Executive Director
Claire Fernandez is a research manager with significant experience in project delivery and strategy working across universities, research organisations, industry, NHS provider and commissioner services. She is passionate about delivering evidence-based, high quality care to improve patients’ outcomes and experience.
Claire has a background in academic science and carried out fundamental research at Cambridge and Oxford research institutes for 10 years, in the fields of immunology, haematology, oncology and stem cell research. She has a PhD from the University of Oxford in Clinical Sciences and project management qualifications. Following her academic research career, Claire moved into NHS clinical trial delivery and progressed into research management roles, gaining significant experience in running strategic projects at a senior level across the Thames Valley. Her career has involved creating and coordinating programmes of work to maximise improvements in research knowledge, clinical treatments, and patient outcomes. Claire has worked in many different areas including physical health, mental health and bioscience.
Claire was born in Norwich and grew up in a small village in North Norfolk. She is married with three children and returned to live in Norfolk in 2017. She currently works for the National Institute for Health Research in the Clinical Research Network Eastern.
Alan Brown, Non-Executive Director
Alan has worked in IT for almost 40 years, the last 10 of which have been in healthcare. He has been a Non Executive Director for 3 years, initially at Hinchingbrooke Health and Care NHS Trust and, more recently, at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust. Alan moved to Norfolk in 2016 and continues to work, part time, as a partner in a consultancy company.
David Dickinson, Non-Executive Director
David recently retired from the post of Director of Resources at Newark and Sherwood District Council in Nottinghamshire and now lives in West Norfolk. He is a qualified accountant and was a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA). David will take over as Chair of the Audit Committee.
Sue Hayter, Non-Executive Director
Sue is a dedicated and passionate nurse and has worked in healthcare for over 50 years, in both acute and community hospitals and the community, in the UK as well as abroad. She was a Matron of a Suffolk community hospital before becoming the Nurse Manager for a group of community hospitals.
In 2006, Sue was appointed Quality and Patient Experience Manager for Suffolk Primary Care Trust (PCT), and later became Director of Nursing Services before retiring from full time employment in 2010.
Sue continued to work for the NHS in both Suffolk and Great Yarmouth and Waveney CCGs on short term contracts as well as Suffolk County Council. She then worked with Suffolk CCGs and Suffolk CC inspecting the quality of care and nursing in care homes. In 2013, Sue became a Nurse Member of the West Norfolk CCG Board – a seat she held until 2020.
Outside of healthcare Sue is an active member of her local Church, a Primary School Governor and also a High School Academy Trustee, and a Trustee at St Nicholas Hospice Care.
Simon Roberts, Non-Executive Director
Highly experienced business leader and adviser having worked substantively and as a consultant/advisor within the NHS and private healthcare markets, holding executive leadership positions in both. Worked extensively for and across NHS England around the system/commissioning transformation agenda including leading major change and transition programmes providing strategic oversight to a number of high profile change programmes as well as providing direct system support to Sustainability Transformation Partnerships (STPs) and nascent Integrated Care Systems (ICSs). Played a leading role deploying the Lead Provider Framework and more latterly developing and launching the Health System Support Framework (commercial procurement framework aimed at enabling STPs/ICSs to access the necessary capability and capacity to integrate health and care services).
Held Executive Board positions within a Commissioning Support Unit, Acute Trust/District General Hospital and Community Services Provider. Private healthcare experience has included consultancy/advisory roles with HCA International, Spire Healthcare and Hitachi Consulting.
Dr William Van't Hoff, Non-Executive Director
William is a clinical academic who served as a Paediatric Nephrologist (kidney specialist) at Great Ormond Street Hospital alongside several regional and national clinical and research leadership roles.
In early 2020 he was appointed as Chief Executive of the National Institute for Health Research's Clinical Research Network (NIHR CRN), a role he retired from last year having led the organisation through COVID-19 and delivering the research response to the pandemic.
Some of his earlier positions include Chair of the Joint Medicines Committee at the Royal Colleage of Paediatrics and Child Health, NIHR National Co-Director of the Medicines for Children Research Network and NIHR Director for NHS Engagement.
Daniel Childerhouse, Associate Non-Executive Director
Daniel is Chief Executive of Future Projects, a charity provider of specialist education and support services. Daniel holds a number of local board and network positions in the third sector. These include Chair of the Pathways Homeslessness Consortium, and Member of Norfolk Good Economy Network, Norfolk Homelessness Solutions Forum, and Norwich Health and Wellbeing Board. He is also co-founder of the Living Wage Norwich Charity and Great Yarmouth and Waveney VCSE Group.
Gabriel Evbota BEM, Associate Non-Executive Director
Gabriel is Customer Engagement Manager at HM Treasury. He joined the organisation in 2001 and progressed through increasingly senior roles to his current position in 2018. He is also Chair of the Norfolk Football Association (FA) Inclusion Strategy Advisory Group and an Independent Member of the Norfolk FA Disciplinary Board. Between 2019 and 2023, he was Chair of the Norwich District Sunday League.
Gabriel spent his earlier career in roles at the Office of Government Commerce and HM Customs and Excise. He was awarded the British Empire Medal in January 2019 for public and voluntary service in Norfolk.
Jason Selvarajah, Associate Non-Executive Director
Jason moved to Norfolk in 2000 and has held various leadership roles within Policing. Until recently he was Chair of the Ethnic Minority Policing Association and remains an advisor. He is also a National Executive Committee Member of the National Black Police Association and has a passion for diversity, equality and inclusion.