Trust Board

Ellen Schroder was appointed as Chair at a meeting of the Council of Governors in May 2023 and took up her post in November 2023.

Until October 2023 Ellen was the Chair of East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust and brings a wealth of public sector experience to the role, including 20 years at board level for large, complex NHS organisations. She was previously Vice Chair and lay member of the Camden Clinical Commissioning Group and, before that, a Non-Executive director of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and its predecessor St Mary’s NHS Trust, where she chaired both the audit and finance committees. Ellen holds various other Non-Executive positions including chairing the PFI companies which built Amersham and part of High Wycombe hospitals. She is also a trustee of the Radcliffe Trust, one of Britain’s oldest charities.

Prior to her roles in healthcare, Ellen spent 25 years in the City working in corporate finance for the investment banks Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and Wood Gundy Inc.

Ellen also has experience of Great Ormond Street Hospital, being both a parent of a child treated at the hospital and previously serving as a member of GOSH’s Clinical Ethics Committee.

Ellen chairs the Trust Board, Council of Governors, Board of Directors' Nominations Committee and Council of Governors' Nominations and Remuneration Committee.

Mr Matthew Shaw was previously the Trust's Medical Director and joined GOSH in March 2018.

Matthew is a highly experienced clinical leader. He is an orthopaedic surgeon and has been Clinical Director of the spinal unit at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) for the last seven years. He was also the Medical Director and Deputy Chief Executive of the RNOH for five years. Before joining GOSH Matthew was Medical Director for Health Provision in BUPA UK.

Matthew attends the Audit Committee; Quality, Safety and Experience Committee; Finance and Investment Committee and the People and Education Assurance Committee. 

Lady Amanda Ellingworth was a senior social worker focusing on children and families before moving into Board level roles, including 12 years on the Board of a small Foundation Trust and Chair of a large housing association. Currently, Amanda is a Director of Plan International UK and Deputy Chair of the Sir Ernest Cassel Education Trust. She was Lay Advisor of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine and Deputy Chair of Barnado’s, the major children’s charity until 2019. 

Amanda chairs the Quality, Safety and Experience Assurance Committee. She is a member of the People and Education Assurance Committee. 

Gautam is a chartered accountant and spent most of his career at KPMG. He was a partner in KPMG London from 1990 to 2010. During this period, he helped establish KPMG’s practice in India and was its Chairman and CEO from 2000 to 2003, based in Mumbai. On his return he was Founder-Director of the UK India Business Council and a member of the Asian Business Association. He was a trustee of the National Gallery and Chair of AMREF Health Africa in the UK and a director of the International Board of AMREF Health Africa, an NGO headquartered in Nairobi. He remains a member of the finance and audit committees of the National Gallery.

Most recently, Gautam became a Trustee of Booktrust, the UK’s largest children’s reading charity. He also has previous experience working in healthcare as a Non-Executive Director of Barts Health NHS Trust from April 2012 until March 2022.

Gautam is Non-Executive director of Moxico Resources Plc and Camellia plc.

Gautam chairs the Audit Committee and is a member of the Finance and Investment Committee.

Suzanne has over 20 years’ experience in transformation and change in Health and Pharma. Over the last ten years, Suzanne has led the separation management office for the demerger of GSK and Haleon, launching a new standalone consumer healthcare company onto the UK stock exchange (£32bn market cap), headed up strategy, portfolio and transformation for Digital and Tech, run various Supply Chain Transformations, led two major company integrations, and been Head of New Product Innovation Introduction.

Suzanne holds an MSc in Information Management from Brunel University and an MA in Geography from the University of Cambridge.

Suzanne chairs the Finance and Investment Committee and is a member of the Audit Committee and the People and Education Assurance Committee.

Kathryn is a qualified solicitor and was, until April 2017, a partner at the leading international law firm, Linklaters. Over a 30 year career with Linklaters, Kathryn handled major litigation and investigations, and is a well-regarded expert in dispute resolution. Her professional expertise has crossed many sectors including accountancy, banking, mining and telecoms.

A pioneer in CSR, Kathryn was Linklaters’ first Global Pro Bono Partner and also Chaired the firm’s Corporate Responsibility Committee as well as being a trustee of legal advice charities, including the Royal Courts of Justice Citizens Advice Bureau.

Kathryn is a director of the Hall for Cornwall Trust and the International Rescue Committee UK.

Kathryn chairs the People and Education Assurance Committee and is a member of the Quality, Safety and Experience Assurance Committee. 

Professor Helen Cross joined the Board in March 2024. She is The Prince of Wales's Chair of Childhood Epilepsy and Director UCL-Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health as well as Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Neurology at GOSH and Young Epilepsy, Lingfield. Her research has been targeted at improving outcomes in early onset epilepsy, specifically in assessing the role of surgery and ketogenic diet. She has held key leadership roles both nationally and internationally. She is currently President of the International League Against Epilepsy 2021-2025 and Clinical Advisor to the National Children's Epilepsy Surgery Service. She developed, as Coordinator, the European Reference Network for Rare and Complex Epilepsies (EpiCARE) launched in 2017.

Helen is a member of the Quality, Safety and Experience Assurance Committee.

Chris Kennedy is a qualified accountant and is currently Group Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of ITV plc.

Prior to this Chris was CFO of Micro Focus the British multinational software and information technology business, and ARM Holdings plc, the UK’s largest listed technology company. He has spent the last 20 years in senior global, financial and commercial roles in a variety of sectors including 5 years at EasyJet.

Chris spent 17 years at EMI as COO of EMI International running both the commercial and finance functions together with the growing digital music business, and later became CFO of the Group. Chris holds a degree in electrical sciences from Cambridge University.

John joined us at the end of the 2020 from Moorfields Eye Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust where he was the Chief Operating Officer.

A clinical pharmacist by background, John has also worked at UCLH and Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. John has substantial experience of leading operationally in Trusts with strong research and commercial portfolios. John understands and is actively involved in regional conversations about improving care across North Central London.

John attends the Audit Committee; Quality, Safety and Experience Assurance Committee and Finance and Investment Committee

Sanjiv joined GOSH in 2000 as a Senior House Officer. He was appointed as a Consultant in Paediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care in 2009, and was Deputy Medical Director for Medical and Dental Education since January 2016. Sanjiv was appointed to the role of Medical Director in May 2019.

Sanjiv attends the Quality, Safety and Experience Assurance Committee and the People and Education Assurance Committee.

Tracy joined GOSH in February 2022 from Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust where she had been Director of Nursing and Allied Healthcare Professions since 2011. Tracy began her nursing career in North Wales at Wrexham Maelor Hospital and worked in several trusts including Homerton University Hospital, where she was a senior nurse leader responsible for children and women’s services. Recently, her commitment to nursing was recognised when she was presented with a prestigious Gold Award from the NHS chief nursing officer, Ruth May.

Tracy attends the Quality, Safety and Experience Assurance Committee and the People and Education Assurance Committee.

John joined GOSH in November 2022 from BT Technology, a division of BT Group PLC where he was Chief Finance Officer. John is an engineer by background, spending the early years of his career as an engineer at GEC Plessey and Siemens Microelectronics before working for Deloitte and taking up a number of senior financial leadership roles at BT Group PLC. In his most recent role, John was responsible for all financial, commercial and risk activities for BT Group's technology organisation globally. John was also a Board Member of Mobile Broadband Network Limited (MBNL), a joint venture between EE and Three and a Non-Executive of Dorset Integrated Care Board.

John is an advocate for lifelong learning and has served as a Non-Executive at Bournemouth University and deputy chair of their Finance and Resources Committee.

John attends the Audit Committee and the Finance and Investment Committee.

Caroline joined GOSH in March 2018 from HM Land Registry where she had been the HR&OD Director for five years. In this highly complex and political role she transformed staff engagement and empowerment through a period of organisational challenge and change.

Caroline attends the People and Education Assurance Committee and the Quality, Safety and Experience Assurance Committee. 

Jason joined GOSH in October 2022 as Interim Director of Space and Place.

A Chartered Quantity Surveyor by background, Jason is an experienced healthcare director as well as a qualified property and commercial professional.

Jason worked at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust from 2008 to 2019 during which time he led the construction and delivery of the UK’s first High Energy Proton Beam Therapy Centre before becoming Chief Operating Officer of The Christie Private Care until 2021.

Jason attends Trust Board.

Dr Kiki Syrad joined GOSH as Director of Research and Innovation in November 2023 coming to the hospital from the charity sector where she held senior leadership positions for more than 15 years. Most recently she was the Director of Grants and Impact at Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity where she led on the development of two five-year research strategies which led to £120m of investment in research across the UK.

Prior to her this, Kiki was Head of Research and Funding at Breast Cancer Now. Kiki did her PhD at Melbourne University, Australia, focusing on cancer therapies. As a researcher, she was part of the Angiogenesis group at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford, working on a potential therapeutic cancer target and identifying novel cancer markers.

Kiki attends Trust Board.

Cymbeline is a trained journalist who has worked in communications for the NHS for the last 12 years.

After working for the Trinity Mirror group of newspapers as a news editor she moved into NHS communications at Hammersmith Hospitals. During her time there she became head of public relations and then director of communications for the newly-formed Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

Cymbeline has headed up communications, and press activity for GOSH since 2012. Between 2012 – 2021 she also oversaw press, family stories and celebrity activity for GOSH Charity.

Cymbeline attends Trust Board.