Sardip Sandhu, Non-Executive Director
Sardip Sandhu has over 20 years of experience and expertise in a variety of commercial, general management, strategy & transformation leadership roles at Walgreens Boots Alliance. She specialises in building strategy, operational change, brands, teams and people, and has worked with teams in UK, USA and Asia. Sardip, who has a Masters degree in Global Public Heath, is a qualified performance coach, is passionate about people, innovation and ethics in organisations.
Sardip is also a independent Governor and board member of DeMontfort University and is a Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham medical school.
Sardip is Chair of the Charitable funds committee, Vice Chair of Finance and performance Committee and a board member of D Hive.
Justin Shannahan, Non-Executive Director
Justin joined the Trust Board in June 2019. He has a broad finance, purchasing and commercial background and worked for over 20 years in a number of roles at Rolls-Royce, most recently as the Director of Finance of the Civil Aerospace division.
Justin holds a BA (Hons) in Accounting and Financial Management and is a qualified accountant.
Justin is the Chair of the Audit Committee and a member of the Finance and Investment Committee and the Charitable Funds Committee.
Billie Lam, Non-Executive Director
Billie, born and brought up in Hong Kong, originally trained as a nurse and has been a senior leader in NHS and independent organisations for several decades across acute, community, commissioning and primary care.
Billie's expertise focuses on addressing a diverse range of quality and patient safety issues at an operational and strategic level, and has a proactive interest in equality, diversity and inclusion and in addressing health inequalities for the one million population the Trust serves. She chairs the Trust's People and Culture Committee (PCC) and is a member of Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board PCC.
Billie values education and continuous professional development, with qualifications held in nursing, information and law, and is an alumna of the NHSEI Non-Executive Director Training Scheme.
Ian Lichfield, Vice Chair
Ian’s expertise lies in business transformation, turnaround and growth. Ian has held a number of CEO and CFO roles in both listed and private equity-backed businesses. During this time, Ian has achieved award-winning business transformation and growth and has delivered an exceptional health and safety performance.
As a qualified chartered accountant, Ian has expertise in finance, strategy, restructuring, rationalising and growing businesses and has led the acquisition, integration and sale of several businesses across his career.
He has extensive Board level management and leadership experience, including managing a number of joint ventures during his international career in the commercial sector. Ian is passionate about delivering strong health and safety performance and building a culture where people get an opportunity to grow and develop, and has seven years' experience as a former non-executive director at Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust, including chairing its Quality Business and Audit and Assurance committees.
Ian is the Vice Chair, Chair of the Finance, Investment and Performance Committee and a member of the Audit Committee.
Professor Jaspal Taggar, Non-Executive Director
Professor Jaspal Taggar is a General Practitioner and Clinical Academic at the University of Nottingham.
As Head of Undergraduate GP Education at Nottingham University, Prof. Taggar is passionate about the training of the future medical workforce and innovation of medical education.
He has a portfolio of clinical and medical education research whilst supporting research delivery across the East Midlands in his capacity as Co-Lead for the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Clinical Research Network.
Born and brought up locally in Derby, Prof. Taggar wants to use his expertise to support and develop high-quality patient care and services, enabling the health and wealth of the local community to thrive.
Nikant Ailawadi, Associate Non-Executive Director
Nikant became an Associate Non-Executive Director in April 2023, after being a NExT Director for a year.
Nikant has an MBA from Cambridge University where he was awarded the Benavitch Scholarship. He is an alumni of the Indian Institute of Management’s Senior Leaders Programme, has successfully completed the NHS Leadership Academy’s Nye Bevan programme for Executive Directors, and also holds a BSc and MA.
At Barts Health he provides strategic leadership and oversight to create an insight-driven, patient-centric culture, ensuring staff and patient voice leads to improved, more equitable patient experience. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Prior to joining the NHS he was Global Head of Market Research, Analytics and Insight at the British Council, and also held strategic global roles at Cisco and GSK.
Professor Chris Harrison, Senior Independent Director
Chris has held senior NHS board level positions for the past 30 years. Having qualified in Medicine from Manchester he spent the following 10 years in a variety of hospital medicine, primary care and public health roles before becoming a District Director of Public Health in Lancashire in 1992. After overseeing the development of the new Rosemere Cancer Centre in Preston he moved to the Northwest Regional Office as Cancer Services Director in 1999. He subsequently held the posts of Medical Director for Greater Manchester SHA, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust as well as being National Clinical Director for Cancer at NHSE from 2016-2019.
Following retirement in 2020 he has been providing strategy and corporate governance advice and support as Executive Director at The Christie Cancer Centre in Manchester where he also provides board leadership for the international programme, health inequalities and environmental issues. He continues to hold this role as well as being an Honorary Professor in the Department of Cancer Sciences at The University of Manchester.
Chris chairs the Quality Assurance Committee and is member of the Audit Committee. He is also the Board’s nominated Non-Executive Maternity Safety Champion and Non-Executive with oversight of Medical Disciplinary matters.
Nicky Clarke, Non-Executive Director
Nicky has over 38 years of HR and people experience in large organisations, 11 of those years within the NHS. Nicky is currently Chief of People for the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, which is a post she has held since 2019, and has previously worked as Director of HR at Nottingham University Hospitals and Director of Workforce and Organisational Development at Chesterfield Royal Hospital.
She also has extensive experience in the private sector, spending a large part of her career in HR at Boots UK, where she worked for 20 years in a variety of roles.
Nicky has a generalist HR background and has worked on several change programmes, working closely with executive teams to support them on the overall shape and design of the organisation, the organisational culture and employee engagement.
