Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

Dave Tomlinson

Executive Director of Finance

Dave Tomlinson joined the Trust as Executive Director of Finance in April 2017. Dave brings 20 years’ experience as a Director of Finance in the NHS, the vast majority of which has been with large mental health providers. He plays a key role in advising the Board on issues around the Trust’s fiscal performance, information governance and estates. Dave’s experience includes 12 years as Director of Finance at Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust where he established the Trust as a £100m turnover provider by bringing together services from seven organisations, led the acquisition of a number of services and established a commercial and property management joint venture that delivered savings of £1m per annum. He has experience in both the private and public sector and during his career has been responsible for a broad portfolio of services in large and complex organisations. Most recently he has enjoyed a successful period as an interim director in acute and mental health trusts.

Fabida Aria

Executive Medical Director

Fabida is a consultant psychiatrist and previous has been a medical leader for Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust since 2013 and a system leader in the region in the last few years. She has been associate medical director for mental health services in adult, older adults and learning disability patients. She brings a wealth of clinical leadership experience and many initiatives she led have been recognised nationally. She is a Fellow of the Royal college of psychiatrists and also has done a Masters in healthcare leadership. She holds additional roles at the Royal College of psychiatrists including Chair of the Transcultural Psychiatry Special Interest Group and Specialist Advisor for the medical trainee initiative scheme. Fabida is passionate about engaging people, promoting innovation, research and collaborative working. She will provide clinical and strategic leadership on the board.

Lisa Stalley-Green

Executive Director of Quality and Safety/Chief Nurse

Having previously held NHS Chief Nurse roles across Birmingham and Solihull, Lisa is compassionate registered nurse with a 20-year career spanning A&E, community services, prison health, commissioning and acute services. Leader and member of the Royal College of Nursing and King's Fund alumna, Lisa is passionate about transformation and service improvement and is keen to further strengthen the voices of our staff, service users and patients. She is a huge advocate of inclusivity, women’s mental health and wellbeing and anti-racism and chairs the West Midlands Regional Global Majority Improvement Group. In her BSMHFT Chief Nurse role, Lisa hopes to be an enabler for change, remove barriers to transformation and provide the right environment for our nurses, allied health professionals and social workers to flourish.

Patrick Nyarumbu MBE

Executive Director for Strategy, People and Partnerships and Deputy Chief Executive

Patrick is a mental health nurse by background and has worked and in a wide range of NHS organisations covering mental health, acute and specialist services as well as a Primary Care Trust and a Clinical Commissioning Group. Patrick is passionate about leadership development, talent management and championing diversity.

Vanessa Devlin

Executive Director of Operations

From 2006 up until the time she joined the Trust she held posts within West Midlands Commissioning Boards leading on the strategic development of mental health services within the NHS and Local Authority. Vanessa is very committed to delivering quality mental health services to our population and believes that service users and carers should be at the forefront of development, delivery and monitoring of our services at all levels.

Bal Claire

Deputy Chair

Bal has been with the Trust as a Non-Executive Director since January 2023 and is the Managing Director of his Management Consultancy company, MyQonsult, supporting organisations across a broad range of industry sectors to drive strategic growth. Bal is Chair of the global warehouse logistics consultancy – Swi-tch. Additionally, he is also an Associate at the international consultancy firm Alumni Services and an Independent Member of the Governing Council at the University of Warwick. Previously Bal had a hugely successful career at BT. Starting as an apprentice he worked his way through to senior director roles leading large-scale strategic business transformation. His path from apprenticeship to Senior Executive has taught him the value of good coaching and mentorship in helping people fulfil their potential. He is a huge advocate of apprenticeships and the strategic value of vocational skills to the UK economy. Bal brings great knowledge, experience and expertise to BSMHFT.

Monica Shafaq

Non-Executive Director

Monica has been the Chief Executive of The Kaleidoscope Plus Group since 2010. She is committed to promoting the role of women and Black and Minority Ethnic individuals in leadership roles and has a keen interest in football, holding a number of non-executive roles in the sector. One of these is the post of Non-Executive Director at Birmingham County Football Association where she has lead responsibility for equality and mental health. She is also a member of the Premier League’s Equality and Diversity Panel. Monica has been recognised for her work in supporting black, Asian and minority group communities and in February 2022, she won the Corporate Achievement of the Year’ category at the British Muslim Awards.

Nick Moor

Non-Executive Director

Nick was appointed as an Associate Non-Executive Director in December 2024. He is a former mental health nurse and is also the managing director of the Care Review Ltd, a small specialist consultancy that supports health and social care systems with independent reviews and investigations. Nick is also a delegated Chair for Care Education and Treatment Reviews for NHS England (London region) for people with a learning disability and/or autism, and an independent Chair for Domestic Homicide Reviews. Nick worked in mental health services for the first half of his career, working up to senior management roles, before leaving to become a management consultant. He was latterly the Partner lead for mental health investigations for Niche Health and Social Care Consulting and has led investigations into many high profile incidents. Nick brings a deep understanding of patient safety and clinical governance matters and has a special interest in mental health law, mental capacity and safeguarding issues.

Peter Axon

Non-Executive Director

Dental Hospital whilst in role. In 2019 he became chief executive of a leading Mental Health trust having previously held interim CEO roles in community and mental health trusts. Finally, Peter became Chief Executive of the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board in 2021, before retiring from full time work in July 2025.

Sue Bedward

Non-Executive Director and Senior Independent Director

Sue is the Founder and Director of Midlands Business Leadership (MBL) Academy and brings a huge wealth of knowledge and experience in enterprise leadership and management and organisational development. More than 20 years of her career were in the NHS and another 15 running her own business. Over the years, she has coached and mentored, business owners, executives and managers across public and private sector services, is a Certified Insights Discovery Practitioner, 360 Feedback Facilitator, a CiPD qualified trainer and a Member of the Chartered Management Institute. A member of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for ethnic minority business owners, Sue is passionate about driving forward the inclusive business support agenda to ensure it reflects and supports the needs of Black, Asian and ethnic minority business owners. Her other work includes board development, strategic business planning and governance. Sue prides herself on integrity, equity, fairness and respect and will bring a huge amount to the Board and Team BSMHFT. Sue is the Trust's Senior Independent Director. This is a vital part of our governance – the system of rules, practices and processes by which the Board ensures the Trust is well-led and delivering safe, high-quality care. Through her role, Sue provides an independent perspective, supports the Chair, Phil Gayle, and helps make sure the Trust Board operates effectively.

Winston Weir

Non-Executive Director

Winston works at Board level for a variety of organisations with purposes beyond profit. He is an Independent Member at a Welsh University Health Board with an interest in Finance and chairs its Sustainable Resources Committee. He works at Board level as non-Executive Treasurer of a BAME church led Housing Association based in the West Midlands. He brings experience of chairing and serving on Board committees, providing governance, risk, and audit & financial expertise. Winston is a Big 4 qualified Public Finance Accountant with post graduate qualifications. He is CPFA qualified with significant post qualification experience in Public Sector Finance, Private Finance Initiative, procurement, and service improvement programmes. He established a small consultancy business in 2012, working in the public sector, providing support to various NHS / Housing/ Education organisations in senior project director / finance roles. He has two children at University and his wife works at the University of Birmingham. He supports and mentors’ young people. He is a trustee of a charity with an interest in community initiatives, cultural heritage and promoting multi-cultural, vibrant communities in Northwest Birmingham.