South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust

David Ruiz-Celada

Chief Strategy Officer

Originally from Barcelona and an aeronautical engineer by training, David now lives in Kent and joins SECAmb after a decade of working in the aviation industry. With a focus on operations planning and management, logistics and improvement, David has worked across airlines and air handing operators in Spain and most recently at London City Airport since 2014 where he was previously Director of Operations Strategy and Planning. This role saw him work in a number of key areas including developing forecasting and modelling capability within the airport and delivering a number of improvement initiatives using technology and process changes to increase capacity.

Dr Richard Quirk

Interim Chief Medical Officer

Richard has worked with SECAmb since 2017 when he joined the Trust as Improvement Director for NHS England. Richard was then successful at being appointed as Deputy Medical Director at SECAmb. Richard is a GP and was previously Medical Director at Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust. He has a passion for delivering high-quality patient care and supporting staff in the challenging environment of 111 and 999.

Jaqualine Lindridge

Chief Paramedic Officer

Jaqualine is SECAmb’s first-ever Chief Paramedic Officer. With more than two decades of experience in ambulance services, Jaqualine has a wealth of clinical expertise and leadership. Prior to joining SECAmb she was Director of Quality Improvement at London Ambulance Service and has held various clinical roles since becoming an ambulance technician in 2000 and qualifying as a paramedic in 2003. Jaqualine has been instrumental in advancing paramedic practice, leading the introduction of advanced paramedic practitioners in urgent care, and serving on national clinical guidance committees. At SECAmb she will oversee education, training, and clinical supervision, working across the organisation to enhance patient care.

Jo Turner

Interim Chief Nursing Officer

Jo is an experienced senior nursing leader and quality improvement specialist with a strong background in clinical leadership, governance and service improvement. She is passionate about delivering high-quality, patient-centred care, fostering inclusive nursing leadership and driving continuous improvement across healthcare systems.

Nick Roberts

Chief Digital and Information Officer

Nick join SECAmb on 1 April 2025 having been Chief Information Officer at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in London. He was the senior responsible officer for technology and data across Moorfields at Board level since joining the hospital in 2020. He has been involved in several major transformational programmes including the transformation of OpenEyes – an eye care clinical noting system converted to a highly available public cloud solution, and in delivering the trust’s full business case for its new EPR, MoorConnect. Previously, Nick was Director of Digital Services at University College London NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH), onboarding a new outsourced IT service provision, and implementing the technology and data migration to support their Epic EPR implementation.

Sarah Wainwright

Chief People Officer

Sarah joined SECAmb in April 2024 as Interim Director of HR & OD. Prior to joining the Trust, Sarah was Regional Deputy Director of Workforce at NHS England (South East), with strategic leadership for the workforce transformation and workforce supply across integrated care systems in South East. Sarah has over 20 years’ experience in senior HR roles both within the Civil Service and the NHS. Sarah is an experienced system leader, delivering people and culture change programmes at both system and organisational level, and is passionate about people development and how we best support staff wellbeing & experience at work to enable better patient care.

Simon Bell

Chief Finance Officer and Interim Deputy Chief Executive

Dr Karl Khan

Independent Non-Executive Director

Dr Khan has more than 25 years’ experience in the public service including recently as Chief Operating Officer for the Financial Ombudsman Service. He was previously Director of Finance, Planning and Performance and then Interim Director General, Customer Services Group, HMRC, responsible for the strategy and delivery of customer-facing operations. He has also held senior roles in other central government departments, including the Department for Work and Pensions and the UK Health Security Agency. He currently provides independent advice to both public and private sector organisations covering transformation, operational effectiveness & efficiency and leveraging AI opportunities.

Dr Subo Shanmuganathan

Independent Non-Executive Director

Subo has a varied career in complex education, clinical and regulatory executive roles and has held several non-executive roles. She brings extensive knowledge and experience of strategic business change, organisational development, education and training and transformation programmes to deliver commercial revenue, gained in both the charitable and public sectors. Her PhD is in Clinical Immunovirology from Imperial College London.

Harbhajan Singh Brar

Independent Non-Executive Director

Also serving as non-executive director at neighbouring South Central Ambulance Service, Harbhajan is employed as Director of Human Resources (HR) at Imperial College, London. He has more than 40 years’ experience in HR and has previously been Director of HR at the Department of Health and a number of NHS trusts. Harbhajan, who will Chair our People Committee, has also worked as Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Ethnic Relations based at Warwick University and has served on the Policy Boards of NHS Employers and NHS Professionals. A former Trustee and Chair of DAAP (Drugs and Alcohol Project) and a Trustee of the Sodexo Foundation, Harbhajan also serves as a Justice of Peace.

Liz Sharp

Independent Non-Executive Director/Deputy Chair

A registered nurse by background, Liz Sharp has more than 30-years’ background in both the public and private health sectors. She brings with her a wealth of knowledge in delivering and improving patient outcomes and experience. Until 2018, Liz was the National Director of Clinical Services for BMI Healthcare, an independent provider running 54 hospitals. Her executive career includes her working in partnership with the clinical education team to develop an in-house associate practitioner programme, enhancing governance through introducing an electronic risk-based reporting system for staff, and leading large-scale change programmes including building a care and rehabilitation centre and developing clinical strategy. An experienced non-executive, she remains a Trustee of the Queen Elizabeth’s Foundation for Disabled People and is both Chair of its Care, Quality and Safety Committee and the Board’s Safeguarding Lead.

Paul Brocklehurst

Independent Non-Executive Director

Paul, from Bexhill, East Sussex, has more than 25 years’ board-level experience, most recently as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. He has spent more than a decade as a CIO in local authorities and has also worked with numerous ‘blue chip’ companies in the private sector. Paul joins SECAmb to provide scrutiny and support in the important and growing area of strategic digital and IT development.

Peter Schild

Independent Non-Executive Director

Peter Schild began his three-year term on 9 June 2025. His most recent full-time role was as Chief Financial Officer at the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, an arm’s length body of the Department for Education, a position he held for four years. Peter has enjoyed a long financial and audit career that began at J Sainsbury plc, where he qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant. He moved to BT plc where he held various senior financial management roles, before joining the Department for Work and Pensions as Deputy Finance Director responsible for finance, audit and security. He was promoted to Finance Director in HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), where he held numerous financial directorships including audit, assurance and security. Since October 2023, Peter has been a non-executive director and deputy chair for the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB). At SECAmb, Peter chairs the Audit, Risk and Assurance Committee.

Professor Karen Norman

Senior Independent Director

A nurse by background, Karen has worked in healthcare for 45 years in both the public and private sectors in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Gibraltar. She has 20 years’ experience as an Executive Director at board level, as Gibraltar’s Chief Nursing Officer, including responsibilities as Director of Gibraltar Ambulance Services, (2004-2013) and as Director of Nursing and Clinical Governance at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust (1993-2004). She has also worked as a management and leadership consultant and was a former reviewer for the Commission for Health Improvement. Karen currently remains a Senior Independent Non-Executive Director at Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, East Grinstead. She also serves as a Visiting Professor to the Doctorate in Management Programme at the University of Hertfordshire, and is also a Visiting Professor at the School of Nursing, Allied and Public Health Faculty of Health, Science, Social Care and Education at Kingston University, London.

Professor Mojgan Sani

Independent Non-Executive Director

Professor Mojgan Sani began a three-year term on 1 June 2024 and has a has a professional background as a Chief Pharmacist, Controlled Drugs Accountable Officer, and Director of Medicines Optimisation in large, complex multi-site NHS acute hospitals. Her recent positions have included serving as Corporate Director of Clinical Outcomes and Effectiveness at University Hospitals Sussex. She has also served as a trustee to the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD), and as a Public Governor to Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust – a large mental health trust. Mojgan is the South-East South-Central Chair of the National Quality Improvement and Clinical Audit Network (NQICAN), a visiting professor at a number of universities for Medicines Optimisation and Clinical Pharmacy, and a non-executive director for HIOW ICB and Medway NHS Foundation Trust.