Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust

Alex Stamp

Chief Operating Officer

Alex has worked in the NHS for more than 16 years, holding a range of senior leadership roles across service delivery, performance, and operations. He joins Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust from Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust, where he was Deputy Chief Operating Officer. Alex has previously worked at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Moorfields Eye Hospital, bringing broad operational experience across both acute and specialist services. He has a strong background in planned and elective care and has worked closely with clinical and operational teams to improve elective performance, patient flow and waiting times, supporting safe, high-quality, and efficient care. Alex has also led elective programme work within Frimley Integrated Care Board, including supporting the development of the Thames Valley ICS elective programme and has helped implement same day emergency care and urgent treatment centre models to improve Emergency Department performance and patient experience.

Anouska Adamson-Parks

Chief of Strategy, Planning and Performance - non voting

Experience: Anouska started her career in mental health services before working for audit commission as a performance specialist. She later returned to the NHS to work within mental health and social care services, ambulance services, commissioning, and acute and community services. Anouska’s roles have focused on service improvement, project and programme management, board-level strategy development and implementation and system integration. Anouska joined Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust in July 2017 from Croydon University Hospitals NHS Trust, where she was Director of Transformation. Anouska achieved accreditation for SASH+ Lean for Leaders in 2019 and is an active advocate of the continuous improvement approach which empowers the people who do the work to improve what they do for patients. Anouska has a love of outdoor sports and spends weekends horse riding, walking the dog, kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding.

Ben Emly

Chief Digital and Transformation Officer - non voting

Experience: Ben joined the NHS and Surrey and Sussex Healthcare in 2010 following six years at PricewaterhouseCoopers where, as a Chartered Accountant, he worked with organisations across the country who were facing operational and financial challenges. He brought these experiences to the Trust as Head of Service Improvement and Productivity and later became Associate Director of Insight and Improvement. In his time, he has led the Trust’s information and performance teams and led a number of operational and clinical projects including the Outpatient Kaizen programme, a variety of capital building projects as well as supporting the ongoing operational delivery of national access standards. Ben was appointed as the Director of Information and Technology in May 2021 and he has responsibility for our IT infrastructure, our electronic patient record system, our information service, information governance and data security as well as medical records and clinical coding.

David Cooper

Chief Finance Officer

David, joined us on 1 October 2025 as interim Chief Finance Officer - now substantive - bringing over 15 years of experience in healthcare finance, along with knowledge working outside of finance in operational and programme management. He joined the NHS as a graduate management trainee, and his previous roles include working in the Southwest area and for Barts Health NHS Trust. He has previously served on the Hospital Boards at both Whipps Cross and St Bartholomew’s Hospital. As Chief Finance Officer, David will be responsible for the Trust’s financial operations, plans and strategy.

Ed Cetti

Chief Medical Officer

Experience: Ed qualified in 1998 and completed postgraduate medical training in Surrey and Sussex and at St George’s. He was a Respiratory SpR at SASH in 2009 and was appointed as a Consultant Respiratory Physician in Nov 2009. During his Respiratory Medicine Career, his special interests have been Lung Cancer, Asthma and COPD, including time spent researching COPD treatments at the Royal Brompton Hospital. At SASH Ed has led the Lung Cancer team then the Respiratory Medicine Department and then became the Clinical Lead for Medical Specialties. In 2014 he became Chief of the newly created Cancer and Diagnostics Division. He is committed to acting as the patient advocate and striving for safe, high quality care.

Elizabeth Nyawade

Chief of People and Culture - non voting

Experience: Elizabeth was appointed chief of people and culture in August 2021. Prior to this she worked as Director of Workforce at St George’s NHS Foundation Trust. Whilst at St George’s, Elizabeth acted up into the role of Chief People Officer. Before joining St George’s Elizabeth was the Deputy Director of HR and OD at Medway NHS Foundation Trust. Elizabeth has over 20 years of experience working as a professional in Human Resources in different sectors – public, private and voluntary. In her role at SASH she has responsibility for people and culture across the organisation and is also the executive lead for health and safety. As an extremely driven leader Elizabeth is passionate about developing colleagues and creating an inclusive working environment so that patients can get the best possible care and experience. Elizabeth is a board member of HPMA London Academy and the Health and Wellbeing Expert Advisory Group for NHSE. O utside of work Elizabeth enjoys watching F1 racing, the Saturday Kitchen cooking show, going for long walks and running outdoors now that her daughter is a young adult.

Richard Brown

Chief of Population Outcomes and Governance Insight

Experience: Richard started off his career in academia specialising in medical ethics, culturally competent care and health behaviours, particularly for people with learning disabilities. Richard has worked within the healthcare-related environment for over 20 years with his full-time NHS career starting at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and has subsequently worked in a range of large multi-site Trusts and smaller specialist hospitals. For a number of years prior to joining the Trust in 2017, Richard worked on a range of high-profile clinical harm reviews. Through this, his focus is on using evidence-based approaches to maximise positive outcomes for patients. Richard leads on population health across the East Surrey system as well as leading the development of new ways to look at our data. He provides support across a range of functions from workforce to nursing and everything in between, helping to use data to drive improvements. He is passionate about inclusion and is the lead for tackling health inequalities for our population. Outside of work, Richard continues academic pursuits now focusing on lesbian, gay and bisexual health and work-related topics, as well as building Lego (it’s not just for children), reading and having a more than keen interest in science fiction movies and TV shows.

Sarah Burston

Chief Nurse

Sue Jenkins

Chief of Kaizen

Sue has a strong track record of delivering sustainable improvement across complex systems and is experienced in managing and implementing service improvement through the use of evidence-based change management techniques and effective partnership working. Sue has an MSc from the University of Birmingham where she studied leadership for health service improvement and more recently was certified to teach and train others in advanced lean by the Virginia Mason Institute in Seattle. Outside of work, Sue is a wife of one, mother of three and nana of one. She enjoys the gym, meeting up with friends to share a meal (with a cheeky G&T or two!), walking on the South Downs or by the sea close to where she lives and trying and get to the theatre as much as possible. She is also a trustee of two charities and plays an active part in a small independent evangelical church.

Catherine Jervis

Non-executive Director

Catherine’s professional experience is in governance, financial and performance management and change management across a range of public, not-for-profit and private sector organisations. She has held a range of non-executive roles including roles in mental and community health providers, children’s services and a central government body responsible for police conduct. She is passionate about ensuring public services support the most vulnerable members of our society and prior to taking on NED roles Catherine was strategic advisor to the chief executive of Achievement for All 3As, a national education charity set up to transform the lives of vulnerable children, and director for PwC where she led the children’s services team delivering services across education, health and social care.

Elaine O'Brien

Associate Non-Executive Director and Chair of Charitable Funds Committee

Elaine has a clinical background in Nursing and worked in the NHS for 25 years. Over the past decade, she has led digital healthcare transformation projects in the private sector. Her career spans a wide range of roles across the NHS, healthcare consultancy, IT and education sectors — including clinical practice, business development, digital and corporate governance, and programme management. Elaine is passionate about health equity and improving population health outcomes. She brings significant strategic leadership experience in population health management, service redesign, transformation and governance across acute, community, primary care, commissioning, and both internal and external service providers. She also has 10 years of governance experience in the education sector, beginning as a parent governor and progressing to Director within a Multi-Academy Trust in Slough, which includes eight schools. Elaine is married, has two daughters, and is a keen amateur gardener — a hobby she credits with supporting her own health and wellbeing.

Elaine O’Brien

Associate Non-Executive Director ​​​​​​and Chair of Charitable Funds Committee

Elaine has a clinical background in Nursing and worked in the NHS for 25 years. Over the past decade, she has led digital healthcare transformation projects in the private sector. Her career spans a wide range of roles across the NHS, healthcare consultancy, IT and education sectors — including clinical practice, business development, digital and corporate governance, and programme management. Elaine is passionate about health equity and improving population health outcomes. She brings significant strategic leadership experience in population health management, service redesign, transformation and governance across acute, community, primary care, commissioning, and both internal and external service providers. She also has 10 years of governance experience in the education sector, beginning as a parent governor and progressing to Director within a Multi-Academy Trust in Slough, which includes eight schools. Elaine is married, has two daughters, and is a keen amateur gardener — a hobby she credits with supporting her own health and wellbeing.

Frank Sims

Chair of Performance, Infrastructure and Resources Committee ​​​​

Frank is an experienced CEO having led a number of organisations across the NHS. He has also gained experience of running both commercial and charity organisations and continues to lead a children’s mental health charity in Surrey. He is also a NED at East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust. Frank is passionate about engaging and empowering staff to allow them to provide the best care, experience and service possible. He has taken up the role of NED lead for Freedom To Speak Up and is a great advocate for hearing what staff and service users have to say. Frank has a partner and one son in his late 20s and enjoys cycling, skiing and dog training. NED Champion role - Freedom to Speak Up Guardian.

Jayne Phoenix

Deputy Chair, Non Executive Director, SQC Chair, EDI lead NED and Maternity and Neonates Champion

Julie Bass

Senior Independent Director and Chair of People and Culture Committee

Julie is the Chief Executive and executive board director of Turning Point which is a health and social care organisation providing services in communities across England specialising in substance misuse, mental health, learning disability, employment, criminal justice and public health. Prior to this Julie worked in financial services in the UK and overseas in a wide variety of roles including holding responsibility for corporate strategy, organisational performance and development and people related functions. She is passionate about supporting individuals to discover new possibilities in their lives through the provision of high quality, constantly evolving services and interactions. Julie is a Chartered Insurer and a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Julie is particularly interested in holistic health and wellbeing, placing individuals at the heart of their care and support and closing the gap on health inequalities. She enjoys travelling, the theatre, walking and keeping fit as well as spending time with her family and friends.

Sarah Billiald

Chair of Audit, Assurance and Risk Committee ​​​​​

Sarah is an experienced Board Member, having held Chief Executive roles in both Health and Criminal Justice organisations across Surrey and the South East. She has led social enterprise organisations as Chief Executive and Managing Director, delivering both public services as an NHS provider and consultancy services to a range of clients. She currently serves as a Non-Executive Director at Your Healthcare (an NHS community provider in South West London) and Luminus CIC, which delivers Healthwatch Surrey services. A qualified accountant and auditor, Sarah brings extensive experience in governance, risk management and audit. She also has first-hand experience of running community health services in East Surrey and is committed to developing collaborative solutions that involve staff and local communities to improve health outcomes for local people. Sarah lives in Dorking with her husband and teenage son, who was born at SASH. Outside of work, she enjoys playing and coaching cricket, swimming and pilates. She is also a singer and conducts a local school choir in her spare time.