Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust

Catherine Lissett

Chief Medical Officer

James Corrigan

Chief Finance Officer

James joined us in May 2024 as Interim Director of Operational Finance and stepped into the role of Interim Chief Finance Officer in August 2025. James was appointed as our Chief Finance Officer in December 2025. A Chartered Management Accountant, James brings over 28 years of NHS experience, having held senior finance positions across acute, tertiary, ambulance and mental health trusts—including Cambridge University Hospitals, Great Ormond Street Hospital, and London Ambulance Service. He has led financial recovery programmes in large acute trusts, working closely with managers and clinicians to deliver improvements in quality, safety, productivity and efficiency. Kate was appointed as our Chief Medical Officer in January 2024 and is responsible for the provision of high-quality, safe and effective care and providing medical input into shaping strategy as well as the Responsible Officer for the organisation. Kate joined us in 2006 as a Consultant in Diabetes and Endocrinology, having previously been Registrar in the Manchester region, working at a number of hospitals in Greater Manchester. During this time she also completed a qualification in Medical Education from Cardiff University. Prior to this, Kate completed a research Doctorate at the Christie Hospital in Manchester, and worked in Nottingham and Sheffield, having qualified in Medicine from Sheffield in 1993. Kate’s leadership is motivated by a passion for equity and compassionate care and driven by this she has held a range of appointments in educational and leadership roles throughout her career.

Jess Piper

Chief People Officer

Jess has spent her entire career working in health and care, beginning on the frontline in social care before moving into a range of roles across community and acute hospital services. She joined us in 2005 and has since held a variety of senior operational and corporate roles. Over the past 15 years, Jess has worked at senior management and executive level across education, people services, quality and corporate services. Most recently, she served as Associate Director and then Deputy Director of People with responsibility for a broad portfolio of people services, including education, resourcing, culture, equality, diversity and inclusion, and workforce development. After covering the Chief People Officer role on an interim basis from summer 2025, Jess was appointed to the substantive Chief People Officer position in February 2026. Jess brings more than a decade of executive and senior leadership experience, with a particular specialism in people and human resources, multi professional education, workforce development, and system wide strategy. She has extensive experience of working across community and acute organisations at local, regional and national level, leading and influencing strategic change and transformation across NHS providers and integrated care systems. Jess is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and holds postgraduate and master’s level qualifications in Business and Clinical Education. She is an experienced educator and has previously held Higher Education Academy accreditation, having designed, developed and approved academic curricula.

Nicola McMinn

Chief Nurse

Nicola was appointed as our interim Chief Nursing Officer in January 2024 and to the substantive position in September 2024. Nicola joined us in June 2021 as our Head of Nursing Workforce and was appointed to the Deputy Chief Nurse role in January 2022. Nicola is a Registered Nurse and Midwife and before joining us worked at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital as the Assistant Director of Nursing for Medicine and prior to that at the University Hospital Plymouth as the Head of Midwifery. As the Chief Nursing Officer, Nicola is responsible for providing professional leadership to all nursing, midwifery, and allied health professionals across the organisation. She also leads on the social care agenda in partnership with the Director of Adult Social Care. Nicola is the executive lead for ensuring CQC compliance and is responsible for the safety and quality of patient care ensuring patient experience is held at the forefront of care delivery. Nicola is committed to ensuring we deliver our vision of safe, patient centred care. She has ensured that people’s experiences of care inform our work to improve services and provides compassionate clinical leadership in everything she does.

Samuel Wadham-Sharpe

Chief Operating Officer

After covering the Chief Operating Officer role on an interim basis from May 2026, Sam was appointed to the substantive Chief Operating Officer position in June 2026. Sam is an experienced NHS leader with a strong track record of delivering performance and quality improvement across acute, community and system settings. Since joining us as Deputy Chief Operating Officer in 2025, he has led operational performance across urgent and emergency care, elective and planned care services and overseen day to day site management. Before joining us, Sam was Director of Performance and Planning at NHS Devon Integrated Care Board, where he led system wide planning and performance improvement and held a key role in operational delivery during winter periods. Earlier in his career, he held a range of senior operational roles at Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, North Bristol NHS Trust and Barts Health NHS Trust, leading improvements in areas including elective recovery, cancer services, urgent care and service transformation. Sam is the Devon system operational lead for elective productivity and improvement this year. Sam is known for his collaborative leadership style and for working closely with clinical and operational teams to deliver sustainable improvements for patients and services.

Simon Tapley

Chief Strategy and Planning Officer

Simon was appointed at Chief Strategy and Planning Officer in March 2025. Born in Paignton, Simon joined the NHS in 1993 with one of our predecessor organisations, South Devon Healthcare Trust. After spending 10 years working within Internal Audit he joined Teignbridge Primary Care Trust. He has a wealth of commissioning and operational experience and was a senior commissioner in Devon for 20 years, with 12 of those years as an Executive. He was the Chief Executive Officer for Devon Clinical Commissioning Group throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Simon has commissioned all areas including adult social care. Simon joined us in January 2024 as the Associate Director for health and social care giving a valuable insight to operations.

Arwel Griffiths

Non-Executive Director

Arwel joined us as a Non-Executive Director in July 2026.

Ashish Ghadiali

Non-Executive Director

Ashish joined us as an Associate Non-Executive Director in October 2024 and became a substantive Non-Executive Director in September 2025. Ashish is a skilled builder of networks and partnerships who, over 20 years, has established a track record in developing innovative structures for change with social and environmental justice at their core. He is the Chair of Newlyn Art Gallery and the Exchange, founder and director of Radical Ecology, Lead Governor for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at Exeter College, Founder and Steering Committee Chair for the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s programme, Early Career Research Fellowships in Cultural and Heritage Organisations. The strategic impact of his work addressing inequity and the global environmental crisis is internationally recognised. From 2020 to 2022, he led on political strategy for the COP26 civil society coalition in the UK. Since 2022, as a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, he has co-led the research and public engagement programme, addressing the New Denialism and co-authored the 2023 study, quantifying the human cost of global warming. He has curated public programmes and exhibitions for cultural institutions including Serpentine, the Southbank Centre and KARST. He has been a member of Devon County Council’s Climate Task Force since 2023. A seasoned communicator, Ashish contributes regularly to The Guardian and The Observer newspapers. He has directed films for the BBC and the BFI and creates immersive film installations for public venues across South Devon including The Box in Plymouth, the Markethall in Devonport and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter. Ashish is a Chair of the Trust’s Charity Committee and member of the Board’s Quality and People Committee.

Chris Saxby

Non-Executive Director

Chris joined the Foundation Trust in October 2024, and is an experienced, executive and non-executive leader having undertaken senior roles within the defence, engineering, social support, and health sectors. A varied public, private, and third sector executive career has seen him serve in the Royal Navy, enjoy secondments to the UK civil service, manage strategic national infrastructure in New Zealand, and lead support to vulnerable young people across the UK’s SW peninsula. As a non-executive, he held several governance leadership roles for the IMarEST, he is a past Chair of Devonport Services RFC, a former non-executive director of Careers England, and in NZ, was Vice Chair of the Defence Industry Association. Committed to the community; he is a graduate of Common Purpose, and currently Vice Chair at City College Plymouth, where he also chairs the Audit & Risk Committee. He has garnered a reputation for focussed delivery through compassionate leadership, transformational change with meaningful collaboration, and the consistent building of shareholder value. His principal skill sets revolve around strategic thinking, organisational planning, governance and assurance alignment, and promoting the voice of the people he serves. Chris is a passionate learner, recently completing the Institute of Directors’ pathway to become a Chartered Director and Fellow of the IoD. Chris has also been a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the IMarEST, a Fellow of the RSA, and a Member of the APM. He is a graduate of the NHS Aspiring Chairs Talent Programme. Chris is a member of the Finance and Operations, and Quality and People Committees and is the Trust’s Freedom to Speak Up Board Champion.

Debbie Stark

Associate Non-Executive Director

Debbie joined us as an Associate Non-Executive Director in July 2026. Debbie was a registered public health consultant for nearly 20 years, having first trained as a chartered accountant. She has held executive Board roles in the NHS and senior leadership positions in local government, including serving as a Director of Public Health locally before moving into a regional role with Public Health England. As Regional Director of Public Health, she worked for the Department of Health and Social Care and was seconded to the NHS England executive team in her region. Debbie has extensive experience of working in partnership across organisations, leading multi-agency teams and responding to a number of high-profile public health incidents. She has a particular interest in how national policy translates into the realities experienced by local communities, and in using both public health expertise and financial insight to support sustainable decision-making and improve population health.

Jo Webber

Non-Executive Director

Jo joined us as a Non-Executive Director in July 2026, bringing a strong clinical background and extensive experience across health policy and NHS leadership. Jo trained as a nurse and went on to work in community services in Nottingham, where she completed her District Nurse qualification and moved into senior operational leadership roles. She later worked at the NHS Confederation, where she was Policy Director and led the Ambulance Services Network, supporting NHS organisations across the country, particularly within the ambulance sector. Jo has significant Board-level experience, including as an Associate Non-Executive Director at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Hospitals NHS Trust, where she served as Vice Chair and Chair of the Quality Committee. She has also chaired the Patient Experience Committee and has a strong interest in improving how people access and experience care. Alongside her NHS work, Jo has served as a Trustee of the Burdett Trust, supporting nursing research and development, and as Chair of In Control, a charity focused on independent living for people with disabilities. Jo holds a Masters degree in Primary Health Care from the University of Nottingham and has worked closely with directors of adult and children’s social care to support more joined-up ways of working across services.

Liz Edwards-Smith

Non-Executive Director

Liz joined us as a Non-Executive Director in October 2024. An experienced senior leader and people and change specialist who has worked for more than 20 years across the public and private sectors. She has supported organisations and teams to deliver large scale transformation programmes including digital and culture change. Following 14 years at Sema Group Plc, Schlumberger, Atos KPMG Consulting and Atos Consulting, Liz founded a micro-consultancy focusing on organisational and team development. Alongside this, Liz has held research fellow positions at Plymouth University focusing on how local coastal and rural community assets in South Devon and Torbay can support health and wellbeing. An experienced Non-Executive Director and Trustee, she successfully guided transformation of Age UK Plymouth including collaboration with local government and health to establish a Short Term Care Centre. Liz is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, a member of the British Psychological Society and Trustee at Citizens Advice Plymouth. Her interests lie in the value of partnership working for wider societal benefit and the use of strengths-based models to co-create agency and wellbeing. Liz is Chair of the Board’s Quality and People Committee and a member of the Audit and Risk, Non-Executive Nominations and Remuneration, and Charity Committees.

Mark Greaves

Non-Executive Director

Mark joined us as a Non-Executive Director in January 2025. Mark built a career as a Corporate Finance partner at PKF Francis Clark, where he was also responsible for developing their role in the international network PKF and leading an internal change programme based upon the digitalisation of the practice. His international duties included arranging trade visits to China and building closer links with Australian, European and American firms. Mark has more than 20 years of dedicated transaction experience and is highly regarded for his commercial approach and negotiation skills. Mark now chairs the board at Delt Shared Services, a back office shared services business owned by Plymouth City Council, North Somerset Council and Devon ICB. He also hosted a podcast series called Business Noodles and is a governor at Arts University Plymouth. Mark is Chair of the Board’s Audit and Risk Committee and a member of the Finance and Operations Committee.

Paul Richards

Senior Independent Director

Paul is a senior international healthcare leader with more than 30 years’ experience in driving commercial growth, digital innovation, and large-scale transformation across global health markets. He has held senior executive roles within leading digital and health technology organisations, where he has led complex product portfolios, international service operations, and major technology programmes that have strengthened organisational competitiveness and accelerated the adoption of digital and clinical systems worldwide. He is recognised for bringing strong commercial discipline to innovation and for building high-impact partnerships across suppliers, governments, and healthcare systems. Paul has a particular interest in how advances in digital technology, health tech, and pharmaceuticals, combined with modern partnership models, can unlock value, support integrated care, reduce system friction, and improve patient outcomes. Paul is committed to improving health outcomes for the population of Devon, with a focus on enabling more joined-up, person-centred care across organisational boundaries. Alongside his Trust role, Paul serves as a Health Crown Representative, providing national commercial and strategic leadership across NHS England, the Department of Health and Social Care, and the Cabinet Office. He also chairs the One Devon Electronic Patient Record (EPR) Implementation Board, supporting system-wide integration and the delivery of shared digital infrastructure across the Devon health and care system. Paul chaired the Finance and Performance Committee until January 2026 and will assume the role of Chair of the Board’s Finance and Operations Committee from 11 May 2026. He is a member of the Non-Executive Nominations and Remuneration Committees and, in his capacity as Senior Independent Director, supports a wide range of groups and activities across the Trust. As Digital Lead Non-Executive Director, Paul has championed the Trust’s ambition to implement a modern Electronic Patient Record (EPR) over the past seven years. For the past 18 months, he has also chaired the One Devon EPR Board, a collaborative programme spanning Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, NHS Devon Integrated Care Board and Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust. Following the successful go-live at Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, he will shortly hand over the chair to the Digital Lead Non-Executive Director at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust.