Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Anne-Marie Miller

Director of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement

Anne-Marie has 15 years’ experience in senior communications and engagement roles at Acute and Community NHS Provider organisations across North West England. During this time, she led the complex communications and engagement programme for the merger of University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust (UHSM) and Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CMFT) to create Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT), the largest Foundation Trust in the country. Prior to joining the NHS, Anne-Marie held stakeholder engagement roles at UNITE Group Plc and was Vice-President of Liverpool Student’s Union. Anne-Marie also holds an Executive Award in Health Care Leadership following the completion of the Nye Bevan programme. Qualifications: DipHE Consumer Studies PG Dip Public Relations Executive Award in Health Care Leadership

Katharine Dowson

Director of Corporate Governance

Katharine joined the Trust in June 2026 having previously worked as Trust Secretary at both The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust, a specialist neurosciences provider, and Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Katharine has been an associate of the Chartered Governance Institute since completing her full qualification as a chartered company secretary in 2024. Prior to this, Katharine worked in the not for profit and public sectors in a variety of roles including community engagement and consultation, programme management and finance, in addition to providing support and advice to various boards and fulfilling regulatory company secretary duties. Katharine is committed to delivering a positive and fair organisational culture, promoting excellence in governance and ensuring regulatory compliance. Qualifications: Chartered Company Secretary (ACG) BA (hons) History

Kevin Parker-Evans

Chief Nursing Officer

Kevin joined the Trust as Interim Chief Nurse in January 2024 from Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust where he was Deputy Chief Nurse from 2020, securing the position of Chief Nursing Officer in June 2024. Kevin is a registered adult nurse and has had several clinical, operational, and senior leadership roles within his 20-year nursing career, and completed an MBA in 2023, he is also Chartered Manager (CMgr). Kevin has a passion to develop Nursing, Midwifery and AHP teams to be able to lead on the delivery of excellent patient and service user care, developing and utilising technology to support the care we deliver to release clinical teams ‘time to care’ to the bedside. Qualifications RN DIP HE (Registered Adult Nurse) MBA CMgr FCIM

Prof. Sanjay Arya

Medical Director/Consultant Interventional Cardiologist

Dr Sanjay Arya joined the Trust in November 2000 as a Consultant Interventional Cardiologist, providing a high quality, evidence based and patient focussed comprehensive cardiac service. Sanjay’s areas of interest are coronary artery disease, coronary intervention, heart failure, arrhythmia, syncope and cardiac assessment for non-cardiac surgery and professional footballers. Dr Arya is a keen teacher, dedicated to the teaching and training of doctors and other healthcare professionals and was the Foundation Programme Director for seven years during which he raised the profile of doctor teaching and training at WWL. Dr Arya holds the position of Examiner for the Royal College of Physicians and at Manchester Medical School. He is Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, Edge Hill University and the University of Liverpool and has published several publications, delivered talks throughout the country. Dr Arya is an active member of various cardiovascular organisations which aim to reduce the incidence and improve the management of cardiovascular disease. Dr Arya has held the position of Medical Director for the Medicine Division since 2012. During this period he ensured high-quality care was provide for patients through various quality initiatives and via the implementation of 7 day working in the Trust. Currently the Chair of the Emergency and Acute Medicine Group for the North West Sector under the Healthier Together initiative Dr Arya is working towards the provision of high quality standardised care across Bolton, Wigan and Salford hospitals. Dr Arya was the Chair of the North West England Heart Failure group during which he ensured patients with heart failure received high-quality care. Sanjay is the Vice Chairman of the British International Doctors Association, UK and was the Editor of the Journal of BIDA for six years until December 2016. Working as Interim Joint Medical Director since August 2016, before being appointed to the substantive post of Medical Director in April 2017, Dr Arya’s immediate priority would be to improve staff morale, provide safe, effective care to his patients and work towards making WWL a financially viable Trust. Qualifications: MBBS (Hons), FRCP (London), FRCP (Glasgow)

Richard Mundon

Deputy CEO/Director of Strategy and Planning

Richard is a very experienced public servant spending the majority of his career in the health sector. He has a degree in biological sciences and is a qualified accountant. He spent 25 years in the Department of Health joining in 1986 and working in a wide variety of roles in Birmingham, London and Leeds across a range of policy, management and corporate disciplines. Richard has worked with Ministers, had multi billion pound budget responsibilities, led large change programmes, developed performance management and planning regimes and was head of profession for programme and project management. Amongst his many roles, he can list Project Manager on the 2000 NHS Plan and Director of Operations. Richard joined the Trust in 2012 where he led projects on private patients, temporary staffing, back office functions and occupational health commercialisation. He became Acting Director of Strategy and Planning in December 2014 before being appointed as Director of Strategy and Planning in August 2015. Qualifications: BSc (Hons) Biological Sciences ACMA CGMA

Sarah Brennan

Chief Operating Officer

Sarah joined the Trust as Chief Operating Officer in September 2024 and was previously the Chief Operating Officer at Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Prior to this, she held roles in Strategic Delivery, Operations and Medicines Management with Bridgewater. A Pharmacist by background, Sarah has worked in several settings including community, hospital, industry and the military, spending periods of her career working in both Germany and Guernsey. Sarah is passionate about improving patient care and growing and developing teams to facilitate this. She has a particular interest in children’s services and the links with public health and addressing health inequalities.

Tabitha Gardner

Chief Finance Officer

Tabitha joined the Trust as Chief Finance Officer in March 2023 and brings a vast amount of knowledge and experience to the role having worked in NHS finance at various different Trusts in the North West. From 2019, Tabitha held the role of Director of Finance at the Rochdale Care Organisation, part of the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust (NCA), where she delivered significant investment into the organisation as part of the Rochdale elective surgical offer. Prior to this, Tabitha spent eight years working as the Deputy Director of Finance for the North West branch of NHS England and during this time she led the financial management for Specialised Services which delivers numerous rare and complex services. She has also held finance leadership roles at Wirral NHS Foundation Trust, The Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust and spent some time outside the NHS working at KPMG

Tracy Narot

Chief People Officer

As Chief People Officer, Tracy leads the Trust’s people strategy with a clear purpose: to create a workplace colleagues would recommend and a care environment patients and colleagues can trust. With more than three decades of experience in human resources and organisational leadership, Tracy has led complex transformation across the public sector with compassion, integrity and a strong focus on reducing inequalities. She holds a Master’s degree in Strategic Human Resource Management and brings together Board-level insight, operational experience and a deep commitment to creating cultures where people and performance thrive together. Tracy believes that work should be good for people. Her leadership is grounded in compassionate, person-centred practice, fair systems and human-centred decision-making. She champions belonging, inclusion, psychological safety and continuous improvement, ensuring that colleagues feel valued, heard and able to contribute their best. For Tracy, workforce strategy is inseparable from patient care. By creating the conditions for colleagues to flourish, organisations can improve quality, safety and outcomes for the communities they serve. As she looks to the next stage of her executive career, Tracy is focused on leaving a lasting legacy: a health and care organisation where compassionate leadership is embedded in everyday practice, colleagues leave work with energy rather than depletion, and outstanding colleague experience translates into outstanding patient experience. “When we create work that works for our people, we create health and social care that works for everyone.”

Francine Thorpe

Non-Executive Director

Francine has had a long career in the NHS; her most recent post was Director of Quality and Innovation at NHS Salford Clinical Commissioning Group. As well as working as a commissioner, she has held senior leadership roles within acute hospitals, primary care and community services. Francine has a clinical background as a physiotherapist and during her career worked as a Physiotherapy Advisor to the Lead Allied Health Professional at the Department of Health. Over the last few years she has been involved in the development of integrated health and social care across the Salford locality and led a large quality improvement programme focused on medication safety, safer care homes and safer handover across care settings. With a keen interest in healthcare quality, safety improvement and safeguarding, Francine has also recently been appointed as Deputy Chair for WWL.

Julie Gill

Non-Executive Director

Julie has worked in senior roles across the public sector, including local government, housing, regeneration, policing and education and is currently a Chief Officer at Cheshire Constabulary, taking the lead on Business Services for Cheshire Police as part of the Chief Constable’s leadership team. Julie has many years of experience at board level covering finance, commercial and property management, change and digital strategy and HR workforce planning, across the various roles. Prior to working with the police, she has held Director of Resources roles at Cheshire West and Stoke councils, as well as wide ranging roles within the education sector and a national housing provider.

Mark Wilkinson

Non-Executive Director

Mark is an accomplished leader with extensive experience in healthcare, housing, and education sectors. Currently the Cheshire East Place Director, Mark oversees health integration to enhance care across the Cheshire and Merseyside region. His governance roles include Non-Executive Director positions with Mastercall Healthcare and Bolton at Home, and Edge Hill University, where he drives strategic and patient/student centred improvements. Previously Mark has held senior NHS roles, such as Executive Director of Planning and Performance at Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board as well as commissioning Chief Executive roles, managing major budgets, performance, and strategic transformations and his career is marked by a commitment to innovation, community impact, and operational excellence. Born and raised in Stockport, Mark now lives near Ormskirk and is delighted to have secured this opportunity at his local NHS organisation helping to shape the services he and his family depend on.

Mary Moore RN

Non-Executive Director

Mary is a retired Executive Chief Nurse having spent 44 years on an NHS career trajectory from Bedside to Board. Mary’s experience was primarily in acute settings until commencing national improvement roles with the Department of Health and Social Care from 2000 – 2010. Returning to NHS acute and commissioning organisations in her executive roles in recent years. Mary has chosen to enthusiastically continue with leadership roles post-retirement in Non-Executive and Interim Executive roles and is delighted to join the WWL family. Mary is currently in her second term as a Clinical Non-Executive Director and Maternity Champion at NHS Stockport FT, a role that will compliment her appointment to WWL being part of the wider Greater Manchester health and care system.

Simon Holden

Non-Executive Director

Simon was previously the Chief Finance Officer, and Deputy Chief Executive, for the Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust. He has held many senior posts within the NHS, including being the first Chief Executive of NHS Property Services, a national organisation, based in London and responsible to the Department of Health, with over 4,000 buildings, and employing 3,000 people, from its establishment in 2012, up until 2015. Simon is a passionate supporter of the NHS, having originally joined as an Apprentice at Blackpool Victoria Hospital, aged 18, and has over 40 years NHS finance experience. He has subsequently mainly undertaken a number of Finance Director roles both in Commissioning and Provider organisations. In addition, Simon has also undertaken a number of Non-Executive roles including Treasurer of Disability Positive (2004 to 2022), and Chairman of Pear Tree Primary Academy School (2005 to present). Simon is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants (FCCA), and also a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS). He joined Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh on 1 July 2024, and is Chair of the Audit Committee, which also includes responsibility for Counter Fraud initiatives, succeeding Ian Haythornthwaite.