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Executive Directors

Cara Charles-Barks MBE- Group Chief Executive Officer

Cara was appointed as BSW Hospitals Group Chief Executive Officer in November 2024. Prior to this she was Chief Executive Officer of RUH Bath from September 2020, and SFT from January 2017 to September 2020.

A nurse by background, Cara has over 30 years’ experience in senior leadership roles gained in private and public healthcare sectors, and has been named as one of the NHS's top 50 Chief Executives six times.

In June 2019, Cara was awarded an MBE for inspirational and outstanding leadership, in recognition of her leadership of SFT during the Novichok incident. She was also appointed Honorary Colonel of 243 Multi-Role Medical Regiment (MMR), part of the Army Reserve Medical Services, in the same year.

Cara is also a visiting Professor in the Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences at the University of the West of England.

Cara has a proven track record in delivering complex, organisational change. Her drive and commitment to collaborative working and creating a culture where people feel included, innovation thrives and the people that work in our hospitals and the people we care for have an exceptional experience.

Simon Wade - Group Chief Finance Officer

Simon has over 6 years’ experience as a Board Director and was appointed Group Chief Finance Officer in November 2025. He has significant leadership experience gained in senior finance roles across the NHS, prior to his appointment he was Chief Financial Officer at Great Western Hospitals from 2020, and Deputy Director of Finance at the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust from 2015.

Simon is also the Executive lead for Estates, Facilities and Strategic Redevelopment and is focused on using resources wisely to support high-quality care and long-term sustainability. He is a Member of Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy.

Jonathan Hinchliffe - Group Chief Digital and Information Officer

Jonathan took up this role in April 2025. He has led significant national digital transformation and national services and programmes within NHS Digital/England, Ministry of Defence, Home Office and across central government organisations. Jonathan previously worked at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and has extensive experience in digital strategy and innovation, including digital services delivery, EPR implementation, new hospital programme and digital strategy for the future of healthcare delivery.

Jude Gray - Group Chief People Officer

Jude is a seasoned HR executive with over 20 years of leadership experience across the BBC, His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service, and the NHS. From reshaping the BBC’s operating model for the digital age, to implementing the government’s Transforming Rehabilitation programme, and now supporting the delivery of the NHS’s 10 year plan, Jude’s experience has been about leading people-centred, future-focused transformation, and navigating large-scale change. Jude’s leadership is focused on building a compassionate, inclusive, and high-performing workforce that delivers excellent care.

Mark Ellis - Group Chief Risk Officer

Mark has over 20 years' leadership experience across finance, strategy and transformation, governance and risk. He was appointed Chief Risk Officer in Jan 2026, and prior to this was Chief Finance Officer at SFT for three years. Mark champions culture and capability and has mentored emerging leaders in continuous improvement to help bring risk and performance capability across clinical and corporate teams. Mark is passionate about enabling colleagues to turn insight into action for our population and workforce.

Andrew Hollowood - Group Chief Clinical Transformation Officer

Andy was appointed into the role of Group Chief Clinical Transformation Officer in September 2025. He is a Cancer surgeon with extensive clinical expertise and leadership experience gained over 20 years. He was appointed as Group Chief Clinical Transformation Officer in October 2025. Prior to this Andy was Interim Managing Director for the RUH from 1 November 2024 and Chief Medical Officer for the RUH from November 2022.

Andy is passionate about patient-led service transformation and innovation. He has extensive experience in leading complex change, he was Clinical Strategy lead at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston, and site Chief Medical Officer for Weston General Hospital where he led a significant program to transform services to ensure they were sustainable and based on population need.

Judy Dyos - Interim Group Chief Strategy Officer

Judy was appointed Interim Group Strategy Officer in February 2026. Prior to this she held the position of Chief Nursing Officer and Executive Director at Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust since 2020.

Judy has an extensive nursing profile and holds an MSc in advanced critical care practice and a Post Graduate Certificate in research from Kinds College London. She completed an internship with the National Institute in Research undertaking primary research related to Critical Care and worked at the University of Southampton for two years as a visiting lecturer in the Faculty Heath Science. She is a Salzburg Global Fellow and a Sciana European Health Leaders fellow

Her recent work has been focused on delivering an operational excellence model leading to continuous improvement, population health, and health inequity.

Managing Director, Salisbury Hospital - Nick Johnson

Managing Director, Salisbury Hospital - Nick Johnson
Nick was appointed Managing Director of Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust 1 September 2025. He has significant leadership experience from across the NHS and local government. Before joining Salisbury, he held senior roles at Dorset County Hospital, including Deputy Chief Executive, Interim Chief Executive and held a joint executive role between Dorset County Hospital and Dorset Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust overseeing areas including strategy, transformation, improvement, digital and partnerships.

Nick has led major transformation programmes, secured investment for new facilities, and built strong partnerships across organisations.

Duncan Murray - Chief Medical Officer, Salisbury

Duncan has worked in the NHS for more than 30 years after medical training in Cape Town. He joined SFT in January 2000 as a Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine, having completed specialist training in the Oxford region, with additional experience in Sydney.

He has held a number of medical leadership roles in the organisation over the last 16 years at service and divisional level, most recently as Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Associate Medical Director for the BSW Acute Hospital Alliance.

Duncan was appointed as interim Chief Medical Officer in August 2024, and to the substantive position in October 2024.

Niall Prosser - Chief Operating Officer, Salisbury

Niall joined Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust as Chief Operating Officer in January 2024. He brings to us significant NHS operational management experience having previously worked within the BSW and Bristol systems.

Before joining SFT, Niall had Interim Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Operating Officer roles at the Royal United Hospital Bath. Prior to working within Bath, he also undertook director roles within transformation, commissioning and divisional management.

Niall has a strong track record of helping services through to supporting clinical teams to find their own solutions to the current challenges, helping services to innovate and evolve to ensure excellent patient outcomes and experience.

TBC - SFT Chief Nursing Officer

Non-Executive Directors

Paul von der Heyde - Group Chair

Appointed Joint Chair for BSW Hospitals Group in April 2026, Paul brings over 40 years' board-level experience across the NHS and commercial sectors. Paul has a proven track record in governance, partnership working and organisational transformation.

Paul previously served as Chair of NHS Somerset Integrated Care Board and as Chair of Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, where he also held roles as a Non Executive Director and Chair of the Audit Committee.

A Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Paul spent much of his early career in central London specialising in corporate finance and business development. He has also held senior executive roles, including 11 years as Chief Executive of the UK arm of an international group.

Paul is committed to improving health outcomes and ensuring people have timely access to high quality care.

Bernie Morley

A molecular geneticist by training, Bernie has worked at a number of Universities throughout his career before moving to the University of Bath in 2010 where he remained until 2021. During his tenure Bernie held the position of Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching), Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost 5 and acting Vice-Chancellor.

Bernie has a passion for education and enabling students from different backgrounds to achieve their potential. He was Chair of the highly successful £40M Institute of Coding, a collaboration between Universities and Industry partners which delivered skills training at all levels with the objective of widening participation.

Since retiring, Bernie has continued to work with a number of Universities as a consultant on a wide range of education, building and planning projects.

Prior to his Group Non-Executive Director role, Bernie served as a Non-Executive Director for Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust since 2023.

Chris Burton

Chris qualified as a doctor in 1987 and has spent the majority of his career in the NHS, including work in Bristol and Southmead Hospitals. After three years as Clinical Director of the Renal and Transplantation Directorate, Chris was appointed to the Board of North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) as Executive Medical Director in 2009. During his time on the board, the Trust successfully underwent significant change, including hospital moves and EPR modernisation.

Chris is passionate about the quality of patient care. Prior to his Group Non-Executive Director role, Chris served as a Non-Executive Director for Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust since 2025.

Faried Chopdat

Faried is a global executive, board advisor and coach, with over 30 years of experience across transformation, governance, risk, and leadership in 60+ countries. His career has spanned Deloitte, SABMiller plc, Travelex, and Finablr plc.

As founder of Equarius8 and co-founder of LEXN, he coaches C-suite executives, founders, and senior leaders through their most defining transitions — with a particular commitment to rising stars, women, LGBTQ+ and global-majority professionals.

Recognised as one of the Financial Times Top 100 LGBTQ+ Leaders, Faried leads from a simple belief: competence builds your career — character decides what you do with it.

Prior to his Group Non-Executive Director role, Faried served as a Non-Executive Director for Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust since 2021.

Joy Luxford

Joy comes from a financial background and is a chartered accountant with over 25 years of experience in finance, risk and audit supporting a wide range of complex organisations.

She was previously Chief Executive Officer of UK-based NGO Integrity Action, a role for which she was awarded a Director of the Year (South East) by the Institute of Directors. She has also served as Chair of the Board of Trustees at Julian House and Deputy Chair of the Board of Governors at Bath Spa University and is currently Chair Designate for Alliance Homes.

Prior to her Group Non-Executive Director role, Joy served as a Non-Executive Director for Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust since 2025.

Paul Cain

Paul's early career was in clinical and research roles as a Consultant in Occupational and Aviation Medicine in the Army before focussing entirely on healthcare leadership for the last 20 years. This involved leading multinational hospital and pre-hospital trauma systems during conflicts and the Defence Integrated Primary Healthcare system during COVID-19. During these he implemented multi-million-pound transformation programmes designed to improve infrastructure use and modernise health IT systems.

Moving to the newly formed UK Health Security Agency he was appointed Director General of Operations and was part of the senior leadership team directing the response to the Omicron variant and Monkeypox as well as acting as the Strategic Response Director for the Commonwealth Games.

Paul values integrity, believes strongly in empowering people and critically, not losing sight of delivering the kind of results that ensure organisations are doing their absolute best for patients.

Prior to his Group Non-Executive Director role, Paul has served as a Non-Executive Director for Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust since 2024.

Paul Fairhurst

Paul’s career spans the professional services, hospitality, beverages and non-profit sectors. He began his career as a corporate lawyer with international law firm Simmons & Simmons working on privatisations, mergers and acquisitions and public listings. He spent most of his career with InterContinental Hotels Group then drinks giant Diageo, leading teams to build partnerships, drive brand growth, and protect market presence and investments, primarily in emerging markets. He lived in Asia Pacific for 14 years before returning to the UK and joining the Executive Team of a medium-sized charity, leading on operations, strategy and planning.

Having sustained a life-changing injury, Paul is passionate about disability-related causes. He is a trustee of Designability, which uses person centred design to create products and services with and for disabled people, and of spinal cord injury charity Back Up. He retired in 2019 and is exploring new passions, including painting, sculpture and breathwork.

Prior to his Group Non-Executive Director role, Paul served as a Non-Executive Director for Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust since 2022.

Peter Knell

Prior to his Group Non-Executive Director role, Peter served as a Non-Executive Director for Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust.

Richard Samuel

Prior to his Group Non-Executive Director role, Richard served as a Non-Executive Director for Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust.

Richard Holmes

Richard has had a wide range of senior appointments with responsibility for business services including; IT, HR, estates, and infrastructure. However, Richard’s fundamental background is in finance and assurance as Finance Director and Chief Operating Officer, and corporate governance as Company Secretary.

Richard has a wealth of experience in serving on and chairing audit committees for large complex organisations and is also currently appointed to the audit committee of a charity that supports people to access higher education.

He has been instrumental in improving organisational systems of control and assurance in organisations across many sectors ranging from both large corporate organisations to small charities, from public to private and from education to manufacturing and construction.

Prior to his Group Non-Executive Director role, Richard served as a Non-Executive Director for Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust since January 2023.

Simon Harrod

Simon trained as an Anaesthetist in London and became a Consultant at St Bartholomew's Hospital in 1996. After several medical management roles, he was appointed as the Medical Director for the Royal London Hospital in 2015 and remained in the role until his retirement in 2022 when he moved to Amesbury.

Simon has witnessed and led on many changes during the course of his career and is interested in patient safety and improving the quality of healthcare for all patients. During his time as Medical Director he gained insight into forming and running a hospital as part of a Group - Barts Health. He is keen to use this experience to ensure BSW Hospitals Group reflects the needs of the community and staff as it evolves.

Prior to his Group Non-Executive Director role, Simon served as a Non-Executive Director for Royal United Bath NHS Foundation Trust since October 2024.

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