The Board

David has had a career in professional services for more than 25 years; initially as a chartered accountant and then for the majority of that time as a management consultant. He was a partner in Accenture, the leading global management consultancy, for more than 12 years and was responsible during that time for leading a large number of assignments for FTSE100 and other large, complex organisations operating at board level. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

On leaving Accenture he established a portfolio of interests in the charitable and public sectors. Before becoming chairman of Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, he held these posts:

• non-executive director of the Kent and Medway Strategic Health Authority
• chairman of Swale Primary Care Trust
• chairman of NHS West Kent
• interim chairman of NHS Medway
• trustee, vice-chair and chair of the Royal London Society for the Blind
• governor of a leading independent school and chair of its finance committee
• chair of two smaller not-for-profit organisations.

Prior to joining KCHFT as Chief Executive on 1 March, Paul was Director of Workforce and Communications at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust since 2011. He has worked in the NHS since 1987 and as an NHS Director since 1998 leading on strategy, organisational development and workforce and communications. During this time he was also interim Chief Executive in Surrey.

Paul undertook his graduate university education in the UK, before completing his post graduate education in the US.

He lives in South West London with his wife and has grown up children.

Peter has a professional background in banking and finance spanning 27 years, latterly as a finance director with Barclays Bank PLC. He now has a portfolio of primarily public sector roles and these include:

• non-executive director and audit chair of the Rural Payments Agency
• independent member of the Audit Committee of the Home Office
• independent member of the Audit Committee of the Ministry of Justice
• chairman of the Residents’ Scrutiny Panel of Moat Homes Ltd
• trustee director of Tonbridge Citizens’ Advice Bureau

Previous roles include non-executive director and audit chair of NHS West Kent and independent member and audit committee roles with DEFRA, the Health and Safety Executive and the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission.

Richard has a professional background in the manufacturing sector with large multi-national organisations, including Unilever and Dalgety. His career has involved sales and marketing, general management and running manufacturing businesses and multi-site operations. Mr Field has also worked in the animal feeds business and is now carrying out consultancy work with a large animal feeds manufacturing organisation. He is:

• member of Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust’s Audit and Risk Committee and Charitable Funds Committee
• chairman of Age UK Canterbury
• trustee of Age UK Sheppey
• director of the Canterbury Academy
• member and past president of the Canterbury Forest of Blean Rotary Club
• former non-executive director of Eastern and Coastal Kent Community Services
• former regional manager within a Unilever Agribusiness
• former regional general manager of Dalgety Agriculture
• former non-executive director of St Nicholas Court Farms Ltd.

Steve served for 39 years in Royal Army Medical Corps having joined as a soldier but later undergoing training at the Royal military Academy Sandhurst. He went on to command medical regiments, field hospitals and medical groups on operations in the Balkans and Middle East. He has held strategic and operational medical planning appointments in the UK, US, Australia and Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (NATO). He is:

• chair of Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust’s Quality Committee
• chair Kent NHS/Armed Forces’ Forum
• advisor to a large international consultancy firm who are undertaking a military medical transformation programme on behalf of a middle eastern client
• former non-executive director of Eastern and Coastal Kent Community Services
• former brigade commander (chief executive) of the army’s 11 deployable field hospitals
• former Ministry of Defence (MOD) director of medical operations responsible for contingency planning and strategic oversight of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. In this role he was also co-chair of the MOD/Department for Health (DH) Committee for Military-NHS Operational Co-operation and chair of a NATO Committee for Medical Standardisation.
• a fellow of the Institute of Healthcare Managers

Lesley trained as a general nurse in 1976 at Middlesex Hospital London and then pursued a clinical career in the community as a health visitor and district nurse. She moved into a management role in the community sector in 1988.

Lesley is:

• former primary care trust director of nursing and operations, Mid Sussex 2001
• former director of children’s services, West Sussex 2007
• former chief operating officer, East Sussex 2008
• former managing director, Greenwich Community Health Services 2011.

Louise has more than 30 years’ experience in NHS Human Resources and joins us from Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust.

She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

She has an MBA and an MA in Strategic Human Resources. She is a management side representative on the NHS Staff Council.

Louise lives with her husband in West Malling.