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Bupa Foundation Board

The Bupa Foundation is run by a board, which meets quarterly to consider applications.

Professor Parveen Kumar succeeded Dame Deirdre Hine as Chairman of The Bupa Foundation on 1 March 2011. The chair and the majority of the governors are from external bodies. They provide expertise across a range of research and clinical areas.

Professor Parveen Kumar (CBE, BSc, MD, FRCP, FRCPE) is Professor of Medicine and Education at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of London, and an honorary consultant gastroenterologist and general physician at Barts and the London NHS Trust. She previously also worked at the Homerton University Foundation NHS Trust. She is currently President of the Royal Society of Medicine. Parveen's main research interests are in small bowel disorders (particularly coeliac disease). She also has a major interest in education – undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing professional development (CPD). She developed and co-edits/authors a major textbook - Kumar and Clark's Clinical Medicine - for students and doctors, as well as other books. In the past, Parveen has been the Chairman of the Medicines Commission UK, a non-executive director of the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE), and a non-executive director of an acute hospital trust. She has held several positions at the Royal College of Physicians including Vice President and senior censor, Director of Continuing Professional Development and associate Director for international education. She is a past President of the British Medical Association. She is currently a trustee of the Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET), the British Society of gastroenterology, and the South African Consortium for Research Excellence (SACORE). She was a trustee of the Medical College of St Bartholomew’s Hospital Trust and also CancerBackup

Paul studied medicine at Cambridge and then Guys hospital, qualifying in 1986. He then went on to train as a GP in Oxford before becoming a GP Principle in 1991 which continued until Dec 2011. He commenced his NHS management career during the development of Fund Holding and spent some time working with the early NHS Modernisation Agency In 2002. He set up and became CEO of one of the first Care Trusts in the country, merging health and adult social care into one organisation. Paul then went on to be the CEO of the neighbouring PCT, Chelmsford, and developed experience of financial and service turnaround. In the 2006 NHS reorganisation he was appointed as CEO of North East Essex PCT and was subsequently asked to run Great Yarmouth and Waveney PCT. In January 2010 he became CEO of NHS Cambridgeshire and subsequently CEO of NHS Peterborough in July 2010. In July 2010 Paul was also asked to lead the development of GP consortia in the East of England which expanded to cover the Midlands and East when SHAs clustered in Oct 2012. In Feb 2011 Paul joined the Kings Fund as Medical Advisor and Primary Care Advisor. In July 2012 Paul became the Group Medical Director of Bupa and is now Bupa’s Chief Medical Officer. Paul is a clinician with extensive leadership experience at national, regional and local levels. His leadership style is passionate and innovative borne out of his clinical background. Paul is married with a daughter and son, both at university. His interests include photography, running and playing the piano.

Before joining PwC as a Director, Fiona was Director of Chronic Disease and Health Promotion at the World Health Organisation with five years experience as Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Director General in the UK Government responsible for Health Improvement and Health Inequalities. She is a high profile public health leader with a track record of reframing thinking and developing innovative policy at the heart of government. An effective communicator with wide ranging social policy, delivery and senior health service experience. She is able to apply thinking from other sectors and countries, to find strategic fit between diverse interests and to come up with practical solutions based on a clear vision. An experienced international advisor, board member, public health director, lecturer, consultant, trustee and clinician. Fiona is currently an international adviser to the Royal College of Physicians, an advisor to the Hong Kong Government and is a visiting Professor at UCL, Brunel and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She has published extensively and is a co-editor of the “Health Practitioner’s Guide to Climate Change”.

Stephen Duffy is Professor Cancer Screening at Queen Mary University of London, and director of the Policy Research Unit in Cancer Awareness, Screening and Early Diagnosis, funded by the Department of Health. He was trained as a statistician, educated at the University of Edinburgh and Imperial College, London. He has worked in the UK, France, Singapore, Sweden, Denmark and Russia. He specialises in evaluation of cancer screening programmes, cancer epidemiology, and statistical methods for epidemiological studies. He has worked on various mammography screening trials, including the pioneering Swedish Two-County Trial, which informed the set-up of the UK National Breast Screening Programme, the Gothenburg Trial, the UK Breast Screening Frequency Trial, the FH01 study of mammography in young women with a family history of breast cancer and the CADET studies of computer aided detection in mammography.

Dr Judy Evans is a Consultant Plastic Surgeon who is based in Plymouth. She was educated at Oxford and Charing Cross Hospital, she has worked in Hong Kong, Norwich, Leicester and Plymouth. She has been on the Council of both her Specialist organisations, BAPS and BAAPS. she is currently a Council Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Dr Evans' interests within her speciality are burns , Melanoma research and surgery for women , she has written on all these topics. Dr Evans has been a long term member of the WIST (Women in Surgical Training initiative) and was the regional representative for SW England for many years. She is an Examiner for the Intercollegiate board for Surgical examinations, based in Edinburgh. Dr Evans has a long history of campaigning on equality issues.

Duncan is a Consultant Geriatrician at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. He was appointed as Associate International Director for Far East and Australasia at the Royal College of Physicians in 2009 and is involved with the College as a Member of the Examining Board for the Diploma in Geriatric Medicine. He has played an active role in the British Geriatrics Society (BGS) since 1998 having held several key positions, most notably, as Chair of England Council of BGS and Chair of the Older People's Specialist Forum, a multidisciplinary group providing advice to the Department of Health (England). In the past, with colleagues in his specialty he has been involved in providing a training programme for Geriatric Fellows in the Veterans Hospitals in Taiwan. This has included providing experience for the Geriatric Fellows in the UK and, subsequently, advising the first graduates of the training programme on developing their new geriatric services. He has advised the Malaysian and Singaporean Ministries of Health on ageing and has worked with colleagues on the development of educational programmes in primary care, old age psychiatry and geriatric medicine in Malaysia.

Steve joined Bupa in June 2009 as Group Director of Corporate Affairs. His areas of responsibility are corporate communications, media relations, public and government affairs. Before joining Bupa, Steve was the Director of Corporate Affairs at PepsiCo UK, one of the world’s leading food and drinks businesses, where he led all their external facing activity. Before that he ran the media relations and government affairs practice of DLA Piper, the global law firm, advising a large number of blue chip companies, public bodies, trade associations and foreign governments.

Tony Kendrick qualified in medicine at St George's, London, in 1981. Following five years as a full-time GP in Surrey, he was awarded a national Mental Health Foundation Research Training Fellowship, completing his MD at St George's on the care of the long-term mentally ill in general practice. He then became Senior Lecturer and then Reader in General Practice and Primary Care at St George's. In 1998 he was appointed as Professor and Head of the Department of Primary Medical Care at the School of Medicine, University of Southampton. In 2001 he became Director of the Community Clinical Sciences Division of the School and in 2008 was appointed Associate Dean for Clinical Research for the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences. He led the development of the highly successful clinical academic training programme at Southampton from 2006 onwards. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise his group was ranked third highest in the UK for quality. As Co-Director of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Comprehensive Local Research Network, he helped the network achieve the highest recruitment figures in England in 2009. He took up the post of Dean of Hull York Medical School in September 2010. He continues to practise part-time as a GP. His research over 20 years has been influential in changing the management of schizophrenia and depression in primary care. His work on structured assessments of people with long term mental health problems informed the development of quality indicators for regular review of patients in the GP contract quality and outcomes framework (QOF). His research into the GP identification and management of depression informed the NICE guidelines on depression and also informed the development of quality indicators for depression in the QOF. His work is therefore in line with the Foundation’s commitment to funding applied research in the community.

Judith became a partner at Sayer Vincent in 2006. Sayer Vincent has been specialising in serving charities and social enterprises for almost thirty years. The firm was voted number 1 for charity expertise in November 2011 by the readers of Charity Finance magazine. Judith’s current role involves auditing, training for grant makers and other advice and support. She has also worked at KPMG for a range of commercial clients. She moved to Germany and broadened her experience, learning German in three months. Judith worked at the Hounslow and Spelthorne Health Authority. Her work here involved her being assigned to the team working on the national waiting list initiative focusing on the ENT and Orthopaedic lists at the authority. Her role also involved capital planning. Currently, Judith is on the board and Finance and General Purposes Committee of a charity. This is a role she has had since 2004. The charity, Life Opportunities Trust, supports individuals with learning disabilities.

Hugh is Professor of Intensive Care at University College, London where he directs the Institute for Human Health and Performance. He is a consultant intensivist at the Whittington Hospital in North London. His research themes include the investigation of ‘mechanisms of health’- on the basis that their disregulation causes disease. Work in this field, supported by the Bupa Foundation, led to the discovery of the ‘first gene for human fitness’ and to the trial of a new therapy in cancer cachexia. He has an interest in musculoskeletal health and disease, and has studied the influence of exercise in the preservation of skeletal and muscle pass, and its genetic regulation. His work also addresses human adaptation to hypoxia. In the latter regard, he was the science lead for the Caudwell Xtreme Everest programme of research in 2007. Hugh is heavily engaged in activity relating to climate change mitigation and is a Greater London Authority in sustainability. He is a keenly aware of the relationship between lifestyle and (ill) health, and chairs the Evaluation Board for the 'exercise' theme of the UK Government 'Responsibility Deal'. Hugh gave the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in 2007, and is the author of several children’s books.

Bhavin joined Bupa Ltd in 2010 as the Head of the Central Finance Team. His areas of responsibility are the Bupa Ltd head office financials and his team produce the Bupa Foundation management and statutory accounts. Prior to Bupa, Bhavin worked as a Financial Controller for International SOS, a niche multinational healthcare and security services provider. His interests in healthcare stem from a combined science and business background together with wide ranging practical experience of the management and care of individuals with multiple chronic conditions. Before his roles in healthcare, Bhavin worked in several finance roles within the retail sector for Bhs Ltd, mainly in the financial control environment. His areas of responsibility encompassed financial reporting, corporation tax, VAT, treasury and capital management across a group of six companies. Before Bhs Ltd, Bhavin qualified as a chartered accountant (ICAEW) working mainly in external audit where he gained experience across 9 business sectors, managing audits for start-up companies through to a FTSE 100 listed plc. He is currently a governor at Pinner Park School where he contributes his strong financial expertise and analytical skills.

Gin Warren (Dr Virginia Warren MA MD FFPH) qualified in medicine at Addenbrooke's in 1980 and gained her MD for work on the dietary management of Crohn's disease and irritable bowel syndrome. She trained in public health in East Anglia, but her last senior registrar job was at the Faculty of Public Health running the Purchasing Development Project for the then Conference of Colleges (Academy of Medical Royal Colleges). In 1995 she was appointed Assistant Medical Director in the Group Medical Team at Bupa, where she has developed very rapid health technology appraisal of new tests and treatments (her clinical audit against NICE Interventional Procedures output hovers around 90% concordance). National committees have included an NIHR Invention for Innovation committee, the Joint Colleges' Clinical Genetics committee and the Association of British Insurers' genetics committee and a Continuing Care Conference working party on genetics and insurance. Gin's current special interest is the translation of cell based therapies into everyday practice as a member of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills' Technology Strategy Board VALUE project on Commercialising Stem Cells. Away from work, Gin is involved in teaching public health to University of Cambridge clinical students, is a governor of The Perse School, Cambridge and a trustee of East Anglia's Children's Hospices. She sits on an NIHR (National Institute for Health Research) Invention for Innovation committee, on the medical royal colleges' Joint Committee on Clinical Genetics, and on the Association of British Insurers' genetics committee. She is involved in teaching public health to University of Cambridge clinical students, is a trustee of East Anglia's Children's Hospices, and is a governor of the Perse School.

Mary qualified as a general nurse at the Wolfson School of Nursing, Westminster Hospital in 1976 and gained Registration as a Mental Health Nurse in 1979 from the Bethlem Royal and Maudsley School of Nursing. She then worked in the NHS as a District Nurse, Ward Sister and Nursing Officer. During the latter period of NHS employment she studied at the Extra Mural Department of the University of London through the Royal College of Nursing gaining a Diploma in Nursing (1984) and a Diploma in Nursing Education (1985). She subsequently gained a Masters in Nursing from the University of Wales 1987 and a PHD from King’s College in 1994. During this period of “learning and earning” she held appointments in nurse education and research at The Nightingale School of Nursing (1981-1983), held a joint appointment at the Bethlem and Maudsley School of Nursing with the Institute of Psychiatry (1984 – 1986) and an appointment at the Royal College of Nursing (1987-1989). In 1989 she moved to the West Country, continuing research in London while working part time in Plymouth School of Nursing. She became Academic Director of Tor & South West College of Health Studies (1994 - 1995) and was appointed Head of the Institute of Health Studies at the University of Plymouth in 1996. During the last decade she has been involved in the successful bidding processes for the Peninsula Medical School and new initiatives in Dietetic and Physiotherapy education. She was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Health and Social Work in 2003, Pro Vice-Chancellor Health in 2005, Deputy Vice-Chancellor in 2007 and Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor in 2010. Her main research interests are in the mental health domain, including evaluating effectiveness of services for users and carers and nurse education. She was the Inaugural Editor of the Journal of Clinical Nursing, 2001 – 2004 and is a regular reviewer for three journals. Her publications include four books, some 40 articles and editorials in academic journals and she has secured research funding from a range of bodies including the NHS, the Inner City Partnership and the English National Board for Nursing. Her most recent publication was in January 2011: Sherrie Hitchen, Mary Watkins, Graham R. Williamson, Susan Ambury, Gillian Bemrose, David Cook, Maureen Taylor, (2011) "Lone voices have an emotional content: focussing on mental health service user and carer involvement", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 24 Iss: 2, pp.164 – 177. She is regularly invited to contribute as a conference speaker and was a member of the NICE appraisal Committee (2000-2006) and of the UKCC for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visitors (1996 – 2001) and served on the Department of Health Mental Health Nursing Reviews in 2004/5. She is currently a Non-Executive Director of the South Western Ambulance NHS Trust, and was appointed to the Bupa Foundation Board in 2007.

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