Board of Directors

Tony lives in Cheshire and has spent the majority of his executive career working for a FTSE 250 Aviation focused PLC, from 1995-2017.

His roles have included Head of Internal Audit, Group Financial Controller, Transformation Project Director and US-based Vice-President for the company’s global shared service centres.

Since 2018, when he left his executive position, Tony was a Non-Executive Director at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust and his roles have included that of  Deputy Chair and Chair of Audit. He has also serves as Audit Chair at Belong Ltd, a charity supporting elderly people with a focus on those living with dementia.  

Appointed as a Non-Executive Director in 2018, Lesley brings over 35 years' experience of working in the NHS; from the early years as a clinician and Occupational Therapist, through to a range of acute hospital sector senior operational and executive leadership positions.

Before stepping down in 2022, after 12 years, Lesley had been part of the startup and later, Chief Executive Officer for 'AQuA', The Advancing Quality Alliance. A northwest based NHS membership improvement agency, working with organisations across the country and accountable for large scale transformation programmes at local, regional, and national levels.

As an expert continuous improvement practitioner, Lesley brings extensive experience of designing and delivering complex change programmes and facilitating multi agency partnerships. As a qualified Executive Coach, Lesley continues to value and promote the importance of empowered, compassionate leadership and staff well-being.

Putting quality, safety, and best possible patient experience at the forefront of attention, Lesley remains committed to a relentless ambition of excellence in care for all.

Andy brings over 40 years of practitioner experience of digital strategy, change management, and business transformation to the Trust. He has experience across the full public sector including health, but also in financial services, manufacturing and energy. Andy’s early career was leading software engineering programmes and business units in the UK and Europe.  

Following a 20-year career in management consultancy (10 as a partner) in a global consulting firm, Andy was interim Director of IT at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals where he led improvements in delivery, service performance, and staff engagement.

In addition to his role as a Non-Executive Director at the Trust, which started in February 2020, Andy still works as a strategic advisor on digital healthcare and provides voluntary services in the third sectors.

Dr Wilson trained as a pharmacist and completed an MPhil by research in pharmacology before training in medicine, graduating from the University of Birmingham in 1996.

He worked as a hospital doctor at both Leighton and Macclesfield hospitals before completing his training as a GP practice in Sandbach.

After times as a locum GP, salaried GP and then GP Partner in Crewe he returned to Sandbach where he's been a partner for the last 13 years. From 2013 until 2020 Andrew was the Clinical Chair of NHS South Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and then in 2020 elected as the Clinical Chair of the then newly merged NHS Cheshire CCG, a post he held until 2022. Dr Wilson has been involved within quality improvement work for several years and was one of Advancing Quality Alliance’s (Aqua) Leadership for Improvement Fellows, he was also previously a board member of the Alliance.  

As well has his varied clinical interests which include musculoskeletal medicine and holistic approaches, he is interested in quality improvement and leadership. He is particularly passionate about the value of generalist like district nurses, practice nurses and GPs and about the use of the front line the care professional voice alongside those that use the services, in the redesign and improvement of services.

Terry Whalley is a former Governor of the Trust and brings a wealth of private and public sector experience, having spent more than 30 years leading transformational change across a variety of sectors.

He has spent the last 10 years working within the NHS and is currently New Models of Care Director for Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board.

Terry’s past and current experience of the NHS, as well as the health and care system, will support the delivery of the Trust’s priorities and ambitions.

Tony Okotie has worked in the voluntary sector for over 20 years and is currently the Director of Impact at BBC Children in Need, with responsibility for leading the charity’s grants teams and grant programmes across the UK.

He is an experienced Non-Executive Director, having held roles as Trustee and Chair of various voluntary organisations, including as a Non-Executive Director within the NHS for 13 years.

He is currently a Non-Executive Director, Deputy Chair and Senior Independent Director of Muir Housing Group and a Trustee at the Torus Foundation.

Diana Hampson MBE is a Chartered Surveyor who has recently retired from the role of Chief Property Officer at the University of Manchester, which she held for 27 years, and was awarded an MBE in 2020 for services to higher education and the community in Greater Manchester.

During her time with the University, Diana oversaw a significant remodelling of the estate, including many large and complex projects, delivering over £3 billion of capital development, the most ambitious capital build programme in the history of UK Higher Education.

Diana is also a Non-Executive Director at Onward Housing Association and brings her experience of construction and estates transformation specifically to our Healthier Futures programme.

Ian has 18 years’ NHS Board level experience with an exceptional track record of NHS service improvement and innovation. 

Ian began his career in NHS finance at Crewe Health Authority and since then he has operated in Finance Director roles in primary care, acute and specialist provider settings before moving onto a year with the then regulator, NHS Trust Development Authority (now NHS Improvement). 

He returned to the North West to join The Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust in 2014 as Chief Finance Officer. 

 Nicola has worked in and around the NHS for over 20 years ranging in working in policy development for NICE to operational management and leadership roles for NHS England and Acute Trusts. 

She has worked in a number of Trusts around London and the South East of England and has considerable experience in healthcare improvement and transformation, operational management, strategy and planning. Coming from an academic law background, Nicola has a LLB Law and LLM in Healthcare Law as well as qualifications in leadership and data protection. Nicola has particular interests in population health planning, collaborative leadership and evidence based policy development. 

Nicola joined MCHFT as Chief Operating Officer early in 2024 and her role will focus on operational performance, transformation and safe and efficient service delivery.

Denise has worked in the NHS for over 40 years and began her career as a biomedical scientist with a national higher certificate in Medical Laboratory Science followed by a Fellowship in Microbiology, Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety and accreditation as a clinical pathology assessor.

Following further development with a post graduate diploma and Masters in Business administration, Denise moved into general management at MCHFT and progressed from Divisional General Manager to an Executive Director, holding a number of portfolios included Chief Operating Officer until 2017 at which time she moved into developing the Community Services and other service developments for the Trust.

Denise continues her role with MCHFT undertaking a number of key projects and service developments as well as continuing the Executive lead for CCICP and taking a provider support role for both East and West Place, fulfilling her passion for continuous service development and improvement programmes.

Since January 2024 Russ has moved full time as the Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for the new Leighton Hospital build programme. Prior to this he was the Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer at the Trust. Russ has 30 years’ experience in the NHS and prior to joining Mid Cheshire in April 2019 was the Executive Director of Finance for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board - the largest health organisation in Wales. He has previously held the position of Director of Finance at the Cheshire, Warrington and Wirral Area Team of NHS England, where his responsibilities included commissioning £1.9bn of specialised services for the whole of the North West. He has also previously held a variety of Finance Director posts in the acute and commissioning sector. Russ is also the executive lead for Estates and Facilities and a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA).

Clare was appointed as Medical Director in June 2022, having previously held the post of Deputy Medical Director at the Trust. Clare graduated from the University of Liverpool and undertook postgraduate training in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine in the Mersey Deanery. She was appointed as a Consultant in these specialties at the Trust in 2013.

Clare has a keen interest in quality improvement and service transformation work and has completed fellowships in support of this. She is passionate about developing clinical leadership and has herself recently completed an MBA at The University of Exeter.

Clare is also the Trust’s Caldicott Guardian and maintains the role of Responsible Officer for the medical workforce within the Trust.

Scott has enjoyed a successful NHS career spanning more than 20 years. He has held several senior nursing leadership roles in large acute providers across the east and west midlands.

Scott holds a Diploma in Nursing, a Postgraduate Diploma in Advancing Practice, a Master’s in Leadership and NHS Management, and has published research into the role of the Clinical Nurse Specialist.

 Claire has over 20 years of healthcare expertise and brings a wealth of experience as a finance and innovation professional. She joins from Alder Hey Children’s where her previous role was Managing Director of Innovation and Commercial Director. At Alder Hey, Claire headed up the award-winning Innovation Centre, which includes a large team of over 40 healthcare open innovation experts that delivers the systematic approach to solving healthcare challenges through harnessing emerging technologies. Before working in innovation, Claire spent her previous career in various senior finance roles in the NHS including as Operational Finance Director at Alder Hey where she was part of the team who delivered the new hospital build and EPR in 2015. Claire graduated as an Orthoptist from the University of Liverpool, before deciding to progress her career in healthcare leadership.

Other roles include:

• Member of Liverpool City Region Combined Authority Innovation Board
• Advisor to Objectivity Healthcare Board

Claire was born in and studied at Liverpool and still lives in the city. She is enthusiastic about fitness and spending quality time eating out and traveling. with her family that includes two children and a french bulldog named Miss Lilly.

Nicola is a transformational leader with over 25 years-experience in leading people strategies in a variety of professional, public and private sectors. With a Masters in Strategic Human Resources Development as well as a being a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development her experience in Talent Management, Leadership & People Development alongside Organisational Development focusses on delivering cultural change and positive staff experience.

With a career that spans both public and private sector Nicola has joined Mid Cheshire from the Countess of Chester NHS Foundation Trust where she designed and delivered a people recovery plan the Trust. As Chief People Officer for West Midlands Police her leadership delivered a robust people plan in throughout COVID-19, ensuring both officers, staff and communities were kept safe.

Nicola’s role as Chief People Officer at Mid Cheshire will focus on ensuring our ‘Because You Matter’ commitment is at the heart of our Trust, working to place our people at the centre of our ambitious plans for now and the future.

Dylan has more than 20 years' experience in NHS senior digital leadership roles in England and Wales. He joined Mid Cheshire from the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in North Wales, where he was Chief Information Officer.

Prior to working in the NHS, Dylan held technical and analytics leadership roles in financial services and the electricity generation industry.

Dylan is passionate about applying data, digital technology, and quality improvement methodologies to improve outcomes and experiences for staff and patients.