Board of Directors
The Board of Directors oversees the work of our Trust and is responsible for ensuring the quality and safety of healthcare services, education training, and research delivered by the Trust.
The Trust must apply the principles and standards of clinical governance set out by the Department of Health, the Care Quality Commission, and other relevant NHS bodies. The Board ensures the Trust adheres to those principles and that we exercise our functions effectively, efficiently, and economically.
Our Trust Board comprises the Chair, Chief Executive, Non-Executive Directors (NEDS) and Executive Directors. The Chief Executive is the accountable officer and the Executive Directors are responsible for the day-to-day management of their respective divisions.
Chair
Graham Ward - Chair
Graham joined the Board in December 2015.
He took over from Claire Ward as the Trust's Acting Chair in May 2024 before he was appointed its Chair on a substantive basis in February 2025.
Graham is a Chartered Accountant who worked in the accountancy profession and industry before moving into management consultancy where he worked for 16 years with PwC and Deloitte as a senior director.
Graham was then appointed as commercial director at the University of Nottingham, a position he held from September 2004 until October 2013.
Within the NHS Graham was appointed as a non-executive director of Nottingham City Hospital NHS Trust in November 2004, a role he held for 16 months, before joining Nottingham City PCT/CCG as a non-executive director from March 2007 until November 2015. More recently Graham joined Queen Elizabeth Hospital Kings Lynn NHS Foundation Trust as a non-executive director in August 2019.
Graham now runs his own consultancy business and also holds positions as a board member (vice chair) with Acis Group (a housing association) and as a non-executive director with Mission Room Limited, a technology company based in Nottingham.
Chief Executive
David Selwyn - Acting Chief Executive
In May 2024, David became the Trust’s Acting Chief Executive tasked with strengthening the Sherwood Forest Hospitals clinical voice within the healthcare system.
He continues to be actively involved as a clinician, dealing with the competing demands of anaesthesia and adult critical care.
Before beginning his leadership journey, David was a regional advisor for eight years, an inaugural-intensive Care Medicine (ICM) Training Programme Director and a Faculty Tutor.
David was appointed as the inaugural Director of the Centre for Perioperative Care (CPOC) in May 2019, tasked with establishing and developing CPOC as a truly cross-organisational, multidisciplinary initiative led by the Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA), facilitating cross-organisational working on perioperative care for patient benefit. He has been recently appointed to a second term as CPOC Director.
Prior to becoming Director of CPOC, David was the Chairman of the RCoA Clinical Directors’ Network – a national network of medical leaders in anaesthesia, intensive care and pain management. He continues to be a member of College council and representative on a number of the major College quality, safety and professional standards committees and also lectures locally, regionally and nationally on medical leadership.
David was appointed Medical Director in December 2019. He was previously the Deputy Medical Director at Nottingham University Hospitals. He has also been appointed as the Trust’s Chief Clinical Information Officer.
In August 2022, David was appointed as Deputy Chief Executive.
Executive Directors
Phil Bolton - Executive Chief Nurse
RN, MSc, Honorary Associate Professor, School of Health Sciences
Phil was appointed as Chief Nurse in May 2022. Phil previously worked in Trauma/Orthopaedics, Urgent and Emergency Care; Geriatrics, Stroke and Neurology; and as Hospital Matron at Newark. He later became Deputy Chief Nurse until September 2020 when he moved to University Hospitals of Derby and Burton as Director of Nursing and then Interim Chief Nurse.
Phil is committed to putting a strong focus on the fundamentals of care and the key things that matter to our patients and their family members, he also wants us treat each other as we would like to be treated – to be kind, to listen and to be inclusive.
Sally Brook Shanahan - Director of Corporate Affairs
Sally Brook Shanahan joined Sherwood Forest Hospitals as the Trust’s Director of Corporate Affairs in May 2023.
Sally joined the Trust from Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) where her background as a solicitor, her wealth of public service, and her strengths in corporate governance will serve her – and the Trust – well in her new role.
Sally is the Trust’s Executive lead for Information Governance, Risk Assurance and Community Involvement. She also oversees the work of Trust’s Corporate Secretariat.
Simon Illingworth - Chief Operating Officer
Simon joined the Trust in July 2025 from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn NHS Foundation Trust, where he served as its Chief Operating Officer since August 2023.
Richard Mills - Chief Financial Officer
Richard was appointed as Chief Financial Officer in June 2022. Richard previously served as the Trust’s Deputy Chief Financial Officer since April 2019 before becoming its Interim Chief Financial Officer in October 2021.
Richard has over 15 years’ experience in NHS finance and, among his other portfolios, is responsible for overseeing the financial sustainability of the Trust, where he takes an active role in system-wide partnership working as we move into the new era of statutory integrated care systems.
Dr. Simon Roe - Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Roe originally joined Sherwood Forest Hospitals as its Deputy Medical Director from Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust in November 2023.
He stepped up to become its Acting Medical Director in May 2024 and accepted the Trust’s offer to become its Chief Medical Officer, the Trust's highest-ranking medical role.
He had previously worked clinically for a number of years at Sherwood, as well as having previously served as the Trust's clinical lead for its medicine division in a previous spell at Sherwood.
Robert Simcox - Chief People Officer
BA, MA, FCIPD
Robert has been with Sherwood Forest Hospitals as its Deputy Director of People since April 2016 before he became the Trust's Director of People in June 2022.
Robert now leads the Trust’s People Directorate, which supports the Trust’s workforce to be the best they can be, along with leading system-wide collaboration regarding the people agenda.
Robert continues to oversee the work that has helped Sherwood Forest Hospitals to be named as the best acute hospital to work for across the East Midlands in the National NHS Staff Survey each year since 2018.
Non-Executive Directors
Steve Banks - Vice Chair and Non-Executive Director
Steve was appointed as a Non-Executive Director in December 2021.
He has been a Non-Executive Director at the Nottinghamshire NHS Foundation Trust for six years, ending in January 2022, and was previously a Governor at that Trust. He is also Chair of The Tinnitus Clinic Ltd and Chair of Governors at Nottingham High School.
His previous posts include Director of Professional Standards and Superintendent Pharmacist, IT Director, and a Director of HR all at Boots UK.
Steve’s first degree was in Pharmacy and he has since completed an MBA at Nottingham University. He has lived in Nottinghamshire with his family for nearly 30 years.
Steve became the Trust's Vice Chair in June 2025, taking over from Barbara Brady.
Barbara Brady - Non-Executive Director
Barbara is a registered general nurse and a specialist in Public Health, who was Director of Public Health for Nottinghamshire until March 2018.
Barbara lives in Newark and combines her Non-Executive position on the Board with occasional consultancy work for the Local Government Association, which supports the Care and Health Improvement programme with local authorities and partners across England.
Barbara is also the Trust's Senior Independent Director (SID).
Richard Cotton - Non-Executive Director
Richard Cotton was appointed in February 2025 to bring further strategic financial leadership experience to the Trust, having spent much of his career in the private sector in a range of industries, including with pharmaceutical and medical technology companies.
Mr Cotton has previously worked in several public company Chief Financial Officer roles and now carries out several Non-Executive Director (NED) roles in the pharmaceutical and medical technology sectors. He is also part of the Trust’s Finance and Partnerships and Communities Committees.
Manjeet Gill - Non-Executive Director
Manjeet Gill joined the Trust in November 2019. Manjeet has a range of Board and chief executive-level experience across local government and the NHS. She is passionate about health equalities, community engagement and organisational development to achieve the full potential of people in delivering excellent services.
Manjeet has experience of system change as strategic commissioner, mental health and local government services including social care and housing. Her transformation experience includes improving corporate and partnership governance and delivery, estate reconfiguration, leadership and cultural change, performance turnaround and customer and digital strategies for new models of service delivery.
Her previous roles as a NED have been at a Mental Health Foundation Trust and a national Charity responsible for developing community and voluntary sector groups.
Manjeet has advised on national policies as society of local authority chief officers policy lead for housing and leadership and currently for health and well-being. She is also currently a government appointed NED appointed on the independent office for police conduct.
Lisa Maclean - Non-Executive Director
Lisa Maclean joined Sherwood Forest Hospitals in February 2025, having previously served as a Director of Nursing in a number of NHS and independent sector organisations, as well as having worked as a nurse in acute, psychiatric and forensic psychiatric settings.
Ms Maclean was also a director of a military charity and a hospice. She also serves on the Trust’s Quality and Finance Committees.
Neil McDonald - Non-Executive Director
Neil has lived in Nottinghamshire since 1999 and joined the Trust Board as Non-Executive Director in December 2023. He has 38 years’ experience in the rail industry, having started out as an engineering apprentice.
After 27 years in engineering, he moved into general management as Managing Director of the Industrial Business Unit of EWS Railways/DeutscheBahn (DB), followed by a period as Head of Sales. In 2015, he became the Chief Operating Officer of the first heavy haul Railway in the UAE, a joint venture between DB and Etihad Rail. For five years, he was a Non-Executive Director of the Railway Safety and Standards Board, representing freight members.
Since 2018, he has been a member of the Board of Governors for West Nottinghamshire College where has been a member of the Senior Postholder and Governance Committee and Chair of the Audit Committee.
He has an MBA from Nottingham Trent University and brings 20 years’ executive management experience to the Trust Board.
Andrew Rose-Britton - Non-Executive Director
Andrew was appointed as a Non-Executive Director in April 2022. He has an MBA in Finance from Nottingham University and is a Chartered Accountant.
His recent experience in the healthcare sector has been as a Board Trustee of the mental health charities MHM and Waymarks.
Within the NHS he was a Non-Executive Director of Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust from 2004-2008, where he chaired the Audit committee and Finance committee at various times.
Commercially he was Finance Director and Company Secretary of a retail pharmacy from 1995 to 2012. He has lived in Nottinghamshire since 1988.
Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam - Associate Non-Executive Director (Research and Innovation)
Professor Sir Jonathan Van-Tam (JVT) was appointed as an Associate Non-Executive Director on the Trust’s Board of Directors, with a specific focus on research and innovation, in February 2025.
‘JVT’ will be familiar to many from his time helping to lead the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, where he became a familiar face as the government’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, leading on health protection between October 2017 to March 2022.
His significant clinical experience in emergency medicine, anaesthesia, general medicine, infectious diseases and the pharmaceutical industry, along with over 30 years as a leading medical researcher in Nottingham, supports Sherwood Forest Hospital’s ambition to further its research and innovation efforts that saw it involve over 5,000 participants in its research in the 2023/24 financial year alone.
Contact the Directors
You can contact the Executive and Non-Executive Directors through the Trust Secretary on 01623 622515, extension 3509.
