News

The Yorkshire & Humber Academic Health Science Network has appointed Kathy Scott as Director of Operations and Deputy CEO.

Kathy joins the organisation from NHS England where she was Head of Innovation. She has been an integral part of NHS England’s management of AHSNs for the past two years and brings a wealth of experience from her previous national role.

As Director of Operations, Kathy takes on executive responsibility for ensuring that Yorkshire & Humber AHSN delivers on its contracted programmes of work, including management of the Project Management Office. She will also deputise for Richard Stubbs, Chief Executive Officer of Yorkshire & Humber AHSN as required.

In announcing Kathy’s appointment, Richard said: “I am delighted that Kathy has joined our team.

“Her undoubted talents and experience at a national level will be a great asset not only to us at Yorkshire & Humber but also to the Network as whole as we start our new licence period and take on new challenges.

“Now with national funding from NHS England, NHS Improvement and the Office of Life Sciences, our role is to work across health and social care services, industry and academia to drive the adoption of innovation and improvement into the NHS, enable improvements in clinical outcomes, deliver better patient experiences and stimulate wealth creation.

“We are addressing major health and care challenges in the region, supporting all our members to develop plans to deliver NHS England’s vision for effective and efficient health for the region’s 5.8m citizens.”

Kathy added: “I’ve seen at first hand the impact that Yorkshire & Humber AHSN has delivered for the NHS, the public and industry in the region. I’m delighted to be part of an organisation that supports the spread of innovation at both a local and national level.

“I’m looking forward to working with partners across the region to support delivery of an exciting and challenging agenda from our national commissioners and our local members.”

Yorkshire & Humber AHSN is also delighted to welcome the following new members to our team:

• Programme leads Ruth Bakerson-Lowe and Oliver Barnes. Ruth and Oliver will be responsible for supporting the AHSN to identify and drive new innovative products that have the potential to transform lives to become part of routine clinical practice.
• Sean Clarkson joins us as a programme manager.
• Head of Marketing & Communications David Shapland. David has spent the last nine years working for NHS Digital and NHS England. His early priorities include aligning our marketing and communications activity to our new business plan for 2018-20 and developing a communications strategy that supports the priorities within the new five-year AHSN licence.