Ed will talk about his career experience of the English National Health Service – “the NHS is the nearest thing the British have to a national religion” (quoted as such by leaders from both the left and right of British politics). Ed has worked in senior management roles in the NHS for 30 years, 13 years as a CEO of various bits of it, including one of our local Oxford hospitals. Ed will welcome observations, questions and debate from the audience. He will also reflect on some of the many conundrums faced by leaders in the NHS, which make the NHS CEO role one of the best jobs there is…

Ed is currently a non-executive director of University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire; Chair of one of the National Institute for Health Research funding Panels (NIHR HS&DR); a leadership mentor for clinical leaders; and the occasional Independent Reviewer of Ratings for the CQC (Care Quality Commission) – as well as a Board member for the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and a keen gardener.

His final full-time role in the NHS was as system CEO for the NHS for Wiltshire and Bath with an annual turnover of £1bn. Earlier, he was CEO of the then-independent Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre NHS Trust in Oxford, and signed the contract to rebuild it through the Private Finance Initiative (PFI).

Ed was privileged to be an early student member of St Cross, when the College buildings consisted of the “wooden hut”, and is grateful for the support of the College in enabling him to complete the MSc in Forestry and Land Management at the then Commonwealth Forestry Institute on South Parks Road.