Our Charity Executive Committee

Alastair Clegg, Service Director

Alastair has been at St Andrew’s since March 2017, having previously worked as a Hospital Director for two of the Huntercombe Group’s Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) units.

As Service Director, Alastair is responsible for our Men’s Mental Health Services in Northampton, our Psychiatric Intensive Care Units in Northampton, and our Birmingham Hospital. Prior to moving to healthcare, Alastair’s background was in performance improvement and change leadership. He has held a variety of senior leadership roles in the public sector, including as Director of the Royal Courts of Justice, in social housing and in the charity sector, including a spell as CEO of one of the Prince’s Charities, working for HRH the Prince of Wales.

Alex Owen, Director of Finance

Alex joined St Andrew’s Healthcare in September 2018 as Director of Finance.

Her prior role was as Finance Director and Company Secretary for the MAXIMUS UK Human Services Division (incorporating both Remploy Ltd and MAXIMUS People Services Limited), leading in Remploy’s successful exit from DWP and transformation into a commercially focussed, employee-owned organisation.

Alex qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2002 and has worked as an Auditor in Private practice as well as holding leading finance roles in the not for profit, education and welfare to work markets.

Alex Trigg, Director of Estates & Facilities

Alex joined St Andrew’s Healthcare as Director of Estates & Facilities in June 2018. He is responsible for estates and asset strategy, hard and soft facilities management, project delivery and service delivery improvement.

A Chartered Surveyor, Alex has held senior roles within medical organisations including Nuffield Health, Virgin Care and BUPA Care Services. In addition he has worked at infrastructure businesses including Manchester Airports Group where he sat on the Divisional Executive Board of the Estates and Development arm.

Ankur Agarwal, Clinical Director

Dr Ankur Agarwal joined St Andrew’s Healthcare in 2014 as Lead Psychiatrist for the Birmingham site, having been a Consultant in both the NHS and independent sector. He has a particular interest in innovation and the application of technology to improve patient care and outcomes. Ankur holds an MBA from Imperial College.

Ankur is also the clinical lead for St Andrew’s in the West Midlands Reach Out, an innovative partnership with the NHS which aims to improve service provision and outcomes for patients in the West Midlands.

Ash Roychowdhury, Clinical Director

Dr Roychowdhury joined St Andrew’s in August 2003 and is trained in both general adult and forensic psychiatry. His main clinical interest is in quality improvement of in-patient services, and he has published in major peer-reviewed journals and presented at key academic conferences on topics related to recovery, ethics, quality improvement, risk assessment and using technology to improve healthcare outcomes.

Ash has held a number of senior leadership positions including Lead Psychiatrist for Men’s Medium Secure Services and CAMHS secure services.

Claire Carless, General Counsel/Company Secretary

Claire Carless joined the Executive Team at St Andrew's Healthcare in 2016 as General Counsel and Company Secretary. An accomplished lawyer and General Counsel, Claire has substantial experience in managing complex corporate and commercial projects, and ensuring effective corporate governance, for major global corporates. 

Having started her career in private practice, Claire went on to hold senior roles in RWE and Vodafone. Her most recent position was General Counsel for Siemens plc in the UK. 

Claire spent four years as a non-executive director for South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trust, and is currently a member of the Audit and Scrutiny Committee for the University of Oxford.
 

Craig Ambler, Interim Chief Information Officer

Craig has over 18 years’ experience in technology, business intelligence, digital transformation and change. He has engaged teams across multiple sectors including retail, leisure, finance and healthcare.

Craig has driven digital transformations at Bupa and Capita Health & Wellbeing, both of which spanned hospital and residential care environments.

Dean Howells, Exec Director of Nursing/Operations

Dean Howells was appointed as the Executive Director of Nursing and Quality in June 2016, taking up the additional responsibility for operations in February 2017. His prior role was Executive Director of Nursing, Quality and Patient Experience at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, where he provided leadership to more than 5,000 nursing staff.

Dean has worked across a wide variety of clinical pathways including High Secure Services at Rampton Hospital, where he led and facilitated a CQC rating of 'Outstanding' for care and a nationally recognised service user and carer involvement team.

Dean was appointed Queen’s Nurse in 2014 for his commitment to high standards of practice and patient-centred care.
 

Lisa Cairns, Service Director

Lisa joined St Andrew’s in 2000 as a Healthcare Assistant before deciding to undertake nurse training. Since qualifying as a registered Mental Health Nurse, she has held roles at our Northampton, Essex and Birmingham sites.

During her time at St Andrew’s, Lisa has progressed through the ranks to Service Director. Lisa’s main focus was historically on women’s forensics and medium secure, but in 2012 she also moved into Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS).  She is currently Service Director for the CAMHS, Women’s and Essex IPUs.

Katie Fisher, Chief Executive Officer

Katie joined St Andrew’s Healthcare as Chief Executive Officer in June 2018.

Her role prior was Chief Executive for West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, where she successfully led a transition programme to steer the organisation out of areas deemed to be inadequate by the CQC.

Originally trained as a nurse, Katie has a long and distinguished record in improving the quality of care and enhancing patient experience. She established her career within the NHS, where she held a number of senior leadership and board level positions.

Appointed as a Trustee: 25 June 2018.
 

Martin Kersey, Executive Director of HR

Martin Kersey joined St Andrew's Healthcare in November 2014 from Rentokil Initial, where he had been Divisional Human Resources Director, responsible for business transformation, since 2011.

Prior to that, Martin held senior HR positions at Mediabrands, Mayborn Group, Burger King and Hertz.

Appointed as a Trustee: 17 November 2014.

Martin Beer, Chief Financial Officer

Martin Beer established his career across more than 20 years, leading business growth in nationally and globally significant organisations including Unigate, Uniq and Braemar Shipping Services.

Specialising in profit improvement, corporate acquisitions and business recovery, Martin joined St Andrew’s Healthcare as Chief Finance Officer in June 2016.

Appointed as a Trustee: 4 July 2016.

Sanjith Kamath, Executive Medical Director

Dr Sanjith Kamath has been a Consultant Psychiatrist since 2007, working in both the NHS and the private sector before joining St Andrew's Healthcare in 2012. He has an interest in service development and is also a Founding Fellow of the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management. He also has a MBA.

Sanjith became Clinical Director for the Women’s Mental Health Pathway in 2015 and has been involved in developing new services including establishing our Women’s Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) last year. More recently, he has been heavily involved in implementing outcomes driven, value-based healthcare across the charity.

Appointed as a Trustee: 1 May 2018
  

Deborah Lowe, Deputy Director of Nursing

Deborah joined St Andrew’s in November 2016. A registered Mental Health Nurse, Deborah has spent her career in both the NHS and independent sector. She has previously worked in senior clinical and operational leadership roles within secure services and offender healthcare.

Deborah has a strong commitment to ensuring quality improvement, safety and patient experience. She is passionate about nursing and the development of others in practice and clinical leadership. 

Katina Anagnostakis, Clinical Director (Forensic)

Dr Katina Anagnostakis joined St Andrew’s from the NHS as a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist in 2008. Her clinical focus has been in adult forensic mental health services, especially where there is complex co-morbidity with personality disorder.

She is a qualified Dialectical Behaviour Therapist (DBT), is actively involved in clinical research and has held senior leadership roles in medical education, medical regulation and with the Royal College of Psychiatrists. She has a record of fostering a creative learning culture to drive quality improvement and innovation.

Liz Beber, Clinical Director

Dr Liz Beber joined St Andrew’s in March 2009.

A Learning Disability Psychiatrist by background, she has held a number of managerial positions since joining St Andrew’s including Strategic Lead for Learning Disability and ASD Services, Lead Psychiatrist and Clinical Director for the Women’s Service, Clinical Director for the Learning Disability Pathway and more recently, Clinical Lead for the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) IPU.

Louise Braham, Clinical Director

Louise joined St Andrew’s in January 2017. Prior to this she worked at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Nottingham where she held a number of senior leadership positions. 

She is a Consultant Clinical and Forensic Psychologist and one of the first wave of Approved Clinicians leading the way in delivering psychologically-led forensic mental healthcare. Louise is Vice Chair of the regional Approval Panel, and is active in both teaching and research.

Paul Wallang, Clinical Director

Dr Paul Wallang joined St Andrew’s Healthcare as a Consultant Psychiatrist in October 2012. He previously worked in the NHS, and since joining the Charity has worked on several wards caring for patients in both low and medium security.

Paul’s specialist areas are neuro-developmental disorders and early trauma. He is also the outcomes lead for the Charity and has an interest in Value Based Healthcare.

Tom Bingham, Communications Director

Tom joined St Andrew’s as Communications Director in February 2015.

He joined the charity from the BGL Group - owners of a number of financial services brands including comparethemarket.com - where he had been Associate Director, Group Communications since 2008.

Tom has been a communications and corporate affairs professional for many years, joining Accenture as a graduate trainee and then working for Diageo both in the UK and the Far East, where his final role was as their Corporate Relations Director, Asia Key Markets, based in Bangkok.

Tom also has overall responsibility for Workbridge, Voluntary Services and [email protected]’s.
 

Vishelle Kamath, Clinical Director

Dr Vishelle Kamath completed her specialist training in old age psychiatry in Cambridge before working in the NHS as a Consultant Old Age Psychiatrist in Bedfordshire.

She was then appointed Clinical Director for Liaison and Older Adult Mental Health in Bedfordshire for three years during which she went through the Yale University Global Health Leadership Programme. She led the development and implementation of a commissioned liaison service across Bedfordshire and Luton during this period. 

Vishelle joined the Neuropsychiatry team at St Andrew’s in 2014 as a Consultant for dementia and progressive neurological conditions and was appointed as Clinical Director for the Neuropsychiatry service in 2015.