Board of Directors

Maggie Wheeler
Chair

Maggie Wheeler became chair of the trust in 2003, having been vice-chair of Norwich Primary Care Trust.  She had previously spent 20 years as a social worker and social work manager in Norfolk before leaving to work for a member of the European Parliament.  Maggie combines her NHS duties with freelance work as a trainer, facilitator and researcher – mainly in the voluntary and community sector.  She is also a trustee – and former chair – of Age Concern Norwich.
 

Barry Capon
Non-Executive Director

Barry Capon is a solicitor who joined the trust in September 2002 and is currently its deputy chair.  His previous experience of NHS trusts was as chair of Anglian Harbours NHS Trust, in Great Yarmouth and Waveney, from 1996 until its closure in 1997.  He was a commissioner of the Criminal Cases Review Commission from 1997-2005 and chief executive of Norfolk County Council from 1973-1996.  He is a lay member of the British Pharmacopoeia Commission.

John Brierley
Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee

John Brierley joined the board of directors in December 2005.  He is director of the Learning and Skills Council in Norfolk, having previously been chief executive of the Norfolk and Waveney Training and Enterprise Council.  Prior to that he was city treasurer of Norwich City Council.  John is a qualified accountant and has worked in a variety of posts in both the public and private sectors.  He is a director of a number of local organisations and is honorary treasurer of the local branch of MIND.
 

Graham Creelman
Non-Executive Director, Deputy Chair and Senior Independent Director

Journalist and filmmaker Graham Creelman has enjoyed a long career in television production.  He was managing director of Anglia Television from 1996-2006 and was also director of regional programming for the ITV network.  He is now a consultant on creativity within organisations and is chair of Living East (East of England Cultural Consortium).  His extensive TV experience led to him being awarded an OBE for services to broadcasting.
 

Dr Peter Jefferys
Non-Executive Director

Peter Jefferys joined the trust in September 2011, leaving London after 30 years as a consultant in the psychiatry of old age at Northwick Park Hospital, in Harrow, to live permanently in Norfolk. He has experience as medical director of a community and mental health trust, and has been involved in professional regulation with the General Medical Council, the Health Professionals Council, and the General Social Care Council.  He has also been involved in a wide range of associated clinical practice as a second opinion appointed doctor for the Care Quality Commission, and as clinical adviser to the Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman.

Brian Parrott
Non-Executive Director

Brian Parrott joined the trust in January 2012.  Brian has worked as a deputy director for social services in 1985, before serving as a director in four local authorities.  He has also been the chair of a Primary Care Trust and an interim non-executive director for Monitor, the foundation trust regulator.

Brian is currenly the chair of Suffolk Family Carers and both the Children and Adult Safeguarding Boards in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Among his other roles, Brian is co-chair of the nationwide Association of Directors of Adult Social Services Associates' Network and a Trustee of the Kerrison Trust in Suffolk.  He is also an Honorary Visiting Fellow at the University of East Anglia School of Social Work and Psychology. 

Stuart Smith
Non-Executive Director

Stuart Smith joined the trust in March 2008.  During a 35-year career in the financial services sector he directed business change initiatives in the UK and overseas.  These included mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, operational efficiencies, property builds and optimisation.  He is a former director of business change and property programmes for Aviva and Norwich Union and held a leading programme role in the demutualisation and flotation of Norwich Union.
   

Executive Directors

Aidan Thomas
Chief Executive

Aidan Thomas has worked in the NHS for more than 20 years.  He has a long background in mental health, and the direct provision of care.  Prior to joining the trust in October 2009 he was chief executive officer at West Essex Primary Care Trust.  Aidan is a former director of human resources and executive director of Lambeth Community NHS Trust.  In 1995 he joined Essex and Herts Community NHS Trust as director of operations, and was appointed chief executive of Epping Forest Primary Care Trust in April 2000.
 

Andrew Hopkins
Director of Finance & Performance, and Deputy Chief Executive

Andrew Hopkins joined the trust in December 2003 from Huntingdonshire Primary Care Trust, where he was deputy chief executive and director of finance.  He was part of the small team that established Huntingdonshire Primary Care Group and then took this forward into the primary care trust.  He has spent most of his career in the NHS, including acute NHS trust and Health Authority appointments.  Andrew also spent two-and-a-half years working as an auditor and consultant with KPMG.
 

Dr Hadrian Ball
Medical Director

Hadrian Ball came to the trust in July 1992, taking up the post of consultant forensic psychiatrist.  He had qualified as a doctor in 1984 and had previously worked within the NHS as a porter and nursing assistant.  He became medical director of the trust in July 2000.  Hadrian also has a specialist qualification in forensic medicine and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
 

Roz Brooks
Director of Nursing, Quality & Patient Safety

Roz re-joined the Trust in August 1994.  She has worked as a nurse for over 30 years and most recently managed the Trust's Alcohol and Drug Service (TADS).

Kathy Chapman
Director of Operations - Norfolk & Waveney

Kathy grew up in Norwich, and graduated in biology from Oxford University before gaining further degrees in psychology and then management.  Prior to returning to Norfolk, Kathy worked at the high security Ashworth Hospital on Merseyside, as a consultant clinical psychologist specialising in forensic and neuropsychology.  She joined the Trust in 2002 as a consultant psychologist, and also led strategic work on the redesign of services, and implementation of the National Service Framework for Mental Health.  As director of operations, Kathy heads all Trust services that deliver health and social care directly to patients

Leigh Fleming
Commercial Development Director

Leigh joined the Trust in August 2010 from West Essex Primary Care Trust, where she held the position of director of corporate services and was also managing director of the Essex Shared Services Agency.  She has worked in the NHS for 27 years undertaking management roles in secondary care, mental health and primary care and is responsible for developing the Trusts’ commercial focus, IT and NPfIT (National Programme for Information Technology), estates and facilities, marketing, internal and external communications and strategic change.

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Debbie White 
Director of Operations - Suffolk