Our Board of Directors

The Trust Board is made up of both Non-Executive and Executive Directors. Their responsibilities include: helping shape a healthy culture for everyone to work in, formulating the strategy for the Trust, holding the organisation to account, and making sure we deliver care effectively and efficiently.

The Trust Board meets in public six times a year and anyone is welcome to attend. 

Go straight to: Board meetings and papers, declarations of interest, and Trust Secretary contact details at the foot of this page.

Chair of the Trust, Graham Sims

Graham Sims, joined the Trust as Chair in August 2015, bringing a wealth of chair and corporate experience and knowledge in Board governance, strategy, investment, operations and leadership.

He has held roles as Chairman and Directorships within large and small organisations including BP, Mobil, Compass, the Home Office and a number of PE backed businesses currently in the UK and internationally. Graham is also involved with charity boards. 

Steve McManus, Chief Executive

Steve joined the Trust in January 2017 having previously occupied Board level roles as Chief Operating Officer (COO) at University Hospital Southampton, COO/Deputy CEO at Imperial Healthcare and Managing Director at Basildon and Thurrock University Teaching Hospital. In 2016 Steve was selected as part of the first cohort on the NHS Leadership Academy’s national Aspiring Chief Executive Programme.

In August 2020 Steve was seconded to NHS Test & Trace taking on key national roles during the Covid pandemic leading the Contain and Trace services.

In 2022 Steve took on an 8 month role leading the Buckinghamshire Oxfordshire Berkshire West Integrated Care system as interim Chief Executive returning to the Trust in 2023. Steve regularly contributes across a range of healthcare topics both nationally and internationally particularly regarding patient safety, healthcare technology and leadership development.

Non-Executive Directors

Helen Mackenzie

Helen Mackenzie joined the Trust as a clinical Non-Executive Director in January 2019.

Prior to this she was Executive Director of Nursing with Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, the main provider of NHS mental health and community services in Berkshire.

Helen qualified as a nurse in 1979 and has held various clinical and managerial roles in the provision and commissioning of local NHS services.

Bal Bahia

Bal Bahia Joined the Trust in April 2019. Prior to this he was clinical lead for the Berkshire West Clinical Commissioning Group and Vice-Chair of the West Berkshire Health and Wellbeing board.  Bal qualified as a Doctor from St George’s in 1989 and has since been a partner in General Practice for the last 29 years.

Bal is also a director of Recovery in Mind a mental health charity in west Berkshire. Bal trained at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in the 1990s. He is interested in Systems Leadership and thinking for the local population especially health inequalities.

Professor Parveen Yaqoob OBE

Parveen Yaqoob is Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Reading and works across a broad portfolio, leading on the University’s research strategy. She leads on the strategic partnership between the University and the Trust and brings experience of developing and supporting health-related education, research and innovation.

Parveen has served on a number of national and international research funding panels, particularly in the area of diet and health, and is a member of the Board of Directors of Advance HE, chairing its Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She was appointed OBE for services to higher education in 2022.

Mike O'Donovan

Mike spent 30 years in the consumer healthcare industry holding managing director positions in the UK and overseas as well as global corporate roles. He left industry to become chief executive of the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

He has held a range of non-executive chair, director and trustee positions including founding co-chair of National Voices, the leading patient service user advocacy group, member of the management board of the European Medicines Agency, chair of two NHS Trusts and board member of Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust.

Mike is a Trustee of the South Hill Park Arts Centre.

Mike McEnaney

Mike is a highly experienced board director having held finance director positions in both the private sector and the NHS.

He has had a broad range of responsibilities, including Finance, HR, IT and Estates, at a number of high-profile organisations including, Honda manufacturing, Avis car rental and at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust until 2022.

Mike is a Non Executive Director and audit committee chair with South Central Ambulance Services NHS Foundation Trust, a Non Executive Director and Audit & Risk Committee chair with Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, a trustee of an Academy of schools and an audit committee member at Oxford Brookes University.

Catherine McLaughlin

Catherine is a nurse who specialised in paediatrics and community nursing. She has extensive health service experience, spanning a variety of settings including acute hospitals, community providers, commissioning groups and most recently as CEO of a Hospice. 

She has worked at the Department of Health with the Performance Improvement Team for Emergency Care and led several transformation programmes across the NHS in England and Ireland.

Minoo Irani 

Minoo joined the Trust as clinical Non-Executive Director in September 2024. 

Before joining the Trust Minoo worked as Consultant Community Paediatrician in Berkshire for over 20 years and has held several leadership roles leading up to Executive Medical Director in Berkshire Healthcare for 9 years. 

His other roles in the healthcare system have included a mental health partner member on the BOB ICB Board and partner member on the Board of the Health Innovation Network.

He has a Masters in Health Management from Imperial College Business School and professional clinical qualifications from the United Kingdom, India and the United States.

Executive Directors

Katie Prichard-Thomas, Chief Nursing Officer

After undertaking the Deputy Chief Nurse at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Katie joined the Trust in October 2023.

After graduating as a Registered Nurse in 2001, Katie began her nursing career at University Hospital Southampton Foundation Trust, specialising in respiratory care, acute medicine, and older person’s medicine.

Katie joined Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in 2018 as Divisional Chief Nurse, in 2020 she was promoted to Deputy Chief Nurse.

Katie holds an MSc in Leadership & Management in Healthcare and is a Florence Nightingale Foundation Scholar, she is passionate about coaching teams to deliver high quality safe patient care.

Dr Janet Lippett, Chief Medical Officer 

Janet was appointed Chief Medical Officer in 2019 and with executive colleagues led the Trust's response to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Recently completing an 8-month interim role as Acting Chief Executive she is also the Executive Lead for our partnership with the University of Reading.

Qualifying as a doctor at St Georges Hospital, London in 1999 she joined RBFT in 2007 as a Consultant Geriatrician establishing a successful Orthogeriatric Service.

Moving into management in 2010; as a Clinical Director and then as Care Group Director for Networked Care; Janet works with system partners to ensure high quality care across the community

Nicky Lloyd, Chief Finance Officer

Nicky joined the Trust in January 2019, and leads Finance, Payroll, Estates & Facilities, Procurement, Commercial, and the Trust Charity.

She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales, and has held Board positions in the UK and internationally in both Executive and Non Executive capacities, within and outside the NHS. She has successfully completed the Aspiring Chief Executive Programme.

She was Acting CEO in 2020 and 2021 during the second wave of the COVID 19 pandemic. She chairs the South Central Branch and National Audit & Governance Committee of the Healthcare Financial Management Association.

Dom Hardy, Chief Operating Officer

Dom Hardy joined the Trust in December 2019 as Chief Operating Officer. Previously he held the position of Director of Primary Care and System Transformation at NHS England and Improvement.

Dom’s previous roles at NHS England include Director of Commissioning Operations for Wessex and Regional Assurance and Delivery Director for the South of England. Prior to that, he held posts in central Government, with PricewaterhouseCoopers, and in South Central Strategic Health Authority.

Don Fairley, Chief People Officer

Don was appointed to the Chief People Officer role in May 2016. Don joined the NHS in 1987 and has been a Board Director since 1997.

Don has a proven track record of delivery having worked successfully at a senior level in various contexts including: acute, community, mental health, primary care, Region and the Department of Health.

In addition to his technical and tactical skills, Don is a qualified mediator, MBTI, WAVE and 16PF practitioner. Don has a Master’s in Strategic Human Resource Management, a post-graduate Certificate in the Psychology of Organisational Development and is a Fellow of the CIPD.

Andrew Statham, Chief Strategy Officer

Andrew is the Chief Strategy Officer for Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust and was appointed as a Board Director in 2024. Andrew is responsible for Strategy, Planning, Improving Together, Communications and Building Berkshire Together – our new hospital programme. 

Andrew has over 15 years of experience working within both the NHS and the healthcare sector. Before joining our Trust, he was a Director in PwC’s Healthcare Consulting team, and also worked in the Government’s Cabinet Office. Andrew studied Economics in both the UK and Massachusetts.