Meet the Board
Meet the Board
Chair
Ian Smith
Chair, NHS Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care Board (ICB)
Biography
With a career spanning healthcare, publishing, construction, strategy consulting and logistics, Ian has over 40 years’ experience leading highly complex multinational companies including a number of chief executive roles. Previously Executive Chairman of Four Seasons Health Care and Chief Executive of the General Healthcare Group, Ian has an in-depth knowledge of the healthcare system and patient needs, particularly in terms of acute, psychiatric, and elderly care. Ian was also Chair of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust from 2017 – 2019 and is currently a Non-executive Director at the Ministry of Defence.
Co-Director
Ruth Hutchinson
Director Public Health for Surrey, Surrey County Council
Biography
Ruth is the Director of Public Health for Surrey. The public health team is responsible for working with partners to improve the health and wellbeing of residents, reducing inequalities in health outcomes and protecting local communities from public health hazards (infectious diseases and environmental threats).
Ruth qualified as Public Health Specialist in 2008. She has broad experience of working in both the NHS and Local Authority with roles spanning health improvement, health protection and health intelligence.
Dr Hatim Abdulhussein
Chief Executive Officer, Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex
Biography
Hatim is the Chief Executive Officer for Health Innovation Kent Surrey Sussex, which is part of The Health Innovation Network. Alongside this role, he continues to practice as a General Practitioner.
In 2018, Hatim was appointed National Medical Directors Clinical Fellow to Professor Wendy Reid by the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management. His key achievements were co-author and member of the Sir Keith Pearson Commission into NHS Staff and Learner Mental Health and co-founding the ‘Topol Programme for Digital Health Fellowships’ launched by Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in 2019. He later became the National Clinical Lead for AI and Digital Workforce at NHS England providing clinical leadership to the NHS Digital Academy and leading on AI in the NHS’s historic Long Term Workforce Plan.
Having studied Medicine at the prestigious Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, he later completed a Masters in Sports and Exercise from the University of South Wales, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Health Leadership from Imperial College London. He holds Membership of the British Computer Society and the Royal College of General Practitioners, as well as Fellowship of Advance Higher Education.
As a former Senior Lecturer at Brunel University London, Hatim supported the Physician Associate MSc and development of Brunel Medical School. He is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Keele University, working with European partners to develop a Masters in Explainable AI in healthcare management. He is also a member of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Technology Appraisals Committee, the Responsible AI UK Health and Care Group and the Responsible AI Institute Sustainable AI Consortium.
Hatim is an advocate for safe, ethical and responsible digital and AI transformation and ensuring workforce preparedness for new innovations and technologies in health and care. He regularly speaks internationally and has contributed to the publication of academic papers and white papers spanning workforce, education reform, innovation, primary care, digital health and AI.
Outside of work Hatim enjoys football and travelling and discovering the best restaurants with his family.
Deborah Lawson
Director of Faculty Operations, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey
See profileKaren McDowell
Chief Executive, NHS Surrey Heartlands ICS and Integrated Care Board (ICB)
Biography
Karen was appointed Chief Executive for the Surrey Heartlands ICS and Integrated Care Board (ICB) in February 2024, a position she held as Acting Chief Executive since September 2023. Prior to this Karen had been ICS Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive. From 2018 – 2021, Karen was the Surrey Heartlands CCG Chief Finance Officer and system finance lead and was also the CCG’s Deputy Accountable Officer since its inception in April 2018. Karen’s previous director experience includes urgent and emergency care, primary care, emergency preparedness, resilience and response, communications and engagement, governance, performance and assurance, ambulance commissioning and the Covid-19 vaccination programme. Karen became a member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in 2003. Previous roles include Chief Finance Officer at NHS Guildford and Waverley CCG (from April 2013), NHS Merton CCG and Deputy Director of Finance for NHS Sutton & Merton. Karen has held a number of senior roles in London and Greater Manchester over the last 20 years, including NHS Waltham Forest, NHS Sutton and Merton and NHS Manchester PCTs in both financial and management accounting.
Mark Nutti
Surrey County Council Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing and Public Health
Biography
Mark is the Surrey County Council Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing and Public Health. He has held various portfolio’s including Adult Social Care and Communities. Over the last few years, he has been instrumental in the development of the council’s Community Link Officers and local area coordinators as well as Your Fund Surrey. His portfolio is very much aligned to working in the integrated health arena and promoting more community empowerment.
Before politics Mark had a career in banking and in later years musical theatre production and direction! Numbers being the common theme - numerical to musical!
He is passionate about making a difference in the health sphere especially around early intervention and prevention. Championing innovation and change to make sure no one is left behind.
Professor Andrew Rhodes
Joint Chief Medical Officer, NHS Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care Board (ICB)
Biography
Professor Andrew Rhodes is Chief Medical Officer (joint) of Surrey heartlands Integrated Care Board and a consultant and professor in critical care at St George’s University hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and St George’s University of London. Andrew brings with him a wealth of leadership experience, having led his clinical specialisms at a European level.
Andy is a University of London graduate (1990), obtained his MD (Res) in 2013 and is a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians, Anaesthetics and the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine. He is a past-president of the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (2010-12), a previous secretary of the European Board of Intensive Care Medicine, UEMS (2010-14) and has been on the council of both the UK Intensive Care Society and the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine. He is a past Medical Director of St George’s (2016-19), the SW London Acute Provider Collaborative (2019-22) and during the 2020-22 COVID-19 outbreak supported the NHS England London team in managing the capital’s response to the pandemic. He is a non-Executive Director at Croydon University Hospitals NHS trust and vice-chair of Kent Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance charity.
He is passionate about research, with areas of interest including cardiovascular physiology, haemodynamic monitoring, response to and outcomes from surgery, evidence-based medicine, pharmacodynamics and sepsis. He has led the world’s largest sepsis quality improvement programme, the Surviving Sepsis Campaign, since 2010 and has chaired their global guidelines committee during this period. He is currently focussing on the implementation of these guidelines for lower- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Andy has published over 400 scientific papers, is recognized as a highly cited researcher (top 1% internationally (Clarivate)) and his papers have been downloaded over 4 million times. He has received multiple international awards for his patient safety work and was honoured to be granted the European Society of Intensive Care’s annual gold medal for his outstanding work in 2015.
Arjun Sikand
Director of Innovation, Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care System (ICS)
Biography
Arjun joined the Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care System (ICS) in May 2022, bringing with him a wealth of experience from his previous role at Health Innovation Manchester (HInM), where he focused on creating partnership for accelerating the adoption of applied research and innovation.
Arjun is passionate about shifting the healthcare system from a focus on ill-health treatment to a more preventative and wellness management approach. He believes that this can be achieved through innovative and collaborative solutions that bring together diverse stakeholders from across industries.
With over 15 years of experience in the Life Sciences and Health & Care sector, Arjun has a proven track record in developing and implementing business models and market entry strategies for both SMEs and multinationals.
Arjun holds a BSc in Microbiology from the University of Reading, an MSc in Molecular Biology from Imperial College London, and an MBA from ESADE Business School in Barcelona, where he focused on strategy and innovation.