Board of Directors
Our Board of Directors has overall responsibility for delivering services and is accountable for operational performance
as well as our strategic direction.
Click here to view our board meeting dates and papers.

Tony Warne - Appointed 01/05/2021
Tony Warne brings an extensive range of experience from his 20 years in clinical, nursing and management practice to his new position.
Tony began his career as student nurse in Wales before moving into mental health management, which included establishing a ground-breaking young person’s forensic psychiatric facility in Prestwich, Greater Manchester.
Moving into academia, he gained a PhD and professorship in mental health care, and was the first Executive Dean appointment at the University of Salford, leading the largest nursing and allied health care professions school in the North West.
He was the elected Nurse Executive on the Council of Deans and a member of the NMC Thought Leadership Group which developed the current ‘Future Nurse’ education and training standards.
Tony is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Salford. During his academic career he has published a large number of research reports and peer-reviewed journals, and has presented peer-reviewed conference in 25 different countries. He has co-edited and authored two books, and has had chapters published in another 18 books.
He was also previously a Non Executive Director (NED) for both Blackpool Teaching Hospitals and Vice-Chair at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals.

Beatrice Fraenkel - Appointed 04/01/2023
Beatrice is a qualified industrial design engineer and ergonomist with over 30 years’ experience in regeneration, housing, health and regulation. She has chaired several local, regional and national public sector Boards, including ARB, the regulatory body for Architects; the Ropewalks Partnership in Liverpool; a Housing Association and the Northwest regional regeneration body ‘Renew Northwest’.
She set up and Chaired South Liverpool Primary Care Trust then was Chair of Mersey Care NHS FT for fourteen years until October 2022. Over that period she led the Trust in becoming a FT; establishing a no blame and learning culture and developing ‘no restraint’ and ‘zero suicide’ policies. As an NHS and Trust design champion she oversaw the development of the estate by building five beautiful new hospitals based on an innovative user centred approach that enhances staff environments, enhances recovery and improves safety. As Chair she led the Board through three acquisitions – Calderstones NHS FT; Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust and NW Boroughs NHS FT. She was a CQC inspector helping shape the ‘well led domain’; a Trustee on the NHS Provider Board, and a member of the NHS Confederation Mental Health Network.
Currently Beatrice is a Trustee of the Design Council and chairs the stewardship committee, a Trustee of Design in Mental Health and a member of the NHS Confederation Housing and Mental health working group. She works as an independent consultant in organisational change and design. She is a member of the Government High Street Task force and a member of the Department for Levelling up Housing and Communities expert panel of Design code pathfinders.
Beatrice has an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Institute of British Architects (Hon.FRIBA) and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. (FRSA).

Meb Vadiya - Appointed 04/01/2023
Meb has an array of expertise in a variety of fields. He is currently Deputy General Counsel & Company Secretary within the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Group, a complex non-departmental public body with an annual revenue of £3 billion. Other highlights include having worked in the Middle East, founded a law firm, Head of Strategy, Programme Director, Lecturer in Law and a Non-Executive Director for a number of non-profit organisations.
Meb’s experience includes providing legal and compliance services; HR; strategy and organisational transformation; corporate governance; building positive relationships with stakeholders; risk management and delivering training & workshops.

Dr Samira Anane - Appointed 01/09/2022
Samira Anane is a practicing GP, with nearly two decades experience of working within the NHS. She has extensive experience of working across tertiary, secondary, and primary care.
With a keen interest in health policy, education, training and workforce, Samira has held several national roles including leading the BMA GP Trainee and Sessional GP committees. Samira has worked as a CCG Neighbourhood clinical lead, working with multi-agencies across health and social care. She holds a National Institute of Health Research award, based at the University of Manchester and is undertaking a master’s in public health.
Samira is the Non-Executive Director lead for place-based care.

Dr Marisa Logan-Ward - Appointed 01/08/2019
With a background in biomedical sciences, Marisa has held senior roles in the health sector for over 15 years. She has a PhD in Molecular Immunology and began her career with national roles with Department of Health.
Her most recent posts have been that of Business Development Director at SYNLAB UK and Non-Executive Director of Oldham Community Leisure. She was previously Group Director of Pathology for BMI Healthcare, Assistant Chief Scientific Advisor for NHS Estates and Programme Director for Diagnostics with Cheshire and Merseyside Strategic Health Authority.
In her career Marisa has led national turnaround programmes on quality and patient safety and has experience in delivering large-scale clinical service reconfiguration. She has expertise in strategic development, particularly in the context of collaboration and external partnerships.
She brings to her role an understanding of clinical issues and has experience in developing innovation pathways from academic and translational research through to patient-centred service transformation.

Mary Moore - Appointed 01/10/20
A highly experienced nurse who has worked both regionally and nationally, Mary was most recently the Executive Chief Nurse and Corporate Director of Nursing at Trafford Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).
She held a similar role at Bolton CCG for three years and other positions during her career have included:
· Director of Nursing and Workforce at vHealth,
· Deputy Chief Nurse, Acting Chief Nurse and Interim Director of Quality Governance at the University Hospital of Morecambe Bay,
· Associate Director at the Department of Health.

Tony Bell - Appointed 01/05/2021
Tony, who lives in Sale and is a qualified accountant, began his career in the private sector, largely with the Lex Retail Group.
More recently he has worked in organisations providing public services and with a social value, including as Director of Finance at City College Manchester. There he was responsible for finance, estates and commercial contracts, and much of his work was focused on prison education as the college was the country’s largest provider of prison education.
In recent years he has developed a portfolio career as a Non-Executive Director in the NHS and social housing, most notably on the Audit and Risk Committee on the Guinness Partnership, a national provider of social housing with 60,000 homes and a turnover of £300m, and Board member and Chair of the Audit Committee of its largest subsidiary (Guinness Northern Counties).
His current term of office as a Non-Executive Director with Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, where he is also Vice Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee, is due to come to an end shortly. He is also Board member and Chair of the Audit Committee at Wythenshawe Community Housing Group.

David Hopewell - Appointed 01/07/2018
David is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and trained with Deloitte, Haskins and Sells before moving into industry with senior finance positions in Shell in both the UK and West Africa.
He moved into the public sector in 1994 and was Corporate Director at Government Office for the North West (GONW) (1998-2006) where he was a Board Director with a portfolio including finance, partner audit, HR, ICT, communications, governance and Ministerial business. After GONW closed he spent a short period as Director of Resources and Company Secretary for Cheshire Peaks and Plains Housing Trust (2006-2007).
Since 2007 David has had a portfolio career working as a Resources Director for Retrak a charity running projects for street children in Africa (2007-11) alongside Non-Executive appointments in a housing association (2009-12) and his previous position as Non-Executive Director with Mid Cheshire since 2007.

Dr Louise Sell - Appointed 01/10/20
Louise is currently working part-time as a consultant liaison psychiatrist with Bury integrated pain service operated by Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust.
A highly experienced psychiatrist, Louise was previously the Executive Medical Director at North West Boroughs NHS Foundation Trust, a post she held for seven years.
Other roles have included consultant addictions psychiatrist and service director at Greater Manchester NHS Foundation Trust and a clinical lecturer in addictions at the University of London.
Executive Directors
Chief Executive, Karen James
Karen James OBE is the Chief Executive of Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, and has also been Chief Executive of Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust since 2014.
Having started her career as a Registered Nurse, she has over the last fourteen years held a number of executive leadership roles in large acute tertiary providers. Karen has significant experience in managing large scale change across complex economies, and has been successful in the delivery of improvements in organisational performance.
Chief Nurse, Nicola Firth
Nic trained at Stockport and qualified as a registered nurse in 1992, following which she worked in a number of specialties before taking up a corporate role. Subsequently Nic furthered her career in corporate roles at Salford Royal NHS FT and in the Deputy Director of Nursing post here at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust.
In 2014 Nic became Executive Director of Nursing for Aintree NHSFT, a post she held for 3 years before moving back into Greater Manchester to join the Northern Care Alliance as Director of Nursing for Oldham Care Organisation, in 2018 Nic also took on the role of Chief Officer.
Nic lives in the Stockport area and is delighted to have taken up the post of Chief Nurse here at Stockport, where she began her career.

Medical Director, Andrew Loughney
Andrew Loughney trained in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the North East of England and practiced there as a Consultant Obstetrician for seventeen years.
He moved to Liverpool Women’s Hospital in 2016 where he was Medical Director and Deputy CEO, in addition to spending time as Interim Medical Director at the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen Hospitals.
He has a cellular and molecular biology PhD and maintains an interest in academic medicine to complement his focus on medical safety and effectiveness.
Director of Communications and Corporate Affairs, Caroline Parnell
A journalist by background, Caroline Parnell spent 20 years building and leading award winning communication and engagement teams in the NHS.
Her NHS career has spanned mental health, learning disability, community, primary care and acute hospital trusts – including some of the largest in the country. She has won a number of national awards for her work, including NHS Communicator of the Year, but she is particularly proud of those that recognised the campaigns she devised to tackle mental health stigma.
Caroline was formerly Director of Communications & Engagement at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust before setting up a successful consultancy specialising in supporting organisations through periods of change.
Leading an organisational merger and two successful bids for NHS Foundation Trust status led to Caroline’s interest in governance, and she is an experienced company secretary.
Caroline is also a trustee of The Derwent Initiative, a national charity working to improve public protection by finding practical and creative solutions to the problem of sexual offending, and The Link, a North East charity that supports young people and families with mental health problems.
(Non-voting member.)
Director of People & Organisational Development, Amanda Bromley
Amanda is a highly motivated HR/OD professional with extensive operational and strategic experience, which has been obtained from holding senior HR positions in a number of organisations in acute, community and mental health services.
Amanda commenced her career at Tameside Community & Priority Services NHS Trust before moving on to Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust, Tameside Acute NHS Foundation Trust and the University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust. She returned to Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in June 2013 and has recently led the establishment of the Mass Vaccination Centre with Tameside & Glossop being the Lead Employer for Greater Manchester.
Amanda is passionate about putting staff and patients at the heart of everything she does and she firmly believes that the development of a culture built around engagement, inclusivity, continuous learning and shared values enables an organisation to be successful and sustainable.

Director of Strategy and Partnerships, Jonathan O`Brien
Jonathan has worked in the NHS for almost 20 years having initially joined as an NHS General Management Trainee. In that time, he has worked in operations management across Acute Trusts and Mental Health providers. Jonathan joins our Trust from North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust where he was Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Chief Executive for four years. Prior to that role Jonathan was Director of Operations at Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for three years.
Throughout his career, Jonathan has maintained a keen interest in furthering his academic knowledge; he holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Manchester Business School, an MSc in Healthcare Leadership and Management from the University of Birmingham and a BSc in Business Studies from Lancaster University Management School.

Director of Finance, Deputy Chief Executive, John Graham
John is an experienced Director of Finance who has worked for a range of organisations including, a Health Authority, the North West Regional Office, the Directorate of Health and Social Care North, the Department of Health, a Strategic Health Authority, a Mental Health Foundation Trust and a leading University Teaching Hospital.
His most recent post has been that of Executive Director of Finance and Deputy Chief Executive of the Royal Liverpool & Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust, an acute teaching hospital. Prior to this John was Director of Finance & IMT at Greater Manchester West Mental Health Foundation Trust.

Director of Operations, Jackie McShane
Jackie joined Stockport NHS Foundation Trust in December 2020 as Director of Operations, having previously held the same post at Tameside & Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust. She has over 12 years senior management experience in acute sector NHS roles across a number of North West trusts. Prior to joining the NHS Jackie worked within the private sector in the logistics sector.