Board members
Non-executive members of the HPA board
Dr David Heymann (Chairman) was the World Health Organization's Assistant Director-General for Health Security and Environment and the representative of the Director-General for polio eradication. Previously, from 1998-2003, he was Executive Director of the WHO Communicable Diseases Cluster and from October 1995 to July 1998 he was Director of the WHO Programme on Emerging and other Communicable Diseases. Prior to that he was the chief of research activities in the WHO Global Programme on AIDS.
Before joining WHO, Dr Heymann worked for 13 years as a medical epidemiologist in sub-Saharan Africa on assignment from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He also worked in India for two years as a medical epidemiologist in the WHO Smallpox Eradication Programme.
In 2004 Dr Heymann received the American Public Health Association Award for Excellence and was named to the United States Institute of Medicine. In 2005 he was awarded a Welling Professorship at the George Washington University School of Public Health and the 2005 Donald Mackay medal by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
Dr Barbara Bannister MB, BS, MSc, FRCP has, since 1985, been the Senior Consultant in Infectious and Tropical Diseases at the Royal Free Hospital, London and the Clinical Director of the High-Security Infectious Diseases Service, providing and managing one of two national units for the care of patients with dangerous infections. Since 2000, she has provided consultancy to the RAF for the repatriation of individuals with hazardous infections. She is a member of the Commission for Human Medicines (CHM) and is chairman of the CHM Expert Advisory Groups on Anti-infectives and on Antibiotic Resistance. She is also Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Malaria Prevention, which provides up-to-date national guidelines for UK travellers. Special interests include the management of cases and control of outbreaks of severe infections. She is active in a number of ongoing European Commission projects to agree standards of care and safety for severe and hazardous infections, and provide Europe-wide training for responding to infectious disease emergencies.
Michael Beaumont CBE, FCA, is a chartered accountant and business development consultant. He is a non-executive director and Vice Chairman of East Midlands Strategic Health Authority and is a Mental Health Act Manager at Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. Previously, he was East Midlands Regional Director of Old Broad Street Securities (merchant bankers), UK Corporate Loans Manager of the Hill Samuel Bank Group, Head of Finance at Greater Nottingham Training & Enterprise Council and Vice Chairman of Rampton (High Security) Hospital Authority. He holds a number of positions in the voluntary sector, including Chairman of Newark Housing Association.
James T Brown is a former Senior Civil Servant in the Scottish Executive, latterly as Head of Public Health Division, with responsibilities covering, variously, policy on communicable diseases, alcohol and drug misuse, health education, and mental health. He was appointed in October 2005 as the Scottish representative to the HPA Board
Michael Carroll, who has 35 years' experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, working for Glaxo, Novartis, BMS, British Biotech and Scotia in a variety of technical and senior management executive roles both in the UK and internationally. He has extensive practical expertise in the operational management of complex research and development and manufacturing environments and in assisting organisations to deliver their strategic objectives through the execution of effective cultural change programs. Most recently he was Site Director for Novartis UK which focuses on product research, development and manufacturing.
Mr Carroll has served on national committees of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and the BioIndustry Association where he was active in promoting the UK manufacturing base and industry best practice. He is a founder QP Assessor, a practising QP and a former vice president of the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering.
Professor Charles Easmon CBE, MD, PhD, MRCP, FRCPath, FMedSci, is Deputy Chairman of the Health Protection Agency. He is Professor of Health Policy at Thames Valley University and Visiting Professor in the Division of Surgery at Imperial College. He trained as a microbiologist and was Fleming Professor and Head of the Department of Medical Microbiology at St Mary's Hospital Medical School. He is a Trustee of St Christopher's Hospice.
Helen Froud has specialised in Human Resources for more than 15 years. Currently running her own HR and management consultancy carrying out specific HR projects for local authorities, she has previously held executive posts in the financial services and local authority sectors.
A Chartered Member of the Institute of Personnel and Development, and an experienced management trainer and lecturer in Human Resources, Ms Froud is grant-funded by the Commission for Equalities and Human Rights to work on HR projects with small local businesses. She is a Board Member of One Parent Families Scotland and is a regular contributor to professional journals on specialist HR topics, as well as to consumer publications on HR issues for the general public.
Professor William Gelletly † OBE, PhD, CPhys, FInstP is Professor of Physics at the University of Surrey. He was previously Head of the Physics Department and Head of the School of Physical Sciences at the University of Surrey. He is a member of a number of international committees concerned with nuclear physics. His research interests lie in atomic and nuclear physics, especially the study of nuclei far from stability. Prior to moving to Surrey, he held posts at the University of Edinburgh, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd, the Brookhaven National Lab in the USA, Manchester University and at the Science and Engineering Research Council's Daresbury Laboratory, where he was Head of the Nuclear Structure Facility.
Martin Hindle has extensive Board and executive level experience in the UK and international markets in pharmaceuticals and telecommunications. His Board experience covers both private and public sectors. Particular areas of focus include financial management, strategic planning, commercial development, drug development, change and operational management.
As a non executive director of the National Biological Standards Board (NBSB), he chairs the Audit Committee of the National Institute of Biological Standards and Control which is due to become part of the Health Protection Agency in April. Mr. Hindle already serves on the Agency's Finance Committee and will take over the chairmanship of this at the beginning of April.
Mr Hindle is Chairman of the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust.
Dr Rosemary Leonard MBE has been a GP in Dulwich since 1988, and is accredited to provide specialist services in Gynaecology and Osteoporosis. She is also resident GP to BBC Breakfast News, a position she has held since 1998, and is a GP contributor and weekly columnist for the Daily Express, and the regular GP contributor to Tesco magazine. In addition she is Consultant Medical Editor to Woman and Home magazine. In the past she has been a columnist for the Daily Mail, the Sun, Hello magazine, and Me magazine. She is the author of the Seven Ages of Woman
As well as contributing to newspapers and medical magazines, Dr Leonard has also taken part in numerous television and radio programmes and series. For example she was a co-presenter on BBC 1's Fighting Fit with the Eastenders and Kicking the Habit with Casualty. She was also the resident medical expert on Baby Baby, a series of ten programmes by Carlton TV. Since 2006, Dr Leonard has previously been a member of the Committee on Safety of Medicines, the Human Genetics Commission, and the media advisory board to UK Clinical Research Collaboration.
Professor Alan Maryon-Davis †, FFPH, FRCP, FFSEM was elected President of the Faculty of Public Health in June 2007 for a three-year term. The President chairs the Board, the Executive Committee, the Policy Committee and the Fellowship Committee, and represents the Faculty on a number of related bodies.
After an early career in hospital medicine and general practice, Alan moved into the field of public health via health promotion and prevention. He was Head of Health Sciences at Health Education Council and a member of various national committees and taskforces on nutrition, physical activity, cancer prevention, accident prevention, and health partnerships. He also founded the National Heart Forum and the Welsh heart programme HeartBeat Wales. Alan then switched to working at local level as a jobbing public health specialist in south London, most recently as Director of Public Health for Southwark. His particular interest is the impact of poverty, culture, lifestyles and environment on health and health policy. He is Inaugural Chair of the Royal Society for Public Health, Vice-Chair of the National Heart Forum, and an honorary professor in public health at Kings College London.
Alan is a prolific writer and broadcaster on health matters. He had a weekly column in Woman magazine for many years and has written ten books for the general reader. In his spare time he enjoys reading history, eating good food, walking in the Yorkshire Dales and singing in the comedy group Instant Sunshine.
Dr Vanessa Mayatt BSc, PhD, DipOHS, FRSPH, CFIOSH is a self-employed risk management consultant and a company director. Previously she was a member of the Public Health Laboratory Service Board, Health and Safety Director at AXA/PPP, Healthcare Practice Leader at Marsh Risk Consulting, NHS Trust Unit Director at Sedgwick and HM Principal Specialist Inspector with the Health and Safety Executive. She recently undertook research as a Fellow of the University of Salford's European Occupational Health and Safety Law Research Unit. She is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health and a Chartered Safety Practitioner.
Deborah Oakley worked in the Financial Services Industry for 20 years until 2006 as an investment manager. She worked for the same company, from its entrepreneurial start up to its eventual sale to a large US corporation, by which time she had become a Board Director. Whilst with the company, Mrs Oakley personally managed assets of £100 million and her team managed assets of £500 million.
Mrs Oakley has been a member of the board of Camden Primary Care Trust for the last two years. She is currently Chair of their Audit Committee and a member of the Finance Committee. She is also a governor of the Royal Free Hospital which hopes to attain Foundation Trust status in the near future.
John Wyn Owen CB, Chairman of University of Wales Institute, Cardiff. He was Secretary of the Nuffield Trust from 1st March 1997 to June 2005 having previously been Director-General of NSW Health in Australia and Chairman of the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council and, until 1994, Director of NHS Wales.
He is an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health; Honorary Member of the Royal College of Physicians; Companion of the Institute of Health Care Management and Chartered Management Institute; Fellow of the University of Wales Colleges, of the Australian College of Health Service Executives, the Royal Society of Medicine, the Royal Geographical Society and of the Royal Society of Arts; an Honorary Doctor of the University of Glamorgan and an Honorary Doctor of Science of City University London. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, a non executive director of the Madariaga Foundation of the College of Europe, Vice-Chairman and Trustee of the National Heart Forum, Chairman, Academy Health Wales, Adjunct Professor Public Health, University of Sydney. Previously a member of WHO Technical Committee on Globalisation, Trade and Health, Member of the International Board of US Academy Health, Member of the Board of the International Society for Quality in Health Care, Member of the European Commission Expert Group on Foundations and R&D, Member of the Board European foundation Centre and Chairman of the International Committee and it's initiative Europe in the World and Chairman of Young @ Heart. He was awarded the Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 1994.
Professor Debby Reynolds was the UK's Chief Veterinary Officer and Director General at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2004 to November 2007. Prior to that she was Veterinary Director at the Food Standards Agency from 2001-2004, Head of Endemic Animal Diseases and Zoonoses at the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food Veterinary HQ from 1997-2001, and Head of Bacteriology Department at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency from 1994-1997. She was appointed the first ever Veterinary Head of Profession for all veterinarians in Government. She was the Government's chief media spokesman from 2004-7 on national and international veterinary issues and led the Government's public and stakeholder engagement on these. In the process she transformed attitudes to food safety in relation to veterinary public health issues by spearheading a strategy to enable effective collaborative working with consumers. In 2008 she became a Non Executive Board member of the NHS Berkshire West Primary Care Trust, Visiting Professor at the Royal Veterinary College and Affiliate Professor at Colorado State University, USA. She has also been awarded a CB in the New Years Honours list and an honorary Doctor of Science at the University of Bristol.
† denotes persons who are not formal Board members but attend Board meetings as advisors
Executive members of the HPA board
Justin McCracken is Chief Executive of the Health Protection Agency. A physicist by training, Justin joined ICI in 1976 as a research scientist and moved from there into process development and operations management. His subsequent posts in ICI took him into marketing and business management in the UK and overseas, culminating in worldwide responsibility for ICI's catalyst and technology licensing business.
In 1998, he joined the Environment Agency as NW Regional Director. He was responsible for all the activities of the Agency in North West England, and promoting enhanced partnership working across many local organisations.
Prior to joining the Agency, Justin was Deputy Chief Executive of the Health & Safety Executive where he was responsible for all of HSE's operational work. He led and managed large, geographically dispersed teams of experts promoting improvements in health and safety, and led the HSE's response to major health and safety incidents across the UK
Transcript of Annual Public Health Lecture given to the Faculty of Public Health, December 2008
Tony Sannia: Following an education up to PhD level in biological sciences, Tony qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Robson Rhodes, a city firm now merged with Grant Thornton. Tony moved to the public sector in 1990 as Finance Director of PSA International, an Agency of the Department of Environment with operations in Germany, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Falklands Is and other locations providing property services to the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Following an 18 month assignment at the Department of Health (DH), Tony became Finance Director of English Heritage for seven years. In 2002 Tony returned to the DH to assist with the establishment of the Agency. On its formation on 1st April 2003 Tony was appointed as the Agency's permanent Director of Finance and Resources.
Secretary to the Board
Victor Knight is Secretary to the Board from 1 July 2009. He was previously at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) where he was head of finance and secretary to the National Biological Standards Board. He has worked in finance roles in an acute NHS Trust as well as industry in the UK and Africa. A Chartered Accountant with a degree in Chemistry, he later studied for a Master of Business Administration at Henley.
Last reviewed: 5 November 2009
