Aqua is formally accountable to its Board which meets on a Quarterly basis. The Board is made up of the Executive Management Team along with Independent Board Members and Associate Board Members.
Non-Executive Director
Governance, Legal and Leadership Lead
Alex specialises in strategy and transformation, leadership and people and brings a wealth of experience across the legal and retail industries to Aqua. Alex recently transitioned her career to focus on non-executive work and in addition to her role at Aqua, she is a Board Director of the Teenage Cancer Trust in the North West and an advisor to investment firms. Alex was the CEO of two law firms and spent over a decade working in retail as an executive for Marks and Spencer in the UK and Coles in Australia. Alex received a First-Class master’s degree in engineering from Oxford University in 1997 and an MBA from INSEAD in 2003. In 2018, Alex became the first person to win the Law Society’s Excellence in Practice Management Award. In recent years, Alex completed the Strategic Leadership executive programme at Oxford University and received a Certificate in Innovation from Cambridge University in 2022. Most recently, Alex was included in the 2023 North West Business Insider Professional Power List.
Non-Executive Director
Member Lead and Medical Lead
Jim is the Medical Director at Liverpool University Hospitals.
A GP by background and a former Health Foundation Leadership Fellow, Jim has held multiple senior roles across clinical care, medical management, and academia. These include: GP Partner, Executive Chair of a GP out of hours co-operative, NHSE Area Team Medical Director and Responsible Office, Group Medical Director in the private sector, Deputy Head of the School of Medicine at UCLan and non-executive director of an acute hospital and of a hospice.
In all these roles, Jim has sought to promote professionalism and leadership whilst developing high performing multi-disciplinary teams.
Non-Executive Director
Commercial Lead
Mark Duman brings over 30 years of clinician, management consultant and patient perspectives experience to the healthcare, life sciences and digital health sectors. Working in the NHS, The King’s Fund, the BBC, and as a Founder of the Patient Information Forum, Mark endeavours to make healthcare more person-centric. As part of his role as Chief Patient Officer for MD Healthcare, Mark works with organisations including AstraZeneca, Diabetes UK, Google Health, Innovate UK, JnJ, Macmillan Cancer Support, Microsoft, Pfizer, Novartis and Siemens Healthineers to harness digital health, improve patient engagement and develop key markets. His vast experience around tech-enabled provision and working with commercial partners has brought to life some of the lived experience elements and self-managed care.
Non-Executive Director
Improvement Science and Practice Lead
Dr Maxine Power is an NHS Executive with over 30 years’ experience leading improvement. Maxine initially trained as a clinician and throughout her eclectic career, worked across clinical practice and academia in a variety of settings. Maxine brings a wealth of experience to Aqua and has published over 20 peer-reviewed publications in Improvement which focus on large-scale change, measurement, evaluation, and patient safety. Her reputation and work in leadership spans across four Integrated Care boards in the North West, and she presents on systems leadership for quality, safety, improvement and digital nationally and internationally. Maxine is currently the Executive Director of Quality, Innovation, and Improvement at the North West Ambulance Service with responsibility for patient safety, innovation, improvement, and digital systems.
Non-Executive Director
Lived Experience Lead
Sughra Nazir brings a wealth of experience to Aqua, with a background in supporting the health and social care sector with care quality, safeguarding and regulatory compliance. Sughra began her career as a social worker and more recently has worked for the Care Quality Commission as an inspector and National Provider Relationship Lead, as well as Non-Executive Director at Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
Sughra brings a core set of values that match with Aqua’s, and has particular interest in improving maternity, children with disabilities, learning disability and dementia services.
Non-Executive Director and Vice Chair
Non-Executive Director, Vice Chair and Finance Lead
Phil is working as an Independent Financial Consultant to the NHS, currently providing some input to a developing Integrated Care System.
He recently retired after a long career at board level in the NHS; his most recent post was Director of Finance for NHS England’s Cheshire and Merseyside region, which is responsible for the direct commissioning of primary and specialist care as well as funding and assurance for Clinical Commissioning Groups across the health and care system.
Prior to joining NHS England in 2013, Phil was Director of Finance at NHS Merseyside, which was made up of the four Primary Care Trusts across the region. Having worked in Liverpool for over 14 years, he oversaw the transformation of the city’s healthcare finances into one of the strongest and most resilient health economies in the country.
Before joining the NHS, Phil held board level positions in both local government and the private sector across the North West.
Chief Executive Officer
Our Chief Executive Officer, Dr Susy Cook, is a dedicated and innovative Executive and Board member who brings a wealth of experience across 25 years in the NHS and academia in varying roles – from Manager, Director, Coach, Leadership and Organisational Development Lead, and Improver.
Prior to joining us in September 2024, Susy was the Group Chief People Officer at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and started her career as a biochemist and researcher in 1997.
With a deep commitment to healthcare excellence and a track record of effective leadership in the NHS, Susy will further develop a shared sense of purpose, motivation for improvement, and growth during an exciting time of change for the NHS.
Non-Executive Director, Host Representative and Digital Lead
Non-Executive Director, Host Representative and Digital Lead.
Lorna joined the Northern Care Alliance (NCA) in September 2022 and she is a senior IT Leader with over 20 years’ experience across a wide range of business sectors including financial services, legal, telecommunications, oil and gas and heavy industries.
She started her career at the British Library and has significant experience across operational IT service delivery as well as programme and project management expertise within both the private and public sector. Prior to joining the NCA Lorna was the Chief Information Officer at StepChange Debt Charity, the largest debt charity in the UK. Lorna is also a Trustee at St Leonard’s Hospice.
She was awarded membership into the CIO 100 UK for 2021, 2022 and 2023 was included within the 2023 longlist of the most influential women in UK Tech.
Chair
Sue has worked in the NHS since 1983, after initially starting her career as a librarian. Sue trained as a nurse, then midwife and worked clinically for over 15 years before developing her interest in organisational development and learning. Sue worked as an Executive Director in a Teaching Trust before moving to become the Lead Improvement Director for NHSI in 2015. For five years Sue worked with Trusts in Quality and Financial Special Measures and in 2019, she became the National Director for Intensive Support.
In June 2022, Sue joined Aqua as its new Chief Executive Officer and stepped down in September 2024 to become the Chair of the Board.
Director
Cath was appointed as an Aqua Director in October 2013. She holds responsibility for the Advancing Quality (AQ) programme and analytics, as well as Aqua’s finances and business systems.
Cath was previously the Associate Director of Strategy and Business Development at Warrington and Halton NHS Foundation Trust. She is a qualified accountant with an extensive career in the NHS, covering a range of senior leadership roles in finance, consultancy, audit, strategy, and business development.
Cath is currently leading on the Well Led reviews of Foundation Trusts on behalf of Aqua, in conjunction with a number of our partners.
Director
Dr Sonya Wallbank is a consultant clinical psychologist and specialises in workforce resilience and restorative approaches to wellbeing. She has worked in the NHS as a director of service delivery and workforce, leading complex change and improvement programmes for NHS England and NHS Improvement, including the delivery of the health and wellbeing response for NHS staff during the Covid-19 pandemic.
She has also led HR services and operating model change for the Department of Health and Social Care and worked directly with organisations, teams and individuals wanting to change how they work in the UK, Australia, and the US. She has authored materials to enable organisations to embed their own approach to restorative supervision.
Sonya lectures on how focusing supervision and support on the needs of the individual, not just the work they deliver reduces stress, burnout and improves the pleasure people derive from their work.
Our Senior Leadership Team leads the day-to-day workings across the whole of Aqua. Whilst they are responsible for leading on specific themes of work, each of their expertise is felt across the organisation.
Director
Cath was appointed as an Aqua Director in October 2013. She holds responsibility for the Advancing Quality (AQ) programme and analytics, as well as Aqua’s finances and business systems.
Cath was previously the Associate Director of Strategy and Business Development at Warrington and Halton NHS Foundation Trust. She is a qualified accountant with an extensive career in the NHS, covering a range of senior leadership roles in finance, consultancy, audit, strategy, and business development.
Cath is currently leading on the Well Led reviews of Foundation Trusts on behalf of Aqua, in conjunction with a number of our partners.
Director
Dr Sonya Wallbank is a consultant clinical psychologist and specialises in workforce resilience and restorative approaches to wellbeing. She has worked in the NHS as a director of service delivery and workforce, leading complex change and improvement programmes for NHS England and NHS Improvement, including the delivery of the health and wellbeing response for NHS staff during the Covid-19 pandemic.
She has also led HR services and operating model change for the Department of Health and Social Care and worked directly with organisations, teams and individuals wanting to change how they work in the UK, Australia, and the US. She has authored materials to enable organisations to embed their own approach to restorative supervision.
Sonya lectures on how focusing supervision and support on the needs of the individual, not just the work they deliver reduces stress, burnout and improves the pleasure people derive from their work.
Deputy Director
Helen joined Aqua in 2015, she currently leads on System Transformation, Whole System Flow, Mental Health programmes and has corporate responsibility for Communications and Marketing and Relationship Management.
Helen has worked in the NHS for over 20 years, working in a range of provider and strategic organisations at Assistant and Associate Director Level. As an Assistant Director of Organisational Learning and Development in a Mental Health and Community Provider, her key areas of work included leading coaching strategy, cultural development, health and wellbeing, communications and learning and development. At a regional level she has led major transformation programmes related to workforce and health and work, and in her early career she also led regional programmes for medicines management.
Helen is CIPD Qualified and is a qualified executive coach. Helen has extensive experience of delivering board and system level programmes and interventions.
Deputy Director
Ruth is an Associate Director at Aqua leading a portfolio of programmes including the Advancing Quality programme and Aqua analytics and evaluation.
With extensive experience in leading the development and delivery of Business Intelligence services to Commissioning and Provider organisations, Ruth understands the importance of developing and delivering meaningful and actionable intelligence to a variety of audiences in order to deliver change.
At Aqua Ruth uses skills in data management, analysis and the use of data to improve in the Health Service to support our members and customers. Working with organisations to ensure they adopt an intelligence led approach to change, that they can understand and measure improvement and that they can evaluate the impact of interventions, Ruth and her team proactively use comparative analysis to support healthcare organisations to identify opportunities for improvement and measure change.
Chief Executive Officer
Our Chief Executive Officer, Dr Susy Cook, is a dedicated and innovative Executive and Board member who brings a wealth of experience across 25 years in the NHS and academia in varying roles – from Manager, Director, Coach, Leadership and Organisational Development Lead, and Improver.
Prior to joining us in September 2024, Susy was the Group Chief People Officer at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust and South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and started her career as a biochemist and researcher in 1997.
With a deep commitment to healthcare excellence and a track record of effective leadership in the NHS, Susy will further develop a shared sense of purpose, motivation for improvement, and growth during an exciting time of change for the NHS.
Our workforce have a range of experience, from lived experience and front line clinical practice to board level, spanning sectors including acute & community trusts, mental health, primary care, local authority, military and academia.
Consultant
Amanda is a Senior Improvement Advisor for Mental Health, Flow & System Transformation teams covering the entire Aqua offer. Her background is nursing and health visiting. Prior to joining Aqua Amanda had over 30 years’ experience in acute, community services and public health. She has experience as a provider and a commissioner as well as working in leadership and governance roles.
More recently, Amanda has worked in service development, redesign and improvement. She also has experience of developing award winning innovative ideas, enabling systems via large scale IT programmes. Amanda is passionate about ensuring patient safety and quality and is driven by the motivation of reducing inequality. In 2012 she was awarded the title of Queens Nurse for innovative patient centred work in the community.
Outside of work Amanda enjoys learning Ukulele and Welsh (not at the same time!), fostering hedgehogs and exploring.
Associate Director
Bella has 25 years of experience in the NHS and is committed to personal values of integrity, respect, and communication as the bottom line to build on for a solid foundation of value-based behaviours in her career.
During the last 13 years, Bella has developed as a credible senior clinical and operational improvement leader with board level experience in acute provider and regional transformation programmes, and over the past 5 years as a facilitator and transformation change agent in national roles at NHS England working with organisations and systems building improvement capability and implementing specialist care pathway programmes.
Bella has 21 years frontline clinical care, managerial and strategic responsibility of specialist Head & Neck cancer dietetic services, and has been acknowledged as an inspiring team leader, innovative role model and advocate for patients, carers, and health care colleagues. Driving cancer improvements, transformational change and multidisciplinary working from the frontline, regionally, nationally, and internationally.
Bella is known to be the ‘glue’ with her family and friends, and ‘umbrella’ in her nieces and nephews lives! Also, Bella is a keen photographer, garden landscaper and ice cream cake maker.
Senior Consultant
Binoy is a continuous improvement and transformation specialist with over 20 years’ experience in engineering, manufacturing, and the healthcare sector. Originally from India he is a mechanical design engineer/ product designer by profession.
Binoy’s career with NHS began in 2009 as a service improvement facilitator. Since then he led quality improvement at various commissioning and provider organisations. As a senior improvement lead at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Binoy led the roll out Quality Service Improvement and Redesign (QSIR) programme across the Trust and ICS. Binoy joined the national QSIR team in 2018 where he supports the design, delivery and evaluation of QSIR programmes and other capability building programmes such as MOOCs and collaboratives. In 2021 Binoy successfully led the transformation of QSIR College virtual assessment process. More recently Binoy was redeployed as the Head of PMO for the National discharge challenge for mental health and community services.
Binoy is based in Nottingham, with wife Stella, two cats and several tropical fish. Outside of the office, Binoy enjoys DIY, sketching, painting, theatre and travelling.
Senior Consultant
Becci is a nationally experienced, improvement leader in health and care, passionate about using robust data to transform the quality of care, clinical outcomes whilst improving the experience for service users. In her current role as the Advancing Quality (AQ) Programme Manager, Becci leads a team of quality improvement professionals and analysts, to reduce unwarranted clinical variation in organisations across the North West and nationally.
Becci has a diverse health and care background, having delivered complex and multi-organisational change programmes in children’s services, acute trusts, commissioning organisations and currently works to establish and support the new NHS Integrated Care System (ICS) infrastructure.
As a sociologist and former lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, Becci taught qualitative and quantitative research methods, and sociological modules focussed on organisational behaviour, culture, and communities of practice. Becci currently teaches leadership, change management and resource management modules at Arden University for distance learning students, as well as delivering on their MBA programme for senior health and care leaders.
Project Support Officer
Lisa joined Aqua in 2023 and provides business support for the Quality, Service Improvement Redesign (QSIR) programme. Her role is managing the administration activity, both internally with the QSIR National faculty and externally with QSIR Associates. Lisa has been working with the QSIR programme 2018.
Lisa has been working within the NHS since 2018, working in a business support capacity across a variety of programmes all with an improvement focus.
Away from work Lisa enjoys long walks in the countryside with her dog Socialising with friends, weekends away, and making jewellery designs into actual pieces of wearable fashion pieces.
Senior Consultant
Jemma joined Aqua in September 2023 as Programme Lead for Safety and Mortality.
She has worked across a number of NHS provider and commissioner organisations for over 17 years, in leadership roles which focused on patient safety and improvement.
Jemma was supported by a previous NHS Trust to undertake a Professional Doctorate in Patient Safety. The focus of this work was research into the exploration of the implementation of the Duty of Candour.
Jemma’s previous roles included leading trust wide improvements across acute, mental health and community providers.
She has led on the coordination, monitoring and improvements relating to the CQUIN programmes. She has also led on a number of high profile serious incident investigations through a system learning lens. A number of these investigations have led to actions and improvements at local and national level.
Jemma has supported Trust’s to move to the investigation of patient safety incident and events through the lens of system based investigation and learning, through the implementation of SEIPS2.
Consultant
Tom is one of Aqua’s Principal Business Intelligence Analysts, providing data, analysis and reporting for the Advancing Quality (AQ) programme, delivering measurement training, presenting at events and supporting skills development in measurement. He contributes to AQ’s research portfolio, supervises data flow and has responsibility for PIQS, AQ’s data entry and reporting system. He also works across Aqua on internal information management processes, providing operational intelligence.
Before joining Aqua in 2017, Tom was Registry Manager at the Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN), managing Europe’s largest database of traumatic injury. During this time, he contributed to a number of academic research papers. He has a Master’s degree in Information Processing and is also a qualified teacher.
Tom has a PhD in Creative Writing and outside of work is interested in books, art and music.
Senior Project Support Officer
Easha joined Aqua in 2021 as a project support officer and currently supports the Mental Health, Patient Experience and System Transformation portfolio to deliver output on Aqua’s four improvement areas to support members and customers in the North West and beyond.
Outside of work Easha enjoys running, eating out and going to the gym. Easha has also completed the Manchester half marathon for charity.
Senior Project Support Officer
Elaine joined Aqua in 2019 as Administration Officer, and now works as a Project Support Officer in our Safety & Mortality, Capability and Person Centred Care Portfolio.
Elaine has extensive senior administrative experience providing support to Executives and Board for both the NHS and Private sectors. Prior to joining Aqua, Elaine has worked in the NHS as PA to Chief Exec and Chairman for Salford PCG, Office Manager for Salford PCG and GMS Officer for Salford PCT working closely with GP’s and GP practices.
Elaine is one of Aqua’s Mental Health Champions and a Mental Health First Aider.
Project Support Officer
Eric joined Aqua as a Programme Support Officer in March 2023. His role involves organising, planning and monitoring meetings and events to support the set up and delivery of programmes within the Safety & Mortality, Capability and Person Centred Care Portfolio.
Eric studied Linguistics and Language Technology at the City University of Hong Kong. He worked in education and publishing before joining Aqua, with extensive experience of administration and project management. He is keen to work in areas which help advancement and improvement.
Outside of work, Eric has interests in language, travel, movies and music.
Consultant
Gaby joined Aqua in April 2024 as a Senior Improvement Advisor within patient safety. She qualified as a physiotherapist in 2000 and has worked in the NHS as a highly specialist physiotherapist. She has clinical interests in MSK, lower limb conditions, orthopaedics, and injection therapy with over 20 years of experience in primary and secondary care. Gaby has a passion for quality improvement, innovation, and leadership.
More recently Gaby has worked both nationally and regionally (North West) with NHS England (Workforce, Training and Education) driving consistent and occupation-specific career development pathways which have fair access opportunities, for AHP support workers.
Outside of work Gaby enjoys running, baking, and spending time with her family and friends – her 3 children keep her busy!
Associate Consultant
Helen joined the NHS and Aqua in January 2022 and is now a Programme Facilitator in the System Transformation, Mental Health and Lived Experience portfolio.
Before joining Aqua, Helen worked as a secondary school Chemistry teacher for 12 years, holding a variety of leadership positions,. She also recently completed her Mental Health First Aider training and is looking forward to embedding this role within Aqua.
Outside of work, Helen enjoys baking, reading and spending time with her husband and two young children.
Executive Assistant
Jane joined Aqua in 2019 and is responsible for providing high quality administrative and project support to the Aqua Corporate Office and Senior Leadership Team and is PA to the Chief Executive and Finance Director. Her work spectrum is broad and includes supporting HR, finance and office functions, plus fulfilling the role of Aqua Board Secretary.
Prior to joining Aqua, Jane worked in various roles and professions within the private sector: teacher; civil servant; personal assistant; project manager; senior telecommunications manager; working in the private housing sector; personal carer.
Outside of work, Jane enjoys creative writing, theatre and films, as well as going to the gym and sauna; swimming; yoga; tap dancing; reading historical novels.
Associate Consultant
Jane is responsible for the day-to-day operations management of Aqua, including leadership of the core admin team. Jane manages multiple elements of a diverse portfolio, including budget management and human resources. She also provides support to other Aqua teams with their budget management tracking and any issues that may arise.
Jane has been working with Aqua since March 2008, starting as a Project Manager for the Advancing Quality (AQ) Team helping to organise and plan Collaboratives across the North West and also managing the AQ budget expenditure. In April 2015 Jane was appointed as Business Operations Manager for Aqua.
Outside of work, Jane has just taken up crocheting, loves gardening and enjoys living life to the full.
Senior Consultant
Jen is a proactive and solution-focussed leader, with over 20 years experience in transforming health and social care systems at local, regional and national levels. Her career spans local authorities, NHS commissoning bodies and provider trusts.
In her current role at Aqua, Jen leads our Safer Salford programme as well as a range of bespoke improvement work, particularly in the areas of social value, health equity, urgent and emergency care and system transformation.
Jen has extensive experience in commissioning, programme management and improvement within primary care, urgent care, elective pathways and community services. Her work includes system integration, pandemic response, large-scale service reconfiguation and award-nominated vaccine equity programmes.
Outside of work Jen enjoys family time, travelling and running.
Project Manager
Ling joined Aqua as a Programme Support Officer in 2023 where she supports the Safety & Mortality, Capability, and Person Centred Care Portfolio. Her role involves providing administrative support, managing diaries for programme delivery, as well as organising, planning, and monitoring project meetings and events.
Ling studied Biological Sciences at the University of Hong Kong. Prior to joining Aqua, she gained valuable experience as a secondary school Biology teacher. Her experience in education has provided her with the ability to effectively coordinate and manage tasks, ensuring efficient operations and smooth workflow.
Outside of work, Ling enjoys playing volleyball and spending quality time with friends.
Consultant
Lismy joined the Advancing Quality (AQ) team in April 2022, and her main role is to support the Trusts to implement AQ measures locally via quality improvement initiatives and drive the improvement in standards of care delivery and develop clinical focus areas.
Prior to this, Lismy worked as Project Manager in a commissioning role at the NHS Cheshire CCG from April 2020. Lismy also held a Transformation Project Manager role with the NHS Eastern Cheshire CCG prior to the CCGs merger. Lismy has worked in the NHS since 2003 and has been part of academic and research teams at the University of Aberdeen and University of Glasgow. Lismy has a publication to her name and can be accessed at: Group-based healthy lifestyle workplace interventions for shift workers: a systematic review – PubMed. Lismy’s experience also covers: Quality Improvement, Knowledge Management, Academic Research, Teaching, and as registered nurse – more than 15 years in NHS and abroad since qualifying as a Nurse/Midwife in 1997.
Outside of work, Lismy enjoys cooking and supporting and actively involving in the local church activities and events.
Senior Nursing Consultant
Paul has worked in health and social care for over 35 years as a practitioner (RMN), staff development officer and regional development lead (National Institute for Mental Health, NW SHA). He has led on mental health legislation including the Mental Capacity Act implementation in the region. He has developed skills around workforce development, equalities agenda and co-production over the years at a regional level.
At Aqua Paul has delivered a range of programmes from restraint reduction, physical health and mental health developments, pathway diagnostics and re-designs around whole systems. Paul also supports continuous improvement development across health and care and in particular building QI capability in people with lived experience alongside the Aqua lived experience panel.
Away from work, Paul loves gardening, art, creative therapies and theatre, and has an eclectic taste in music.
Consultant
Rebecca is a System Transformation Improvement Advisor at Aqua, who specialises in improvement and redesign of service offers and pathways. Rebecca has wide ranging experience of quality improvement including in paediatric urgent care, end of life, children and adult mental health, care navigation, pressure ulcer and facilitating QI taught sessions and workshops. She is particularly interested in joining the dots, operationalising strategy and demonstrating the impact and supporting the people side of change.
She aims to help develop and embed sustainable and impactful solutions to system challenges through systems thinking, systems leadership, continuous quality improvement, and innovative and tactical solutions design.
Rebecca is a member of Q and currently studying implementation science through a NIHR internship programme.
Executive Assistant
Sally joined Aqua in July 2023. She is responsible for providing quality administrative support to the Aqua Corporate Office and Senior Leadership Team. This includes supporting HR, office management responsibilities and providing PA support to the Directors.
Sally has had various roles within the public sector over the years, mainly with Greater Manchester Police as Investigative Support Officer, and more recently as an Administrator with Occupational Health Team at Stockport NHS Trust.
Away from work Sally enjoys cooking, Pilates, dancing and spending time with her grandchildren.
Senior Consultant
Sarah has been on the role of Programme Manager for Capability Building since the start of 2018 although she worked as part of the Academy team as an Associate, delivering QI to members since 2012. As programme manager she has responsibility for designing, delivering and evaluating the QI programmes delivered by the Academy and supporting QI development in staff across Aqua.
Sarah has worked in improvement roles for the last 15 years both with Aqua and at a Trust where she has supported teams and partner organisations to deliver sustainable change through integration and redesign of services. With an NHS career spanning 28 years she brings improvement experience across a range of organisations and disciplines including as a qualified accountant where she supported quality improvement through service change.
Sarah holds an MSc in Leadership and Culture for Improvement and her skills as a facilitator are underpinned with a certificate in Teaching in the Lifelong Learning sector. Sarah is a qualified CMI Level 7 Coach and her extensive knowledge of quality improvement methodology and practical experience of providing improvement leadership allow her to support individuals in achieving their goals as well as enabling organisations to develop their own system and culture for improvement.
Associate Consultant
Victoria joined us as an Evaluation Manager in January 2023 and has 18 years’ experience working in health and care research and evaluation.
Victoria started her career in the NHS as a Graduate Mental Health Worker, treating and supporting people with mental health problems within primary care.
Victoria has recently relocated back from Sydney, Australia where she held the role of Senior Evaluation Officer in the Centre for Population Health, NSW Ministry of Health. Designing and commissioning evaluations of state-wide preventative health programs and initiatives. She holds a Master in Public Health and a Post Graduate diploma in Advanced Mental Health Interventions and has worked across research and evaluation in obesity prevention, alcohol and drugs and mental health.
Outside of work Victoria is a keen runner and enjoys country walks with her English Springer Spaniel.
Consultant
Victoria joined Aqua in June 2023 as a Senior Improvement Advisor. Her role focuses on delivering Quality Improvement and QI capability building programmes along with a core suite of QI programmes.
Victoria started her NHS career working at the North West Ambulance Service where her passion for QI began. Since joining the NHS, she has worked at East Lancashire Teaching Hospitals in the Quality Improvement Team, supporting organisational staff to undertake QI projects and feeding those into the trust wide requirements as well as delivering training and supporting staff in training who are required to undertake a QI project, focusing especially on Medical Students, Junior Doctors and Trainee Advanced Clinical Practitioners. Victoria’s most recent role was Quality Improvement Lead at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals where she led a Clinical Quality Academy which supported 10 clinically led teams to develop their QI project with specialised modules and training from world known QI experts, each project was aligned to the trust values. She also supported different programmes of work including deteriorating patients and reducing harms.
Outside of work Victoria’s interests are running, walking and enjoying time with her family.
Head of Communications and Marketing
Katie joined Aqua in 2015 and leads the organisation’s Communications and Marketing functions. Her role is managing all Communications and Marketing activity, both internally with staff and externally with members and customers. With her team, Katie is responsible for publications, branding, social media, marketing and design.
Katie has been working in communications within the NHS since 2006, working in a variety of organisations and roles. A media graduate from the University of Sunderland, Katie is also accredited by both the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) and the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).
Away from work Katie enjoys travelling to new places, running around after her daughter, watching rugby league and learning to sew.
Business Intelligence Analyst
Before joining Aqua, Amaan studied Economics at Manchester Metropolitan University and worked at an Estate Agency Firm working in Accounts and Lettings.
Amaan joined Aqua as a Programme Support Officer in 2022, supporting the Quality, Safety & Person-Centred Care portfolio to deliver output on Aqua’s improvement areas across the North-west and beyond. He now works within the Analytics and Evaluation team as a Business intelligence Analyst.
Outside of work Amaan like to enjoys eating out (he knows all the best places to eat in Sale), travelling, and watching the football.
Head of Financial Reporting
Andy is Head of Financial Reporting at Aqua, having joined us in June 2021.
His role includes monitoring and reporting on Aqua’s financial position, reporting to Board, budget setting, financial project work and long term financial planning.
Andy is a qualified accountant (FCCA) with 8 years previous experience in the NHS and over 10 years in NHS consultancy specialising in long term financial forecasting, business cases and patient level costing.
Outside of work he enjoys watching most sports and recently managed a Sunday League football team. He’s previously played cricket, golf, squash and chess to a decent level but mainly stays active nowadays by going to the gym on a regular basis.
Communications and Marketing Manager
Hollie joined Aqua in 2018 and is responsible for the operational management of the communications and marketing function. This includes providing communications support to our members and customers across the UK. Hollie is also responsible for the management of our key communications channels, including the website, social media, and much of our content creation.
Hollie has worked in Communications and Marketing for 10 years. Having worked across the education and not for profit sectors, she built up a broad range of experience before joining Aqua. Completing a BA (Hons) in English Literature, she has also completed a CIM Certificate in Professional Marketing.
Outside of work Hollie enjoys spending time with family and friends, eating out, and travelling as much as possible.
Project Manager
Neil is responsible for the day to day running and management of NHS Quest. His role also includes report writing, preparing papers for the Board, finance management, the organisation and management of national events, workshops and senior level CEO meetings. Neil also supports programmes within Aqua including the Advanced Improvement Practitioner course.
Neil joined the NHS in 2004 and has had various roles in both primary and secondary care. Neil has experience of working on numerous improvement projects including implementing paper-lite clinics across Salford Royal Hospital. In recent years he has worked in Information Governance at SRFT and has also had project management and event management roles at Haelo Innovation & Improvement Science Centre.
Outside of work Neil enjoys cycling, running… around after his little boy, photography, going to the cinema, and researching his family history. He is also a music lover, collects vinyl and loves going to gigs.
Our highly skilled network of Associates, works across all areas of Aqua, supporting our customers with their specific requirements.
Having worked with the Aqua since 2017 as an Associate, Claire understands the philosophy for working with our clients in a collaborative and innovative way. This approach is aligned with her own values, and she is excited by the prospect of working on behalf of Aqua to improve health and care quality.
Claire is currently working with several Executive Teams and Boards within health care to enable them to develop their approach to integrated working across systems. This includes capability building in system leadership, team performance diagnostics, coaching, 360 feedback and psychometric assessment. She is qualified to administer and interpret a range of team diagnostics including the Affina Team Performance Inventory, Affina Real Team Profile Plus and Systemic Team Coaching 360.
She has experience of working with individuals, teams and organisations to integrate services, through her work with Affina OD and through working with Aqua on the Leading Integrated Teams programme. Claire’s work with Manchester Health and Care Commissioning which is an extension of the work she did on behalf of the Health and Wellbeing Board in Manchester also enables me to support integrated working. She also currently works with a large NHS Trust in London to support integrated working through the development of teams and inter-team working within and outside the NHS Trust.
Naomi is a strategic thinker who excels in translating theory into practice and bringing order to chaos. A confident communicator, she navigates the requirements of a high-profile role collaboratively with integrity, discretion and dedication.
Since April 2022, Naomi has worked on building a portfolio of work which now includes her own consultancy with a number of businesses within the manufacturing sector, Arts Council England and the Methodist Church. She is now continuing to develop her portfolio by engaging with organisations who share her own values within the public sector, and the NHS in particular.
Naomi naturally facilitates between Executive colleagues and is often the ‘go to’ person for a birds eye view across the organisation, or for an alternative perspective. She builds healthy, motivated teams who provide excellent service, and enjoys working to bring transformation through collaborative working.
Naomi is passionate about changing cultures and fostering psychological safety in teams, creating energised teams who are continually invested in learning and improving.
Experienced company director with extensive experience of working in the public sector as a non-executive, senior leader, manager and clinician with expertise in organisation development, team & executive coaching, large scale facilitation, evaluation and leadership development.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills. An understanding of policy drivers and changes that impact on the health and care service delivery, patient care, organisation and workforce development. Understands the need for high challenge and high support, works with a number of organisations and maintains strong professional and personal boundaries.
Ability to work in challenging environments, delivering to tight deadlines and creating the conditions to lead and support individuals, teams and organisations to respond flexibly to diverse and new challenging business contexts.
Susan is a highly experienced Non-Executive Director and Quality Improvement expert with extensive operational experience of leading complex, holistic change programmes at local, regional and national level. She is a creative and strategic thinker with the ability to formulate, articulate and execute strategy.
Susan is an experienced health service Director, using her clinical background and track record of delivering improved quality outcomes in patient safety and experience, clinical efficiencies, and effectiveness to drive sustainable change.
She brings objectivity and analytical skills to a Board, a firm grasp of Governance plus a willingness to challenge. She is a collaborative leader, who is highly adept at identifying operational challenges and risks, and a strong advocate for involving users of services as equal members of teams.
Tom is an organisational culture and ethics consultant with a unique blend of lived, learned, and professional experience.
He is a trainer, author, and speaker specialising in wilful blindness, ethical fading, and cultural conformity in public services. A former NHS manager who Whistleblew, Tom has served on numerous steering groups and has contributed to various nationally significant reports covering, open government, the justice system, and NHS services.
Tom has an MBA, an MSc, a PgC in digital health and is a fellow of the Chartered Management Institute. His critically acclaimed book, Lions, Liars, Donkeys and Penguins – The Killing of Alison, is a true story of the events surrounding the suicide of his sister following her abuse in an NHS mental health hospital in Northern England.
He lives in Penrith on the edge of England’s Lake District with his wife Debbie.
Our Lived Experience Panel is vital in supporting the development and improvement of the services Aqua provides by bringing their experience of using health and care services, as well as expertise from their careers and personal life experience.
Lived Experience Panel Member
Anthony O’Connor currently undertakes paid and voluntary work for a variety of organisations across Mental/Physical Health provision and Adult Social Care.
His main interests are Lived, Living and Learned Experience and Co-Production; these drive and inform all of the work that he does. His priorities with Aqua will be to help embed co-production values and the lived experience voice across every element of our work.
Lived Experience Panel Member
Lived Experience Panel Member
Lisa joined Aqua as a Lived Experience Panel member in August 2022, alongside her current role as a Research Fellow in the Medication Safety Theme at NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre at The University of Manchester.
Her interests focus on improving patient experience and ensuring that patient’s voices are included from the very start of change and transformation journeys. With a passion for co-production, she is the founder of Find Logo And Give Medication (FLAG-Me) pharmacy software alerts, produced in response to co-design workshop findings to support safer medication use for people with vision impairments in community pharmacy.
Prior to this she was involved in producing educational resources for pharmacists – Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education Patient Safety Toolkit, and has co-created resources to support the diagnosis and management of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS/ME) for patients, carers and General Practitioners.
Lived Experience Panel Member
Lived Experience Panel Member
Get the latest updates, learning opportunities, and insightful articles conveniently in to your inbox.
