Meet the board - Healthwatch Surrey

Meet your local Healthwatch Board Members.

For details of our upcoming Board Meetings in Public, please click here.

For details of our previous Board Meetings in Public, please click here.

Board

Peter Gordon -Board Director and Chair

Peter is a non executive director and consultant with particular expertise in strategy, change management and marketing gained in a variety of sectors, markets and cultures.

Following a successful business career, Peter has for some years focused his efforts... more

Jason Davies - Director and Vice-chair

Jason worked for over 20 years in The City as an infrastructure and finance lawyer and as a partner in a leading law firm, working on +60 large projects in sectors such as hospitals, care homes, schools, social housing, police... more

Lynne Omar - Independent Non-Executive Director

Lynne worked for 18 years as a Therapeutic Radiographer delivering radiotherapy treatment as well as being involved in research and clinical trials, in several London Hospitals. She then worked for 5 years as part of a research team within the... more

Deborah Mechaneck- Board Director

Deborah is an MBA with over 30 years’ experience in the pharmaceutical, medical aesthetic, medical devices and health related not-for-profit sectors. She has worked for companies such as Glaxo Wellcome, Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Deborah’s career has included management... more

Richard Davy - Board Director appointed by Surrey Independent Living Council (SILC)

Richard Davy has been involved in health and social care for 30 years. In this time he has worked for a number of local authorities and voluntary sector organisations including generic social work teams, support services and residential care. He... more

Mark Sharman - Board Director appointed by Help and Care

Mark is the Chief Executive of Help and Care, having joined as a part-time worker in 1985 when it was a three month pilot project. Over the years Mark has held a number of local, regional and national advisory roles... more

Laurence Oates -Board Director appointed by Citizens Advice Surrey (CAS)

Laurence’s professional career was spent mainly as a lawyer in Government service. Between 1999 and 2006 he was appointed the Official Solicitor to the Supreme Court, in which role he represented in legal proceedings people without the mental capacity to... more

Tacye Connolly - Board Director

Tacye has worked for over 30 years in healthcare regulatory affairs assisting pharmaceutical and medical devices companies with developing and gaining approval for new products.

For over twenty years she was director and owner of the regulatory consultancy,... more

John Bateson- Board Director

John started work as a manager in the National Health Service over twenty years ago, and since then has led a wide variety of projects working to improve healthcare services, supporting and learning from patients and their families. He also... more

Andrea Lecky - Board Director

Andrea has a broad background in health and social care, beginning her career in the National Health Service
as a registered nurse (RGN). She has extensive experience of working across various departments; Accident
& Emergency, Orthopaedics, Trauma, General and Surgical... more

Don McIntosh - Board Director

Don is a graduate qualified chartered civil engineer whose engineering career included projects in Sudan, Bolivia and the UK.

Moving from engineering Don developed a commercial career across a range of sectors including manpower services, direct marketing, Internet... more

Maria Millwood - Board Director

Maria has over 35 years working within the public sector operating at Board level across Local Government and NHS Clinical Commissioning Group. She is passionate about the quality of health and care of people within Surrey and making sure that people are listened to and are involved in the design and delivery of service. Her drive and commitment to improving health and care and reducing inequalities comes from a background of supporting Social Care and Health for a county council and an inner London borough. As a senior leader within social and health care she has first-hand experience of working within a challenging and demanding environment.

Maria worked as a Director or Resources for Lambeth Borough Council where she was responsible for, HR, workforce development, performance and assurance, policy, consultation and customer engagement and she gained experience in integrated care social and health care. She was responsible for the financial management of a £180m gross budget. She led teams of 100+ staff working within the challenging demands of a demand led service, national & local agendas and reducing resources. During this time, she worked on implementing a direct payments scheme for all care users, an outcome monitoring tool and financial plans that reflected the needs and desired outcomes of people.

She then moved to the role of Director of Integrated Commissioning, a joint post for Lambeth Borough Council and NHS Lambeth CCG. She was responsible a large integrated commissioning team who commissioned health and care services for Children, Disability and Public Health services. Working for a cooperative borough Maria led a number of programmes that required collaborative working between partners, people and community groups.

Maria is a qualified accountant and prior to working in Lambeth held senior finance roles within borough and county councils. She has a post graduate certificate in Social Care Leadership. Maria is a director of a small community interest company in Lambeth who manage a community facility for young people.
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