Meet the leadership team
Information about our leadership team is available below.
Professor Tim Briggs CBE
Tim is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon and was appointed National Director for Clinical Improvement and Elective Recovery for NHS England in November 2022. He is the programme lead for GIRFT, leading the roll out of the programme’s methodology across all surgical, medical and cross-cutting specialties.
Tim was appointed to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital as a consultant in 1992. His specialist interests are in orthopaedic oncology as well as surgery to the hip and knee. He was medical director at the RNOH for 15 years, ensuring a re-build, and was president of the British Orthopaedic Association in 2014.
He is also chair and national lead of the Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance (VCHA) and Honorary Colonel of 202 (Midlands) Field Hospital RAMC.
He was made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List for services to the surgical profession.
Rachel Yates MBE
Rachel is Director of Clinical Improvement for the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme at NHS England. She is a co‑founder of the GIRFT programme and has worked in long‑standing partnership with Professor Tim Briggs since 2008, initially through the development of the Federation of Specialist Hospitals and subsequently in shaping and delivering the pilot phases that evolved into GIRFT.
During the programme’s early development, Rachel worked alongside Professor Briggs and Rob Hurd, then chief executive of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, operating within a clinical and management partnership model that combined clinical leadership with programme design, delivery and operational oversight.
Rachel played a key role in the development of the early GIRFT methodology and national reports, supporting the programme’s transition from pilot into a sustained, national, clinically-led improvement offer.
She has more than 30 years’ experience in clinical improvement, public policy and programme delivery, and has worked across a wide range of national healthcare initiatives focused on reducing unwarranted variation, improving patient outcomes and strengthening clinical leadership.
In 2025, she was awarded an MBE for services to clinical quality improvement and patient safety.
Professor Sir Norman Williams
Professor Sir Norman Williams was Professor of Surgery at Barts and The London, Queen Mary’s School of Medicine and Dentistry, Honorary Consultant Surgeon at Barts and The London (1986-2016), Director of the National Centre for Bowel Research and Surgical Innovation (2012-2016) and Past President of The Royal College of Surgeons of England (2011-14).
He was Senior Clinical Advisor to the Secretary of State for Health (2015-18), chaired the Rapid Review of Gross Negligence Manslaughter in Healthcare (2018) and was a non -executive director of St George’s NHS Foundation Trust (2016-19).
He is Chair of the National Consultant Information Programme (NCIP), Chair of the Independent Reconfiguration Panel (IRP), President of Bowel Research UK and a Non-Executive Director of the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN).
Graham Lomax
Ruth Tyrrell
Ruth has a professional background in HR&OD with more than 14 years’ board director experience within highly achieving NHS Foundation Trusts. Having originally overseen the development of the GIRFT regional support teams, she then led the establishment of the GIRFT Academy, providing a wide range of products from national report publication to best practice toolkits, checklists, case studies, research and evaluation.
Ruth has a keen interest in behavioural science and has studied with ETH (Zurich) and Neuro Leadership Institute (New York) to bring the latest thinking in the Science of Change to the work of the Academy, with a particular interest in international evidence relating to scaling best practice.
In addition to leading the Academy, she works alongside Sir Norman Williams overseeing the development of the National Clinical Information Programme (NCIP) a free data platform that allows consultants to review their own data: improving clinical quality, patient safety and supporting career development.
She is also an accredited MiP representative, the healthcare managers trade union.
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Nicola Rowen
Nicola leads the GIRFT Clinical Review Unit which delivers clinically-led peer reviews focussing on cancer, diagnostics and mental health as well as developing new workstream and initiatives for the programme. As a founding member of GIRFT, Nicola has been integral to the project’s evolution since its inception, contributing to the development of the methodology that underpins the programme’s success.
With a career in the NHS spanning nearly two decades, Nicola’s career began at Oxford University Hospitals in 2006, where she played a pivotal role a number of public consultations. Nicola later applied her expertise at Bucks PCT and the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, where she continued to lead and manage significant healthcare projects.
Madeleine Connolly
Maddy Connolly oversees the data and analytics for the GIRFT programme and other clinical information projects within NHS England.
With over 30 years of experience in the NHS, she is a qualified management accountant who has worked across diverse settings, including primary care, consultancy, provider, commissioner, and at national level. Maddy is especially passionate about collaborating with clinicians to develop insights and metrics that enhance clinical and patient care, while also improving the data available to support these efforts.
Will Pank
Will is responsible for the development and delivery of the National Consultant Information Programme (NCIP), and is the GIRFT SRO for clinical audits and registries.
He ensures that GIRFT bases its work and its recommendations on the best data sources available, and that there is a continual drive to improve the quality and completeness of that data across the NHS.
Will has a background in NHS programme management and strategy, working in both commissioner and provider services. He was previously responsible for overseeing policy and engagement within GIRFT, working with national clinical leads and key stakeholders in the health system to deliver the 43 national specialty reports, with more than 2,000 recommendations for improving services.
He joined GIRFT from the Oxford Academic Health Science Network where he was responsible for setting up and overseeing a series of clinically-led networks across nine provider trusts.
His NHS career over the past 20 years has involved creating local, regional and national programmes and systems to identify and capitalise on improvement opportunities, as well as brokering partnering agreements with various NHS organisations, agencies and universities.
Mark Lindsay
Mark began his NHS career in 2004 as a Divisional Finance Manager at a large university teaching hospital in the West Midlands, and has extensive experience across both acute and community integrated health and social care NHS trusts.
In addition to being a qualified management accountant, his project management and coaching and mentoring qualifications, along with an MSc in Healthcare Leadership, have enabled him to undertake a variety of roles in improvement and transformation, organisational development, and the strategic and operational leadership of multiple clinical services.
While at the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (2017-2025), Mark was instrumental in embedding robust governance processes to maximise the benefits of the GIRFT programme, supporting clinical services to identify and assess opportunities to achieve quality and productivity improvements.
In 2025, he joined the GIRFT Academy, where he now leads the content, research, and coding teams, driving the development of Academy products and strategy. Mark is dedicated to improving services for patients, and his passion for driving continuous improvement ensures the Academy maintains the highest standards in producing high-quality, practical, and engaging resources.
Charlotte Aston
Charlotte started her career as an NHS graduate within human resources, quickly realising she wanted to work closer to the patient. She has worked across multiple acute providers with a focus on urgent and emergency care and has also managed a range of surgical and diagnostic services.
She has been recognised with numerous national awards in secondary care redesign and improvement, which she credits to the amazing NHS colleagues she has been fortunate to work with over the years, plus a values base that always puts the patient first.
Her career later moved into working at a regional level before joining the national iUEC policy and delivery team, prior to transitioning to this role.
Paul Hopley
Paul is a highly experienced registered mental health nurse with over 26 years of NHS service across adult and older adult mental health care.
Before joining GIRFT in 2025, Paul led the mental health programme within NHS England’s Mental Health Improvement Support Team, where he worked since 2021. Prior to this, he spent more than a decade as Deputy Director for Mental Health Commissioning within an Integrated Care System, representing seven Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and the emerging Integrated Care Board (ICB).
Paul has extensive experience in system-wide leadership, working collaboratively across health, social care, and partner agencies, including police constabularies. His work has driven improvements in crisis care and suicide prevention pathways, enhancing both patient outcomes and service resilience.
He has also served as an independent reviewer for the Royal College of Psychiatrists and previously chaired the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s National Competence Committee for eight years.
Paul’s leadership is characterised by collaboration, innovation, and a deep commitment to improving mental health care across the NHS for its patients.