Meet the Team
The HI NENC team is made up of an Executive, a Core Team who provide central support, and Programme Managers who lead on our Health Improvement and Patient Safety Programmes.
Find out more about the members of our team below.
Ben Porter
Programme Manager
Talk to me about... Economic Growth
Email: [email protected]
Ben joined the HI NENC as a Programme Manager in Economic Growth in August 2022. Over the past 7 years, Ben has worked primarily in the public sector providing evidence synthesis, horizon scanning, stakeholder engagement and project management expertise within…
Alan Prior
Financial Accountant
Talk to me about... Financial accounting, Sage, payroll queries
Email: [email protected]
Alan is from Newcastle upon Tyne and lives in the Whitley Bay area. He studied accountancy qualifications at college whilst working in accountancy practice. He has worked in the accountancy profession since 2005 for two different organisations before making the…
Sarah Rendall
Digital Transformation Programme Manager
Talk to me about... Digital Inclusion, Robotic Process Automation, Artificial Intelligence
Email: [email protected]
Sarah joined the HI NENC in 2016 and worked in the Communications Team with a focus on digital comms before making the move into the HI NENC’s Digital Transformation Team in 2021.Throughout her career Sarah has worked in the private,…
Scott Rennie
Project Manager
Talk to me about... Economic Growth, Dynamic Purchasing System and Sustainability
Email: [email protected]
Scott joined Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria in September 2023 as a project manager within the Economic Growth team. He has taken on roles within the purchasing team where he helps the Business Development team manage the Dynamic…
Emma Reynolds
Project Support Officer - Patient Safety Collaborative
Talk to me about... Innovation Pathway, National Lipid Optimisation Programme
Email: [email protected]
Emma is an experienced Administrator with a eye for detail which comes from a background of proofreading, minute taking and all things “secretarial”. She joined the HI NENC from Newcastle University where she worked for 22 years. As Project Manager…
Anne Richardson
Digital Transformation Project Manager
Talk to me about... Talk to me about digital inclusion
Email: [email protected]
Anne is the Digital Transformation Project Manager and has been in post since April 2023. Part of this role includes overseeing the Digital Champions education programme to support digital change in the NHS in the North East and North Cumbria. …
Emma Richardson
Programme Manager
Talk to me about... Innovation, Primary Care, Digital first primary care
Email: [email protected]
Emma joined the HI NENC as a Programme Manager in the Economic Growth team in January 2022. Emma’s background is in Children and Young People with a strong interest in Health research. Emma has worked in various roles within education…
Jill Riding
Project Manager
Talk to me about... Contracting - PMO - Pathway Transformation Fund
Email: [email protected]
Jill joined the HI NENC as a Project Support Officer (Executive) January 2020, after five years employed in a number of roles for North of England Commissioning Support Unit, most recently as Research Project Support Officer. She has a wealth…
Tony Roberts
Clinical Effectiveness Advisor
Talk to me about... Clinical Effectiveness, Patient Safety, measurement, Quality Improvement
Email: [email protected]
Tony has a measurement background, particularly relating to the safety and quality of clinical care. He Is Deputy Director Clinical Effectiveness at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the Director of the North East Quality Observatory Service (NEQOS) as…
Helen Seymour
Medicines Optimisation Workstream Lead
Talk to me about... Medicines Optimisation
Helen has spent all of her career in the NHS. She is a registered pharmacist with extensive experience in both secondary and primary care pharmacy, as well as medicines information services. She started her career in a variety of posts…
Hannah Spooner
Project Support Officer
Talk to me about... Project support for the Economic Growth team
Email: [email protected]
Hannah joined HI NENC in September 2023 as a Project Support Officer. Hannah completed her undergraduate Biomedical Sciences (Hons) degree at Northumbria University, before transferring to Newcastle University to earn her MSc in Medical Sciences. Since graduating, Hannah has worked…
Victoria Strassheim
Pain Workstream Project Lead
Talk to me about... Pain Pathway
Email: [email protected]
Victoria Strassheim is a Clinical Academic physiotherapist, with over 25 years wide ranging clinical experience and a master’s in clinical research. She also works in a multi-disciplinary fatigue clinic for patients with long term health conditions. Victoria has worked in…
David Tate
FREED Project Lead
Talk to me about... The FREED Programme, Senior Eating Disorders
Email: [email protected]
Over the last 22 months, David has planned, developed and championed the implementation of FREED (First Episode Rapid Early Intervention for Eating Disorders) across TEWV NHS FT including establishing 2 children’s eating disorder teams and adults eating disorders team. To…
Iain Taylor
Programmer Manager (Consultant)
Talk to me about... Medtech Funding Mandate Product, RUPs and Lynch Syndrome
Email: [email protected]
Iain is a consultant programme manager within the Economic Growth team. Iain holds a degree in Applied Chemistry with a Pharmaceutical Chemistry specialism. Prior to working with HI NENC, he has held senior roles within business management and development, project…
Donna Smith
Marketing and Communications Manager
Talk to me about... Branding, Content, Case Studies
Email: [email protected]
Working within the Communications team at the HI NENC Donna’s focus is on branding and content for brochures and case studies. As one of 15 HI NENC’s nationally and a multitude of local member organisations it is essential the core…