Speakers

Rob has been the lead Chief Executive for the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership, an integrated care system (ICS), since March 2016. He became the Chief Executive of NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) in July 2022 when it became a statutory organisation as part of the Government’s new Health and Care Act. His focus is on collaboration across health, local government, the third sector and communities to improve outcomes for people in West Yorkshire.

Rob has had a number of Chief Executive roles, in a career that started in 1990. This includes being the Chief Executive of NHS Calderdale Primary Care Trust, Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust and South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. He was the Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation between 2014 and 2016, representing all parts of the health sector. The first part of Rob’s career was spent in Whitehall, where he was an established Senior Civil Servant in the Department for Health and Care and in the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit at the Cabinet Office. He led on national programmes on primary care, productivity, NHS spending and the workforce and had a reputation for innovation and improvement.

Rob continues to contribute to several national programmes and networks including: chairing the NHS Confederation Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Reference Group; being an active membership of the NHS Assembly; the National Clinical Leaders Network; NHS Professionals Strategic Advisory Board; the National Centre for Creative Health Advisory Group; and Chair of the Strategic Advisory Group to the Rapid Service Evaluation Team.

Rob is a visiting Professor at Leeds Beckett University and was proud to be made a Fellow of the Queen’s Nursing Institute in 2014. In May 2016 Rob became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners. In 2020 he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his contribution to healthcare leadership and was awarded the HSJ's Chief Executive of the Year Award in 2021 owing to his focus on inequality and workforce wellbeing. He is a proud Honorary Graduate of the University of Bradford which bestowed an honorary doctorate in health for services during the pandemic.

Rob believes that leadership can happen from every seat in the organisation, is based on a set of shared values and happens in systems.