Board of trustees

Kate Alcock

Kate Alcock was appointed Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the beginning of July 2023. Kate joined the Board of Epilepsy Society in December 2015 and was the chair of the Appointments and Remuneration Committee until her appointment as Chairman of the Board. She is an experienced Trustee with a long background in senior business management and political lobbying and was formerly the Vice-Chair of an HIV charity. A qualified Chartered Surveyor and HR Practitioner, she has acted for many large charities and not for profit organisations over her career. She is currently CEO of a Multi-Academy Trust in North London.

Jackie Sullivan

Jackie Sullivan, Vice Chair of the Board, joined our Board of Trustees in 2022. Jackie has spent her career working within the NHS, predominantly in the acute sector. She has held roles at all levels of management with extensive experience in leadership roles within the NHS. Jackie joined Barts Health in March 2016 as Managing Director for the Royal London and Mile End Hospitals. She became Chief Executive Officer in 2019. Jackie was previously Chief Operating Officer of Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust following appointment in July 2013. She worked at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for 25 years, spending a significant period working for the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine, Queen Square latterly as Divisional Manager.  While at Queen Square she also worked closely with the Epilepsy Society. Previous roles at UCLH include Head of Operations, General Manager for Women and Children’s services for the UCH campus.  

Deborah Wheeler

Deborah trained as a nurse at St Bartholomew's Hospital, spending her clinical career in orthopaedic nursing before moving into nursing management. She has been director of nursing at several NHS trusts in London and became Deputy Regional Chief Nurse for NHS England South Region. More recently she moved back to a Director of Nursing post at the North Middlesex Hospital in North London, before retiring from full time work at the end of 2019. She is a Florence Nightingale Foundation Leadership Scholar and received the Chief Nursing Officer’s Gold Award for lifetime achievement in 2019

Deborah has two adult sons, the youngest of whom lives with epilepsy and lives on the London/Essex border. She is a Non-Executive Director of East London NHS Foundation Trust (a mental health and community trust), and is also a Trustee of Revitalise (a charity providing holidays for disabled people). Deborah is the lead Trustee for Safeguarding for the Society. In her spare time, she is an avid crafter, making handmade cards which she sells to raise funds for her local church. 

Jim Hagan 

Jim was elected to the Board of Trustees in December 2015.  He spent his career in the field of  neuroscience research in academia in the UK and The Netherlands and subsequently in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in Italy and the UK, where he held positions leading the discovery and development of new drugs for the treatment of psychiatric and neurological conditions.  He led GMEC, a not-for-profit company formed by Oxbridge, University College London, King’s College London, Imperial College and Queen Mary University of London which fostered biomedical translational research and he was instrumental in spinning out a PET and MR biomedical imaging company, subsequently serving on the Board as a non-executive director.  He has served on various scientific advisory boards and on advisory panels for the EU Horizon Programme, which funds research and innovation. Scientific advances drive improvements in treatment and diagnosis in all medical conditions and Jim brings his experience of front-line biomedical research in neuroscience to support the world class research at the Epilepsy Society and improve the lives of those who live with epilepsy.

Andrew Gosling

Andrew was appointed to the Board of Trustees in December 2021.  Andrew’s daughter Imogen was diagnosed with epilepsy 13 years ago and he has witnessed first-hand the difficulties that she has since faced. Becoming a trustee is thus very personal for him and a way to contribute to a better life for all who face similar challenges. During his career, Andrew has been an auditor, a regulator, a finance director and a non-executive director. In the latter role, he has chaired Audit and Risk Committees. He has also had extensive involvement in the recruitment of senior individuals and of professional advisors. He challenges in a constructive way, is collegiate and works best in a team where the strongest argument rather than the loudest voice wins the day.  

Andrew Gray

Andrew was appointed to the Board of Trustees in December 2021.  He is a Chartered Accountant and was previously a Senior Consulting Partner at PwC in their Financial Services Consulting Group.  He held a number of senior roles including Head of Financial Services Consulting, Head of Banking and also led the relationship with a number of the firms key clients. Andrew brings experience running a business division of PwC and chairing multi disciplinary committees bringing together diverse teams to support the development of PwC’s position, marketing and business development. He has extensive international business experience working across diverse business cultures in Europe, US and Asia. Advising his clients on developing strategic responses to external market developments and changes to regulatory demands. Building relationships with senior officials, government departments and regulators to help inform and shape critical decision making and develop talent for the future success of the business.

Andrew is also an Independent Non Executive Director in the commercial sector. 

Tracie Coultas-Pitman

Tracie has a wealth of leadership and management experience within the field of special educational needs and disability; she worked for Scope for over 20 years, where she held two headships and ultimately rose to the position of Regional Director for the South of England. Tracie has experience of developing early year’s provision, establishing outreach and training services, providing strategic leadership to schools and developing Post 19 and adult services, including reprovisioning residential care to supported living. Tracie is currently the CEO of BeyondAutism. Whether at home or at work, Tracie works to amplify the voice of people with disabilities and additional medical conditions, including epilepsy. 

Karen Skinner

Karen has over 25 years of experience within life science research and is passionate about accelerating healthcare innovation to bring new medical solutions to those living with disease and placing the patient voice at the heart of that process.

Her experience spans exploratory research to product launch in a range of therapeutic areas, having held numerous global leadership roles in basic discovery science, pre-clinical and clinical development, R&D operations and portfolio management. She is currently a member of the Executive team at the self-funding medical research organisation LifeArc. Here she is accountable for shaping and leading a portfolio of ambitious research programmes focused on solving complex healthcare problems for underserved patient communities.

Prior to LifeArc, Karen held the role of VP Immuno-Oncology at the high-growth biotech BTG, where she was accountable for their immunotherapy research portfolio. She began her R&D career within the pharmaceutical industry at Merck where she gained a strong grounding in drug discovery and has a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Oxford.

Karen’s interest in joining the Epilepsy Society is to leverage the depth and breadth of her experience to improve health equity for those living with epilepsy.

Robin Woolfson 

Robin has worked as a Consultant Nephrologist in North Central London since 1997, looking after and supporting people with chronic diseases.  In addition to clinical duties, he has held senior medical manager roles at UCLH and the Royal Free Hospital and was a non-executive director on the Governing Body of Bucks CCG for 6 years. Throughout, Robin has maintained a strong focus on training, research and service improvement. He is also chair of the Hampstead Wells Campden Charitable Trust. 

Hannah Purves 

Hannah brings significant experience as both a Solicitor-Advocate and also through her non-executive and executive career.  Her non-executive appointments have included being on the board of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, two specialist insurance companies and the Lloyd’s Market Association.  Hannah is currently also on the Finance Committee of ENT UK.  During her executive career, Hannah's board appointments within the Lloyd’s and specialist London insurance market included a focus on improving the speed and quality of service to clients and driving positive change in areas including governance, risk management, culture, diversity and inclusion.

Hannah was diagnosed with epilepsy in her 40s, and this experience has reinforced her desire to bring positive input and collaboration to the Epilepsy Society and to everyone who could benefit from its work.

Nick Grant 

Nick is the Executive Director of Strategy and Philanthropy at Cancer Research UK where he is responsible for developing the organisation’s long-term strategy and for building philanthropic fundraising. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Union for International Cancer Control. Nick previously spent 10 years as a management consultant at The Boston Consulting Group, Braxton Associates and Deloitte where he supported clients in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors on strategy, organisation and change projects.

Rae Avatar Barnett 

Rae is Head of People at Laing O’Rourke and is accountable for delivering the people strategy focusing on strategic capability, advancing ED&I and promoting wellbeing.  Rae has an extensive background in strategy, cultural change and people transformation across many sectors including Utilities, Trading and Technology.  Prior to joining Laing O’Rourke Rae was the HR Director of British Gas services and formerly Chief of Staff at Centrica Trading.  She is an active mentor of women, early talent and speaks regularly on improving ED&I in organisations.  Rae is a Henley accredited Executive Coach. She lives in Buckinghamshire with her partner, 4 of their 5 children, two dogs and two cats.
 

Sarah Miller 

Sarah has been Chief Executive Officer of the Papworth Trust since 2018 and has worked in the social care sector for over 30 years. She began as a support worker in the 1980s and has worked for RNID, Sense and The Guinness Partnership in a range of operational roles. Prior to the Trust she was Deputy Chief Executive with Walsingham Support, a national disability charity. Sarah is a Trustee of Walsingham Support Parish Councillor with Boughton Parish Council. She has an NHS BA (hons) in Healthcare and Care Management, an MSc in Adults with Learning Difficulties and significant needs and an MBA and is a Chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH). 

Penny Owen

Penny has been the National Physical Laboratory’s Environment, Social Impact and Governance (ESG) Director since 2017. After completing her PhD in Biochemistry at Birmingham University, Penny joined Amersham International as a research scientist. She held a variety of technical roles focused supporting pharmaceutical discovery and development, in collaboration with major pharmaceutical industry customers. She then took the opportunity to move to a business role and subsequently held a range of positions, covering products from molecular biology reagents and radiochemicals to sensitive detection instruments for cellular imaging. Following the acquisition of Amersham by GE in 2005, Penny held a range of senior business leadership roles, including leading a global research consumable products business unit and developing sales and operations for a global network of production sites and warehouses. From 2011-2017, she was an external advisor for Welsh Government on their life sciences strategy and was instrumental in the launch of Life Sciences Hub Wales, serving as non-executive director and Interim Executive Chair. As well as her PhD, Penny also has a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing (CIM) and an MBA in Life Sciences (Open University).