Our Chair, Professor David Croisdale-Appleby

David is an academic, medical educationist and social reformer, and has held many leadership positions at organisations across the health and care sectors.

David is the current chair of the Royal College of Physicians and he also chairs Durham University International Business School and Dementia UK.

His previous positions as a Chair have included at an NHS trust, the forensic science regulator and the UK-wide sector skills council for social care and social work.

Belinda Black

Belinda is a registered mental health nurse who has worked extensively in health and social care.

She is a Non-Executive Member of the Care Quality Commission and has also held senior roles in the NHS, independent and charity sectors.

Belinda was chief executive of Sheffcare, a Sheffield-based adult social care charity. She has also worked on many national projects establishing best practice for older people with multiple long-term conditions and people living with dementia.

Helen Parker

Helen's career has been spent championing the interests of consumers and service users, first in executive roles and now as a non-executive. She was a member of the senior leadership team of Which? for over a decade – as Editorial Director, then Policy Director and finally Deputy CEO. Helen now has several non-executive roles.

As well as serving on the Healthwatch England Committee, she is Deputy Chair of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and a member of Aegon's Independent Governance Committee, whose role is to challenge the company on the value for money offered to its two million workplace pension customers. She is also a member of the Office of Rail and Road's Consumer Expert Panel and the End User Advisory Council of Pay.UK, which runs the UK's retail inter-bank payment systems. 

Pav Akhtar

Pav is an equality and employment law specialist whose professional career has spanned the public, private and voluntary sectors.

He is currently Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at NHS Blood and Transplant. 

As a long serving Director of UK Black Pride, Pav has worked to improve the intersections of race, faith, and sexual orientation, and campaigns for disability rights.

Umar Zamman

Umar has experience in human resources, inclusion and cultural change, as well as in health and frontline services, including NHS Foundation Trusts, fire and rescue services and the Home Office. He is frequently called upon as an expert speaker in human resources, diversity and organisational development at a national and international level.

Jane Laughton

Jane is the former Chief Executive of Healthwatch Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.

She is also a non-executive director of Active Partners Trust, a charity working in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire that addresses inequality and empowers everyone to be active.

Before joining Healthwatch, Jane worked in NHS service improvement in Derby and whole system transformation in Nottingham, and as a researcher and auditor at the Audit Commission. 

Sul Mahmud

Sultan is the Director of Healthcare for BT Business, BT Group PLC and the leader of their healthcare business. 

For the last two decades, Sultan has had a distinguished career in the NHS and is a respected figure in health technology circles in the UK and internationally.

Before joining Healthwatch, Sultan was Chief of Innovation, Integration and Research at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust (RWT Group) and before that, worked at NHS England. He led work in primary, community and acute care integration.

Past Committee papers

We make the papers for our public Committee meetings available on-line. We also publish a summary of what was discussed. Check out our past Committee events to read more.

Read our committee papers

Declarations of interests for our Chair and Committee

We have detailed the declarations of interests in the Healthwatch England Chair and Committee. For example, connection with a voluntary or other body or position in a political party.

Read declarations of interest