Guidance Executive

Gillian is the Chief Executive at NICE and a visiting professor at King's College London. Gillian trained in medicine at Leeds, and then spent several years researching the epidemiology of peripheral vascular disease at Edinburgh University. She was involved in the Cochrane Collaboration as it first became established, and still contributes as an editor to the EPOC Group (Effective Practice and Organisation of Care). She specialised in public health medicine and worked as a consultant before moving to NICE in 2001. At NICE, Gillian has been responsible for the initial set up and running of the clinical guidelines programme, for establishing the NICE implementation function, and for setting up NHS Evidence. More recently she has been responsible for the transfer of the National Prescribing Centre into NICE, for establishing the NICE accreditation programme, and for new work on Quality Standards across health and social care.

Meindert is the Deputy Chief Executive and Director of the Centre for Health Technology Evaluation. After qualifying as a pharmacist, he worked in a hospital in the Netherlands, and held positions in health outcomes and sales in the pharmaceutical industry.

Meindert completed an MSc in Health Policy Planning and Financing at The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the London School of Economics and Political Sciences and briefly worked for the King’s Fund before starting at NICE in 2004. Meindert is currently on the board of directors for ISPOR (The International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research), 2017 to 2020.

Paul is Director of the Centre for Guidelines. Paul has been with NICE since March 2009, where he was responsible for setting up our accreditation programme for guideline developers. More recently, he was programme director of the Medicines and Technologies Programme.

Before joining NICE, Paul spent over 20 years in international medical publishing and communications, focusing on evidence to aid healthcare decision making and the adoption of new medicines. Paul trained as a pharmacist and is a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

Jane joined NICE in 2008 and is responsible for the delivery of the institute's strategic communications programme. Jane graduated from the University of New Brunswick in Canada with an BA Honours degree in Political Science. She subsequently obtained an MA in this field from Carleton University in Ottawa and went on to undertake a graduate journalism programme at the same university.

Immediately before joining NICE, Jane was head of corporate communications at the Medical Research Council, the UK's largest publicly funded medical research organisation. Her remit covered the full spectrum of corporate communications, from strategic development, public involvement and consultation, to media relations and brand management. Jane has worked extensively in the political field in Canada, including as Press secretary for the official opposition and former prime minister of Canada, and as Director of communications, Canadian Federation of Labour.

Jane has also held senior positions in charitable organisations including the Scout Association and the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

Kevin joined NICE in 2015 and is a consultant clinical advisor and the programme director for the interventional procedures programme and NICE’s patient safety lead.

Kevin trained in medicine in Cambridge and London, qualifying in 1981. He worked as a nephrologist (kidney specialist) in Leicester until 2017 and was previously the clinical vice president of the Renal Association. In 2010 he became the medical director at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust before joining NICE in 2015. From 2016 to 2019 he was a censor at the Royal College of Physicians.

He is currently also the associate dean for clinical affairs at the University of Leicester and a non-executive director at the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust.

Judith Richardson's biography is to follow.

Alexia is director of Evidence Resources. She is responsible for the delivery of the NHS Evidence and UK PharmaScan services and leads the information management and technology, user research and information services resources of NICE. Alexia studied business and management in France after which she completed a Master of Science in International Accounting and Finance at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Before joining NICE, Alexia was a director with Deloitte where she advised a range of clients in the healthcare and life science industries on policy and strategy development as well as programme implementation.

Catherine joined NICE in 2007. As acting director of business planning and resources, Catherine is responsible for NICE's business planning process and corporate services including finance, human resources, corporate governance and estates and facilities.

Catherine graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in quality. She trained as an accountant on the NHS graduate financial management scheme and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA). Before joining NICE Catherine worked in finance in the NHS.

Catherine is also trustee and treasurer for AgeUK Lancashire.