As an elected North Yorkshire Councillor and Council stakeholder on HDFT, I will represent all residents of the new unitary authority. In over 50 years of public service, I have served as a Councillor, initially on Leeds City Council and more recently for 15 years on Harrogate Borough Council, where I was Mayor of the Borough in 2016/2017.
My other qualifications for being a Governor include experience in the private sector in various senior management roles, including as a Main Board Director of a UK quoted company.
I am a family man, happily married to my wife Linda for over 40 years and with three daughters and three grandchildren. As a user and advocate of the NHS I am aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the NHS and the current challenges, which I believe now require urgent organisational change.
For most of my life I have also been involved with the charity sector, raising considerable sums of money for a number of causes. I was a Trustee for 14 years of Touchstone, a Leeds based mental health charity. Currently, I am a member of the national patient charity Aortic Dissection Awareness UK & Ireland and a supporter of their THINK AORTA campaign to improve the diagnosis of acute Aortic Dissection.
I am strongly in favour of plain speaking, excellence in patient care (and rewarding it), transparency, common sense, communicating with patients and others in plain English, respect for patients and professionals, the KISS principle (keep it stupidly simple), courtesy, kindness (if you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours).
I am strongly against unnecessary, obstructive bureaucracy; gobbledegook, acronyms and jargon that get in the way of effective communication; and last, but by no means least, waste.
If you would like to contact Nick on a matter related to his role as a Governor, please email [email protected]. Thank you.