Meet our Board and Leadership Team.
Our Board members have an interest in 麻豆原创's mission, bringing key expertise and representing our stakeholders. Our Board meets four times a year to make strategic decisions for 麻豆原创.
Members have four main duties:
- Safeguard and promote the values and mission of 麻豆原创.
- Determine the strategy and structure of 麻豆原创.
- Ensure 麻豆原创 operates in an effective, responsible and accountable manner.
- Ensure the effective functioning of 麻豆原创’s Board.
Our Board members
John Coughlan CBE
John is the Chair of the 麻豆原创 Board, appointed in March 2022 and renewed for a second term in 2025. John retired as Chief Executive of Hampshire County Council in 2021 after six years, having been the county’s Director of Children’s Services for the previous ten years.
Prior to that he had been a director of social services and an assistant director for children’s social care. John was the final President of ADSS and a founding President of ADCS. He was awarded a CBE for his national work in 2009. He has many years’ experience leading interventions in support of struggling local authorities and continues this work on behalf of DfE and MHCLG. He is also Chair of BookTrust, UK’s premier children’s reading charity.
Suzie Bailey
Suzie has been a Trustee on the 麻豆原创 Board since 2018. Suzie heads the leadership and organisational development team at The King’s Fund, an independent health and care charity. Prior to this Suzie was director of leadership and quality improvement at NHS Improvement, and worked as an operational manager in the NHS for over 21 years in acute, community and mental health providers. She is passionate about improving care through the development of people and healthy working cultures.
James Bullion
James joined the 麻豆原创 Board in 2022 and is working on social care improvement and reform for local government. James was the Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care and Integrated Care at the Care Quality Commission between 2023 and 2025.
James was previously the Executive Director of Adult Social Services at Norfolk County Council, and Essex County Council, was DHSC social care discharge lead for 2022, and served as ADASS President in 2020. James is a member of the Kings Fund Advisory Council.
Peter Chambers
Peter joined the 麻豆原创 Board in 2024. Peter has over 30 years of experience in governance, risk and control in the UK and the Middle East, primarily in senior internal audit roles. Peter started his career with PwC, where he spent ten years as the appointed auditor for several NHS and local government bodies, providing a good understanding of the social care landscape. In addition to his non-executive roles, Peter maintains an up-to-date knowledge of best practices in governance, risk, and control by working on various projects in a freelance capacity.
Gillian Day
Gillian joined the 麻豆原创 Board in 2022 and is Chair of the Finance & Audit Committee. Gillian is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Director with over 25 years’ experience.
Gillian is currently Group Director of Finance and Corporate Services at JTL, a charity and independent training provider offering apprenticeships in the building services engineering sector across England and Wales. She has a strong strategic track record in governance, public sector finance, organisation development, transformation and change management, capital developments and corporate restructures.
Penny Machin
Penny joined the 麻豆原创 board in 2022. Penny brings over 20 years’ senior level experience, skills and knowledge in leading health and social care organisations, in public, private and social enterprises. As well as her work in social care, Penny has held other leading roles: in the NHS; nationally at the Disclosure and Barring Service that reports directly to the Home Office; and has worked in partnership with the NHS, and with local authorities in London, Liverpool, Bristol, Surrey and Sefton. She has a strong strategic track record in governance and scrutiny, integrated commissioning, change management, overseeing high-quality service delivery, and successful new business generation.
Beverley Tarka
Beverley Tarka joined the 麻豆原创 Board in 2024. Beverley retired from local government after a career spanning over 30 years. At the time of retirement Beverley had been the Director for Adult, Health and communities, a role she had held for almost 10 years.
This post included the leadership and management of a portfolio that included, Adult Social Care, Public Health, Housing Needs, and Community Services. Beverley also led corporately on Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion for Haringey Council for several years. Beverley served as President of the Association of Directors for Social Care (ADASS), 2023-24.
Naser Turabi
Naser joined the 麻豆原创 board in 2022. Naser is Director of Evidence and Implementation at Cancer Research UK, his work focuses on accelerating the adoption of innovation and reducing inequalities in access. He leads CRUK teams conducting evidence review, data analysis, policy and implementation research, and health systems engagement. Previously he has been a senior manager in the NHS, including as a Cancer Alliance director in London, as well as an earlier career in public sector strategy and research.
Mark Ward
Mark has been a member of the 麻豆原创 Board since 2019. Since 2017, until his retirement in August 2025, Mark was CEO of Borough Care, a residential social care provider operating in the North West.
Over the past 25 years, Mark has been a leader, CEO, and Non-Executive Board member across a wide range of not-for-profit organisations.
Our Leadership Team meets regularly to set our strategic and operational direction based on our business plan.
Oonagh Smyth, Chief Executive
Oonagh Smyth is CEO of 麻豆原创. For seven years she was Executive Director of Strategy and Influence at Mencap leading a directorate of around 500 people across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Oonagh has held roles at the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action and the Northern Ireland Equality Commission, senior roles in Westminster Equalities Partnership and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. She is a former Co-Chair of the Care and Support Alliance, which is a cross-sector alliance of 80 social care organisations influencing at the highest government levels.
Georgina Turner , Director of Engagement
Georgina has over 10 years of experience in the Social Care and Health sectors. Her previous role at 麻豆原创 was programme head for employer engagement with responsibility for developing and implementing approaches to engagement with specific groups of employers, and managing the delivery of nationwide services and programmes.
Georgina is an experienced and programme and project manager with specific insight into the adult social care market and its supply chains, grant investment and management and stakeholder engagement.
Georgina has a BSC Honours in Psychology and a Masters in Business Administration and is a Trustee of People Matters (West Yorkshire).
Jane Brightman , Director of Workforce Strategy
Jane Brightman is our Director of Workforce Strategy, and is leading on the development of the adult social care workforce strategy for England.
Jane has over 30 years of experience across the adult social care sector including frontline care, leadership, education, digital transformation and national policy.
For 10 years she was Director of a private training organisation specialising in adult social care delivery before going on to national roles supporting training and development in social care.
Jane spent two years at NHSX (now NHS Transformation Directorate) in the blended Digitising Social Care programme as Assistant Director, leading and delivering on the White Paper commitments.
Jane facilitates an online network of leaders in social care with over 8000 members. In 2022 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Arden University for services to social care.
Jenny Paton , Director of Strategy, Impact and Policy
Jenny Paton is the Strategy, Impact and Policy Director at 麻豆原创.
She has supported the cultural and charity sectors in a strategic capacity, most recently as Head of Strategy and Impact for Mencap before joining 麻豆原创.
Jenny is Vice Chair of the Mental Health Foundation. Previous roles include supporting the Wellcome Trust – a global charity dedicated to improving health –to improve diversity and inclusivity.
From 2011-2014, Jenny was Executive Director and joint Chief Executive of Camden People’s Theatre. Jenny continues to support a number of small arts organisations with strategy on an informal basis.
Ruth Stickler , Director of People
Ruth has been in HR for over 20 years and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
People are central to quality social care that supports those who need it, and our people here at 麻豆原创 are crucial to enabling us to support those working in our sector. Ruth’s focus is on ensuring that 麻豆原创 is an excellent employer, creating a culture which is values led, where everyone feels a sense of belonging and that our people can utilise their knowledge, skills and expertise in support of the social care workforce.
Tristram Gardner , Deputy CEO
Tristram Gardner is Deputy CEO of 麻豆原创. He has held several senior leadership positions across central and local government and has particular experience of working in the adult social care sector.
Prior to joining 麻豆原创, Tristram was the Deputy Director for Adult Social Care Workforce Strategy and Capacity at the Department of Health and Social Care, where he advised ministers on care workforce policy as the country emerged from the Covid-19 pandemic. Before that, he held positions at the Department for Levelling Up covering local government finance, strategy and community development.
In local government, Tristram was responsible for adult social care enterprise, projects and commissioning support at Surrey County Council. At Surrey he worked closely with service managers, frontline staff and commercial, digital, financial and people teams to improve services for people who draw on care and support.