The 50 most influential Black, Asian and minority ethnic people in health: The bubbling unders

Dr Buki Adeyemo, chief executive, North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare Trust

Buki Adeyemo has been a board member at North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare Trust since 2012, when she was appointed medical director. She became interim chief executive at the end of 2021 and was appointed to the substantive role two years later. She is qualified as an old age and adults’ psychiatrist. She sits on the NHS Confederation’s mental health network board and is chair of her trust’s inclusion council. She has emphasised the need to treat staff well – especially during tough times – to ensure they remain working in the NHS.

Foluke Ajayi, chief executive, Airedale Foundation Trust

Foluke Ajayi was appointed Airedale FT’s chief executive in 2022. She has said the NHS has made strides in creating a more diverse leadership but “can’t afford to let [its] guard down”. She started her NHS career as a clinical scientist in audiology, specialising in paediatrics and cochlear implants. She has held senior positions at Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust and the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay FT before working as director of strategic transformation at the Humber Coast and Vale Health and Care Partnership.

Professor Sanjay Arya, medical director, Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust

Sanjay Arya is a renowned cardiologist who is also the medical director at Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Teaching Hospitals FT. He has been closely involved with establishing a medical school at Bolton University, lectures at several universities and led the local foundation programme for new doctors for seven years. He was involved with establishing WWL as a seven-day services pilot site in the 2010s; this led to a reduction in weekend mortality.

Marimouttou Coumarassamy, chair, British Indian Nurses Association

Marimouttou Coumarassamy is Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health FT’s deputy chief operating officer and set up the British Indian Nurses Association in 2020. The association is closely linked with the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin and aims to positively influence the UK healthcare system and to help address equity and diversity issues in it: it has helped many nurses of Indian origin get promotion. Mr Coumarassamy has also been a special adviser to the CQC and has worked in Manchester, Nottingham and Staffordshire in managerial positions at mental health trusts.

Chris Dzikiti, interim chief inspector of healthcare, Care Quality Commission

Chris Dzikiti has been the CQC’s interim director of healthcare since May 2024, having joined as director of mental health in October 2022. He is a registered mental health nurse who has also worked as deputy director of NHSE’s retention programme and on mental health service transformation in London. He spent four years supporting mental health services in India as a global healthcare consultant for Health Education England. He also chairs an organisation offering support to bodies involved in healthcare in Zimbabwe.

Dr Amir Hannan, GP

Taking over Harold Shipman’s old practice is a daunting prospect, but Amir Hannah has built trust in the ethnically diverse population, partly through promoting the sharing of records with patients. Dr Hannan joined the Haughton Thornley Medical Centre in Greater Manchester in 2000 and pioneered giving some of his patients access to their medical records and test results in 2007. By the end of 2020, around three-quarters of patients were accessing their records – with Bengali patients as likely to do so as any other group.

Professor Stephani Hatch, professor of sociology and epidemiology, King’s College, London

Stephani Hatch leads the Health Inequalities Research Group at King’s College, London, which has done much to expose some of the intersectionalities affecting patients in both mental and other health services. She has been instrumental in working with communities in south London on health projects which they have identified as key priorities. She has also worked to improve diversity and inclusion at her workplace. Professor Hatch is an NHS Race and Health Observatory member.

Dr Farzana Hussain, GP principal, The Project Surgery

Farzana Hussain is a patient-centred GP who has stepped back from roles running the NHS Confederation’s primary care network group and as clinical director of her local PCN. She remains a great advocate both for patients and GPs, highlighting the challenges both groups face and calling out the failures to improve their lives. She was named GP of the Year in 2019 and tackled covid vaccine hesitancy by contacting patients individually and talking them through their concerns.

Fatima Khan-Shah, inclusivity champion, West Yorkshire and Harrogate Partnership

Fatima Khan-Shah has lived the experience of being an unpaid carer and has been able to champion their role – and that of others who are often overlooked – in the NHS, most recently as the first “inclusivity champion” in West Yorkshire where her role involved working with regional leaders and communities to address disparities. She was previously associate director for long-term conditions and personalisation. She is also chair of the Sheffield City Race Equality Partnership and a non-executive director of Sheffield Children’s FT.

Rev Charles Kwaku-Odoi, chief officer, Caribbean and African Health Network

Manchester-based Charles Kwaku-Odoi has been a campaigner for equity and fairness across health and wellbeing services for many years. Through his job as chief officer of the Caribbean and African Health Network, he has tackled issues such as female genital mutilation, blood and organ donation and domestic violence. He has also sat on the NHSE clinical reference group on HIV. He is a governor of Manchester University FT and is a deputy lieutenant of Greater Manchester.

May Mengyu Li, director of efficiency, NHS England

May Mengyu Li was appointed NHSE’s director of efficiency in the summer of 2023, as it became obvious the NHS was struggling to get back to pre-covid levels of delivery. She was previously deputy director of strategy with NHSE. Her earlier career included spells in management consultancy and PR for an art museum after degrees in journalism and media studies at the University of Tokyo and international public policy at University College London.

Professor Gin Malhi, editor, British Journal of Psychiatry

Gin Malhi took over as editor of the British Journal of Psychiatry last year. He is a professor at the University of Sydney and holds a visiting professorship at Oxford. Professor Malhi is a world expert on mood disorders and has studied them for 25 years, including involvement in developing clinical guidelines in New Zealand and Australia. He has a particular interest in how they relate to suicidality and says he took on the job of editor because he wanted to make a positive change in people’s lives.

Kamran Mallick, chief executive, Disability Rights UK

Kamran Mallick took up his present job in July 2017, moving from the same role at Action on Disability where he had worked for 13 years. He has also worked for the spinal charity Aspire as well as running his own training and consultancy business. He serves on the boards of several organisations including the Lyric Hammersmith, Wheels for Wellbeing and the Lloyds Bank Foundation. He has given evidence to the covid inquiry on the pandemic’s impact on disabled people and has said many still needed to shield in the years afterwards and were then affected by the cost-of-living crisis.

May Parsons, deputy director of quality and patient safety, Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust

May Parsons is now deputy director of quality and patient safety at Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust but it was as a matron at the University Hospitals of Coventry and Warwickshire Trust that she administered the first covid vaccine outside of a clinical trial. It was a symbolic moment which marked the rollout of mass vaccination. She went on to receive the George Cross, alongside NHSE chief executive Amanda Pritchard, on behalf of the NHS from the late Queen. She has nursed in the UK for more than 20 years and has set up a foundation to help fellow Filipinos from disadvantaged backgrounds train as nurses.

Sonia Patel, system chief information officer, NHS England

Sonia Patel has been in her present job as NHSE system chief information officer for just over two and a half years after moving from NHSX where she held a similar role. She first worked in an NHS IT role in 2003 but then spent around six years running a consultancy before returning to the NHS in 2017. She has pushed for the NHS to adopt more digital solutions – though whether the aim of all hospitals having an electronic patient record by 2025 will be met is questionable. She has been keen to promote a more diverse and inclusive workforce.

Rohit Sagoo, founder, British Sikh Nurses

Rohit Sagoo set up British Sikh Nurses in 2016 to address the health and wellbeing needs of the UK’s South Asian community. It has worked with several healthcare organisations in and around the NHS on outreach projects. Mr Sagoo, a paediatric nurse, was recently made a Queen’s Nurse and is completing a PhD at the University of Bedfordshire. He has also lectured at several universities and acted as an external examiner. He is a snooker fan and is a non-executive director of the English Partnership for Snooker and Billiards.

Cheryl Samuels, director of people and culture, Evelina Children’s Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation Trust

Cheryl Samuels has worked in HR across various London trusts and has also been deputy director of workforce transformation for NHSE and national health and wellbeing lead for NHS England and Improvement. She chairs the deputy HR directors’ network in London which seeks to share best practices and develop future directors. She was named the most influential HR practitioner in 2022 by HR magazine and deputy director of the year by the Healthcare People Management Association in 2019.

Dr Amar Shah, national clinical director for NHS improvement, NHS England

Amar Shah is the first national clinical director for NHS improvement, as well as being chief quality officer and a consultant in forensic psychiatry at the East London FT. He sits on the national improvement board which underpins the work of NHS Impact (Improving Patient Care Together). At ELFT he has embedded quality improvement and management across the trust and is also the national improvement lead for mental health at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, as well as being a faculty member of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

Richard Stubbs, chief executive, Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber

Richard Stubbs has led Health Innovation Yorkshire and Humber – the Academic Health and Science Network for the area – since 2016 and is also the chair of the national Health Innovation Network, which includes all 15 English AHSNs. He is co-chair of the NHS Confederation’s BME Leadership Network and has led the health innovation networks to adopt a series of pledges around greater diversity in their organisations. He created the national Innovate awards in partnership with the NHS Confederation in 2022.

Professor Patrick Vernon, chair, Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board

Patrick Vernon was the first non-executive director for inequalities to be appointed in the country when he joined the Birmingham and Solihull ICB and, in January this year, was confirmed as its chair. He has held several other non-executive posts in the NHS and chairs the Walsall Together Partnership Board. He has been recognised as a campaigner by British Vogue and in 2020 set up the Majonzi Fund, which provides grants for commemoration events for individuals from Black and other communities who died from covid during the pandemic.