About us > Board Members

Toby Sanders, Chief Executive

Toby is Chief Executive at Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland ICB, alongside his Chief Executive role in Northamptonshire. Before the transition to Northamptonshire ICB, Toby was the Chief Executive of Northamptonshire Clinical Commissioning Groups. With over 20 years’ experience in the NHS, Toby was previously the Managing Director (Accountable Officer) of West Leicestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, an organisation which he successfully helped set up and lead for seven years. Toby has extensive experience in a variety of senior management and system leadership roles. An experienced Board Director, Toby previously held Deputy Chief Executive roles with the LLR PCT Cluster, and Leicester City PCT where he also held the role of Director of Primary and Community Care. Toby has also worked elsewhere in the NHS in an acute hospital setting and strategic health authority roles. Toby has a strong appreciation of how the NHS and wider public sector touches and impacts on most of our lives. He is passionate about the value of clinical leadership and patient involvement, working with health and care professionals across public services to achieve the best value and outcomes for local people and places. Before joining the NHS in 2003, Toby held a number of roles within local government and management consultancy with a focus on place based regeneration in economically deprived industrial areas in the North West, South Yorkshire and Wales.

Simone Jordan, Deputy Chair and Non-Executive Member

Simone is an experienced Executive working at Board, system and national levels for almost 30 years in the NHS – as a Chief Executive, Executive and Non Executive Director. She also has significant Board development and governance expertise. Her other UK experience includes working in service and hospitality sectors, manufacturing, health, higher and further education and other public sector organisations. She has worked internationally advising government on healthcare reform and has been a speaker at international conferences on change and improvement. With professional qualifications in HR and OD, an MBA and significant expertise in quality improvement, Simone has led major organisational change programmes and is passionate about workforce and staff experience and wellbeing.

Darren Hickman, Non-Executive Member

Darren was the Finance and Relationship Director for the Insurance Company of Santander Bank, until December 2019. During his 37 years at the bank, he gained a broad experience, holding a variety of executive positions including Operational Management, Marketing, IT and Change Management. Since, January 2014, he has served as a Non-Executive Director (NED) and Audit & Risk Chair for Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust. Stepping down from this position to become the Non-Executive Member with responsibility for audit, governance and conflicts of interest for the LLR ICB. Since finishing his substantive career he has focused on NED and board advisory roles. The majority of these have been centred in the Midlands, he is currently serving a director for the Earl Shilton Building Society and BHSF Ltd.

Pauline Tagg, Non-Executive Member

Pauline has had a long and successful career in the NHS and in 2022, celebrated her 50-year anniversary of working in the NHS. She worked in the acute sector for over 35 years as a nurse, midwife, and senior leader. During this time, she held executive nurse director posts in three NHS hospital trusts, the most recent being the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust from November 2000, until she retired from her executive career at the end of July 2008. Then followed a brief period of consultancy in the then Trent Region and Lay member roles in primary care in Leicestershire. In January 2009, Pauline was awarded an MBE for her contribution to healthcare in Leicestershire. Pauline joined East Midlands Ambulance NHS Trust Board as a Non-Executive Director in 2011 and was appointed to the role of Chairman in November 2013. Pauline also held a Trustee role at LOROS for seven years until she joined VISTA (the local LLR charity for people with Visual impairment) as the Chairman of Trustees from January 2020 to March 2023. In 2022, Pauline was appointed as the Non-Executive Member with responsibility for quality, safety and performance for the LLR ICB.

Anil Majithia, Non-Executive Member

Anil has held numerous roles as Chair, Vice Chair and Chair of Committees and has experience of working with board members from all walks of life. He has participated at board level since 2011 and has significant experience of governance and oversight, holding executive officers accountable. Anil is also currently a Non-Executive Director and lead Finance Non-Executive Director at George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust and chairs the George Eliot Hospital Charity. Additionally, he holds current Board roles as Member of the Corporation Board, Vice Chair and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee at North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College and is a Trustee/Director and Chair of the Pay and People Committee for LiFE Multi Academy Trust. Anil has also been working at Board level within the Not-For-Profit sector for the past 15 years.

Rachna Vyas, Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer

Rachna began her NHS career in Leicester City in 2005. Since then, she has had a variety of single commissioner posts working in the Leicester City area. She has also held a number of system lead posts covering elective and non-elective services within the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland footprint. As the LLR health and care system has developed, her transformation portfolio has developed into whole system transformation, across all sectors. Since June 2020, Rachna held the position of Executive Director for Integration and Transformation for the three CCGs in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. In this role she was responsible for the design and delivery of transformed models of care at system level for urgent care, elective care, children’s services, all age mental health and learning disability services, as well as integration of services at place and neighbourhood level and Emergency preparedness for the LLR system. Rachna also holds an Honorary Lecturer position at the University of Leicester in recognition of ongoing work around health equity, and is also a Trustee for Growing Points, a charity focused on social mobility.

Robert Toole, Chief Finance Officer

Robert has 20 years of experience as a Board Director with extensive experience in both the public and private sectors. This includes 20 years of experience within the NHS covering all major areas including multi-site acute, mental health and community, ambulance, NHS 111 and primary care. He has also been a System Improvement Director and Managing Director of an NHS subsidiary company providing estates and facilities, and procurement/supply chain services. In October 2023, Robert was appointed as the Chief Finance Officer for the LLR ICB and he is also the senior information risk officer. He is a keen advocate of team development and training and ensuring the benefits realisation of service improvements. He previously worked at Rolls-Royce PLC and Carnaud Metal Box PLC. His role at Rolls-Royce included being a Commercial and Finance Director holding a global role based in the United States and previously in Europe with a multi-national French based company. He is a Fellow Chartered Management Accountant and enjoys cycling and skiing.

Pete Burnett, Chief Strategy Officer

Pete joined the NHS in 2008 and has worked in the public sector for 20 years in a range of roles across service delivery, strategy, planning and leading transformation programmes. During his career in the NHS, Pete has worked for various NHS organisations including East Midlands Ambulance Service, Nottingham University Hospitals, and Nottingham City Clinical Commissioning Group. His last role prior to working for the NHS in Lincolnshire was at NHS England and Improvement, operating as the primary relationship manager for NHS provider Trusts and commissioners in the Lincolnshire system. Initially the interim STP Programme Director for Lincolnshire ICB from February 2020, Pete was subsequently recruited to the role of System Strategy and Planning Director in April 2021. Pete played a key role in establishing NHS Lincolnshire ICB and was the Executive lead for the ICB’s Strategy, Planning, Communications and Engagement functions.

Kay Darby, Chief Nursing Officer

Kay is a registered general nurse and registered mental health nurse and has a MMedSci in Clinical Nursing and an MSc in Health Services Management. She has worked at Executive Director and senior leadership level in multiple healthcare sectors including mental health, community services, acute services and GP led out of hours and NHS111. Kay's experience spans nursing, quality, governance, operations and strategy. As the Chief Nursing Officer, Kay is also the Caldicott Guardian. She has interests in prevention and health inequalities, having recently led the vaccination programme. Kay lives in Leicestershire and is a keen traveller, enjoys walking, outdoor swimming and cooking and entertaining.

Dr Nil Sanganee, Chief Medical Officer

Dr Sanganee has been a GP since 2004, working as a Partner at Castle Medical Group in Ashby. Being passionate about medical education, he has also worked as a GP Trainer, Medical Student Tutor, GP Appraiser and Examiner for the Royal College of GPs. He has been a longstanding Board Member for West Leicestershire CCG (WLCCG) and since 2020, was the Vice Chair of the CCG, leading on a wide range of clinical pathways and driving improvements in the quality of care. In his role as Medical Director for the LLR Integrated Care Board, Dr Sanganee will oversee the Clinical Strategy and priorities for the transformation of high quality, accessible services within primary, community and hospital sectors to ensure that we are delivering the highest standards of care and achieving the best outcomes for our patients. He is keen to champion the role of a broad range of health and care professionals both at the frontline of patient care and in leadership roles across the system. Using his experience as a clinical leader in LLR, he will continue to listen and respond to patients’ views to improve the service that our citizens experience locally and to optimise the health of our population overall, whilst driving down inequalities in health and care outcomes.

Alice McGee, Chief People Officer

Alice started her NHS career in 2007 as a national NHS Graduate Trainee on the HR programme. She has worked across a range of NHS organisations focussing on the People agenda, predominately in the Black Country and Birmingham. In 2020 Alice joined the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland CCGs as the Executive Director of People and Innovation focussing on transformation for our people, our population and the technology we use to deliver care. Alice is passionate about using insights from our population and our staff to drive strategy and decisions about how we deliver care ensuring that our success criteria is focussed on experience of working and living in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

Richard Mitchell, Partner Member - Acute sector representative

Richard re-joined UHL as chief executive in October 2021 having worked as the chief executive of Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for four years. In 2020, SFHNFT was voted HSJ Acute/ Specialist Trust of the Year and its Acute site was rated Outstanding by the CQC. In 2021 the Trust finished third out of 119 NHS Acute Trusts in the NHS Staff Survey. Richard previously worked as deputy chief executive and chief operating officer for four years at UHL and before that, he worked at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust in senior management roles. Richard is married with two children and is the Chair of the East Midlands Cancer Alliance and Midlands Regional and Talent Leadership Board.

Angela Hillery, Partner Member - Community / Mental Health sector representative

Angela is the shared Chief Executive of two NHS Trusts, providing Mental Health and Community health services in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust) and Northamptonshire (Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust). She was appointed to LPT in July 2019, when NHFT provided a buddy trust support relationship to LPT. In April 2020 both trusts formed a group model recognising mutual opportunities to continue to learn together. Angela’s NHS career spans 33 years and she has led many leadership positions, including Director of Operations. She has also been listed in the HSJ Top 50 rated CEOs three times and was a finalist for 'Chief Executive of the Year' at the HSJ Awards. In July 2019 Angela was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Northampton for her leadership contribution. Alongside other CEOs, Angela is part of a pioneering East Midlands Alliance for mental health and learning disabilities, working together to improve the quality and effectiveness of services. Angela is committed to working in collaboration with system partners to create high quality, compassionate care and wellbeing for all.

Laurence Jones, Partner Member - Local authority sectoral representative

Laurence has responsibility for the full range of adult social care, children’s social care and education services. He re-joined Leicester City Council in February 2024 having worked in Nottinghamshire for the last 15 years as a director of children’s social care leading on residential care, strategic safeguarding, early years and commissions amongst other areas. Laurence has led a number of regional collaborations to improve services and is an experienced Caldicott Guardian dealing with complex and sensitive information sharing.

Mike Sandys, Partner Member - Local authority sectoral representative

Mike was appointed Director of Public Health for Leicestershire County Council and Rutland County Council in February 2014. He has worked in public health since the early 1990s in a number of public health intelligence, research and development, manager and consultant roles for both the NHS, local government and academia. Mike moved to the East Midlands in 2005. Before that he spent most of his career working across Greater Manchester and Merseyside. Mike’s public health interest lies in the health improvement capability of asset-based community development approaches, moving public health from a focus on disease and illness to one that recognises the context in which people live their lives. He is a passionate advocate for physical activity.

Mark Andrews, Partner Member - Local authority sectoral representative

Mark Andrews has been Rutland County Council Chief Executive since August 2020. He has worked in local government for nearly 25 years, with over 18 years in senior leadership roles. He has successfully led a wide range of services in his career, predominantly in the Children’s and Adult’s sectors, for Nottingham City Council and Rutland County Council. He is currently a Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR) Integrated Care Board (ICB) Board Member and Senior Responsible Officer for the LLR Workwell programme. He is also the East Midlands lead on the National Health and Care Sounding Board, the East Midlands SOLACE branch Health and Care lead and was the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Hospital Discharge Champion between Jul 2023-2024. Beyond health and care he is also the Senior Responsible Officer for Melton and Rutland Levelling Up Fund.

Dr James Ogle, Partner Member - Primary Medical Services

Dr Ogle has been a GP Partner at Ratby Surgery since 2015 combining his clinical work with leading a project for the development of Ratby Medical Centre which opened in 2023. He has been engaged with Hinckley and Bosworth Medical Alliance, a GP Federation in Hinckley and Bosworth District throughout this period other than a 2-year gap where he had roles within Medicines Prescribing and Urgent Care for the former West Leicestershire CCG between 2017-2019. Since 2019, Dr Ogle has been the Clinical Director for both Bosworth Primary Care Network and Hinckley and Bosworth Medical Alliance, before being elected as a Primary Care Lead for Leicestershire Place in 2022, which he combines with both his clinical director roles. He is committed to championing patient care closer to home through improving the development and improvement of Primary Care Services, with a focus on Primary Care Access and Community Based Services such as Phlebotomy and Wound Care. Outside of the NHS, he is an avid gardener and enjoys coaching his local U8 Football team.