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Meet our leadership team

1. Executive leadership

Prof Kiran Patel

Professor Kiran Patel (Research) Chief Medical Officer 

Professor Kiran Patel joined UHB as Chief Medical Officer and consultant cardiologist, in March 2024, after five years as Chief Medical Officer and Deputy CEO at University Hospitals of Coventry and [...]

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2. Research and Innovation leadership

Dr Dhruv Parekh - Managing Director of NIHR Clinical Research Facility Birmingham (Adults CRF)

Dhruv Parekh (Research) Medical Director of Research and Innovation 

Dhruv graduated from Bart’s and the London Medical School gaining a 1st class honours intercalated bachelor in medical sciences, winning numerous prizes and awards during his undergraduate training. [...]

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3. Clinical directors

Dr Joyce Yeung

Dr Joyce Yeung (Research)Clinical Director for Heartlands Hospital, Good Hope Hospital and Solihull Hospital

Professor Yeung graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2001. Her PhD from University of Warwick was on strategies to improve quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Joyce is an Honorary Consultant [...]

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Dr Nicola Anderson

Dr Nicola Anderson (Research)Clinical Director for Nurses, Midwives, and Allied Health Professionals (across all hospital sites)

Having initially pursued a career in law, Nicola retrained as a registered nurse in 1999 and has worked as a clinical research nurse within the NHS since 2003. Nicola has worked across a range of specialities, [...]

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Clinical directors

Dr Joyce Yeung

Dr Joyce Yeung (Research)Clinical Director for Heartlands Hospital, Good Hope Hospital and Solihull Hospital

Professor Yeung graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2001. Her PhD from University of Warwick was on strategies to improve quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Joyce is an Honorary Consultant [...]

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Dr Nicola Anderson

Dr Nicola Anderson (Research)Clinical Director for Nurses, Midwives, and Allied Health Professionals (across all hospital sites)

Having initially pursued a career in law, Nicola retrained as a registered nurse in 1999 and has worked as a clinical research nurse within the NHS since 2003. Nicola has worked across a range of specialities, [...]

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Shazad Q. Ashraf

Shazad Ashrif (Research)Clinical Director for Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham

Shazad Ashrif is a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon and Clinical Director of Research and Innovation at University Hospitals Birmingham. He is also Honorary Professor of Surgical Engineering at the University [...]

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Executive leadership

Prof Kiran Patel

Professor Kiran Patel (Research) Chief Medical Officer 

Professor Kiran Patel joined UHB as Chief Medical Officer and consultant cardiologist, in March 2024, after five years as Chief Medical Officer and Deputy CEO at University Hospitals of Coventry and [...]

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Governance

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Deborah Popoola (Research)Deputy Head of Research Governance - Quality Control (QC)

Biography pending.

Sarah Manney

Dr Sarah Manney (Research)Deputy Head of Research Governance - Quality Assurance (QA)

With more than 25 years' experience in healthcare research at UHB and previously at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, Sarah's career began in air pollution science, where she led pioneering exposure [...]

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Health data research

Amy Gosling

Amy Gosling (Research)West Midlands Secure Data Environment (SDE) Programme Manager

Amy Gosling has over 10 years of NHS experience, specialising in research data curation and the delivery of complex data requests from multiple stakeholders. Her current focus is on enabling secure [...]

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Suzy Gallier

Dr Suzy Gallier (Research)Head of Research Programmes

Dr Suzy Gallier is Head of Health Data Research Programmes at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) and Technical Director for PIONEER, the Health Data Research Hub for Acute Care. [...]

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Stephen Perks

Stephen Perks (Research)Principal Technical Lead - West Midlands Secure Data Environment (SDE)

Stephen Perks is an IT professional with over 30 years of experience within differing industries. He leads a technical team within the NHS, providing innovative applications and research data platforms. [...]

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Operations

James Turner

James Turner (Research)Head of Intellectual property (IP) Services

Following his completion of a LLB in Law and Masters in Commercial Law, James has now been working within MidTECH for nearly 17 years. MidTECH is the NHS Innovation Hub for the region and essentially [...]

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Jo Plumb - Director or Research, Development and Innovation

Jo Plumb (Research)Director or Research and Innovation 

After completing her nurse training in Manchester, Jo specialised as an ITU nurse at Harefield Hospital, where she developed her career in transplantation and research. Jo then joined University Hospitals [...]

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Joanna Gray

Joanna Gray (Research)Head of Research and Innovation Operations

Jo completed her training at Queen Elizabeth School of Nursing in 1990 and commenced her nursing career in general and liver medicine. Following a period of rotation posts within the Liver Unit, including [...]

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Olivia Brookes

Olivia Brookes (Research)Programme Manager for the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Device, Digital and Robotics (NIHR HRC-DDR)

Olivia is the Programme Manager for the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Device, Digital and Robotics (NIHR HRC-DDR).

Leading the team, Olivia’s role involves co-ordinating activities and [...]

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Paul Bird

Paul Bird (Research)Head of Programme Delivery

Paul was an operational and strategic manager within the NHS, working at a large acute trust for 12 years before joining NIHR CLAHRC WM (the precursor to NIHR Applied Research Collaboration West Midlands [...]

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Victoria Day

Victoria Day (Research)Head of the NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre (BRC)

As the Head of the NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), Victoria leads the core team and has overall responsibility for strategic development and operational management of the BRC. Victoria [...]

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Research and Innovation leadership

Dr Dhruv Parekh - Managing Director of NIHR Clinical Research Facility Birmingham (Adults CRF)

Dhruv Parekh (Research) Medical Director of Research and Innovation 

Dhruv graduated from Bart’s and the London Medical School gaining a 1st class honours intercalated bachelor in medical sciences, winning numerous prizes and awards during his undergraduate training. [...]

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Dr Rowena Sharpe

Dr Rowena Sharpe (Research)Managing Director of Research and Innovation

Biography pending.

Last reviewed: 01 September 2026