Executive leadership
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 [...]
Research and Innovation leadership
Dhruv Parekh (Research)Medical Director of Research and Innovation
Professor Dhruv Parekh is Consultant in Intensive Care and Respiratory Medicine, Medical Director for Research and Innovation, and Director of the NIHR Birmingham Clinical Research Facility at University [...]
Dr Rowena Sharpe (Research)Managing Director of Research and Innovation
Dr Rowena Sharpe is Managing Director of Research and Innovation at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB). She is a recognised leader in clinical research and innovation, with a track record of delivering [...]
Clinical directors
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 [...]
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 [...]
Shazad Ashraf (Research)Clinical Director for Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham
Shazad Ashraf is a Consultant Colorectal Surgeon and Clinical Director of Research and Innovation at University Hospitals Birmingham. He is also Honorary Professor of Surgical Engineering [...]
Operations
Dr 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 [...]
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 [...]
Jo Plumb (Research)Director of 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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Paul Bird (Research)Head of Programme Delivery
Paul was an operational and strategic manager at UHB for 12 years before switching to work in research for NIHR CLAHRC WM (the precursor to NIHR Applied Research Collaboration West Midlands (ARCWM)). [...]
Health data research
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Governance
Deborah Popoola (Research)Deputy Head of Research Governance - Quality Control (QC)
Deborah is an experienced Research Governance and management professional with particular expertise in research sponsorship, research contracting, regulatory governance and the set-up of clinical research.
Deborah [...]
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 [...]
Finance
Asha Jassal (Research)Head of RD&I Finance
Asha is a qualified Management Accountant with over 25 years of experience working within the NHS. She holds a BA (Hons) in Business Studies from the University of Wolverhampton and is professionally [...]
Lead research nurses
Amy Bamford (Research)Lead Research Nurse
Amy Bamford completed her nurse training in 2000. She worked in various acute hospital trusts until she joined UHB in 2004 as a trauma sister. In 2009 Amy began her research career working in burns [...]
Faye Moore (Research)Lead Research Nurse
Faye qualified as an Adult Nurse from Coventry University in 2003. She subsequently specialised in trauma and orthopaedics, working across several hospitals in Coventry and Warwickshire.
Driven [...]
Mary Bellamy (Research)Lead Research Nurse
Mary started at UHB in 2012, having previously worked at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Derbyshire Royal Infirmary and HM Prison Service.
She has diverse experience in [...]
Last reviewed: 28 September 2026