Health Education England began operating in shadow form on 28 June 2012. View the executive structure chart. Our Board is made up of the Chair and Chief Executive, of whom you can find out more information below, as well as the Directors and Non-Executive Directors.
Chair: Sir Keith S. Pearson JP DL
Sir Keith Pearson provides strategic leadership and ensures proper governance for the Board.
Keith has held Chair appointments in the NHS dating back to 1998 when he was appointed Chair of South Somerset Primary Care Group. He later became Chair of South Somerset PCT and was Chair of the Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire SHA prior to the merger in 2006.
He is highly regarded for his healthcare expertise and knowledge gained through more than 30 years of working in the healthcare sector. Prior to coming to the NHS Keith worked with BUPA for seventeen years, five of which were based in Hong Kong as their Chief Executive. He moved on from BUPA to become Chief Executive of AON’s operations in Thailand and then in Singapore.
Apart from Keith’s work in the NHS he is Chair of the Tri‐Base British American Community Relations committee for the MOD and is Chair of the GMC UK Revalidation Programme Board and the Ministry of Justice National Offender Management Service. Keith has been a Magistrate since 1999 and was appointed Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Cambridgeshire.
Keith was previously Chair of the NHS Confederation and has been awarded a knighthood for services to healthcare.
Chief Executive: Ian Cumming
Ian Cumming is Health Education England’s first Chief Executive.
Ian started his career in the NHS as a Biomedical Scientist and later worked in research into coagulation disorders in the Haemophilia Centre in Manchester, England before moving into general management in the late 1980s.
Ian has held a variety of NHS senior management posts, including Operating Theatre Manager at a large teaching hospital and Assistant Chief Executive to the former North West Regional Health Authority, before spending the last 16 years in CEO roles in the NHS. When Ian was first appointed as CEO in 1995, he was the youngest ever Chief Executive in the NHS.
In 2006 after almost 12 years as the CEO of a group of teaching hospitals, Ian was appointed CEO of NHS North Lancashire, a NHS commissioning body.
From 2009 until 2011, Ian was CEO of NHS West Midlands – one of ten regional Strategic Health Authorities for the NHS in England. On taking up this role Ian also became a member of the national Management Board for the NHS in England. NHS West Midlands looked after the health needs of a population of approximately 5.5million and expended almost £10bn per annum.
Ian was previously the National Director of Quality during Transition for the NHS in England.
Health Education England