Meet our Board of Trustees

Our Board of Trustees spearheads our commitment to tackling health inequalities with our many partners through innovation that is based on impact and shared learning. They cultivate an environment that values collaboration, drawing upon their extensive networks, and years of experience gained in a variety of roles and sectors, for the benefit of all our pilots and prototypes, as well as the people and systems they support.

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    Professor Chris Drinkwater CBE

    PATRON

    Professor Chris Drinkwater CBE, FRCGP, FFPH (Hon), FRSA is an Emeritus Professor of Primary Care Development at Northumbria University.

    Starting his career as an inner-city GP in Newcastle, he took a modest Benwell practice and developed it into the West End Health Resource Centre, establishing a charity to run the building and provide a range of services alongside the GP practice.  

    In a varied and impactful career, Professor Drinkwater led the establishment of Healthworks Newcastle, was VCSE representative for the Child Health and Wellbeing Executive and is a former Director of the West End Schools Trust. 

    Other prominent roles have included a trusteeship with Blue Stone Collaborative, where he led the Well Newcastle Gateshead project, the presidency and lead on public health for the NHS Alliance, the chairmanship of the Philanthropy Committee at the Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland, and the Sir Roy Griffiths Fellowship for Older People from Age Concern and the Prince of Wales, funded by the Department of Health and administered by the Royal College of GPs .

    Founder and former chair at Ways to Wellness, Professor Drinkwater was part of the team overseeing its successful merger with Blue Stone Collaborative in 2022. Passionate about addressing health inequalities by focusing on the social determinants of health rather than access to services, he also believes in using evidence to demonstrate impact and sustain new ways of working.

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    Dr Guy Pilkington

    CHAIR

    Recently retired, Dr Guy Pilkington was a GP and a partner at Cruddas Park Surgery in Newcastle for more than 35 years. Over the decades he combined clinical work with two main areas of interest - teaching at the medical school in Newcastle, and health service development.

    For many years he was a clinical commissioner, initially as Clinical Chair of Newcastle West Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), subsequently Newcastle Gateshead CCG.

    Passionate about developing approaches to address health inequalities, he was heavily involved in the evolution of Ways to Wellness, with much of his time spent supporting collaborations across health, local authority and voluntary and community sectors (VCS).

    With a particular emphasis on prevention, social prescribing and mental health care transformation, he chaired the Prevention Board for the North East and North Cumbria (NENC), initially for the region’s CCGs, then for the Integrated Care Board (ICB), working closely with public health consultants and directors, from whom Dr Pilkinson learned a great deal. He was subsequently nominated by his colleagues for Membership of the Faculty of Public Health.

    His lifelong passion for working with communities, developing broader approaches to healthcare, and working closely with VCS organisations meant he jumped at the chance to lead our board when the opportunity arose.

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    Brendan Hill

    VICE CHAIR

    Brendan has worked in health since 1984, in both statutory and non-statutory sectors, and has a clinical professional background in mental health nursing.

    He was CEO for 17 years at Mental Health Concern, the parent charity of Insight IAPT (Improving Access to Pyschological Therapies), which is now part of Everyturn Mental Health.

    A non-executive director of Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear (CNTW) NHS Foundation Trust and a partner in the Human Learning Systems Collaborative, Brendan provided VCS sector representation and expertise on local, regional, and national forums with a focus on how to maximise cross-sector innovation and development.

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    Professor David Hunter

    TRUSTEE

    A political science graduate and Emeritus Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Population Health Sciences Institute at Newcastle University, David is also Emeritus Professor of Health Policy and Management at Durham University, where he directed the Centre for Public Policy and Health, a World Health Organisation (WHO) designated collaborating centre.

    He is a King’s Fund Population Health Associate, was a non-executive director at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and is a member of WHO’s Global Network on Long-Term Care (GNLTC), as well as being an honorary member of the Faculty of Public Health, and a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. 

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    Mary Jordan

    TRUSTEE

    Mary has more than 40 years’ experience as a Chartered Occupational Psychologist, comprehending human behaviour within organisations and applying psychological principles to enhance organisational performance.

    With a masters degree in Occupational Psychology, her career has included time spent pioneering online digital assessment at Saville and Holdsworth Ltd, as well as working with Fortune 500 companies, and large public and educational sector bodies such as Newcastle City Council, and Northumbria University.

    Mary’s passion for social responsibility, equity, and justice align with our commitment to addressing health inequalities and she shares our understanding of the broader social determinants that exacerbate these.

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    John Spurr

    TRUSTEE

    John is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales with a Diploma in Corporate Finance. He has more than 40 years’ business advisory, consulting and non-executive director experience.

    Chair of Healthy Lives Together (Thrive.NEL), a social prescribing programme in North East Lincolnshire, John has strong financial and business acumen, and brings a calm, pragmatic focus on delivering results.

    He brings to his role at Ways to Wellness extensive experience in whole health economy re-organisation, and the design of health authorisation guidance frameworks, evaluation, and service reviews.

  • Dr Ruth Briel

    TRUSTEE

    Having moved to the North East to study and then practice general medicine, Dr Briel made the region her home, specialising in psychiatry, in particular to support older people’s mental health. Her work, which included developing leadership training for doctors, led to regional improvements in dementia services, and she has published academic research on the diagnosis of high-functioning autism spectrum disorder in the elderly.

    She held a number of operational and strategic positions prior to her retirement from practice in late 2020, which followed an intensive period in which she supported the NHS through the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. This included an interval as Chief Operating Officer of the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust.

    In addition to her role at Ways to Wellness, which she has held since 2024 due to her commitment to, and passion for the development of social interventions within a holistic approach to healthcare, Dr Briel is a trustee at the Cheviot Learning Trust, and volunteers at both food waste charity Fareshare, and Let’s Get Growing, an organisation offering therapeutic horticulture. She has previously held voluntary positions at both Barnardo’s and Citizens Advice.

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