Mike Parish

Chief Executive

Mike joined NFC as a graduate trainee in 1981. In 1995 he initiated the formation of a joint venture company between Exel and Bass Brewers called Tradeteam and was appointed Managing Director. Subsequently Mike’s responsibilities were extended as Joint Chief Executive, Exel Europe and in 1999 he was appointed to the Exel Plc main board as Chief Executive of Exel’s global industrial division.

Mike was appointed Chief Executive of Care UK in November 2001.

Paul Humphreys

Group Finance Director

Paul qualified as a chartered accountant at Ernst & Whinney and then spent three years in ICI’s Mond Division. He joined Care UK from McLeod Russel Holdings Plc where he was Group Finance Director for almost ten years. Prior to McLeod Russel, Paul was Finance Director at Leeda Group, a subsidiary of Porter Chadburn Plc, and held various positions at Bluebird Toys Plc including Managing Director of the Bluebird UK Division.

Paul was appointed as Finance Director of Care UK in July 2002.

Geoff Benn

Group Development Director

Geoff joined Care UK in January 2003. With over 17 years of sales, marketing and business development experience in health, Geoff has worked throughout the sector for acute, long term and preventative care organisations. He has a successful track record in developing innovative partnership solutions across the private and public sectors and has responsibility for all aspects of the company marketing mix.

Hilary Thomas

Medical Director

Professor Hilary Thomas was appointed Group Medical Director of Care UK in May 2007, having left the NHS after 23 years. She has a distinguished record of service to the NHS as a clinician, academic, educator and medical leader. She studied medicine at Cambridge and University College Hospital and then selected oncology as her speciality. After four years as a Senior Lecturer at Hammersmith Hospital she was then appointed to the new Chair in Oncology at the University of Surrey in 1998. Hilary was appointed Medical Director of the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford in 2004. She was an elected member of the GMC for 9 years until 2003 and has published a column in the Health Services Journal since 2004. She became a member of the Clinical Advisory Group to the Darzi London review in December 2007 and more recently a Leadership Associate of the Kings Fund.

Steve Bennett

Group Human Resources Director

Steve joined Care UK as Group Human Resources Director in July 2002. He began his career in 1980 as a graduate trainee in Industrial Relations at the Ford Motor Company and has since held increasingly senior HR management roles, including appointments in the USA and Germany, with Grand Metropolitan plc, Duracell Batteries Inc, EMI Music plc, Esselte AB and The Laird Group plc. Steve holds a BA (Hons) in Business Studies and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development and a Member of the Institute of Directors.

Andrew Russell

Director, New Business Ventures

Andrew Russell has over 10 years experience in the field of care provision: he co-founded the company Homecaring Ltd in 1993 and as Operations Director developed it into a seven-branch homecare operator, providing services to local authorities in Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire.

The company was sold to Care UK in 1998 and Andrew was appointed Business Development Director of Care UK Homecare. Two years later he led the acquisition of Direct Manpower Ltd, now a subsidiary of Care UK plc. As Managing Director of Direct Manpower, Andrew developed its service provision of supplying locum doctors to NHS Trusts.

In 2002 he was appointed Director of New Business Ventures.

Sushil Jathanna

Managing Director, Secondary Care Services

Having obtained his medical degrees in India and subsequently a Diploma in Geriatric Medicine in the UK, Sushil has held a number of senior clinical and managerial roles in Health Authorities around the country. Specialising in geriatrics, mental health and public health, Sushil joined Care UK in June 2003 having most recently held the joint roles of Director of Public Health for the Colchester and Tendring Primary Care Trusts. He is a Member of the Royal College of Physicians, a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine and Chairman of a private hospital in Mangalore India, which he established in 1994.

Grant Rex

Managing Director, Partnership Health Group Ltd (PHG)

Grant has been with PHG since December 2005. He was seconded over from parent company Life Healthcare in South Africa where he was a Regional Hospital Manager for 10 years after managing a 350 bed private hospital for 5 years. He joined the Care UK Management Team in 2008 when Care UK completed the acquisition of Life Healthcare's 50% share in PHG.

Grant was previously a manager at the 3000 bed Baragwanath Hospital, Soweto, the largest hospital in the world, and famous for trauma and cost effective delivery of acute hospital care. He also managed the Urban Institute of Primary Healthcare and the Alexandra Primary Healthcare Centre, a prototype of the Darzi Polyclinic model funded by the Department for International Development (DFID).

Grant's qualifications include – MBBCH, Bachelor of Social Science (Hons), NHS Hospital Management Programme and Henley Senior Management Programme via a British Council Scholarship programme in 1995. Grant has been in Healthcare Management since 1990.

Mark Hunt

Managing Director, Primary Care Services

Mark joined Care UK in March 2007 having previously held the post of Director of Primary & Community Care for Mercury Health.

He has always worked in healthcare and has been involved with NHS management, Health Policy, the Pharmaceutical sector and healthcare delivery. Prior to joining Mercury Health, Mark was instrumental in designing policy in the Strategy Unit at the Department of Health.

His NHS experience spans Strategic Health Authorities, Primary Care Trusts and the Modernisation agency, in both executive and non-executive roles. Latterly, this included Director of Leadership for one of the national teams.

Mark has a clinical background as a GP in one of the largest practices in England.

Tony Hosking

Managing Director, Residential Care Services

Before joining Care UK in 2000, Tony worked in the retail industry in both senior operational positions and as managing director. He joined Care UK as Managing Director of the learning disability division before being appointed Managing Director of the Residential Care Services in 2002.

Richard Jackson

Managing Director, Specialist Care Services

Richard joined Care UK in June 2007, with leadership responsibility for Care UK’s Learning Disabilities, Mental Health and Children’s Services.

Richard joined Care UK from InHealth Group, one of the UK’s leading providers of clinical solutions, where he was Chief Executive Officer, Diagnostics & Imaging. Prior to InHealth, Richard spent 10 years at BUPA where he managed hospitals, rising to the post of Operations Director of BUPA Hospitals. He was also Director of Design & Development.

Roger Booker

Managing Director, Community Care Services

After gaining a BA (Hons) in Industrial Economics at Nottingham University, Roger spent 4 years at Deloitte Haskins and Sells and qualified as a chartered accountant in 1983. He held a number of financial positions in various industries before joining Care UK as Group Financial Controller in 1994. Roger was promoted to Managing Director of Care UK Homecare in 1997 and is now responsible for the Community Care Services division.