Chief Executive: Anthony C Marsh
Anthony Marsh started his ambulance service career in Essex in 1987 within patient transport services. His career took him to Hampshire before taking up Director of Operations roles in Lancashire and Greater Manchester where he led the ambulance service during the Commonwealth Games. His first Chief Executive role was in Essex before coming to the West Midlands when the Trust was formed in 2006.
He holds three Masters Degrees: an MSc in Strategic Leadership, a Master in Business Administration (MBA) and a Master of Arts.
Mr Marsh holds the National Portfolio for Emergency Planning, Response and Resilience and is the lead for the National Ambulance Resilience Unit. He is also strategic ambulance advisor to the Department of Health, NHS England and NHS Improvement.
Director of Nursing: Caron Eyre
Caron has been a nurse for over 30 years spending her entire career in the West Midlands. She started in Birmingham before moving to Warwick and Worcestershire and then back to Birmingham. She is an adult and children’s nurse as well as a nurse tutor.
She spent most of her career in children and young people’s services at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital where her last role was Deputy Chief Nurse and Director of Nursing for Quality and Governance. She is also the Chair of the Association of British Paediatric Nurses. Passionate about patient safety, quality improvements and the benefits of a positive patient experience, she has a strong track record of innovation and improvement.
Director of Finance: Karen Rutter
Karen joined West Midlands Ambulance Service as Director of Finance on the 1st May 2023. Previously she was the Deputy Director of Finance at Health Education England (HEE) where she was responsible for the financial delivery and governance of NHS education and training resources.
Karen is a qualified accountant with over 30 years’ experience in NHS finance. She started her finance career in Worcestershire working in Community and Mental Health Trusts. Prior to HEE, Karen worked in the corporate finance areas of a number of Strategic Health Authorities across West Midlands, East Midlands and East of England.
Director of Performance and Improvement: Nathan Hudson
Nathan is one of the Trust’s strategic commanders and has been working at West Midlands Ambulance Service since 1992. He began his career on patient transport services before qualifying as a paramedic in 1997. During his time with the service, he has taken up several roles to include working in the Emergency Operations Centre, as a tutor in the education department, Midlands Air Ambulance as a trauma paramedic.
Nathan started his managerial career within community response, before working his way into front line managerial operations as the general manager of Birmingham in 2010. In 2018 Nathan was successful in his appointment as the Emergency Services Operations Delivery Director before in 2023 he was appointed of Director of Performance and Improvement. Nathan is an active state registered paramedic and has an MBA in executive leadership and is currently studying a master’s in business psychology.
Executive Medical Director: Dr Alison Walker
Alison has worked in the NHS for over 30 years. She is a Consultant in Emergency Medicine with a Specialist interest in Prehospital Care. She was a regional NHS Ambulance Service Medical Director from 2005-2013 and has worked with WMAS as an Interim Medical Director and Honorary Medical Advisor since 2010.
She was the chair of the National Ambulance Services Medical Directors Group 2012-13. She is an examiner for the FIMC and DipIMC examinations for the Faculty of Prehospital Care of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. She holds Clinical Research Network lead roles and has authored publications on ambulance service clinical pathways and other prehospital topics.
She has also been a member of the JRCALC (Joint Royal Colleges Ambulance Liaison Committee) national committee since 2005 and is a member of the Trauma and Audit Research Network Committee (TARN).
Director of People: Carla Beechey
Carla has over 20 years experience of working in the Human Resources profession having previously worked in the Further Education Sector. She joined WMAS in 2008 as an HR Advisor after completing her professional qualifications in Human Resources Management at the University of Wolverhampton. She was promoted to HR Manager before being appointed as Head of HR in 2016 and following a competitive selection process, she was appointed as People Director and commenced her new role on 1st April 2021. Carla is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (MCIPD).
During her time at WMAS Carla has led the digital paperless HR agenda to implement an online employee personal record solution which won ‘Public Sector Project of the Year’ award in 2020 and introduced an Employee Relations Case Tracker System. She has also led her team to maintain the highest workforce attendance rates in the country of all ambulance services since 2014 through excellent sickness absence management and, in addition, maintained zero vacancies within frontline clinicians year on year which has enabled the Trust to continue to be the only ambulance service with a qualified paramedic on every response vehicle.
Paramedic Practice & Patient Safety Director (non-voting): Nick Henry
Nick started his career in 1990 with West Midlands Ambulance Service on their cadet scheme in Birmingham where he gained experience in each department of the service and having first contact with patients from the age of 16 years. He went on to qualify as a paramedic in 1995 before becoming a Clinical Supervisor as well as joining the then County Air Ambulance flying out of their Cosford, Strensham and East Midlands bases.
Following promotion to a Senior Manager role in 2004, Nick has worked in almost every area of frontline operations across the whole region. In 2017, Nick moved to a regional post at Trust HQ to lead the Business Intelligence Unit, E-Rostering, Community Response teams and joined the Strategic Commander On Call team as an Assistant Chief Ambulance Officer. He describes joining the Trust Board as a Director is the pinnacle of his 32 year career and is looking to championing the Trust’s patient safety culture, the role of paramedics through skills and research, whilst also developing a plan to implement the national Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) to ensure continual learning which will lead to improved patient care and outcomes.
Communications Director (non-voting): Murray MacGregor
Murray MacGregor has been working in the media and public relations since 1995 and has been Communications Director for West Midlands Ambulance Service since 2006. During that time he has overseen a significant development of the Trust’s internal communications and helped raise the profile of the organisation within the Region and nationally. He has won commendations for work during the riots in 2011 and for the handling of the Smiler Ride crash at Alton Towers.
Prior to moving to the West Midlands, Murray worked for three years with Essex Ambulance Service and two years with Cambridgeshire Police. He was heavily involved in the initial phases of managing the media around the Soham Murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. Murray’s background is as a radio journalist and worked for both the BBC and independent radio stations in Scotland and the south east of England.
Strategy and Engagement Director (non-voting): Vivek Khashu
Vivek is well known in the West Midlands having worked for a number of hospitals in the Region. After gaining a degree in Medical Biochemistry he joined the NHS General Management Training scheme. Vivek has worked in acute hospital operational management across the country before returning to the West Midlands to manage Emergency Medicine at Heart of England FT, at the time one of the largest providers emergency medicine in the country.
More recently he worked in the national NHS provider regulator the TDA and has held senior leadership roles with University Hospitals North Midlands, where he was Deputy Chief Operating officer and Acting Chief Operating Officer. Vivek joins WMAS from NHS England and Improvement where he led two national programs with the CQC, on Use of Resources and Well Led. Vivek holds a MSc in Health Service Management, from the University of Birmingham.
Interim Organisational Assurance Director (non-voting): Diane Scott
Diane joined the NHS ambulance service in 1985 and during her 34 year career held a number of senior and executive director posts in both emergency and urgent care as well as non-emergency patient transport services. Diane remains an HCPC registered paramedic, is Strategic Commander trained and has an MSc in Healthcare Governance. She was extremely proud to receive the Queens Ambulance Medal (QAM) in the 2018 New Year’s Honours list.
After retiring from West Midlands Ambulance Service as the Executive Director of Corporate and Clinical Services/Deputy CEO in December 2019, she has undertaken a number of assignments as a pool member of the NHS Interim Management and Support (IMAS), including just under a year as one of the Duty Directors in the Covid-19 National Incident Coordination Centre (NICC) in London during the pandemic in 2020. She has also undertaken reviews for NHS England and Acute and Mental Health Trusts, and more recently a 6-month secondment at London Ambulance Service to cover maternity leave for the Director of Corporate Affairs.
Diane has been the Chair of The Ambulance Staff Charity (TASC) since March 2020. TASC provides a range of services to support ambulance staff and their families in their time of need. This includes mental health support, physical rehabilitation, as well as financial advice and assistance.