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cancer central creator Avril Chester The Team

We are being created by you.

Cancer Central is being built by industry giants, leading organisations and experts as well as the sharpest minds in start-ups. Individuals and organisations are contributing to all aspects of the platform in an approach we call cominovation.

We wish to say a BIG thank you to everyone on our growing acknowledgement page.

cancer central creator Avril Chester Avril Chester, Founder & CEO
Avril is Entrepreneur of the Year at the Women in IT Awards 2019, one of The 3 Digital Amigos (podcast series), Interim Executive Director of Data & Technology at the RIBA, Author of be with me, it’s c, and Director at Kaniave Limited. Avril loves good food, big dreams and a giggle.

Avril realised the need for Cancer Central when she was being treated for breast cancer in 2015/16 and began her mission to build Cancer Central in January 2018. Avril documented the first year of her journey from technical executive to hopeful entrepreneur, in a business book that is interspersed with a sense of humour called Taking That Leap of Faith.

A few other links;
Innopsis Podcast, interview with Lynne Magennis
Tech Talks Podcast, interview with David Savage
People Change Things Podcast, interview with Brad Jennings
Non-Executive Board
The Board is collectively responsible for promoting the success of Cancer Central by directing the company’s affairs, constructively challenging and scrutinising the performance of management in meeting agreed goals and objectives, in accordance to Cancer Central’s Social Enterprise purpose. The Board has a legal governing function within Cancer Central.
Learn more about our Non-Executive Directors Alison, Mat, Nigel and Matthew

Non-Executive Director Alison Mckinna Alison Mckinna
Alison is an experienced Executive and Non-Executive director, having worked in six different industry sectors and been a Non-Executive Director for over ten years. Alison has worked in a number of complex regulated industries and reconfigures businesses for success both nationally and internationally. She has been a Non-Executive Director within the NHS for over ten years, currently at Chesterfield Royal Hospital Foundation Trust and previously at Primary Care Trust level. Alison is also a Non-Executive Director for a number of organisations from a wide variety of sectors. As a member of the Board and the Risk and Audit Committee, Alison brings her strategic planning and risk management experience, as well as a knowledge of technology, financial planning and change management.

Non-Executive Director Mat Mallett Mat Mallett
Mat is a board advisor and technology executive with international experience in successful transformations dealing in digital transformation, crisis management, turnaround and recovery, across multiple industry sectors including Law enforcement, Central Government, Retail and Oil & Gas. Mat has been instrumental in the development of Cancer Central from the inception and has the dual role of Non-Executive Director and resident Chief Technology Officer. Mat, when not spending time with his daughters, enjoys mentoring and developing others to fulfil their full potential and opportunities to improve public services for the greater good.

Non-Executive Director Nigel Hall Nigel Hall
Nigel is an Internationally experienced board level, NED, Interim CEO, COO, MD and CTO/CIO. He has led operational units for Companies such as PRS for Music, KPMG McLaren, Cable & Wireless Worldwide, Telefonica O2 & France Telecom. Nigel was part of the original start-up team for Orange UK and later led the International launch teams responsible for building the ‘disruptive’ Customer centric brand overseas. More recently, Nigel has been involved in growth focused businesses at Angel, Venture Capital and Private Equity level in a variety of roles both Executive & Non-Executive level covering change & international business growth.

Non-Executive Director Matthew Cooke Professor Matthew Cooke
Professor Matthew Cooke has spent his career as a clinical academic in the NHS. He has been a consultant in emergency medicine in the West Midlands and Professor of Clinical Systems Design at Warwick Medical School. He has also worked as the National Clinical Director for Urgent and Emergency Care at the Department of Health, as an emergency medicine advisor at the World Health Organisation, as a Director of Strategy of a large NHS Trust and medical director for NHS111 in England. Although he has retired from the NHS, he continues to work as the Chief Clinical Officer at Capgemini and works in an advisory role to several NHS improvement and safety bodies as well as being on the advisory Board of Health Navigator Ltd. He is also a keen cyclist.

Advisory Panel
Cancer Central’s Advisory Panel is a group of professionals who provide specialist expertise, diverse knowledge and perspective, connections to local or national colleagues or peers, philanthropic support or other forms of assistance to meet the objectives of Cancer Central.
Learn more about our Advisors Simon, Sandhya, Tim, Jon, Kali and Andrew.

Advisory Panel Member Simon Nelson Simon Nelson
Previously an officer in the Royal Navy and now 27 years serving in the police service, becoming the head of the Criminal Justice Custody Department in Sussex in 2017 and more recently appointed to the National Executive Committee of the Police Superintendents Association and as President of the Disabled Police Association. Simon was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2004 and underwent twelve months of treatment including having his stomach removed. Although Simon has some disability challenges to manage he remains operational as strategic incident and firearms commander, and active through running, kayaking and surfing (badly).

Advisory Panel Member Sandhya Sharma Sandhya Sharma
Sandhya is Head of HR for YoungMinds, OD Consultant and Chair of Trustees for BowHaven, East London. She has15+ years within public and private sector organisations including experience of providing training interventions in Japan, South Africa, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. Provides effective and efficient HR solutions to meet business needs with a special interest in mentoring and coaching staff. Sandhya is a survivor of breast cancer.

Advisory Panel Member Tim Harrison Tim Harrison
Tim is a communications consultant, interim director and board advisor with over 20 years’ experience working with leading corporations and the freshest start-ups. He has held senior marketing, communications and strategic development roles with leading companies on the FTSE 100 and NASDAQ and until 2014, served as Sony Mobile's Vice President, Global Communications & PR. Tim is an Accredited Practitioner of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Advisory Panel Member Jon Downing Jon Downing
Experienced innovation, service and technology leader, with over 25 years successfully delivering significant business & technology service improvement at multiple global companies - including Visa, American Express, J P Morgan, & HP Enterprise Services. Jon was a key member of Visa Europe’s Innovation Hub, Visa Collab, which was responsible for identifying and testing the most exciting and revolutionary ideas in payments and developing them into a commercial reality.

Advisory Panel Member Kali Bagary Kali Bagary
Kali currently holds multiple Non-Executive and Advisory positions including the role of Chair. He is a senior executive with over 30 years’ experience of IT and software in insurance and financial services within the UK, Europe, Nordics, and South Africa. Kali’s key strengths include developing and marketing propositions with a focus on business development. Kali was one of the founders and co-chair of the “Finance IT Network” (FITN), a network for CIO’s looking at innovation in technology within the financial services.

Advisory Panel Member Andrew Smith Andrew Smith
Andrew is currently a Vice President driving Capgemini’s growth with Salesforce across Europe. As a senior executive, with over 20 years experience, Andrew is a deeply curious digital architect and strategic thinker who’s passion is in building teams and global strategies to drive the digital advantage for leading organisations on the FTSE 100 and NASDAQ
Risk & Audit Committee
Cancer Central’s Risk & Audit Committee assists the CEO and board by providing advice and guidance on the set up and operation of a value-led ethical and legal framework to drive corporate governance and control.

The Committee is chaired by Nigel Hall and works in a quasi-legal capacity with a panel of subject matter experts on a voluntary basis, covering a range of areas requiring frameworks and governance to mitigate operational risk, including verification, safeguarding and data governance.
Advisory Panel Member Jon Rosser Jon Rosser
Jon joined World Child Cancer as Chief Executive in 2015. Childhood cancer is mostly curable in developed countries, but is largely undiagnosed and untreated in developing countries. World Child Cancer works to even the odds for children in developing countries, by improving treatment; developing programmes to ensure earlier detection and diagnosis; and supporting families faced with the huge additional costs of having a child with cancer, particularly where treatment and drugs are not free.

Advisory Panel Member Kate Surala Kate Surala
Kate is Partner and Chief Compliance Officer at The Analyst Research LLP. She oversees all operations at The Analyst and leads legal and compliance matters as well as strategic development of the business. As a recognition of her achievements to date, Kate was awarded the Management Today's 35 women under 35 in June 2019. Kate is a graduate of the MSc in Law and Finance at Pembroke College, University of Oxford and holds an MA (European Public Affairs) and an LLB (European Law) from Maastricht University in the Netherlands.
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We are excited to share that we have been shortlisted in the Digital Leaders, HealthTech Innovation of the Year award and the public vote is now open.
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