Meet the Team

Karen joined the South East People and Culture team in March 2024.

She joined the NHS Leadership Academy in 2019 and has a wealth of experience in talent management (supporting organisations to attract and maintain high-performing individuals), with a strong focus on increasing diversity and inclusion. As well as working in the London region, Karen has also held a national role as NHS England’s Head of Talent pipelines, has worked for NHS Leadership Academy, Health Education England and the Forensic Science Service – where she started her career as a forensic scientist. 

As the Talent regional programme lead, she set up the first London Regional Talent Board and Aspire Together Executive Director Talent Pool. During the COVID-19 first wave, she established the London Deployment hub, deploying workforce to the London Nightingale, Trusts and social care and redeploying volunteers, returning and retired workforce. While supporting the London COVID-19 Testing cell, she managed the London lateral flow test early and wider London role out and Breast Screening services.

Karen is a trained coach, mentor and action learning set facilitator. Throughout all her roles, she has always had a passion for talent management, leadership and investing in people to fulfil their potential.

Fi’s role is to ensure we identify, support and recruit the amazing and diverse talent who hold and aspire to Executive roles.

She has worked in talent and leadership in the NHS for nearly 15 years having previously worked in operational management, commissioning, informatics and clinical roles. Fi is qualified and experienced in various tools to support individuals and teams including Hogan psychometrics, MBTI Step I, II, flex models, HLM 360, mentoring train-the-trainer. She is an executive coach (ILM 7) specialising in career coaching and navigating barriers to inclusion. She holds a BSc in Integrated Health and an MSc in Health and Public Leadership and is an alumni of the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme. Fi is passionate about approaching talent management as a cultural change tool to ultimately improve the care we provide. She loves helping leaders discover their unique strengths, developing clever data visualisations and a strong espresso.

Moira joined the South East People and Culture team in July 2024. Her NHS career started in 2017 after 15 years in private sector PLCs, where she held roles in senior level recruitment and development and generalist HR.

She initially joined the NHS Executive Search team (part of the NHS Leadership Academy) where she led on Chair, CEO and executive director-level executive search projects nationally predominately for provider organisations, as well as playing a lead role in the operational work of the NHS’s first Regional Talent Board in the Midlands and East of England regions, delivering the region’s talent management agenda and strategy, including national aspirant executive director assessment, support, development and deployment, as well as assessment on and off the Aspiring CEO programme.

Moira then headed up NHS England’s national career development team for 2 years, before joining the Executive Talent and Appointments team as National CEO Appointments / Talent Lead, where she led emerging work around the NHS’ Chief Executive talent strategy focused on succession planning, risk, career support and talent mobility.

Moira is a qualified executive coach, a Hogan and DiSC certified practitioner, and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Nicola joined the South East People and Culture team in 2024, bringing over 20 years of experience in talent development, leadership, and organisational culture. Passionate about fostering diverse leadership that reflects the communities served by the health and care sector, she is committed to driving workplace transformation for better health outcomes and strengthened public trust.

Nicola’s career spans HR, postgraduate medical and dental education (PGMDE), grant giving and higher education. She has a proven track record in delivering innovative talent strategies, having led the London Talent Sponsorship Scheme (LTSS), improving employability for 64% of participants. She also launched the “Scope for Growth” initiative and led the Capital Nurse programme, advancing internationally educated nurses into leadership roles.

Nicola played a key role in coordinating London’s COVID-19 workforce hub, managing 5,000+ communications and deploying returners to essential healthcare roles during the pandemic. Her leadership extends to directing the first national recruitment process for specialty recruitment within PGMDE. 

A certified executive coach and facilitator (Hogan, HLM 360, DiSC), Nicola coaches the next generation of NHS leaders and facilitates regional networks and communities of practice to advance sharing and innovation.  She holds a postgraduate certificate in Systems Thinking in Practice, applying a systems-led approach to complex leadership challenges within Integrated Care Systems.

Avril joined the NHS in 2009 as an experienced manager, with a background in leading logistics and customer service operations in a global healthcare organisation. Avril has experience of working in European and global teams and has been integral to delivery of large-scale IT projects and company spin-offs.

Avril worked in leadership development in Thames Valley and Wessex for several years as a programme manager before moving into a national team staff Health and Wellbeing manager role for further experience and development. Avril re-joined the team in September 2020 as she is passionate about supporting our talent and helping people to flourish. Avril has a keen interest in the evaluation of our work and it’s longer-term impact to support the improvement of patient care and outcomes, along with process improvement.

Avril is a qualified Healthcare Leadership Model (HLM) 360 Feedback Facilitator, accredited coach, MTBI Step I Practitioner, and mentor.

Sapna joined the South East People and Culture team in September 2024, bringing over 20 years of cross-industry experience – including 11 in the public sector and the past 12 in healthcare. Since 2019, she has focused on talent and leadership, starting with leading national recruitment for the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme, and later driving key talent initiatives across regional and national teams. Sapna has a strong background in building collaborative partnerships and delivering impactful programmes. Her extensive experience in change management and co-design has included leading evaluations of assessment and recruitment activities within healthcare.

As a Talent Programme Lead, Sapna has led initiatives like career pathway mapping for social care professionals, creating bespoke programs for place-based leaders and implementing digital solutions to support talent development.

Passionate about unlocking the potential in everyone, Sapna is committed to empowering others and is a trained coach, HLM 360 feedback facilitator, and Action Learning Set (ALS) facilitator. Her approach blends strategic thinking with a genuine belief in people, making her work both impactful and deeply rewarding.

Annemi joined the NHS Leadership Academy in 2012, coordinating, supporting and leading on various leadership development and talent initiatives. Having previously qualified and worked as an Optometrist in South Africa before relocating to the UK, Annemi highly values patient care and is passionate to have a bigger impact on NHS staff to develop leadership behaviours and skills that improve patient care, experience and outcomes.

Annemi is an accredited coach and is passionate to empower individuals to unlock their full potential. She is also a qualified HLM 360 Feedback Facilitator and Trainer, a certified Cultural Intelligence Facilitator and Workshop Trainer and an experienced Mary Seacole local programme facilitator.

Jess has a passion for the personal, educational and professional development of individuals; supporting the staff of the NHS to deliver better health and care outcomes. She has extensive experience running complex strategic and operational programmes, and an understanding of embedding these within health and social care. Jess has returned to the team after a secondment period as Flexible Lead in NHS England, she brings with her a drive to build an inclusive community and co-create truly innovative and successful talent and development solutions.