Board of Directors

Mrs. Carolyn Donoghue

Chair

Carolyn is an experienced, highly skilled senior executive and Non-Executive Director with significant experience in the NHS and Higher Education in England and Wales. Carolyn qualified originally as a Registered General Nurse and developed a clinical career, including a period of time in Western Australia, before moving into training and senior management.
Carolyn held a number of senior roles in the NHS in Bristol before moving into Higher Education in the University of Bristol and latterly College Registrar at Cardiff University.
Carolyn has now developed a portfolio career which includes the role of Magistrate, Chair of a student mental health project in Cardiff, Non-Exec Director and from October 2020 Chair of WWIC. She also holds various voluntary roles in the local community.

Professor Philip E James:

Cardiff Metropolitan University

Currently Chair of Cardiovascular Metabolism at Cardiff Metropolitan University and Associate Dean (Research), Cardiff School of Sport & Health Sciences. A member of School Directorate he also chairs the Research Ethics Committee and the Research and Innovation Board. He is a member of the academic partnership board at Cwm Taff Morgannwg UHB, Aneurin Bevan UHB, and Velindre NHS Trust. Previously Cardiovascular Metabolism Lead at the Wales Heart Research Institute (WHRI) Cardiff Medical School where he also directed post-graduate research at the Institute of Molecular and Experimental Medicine. He sits on the advisory board of the Wales Heart Research Institute Development Fund (charity).
His research very much focusses on cardiovascular disease and blood vessel homeostasis in patient cohorts. With significant funding from the British Heart Foundation and Health Care Research Wales, he is a world leader in the field of nitric oxide metabolism with current projects including therapeutic application of nitrite/nitrate in coronary artery disease patients and influence of dietary nitrate sources on antiplatelet therapies. His research group at Cardiff Met also has significant expertise on the role(s) of cell derived microvesicles, and in particular, how circulating microvesicles influence vascular function and blood clotting in the setting of stroke, thromboembolism and coronary artery disease.

Professor Ian Weeks: BSc, PhD, DSc, FRSC, FRCPath

Cardiff University

Ian is Dean of Clinical Innovation and currently Acting Head of the School of Medicine and also Associate Dean of Clinical Innovation for the College of Biomedical and Life Sciences, Cardiff University. He has undertaken research, development and manufacturing of novel biochemical diagnostic tests for human disease for over thirty years in academic, NHS and commercial environments. He has authored over 120 publications, books and patents. Technologies of which he is an inventor have been licensed and used by global companies as the basis of in vitro clinical diagnostic tests many hundreds of millions of which are used annually worldwide. His research has resulted in the formation of three spin-out companies. Research undertaken by Ian and colleagues earned a Queen's Anniversary Prize for the Medical School in 1998 and was also cited by Universities UK in 2006 as one of the top 100 life-changing discoveries of the past 50 years. Ian is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Royal College of Pathologists.

Len Richards:

Cardiff & Vale University Health Board

Len is an established NHS leader in the UK and internationally and has worked in the health sector for over 30 years. He became Chief Executive of Cardiff and Vale University Health Board in June 2017. Before this he was Deputy Chief Executive of South Australia Health and had a focus on system performance and delivery for the Australian Government.
Len has extensive expertise in leading and delivering healthcare management and working in partnership with a range of healthcare providers, including the commercial sector, to produce evidence based results – all improving quality and supporting patient care.
He has worked on service transformation programmes, capital development programmes including developing a $280 million Cancer Centre, a hyper acute stroke unit and a number of new hospitals. He has led on a significant number of high profile and sensitive clinical re-configurations involving specialist services, focussing on the improvement in quality and safety and the elimination of waste.

Professor Julia Pridmore

Swansea University

Julia has been employed as a member of the academic staff at Swansea University since November 2005. Julia is an associate professor and Director of the award-winning Health and Wellbeing Academy (HWA). Julia is passionate about developing the Health and Wellbeing Academy as a centre for excellence in, learning & teaching, the application and translation of health and wellbeing research and the delivery of wellbeing services to staff, students and the public. Julia is proud to be working with a range of stakeholders at the HWA including the Lymphoedema Network Wales LNW and Local Health Boards and 3^rd sector organisations such as Cruse, the bereavement charity.

Julia is a registered nurse and has a interest in leadership, governance and quality improvement in healthcare. Julia's clinical experience has been mainly in caring for older people in acute general medical settings and as Head of Nursing for NHS Direct Wales. Julia has an extensive experience as a senior clinical leader and in executive leadership roles at Board level within Higher Education and in the UK NHS. Julia has developed education and training programmes and organisational improvement programme for NHS staff relating to the care of people with frailty and dementia. As director of the HWA, Julia has been working with a variety of stakeholders to devise innovative care pathways for the treatment of patients with a range of health and wellbeing problems. This includes the application of positive psychological interventions to the management of chronic ill health, focussing on the relationships between physical and mental wellbeing.

In addition to professional nursing qualifications, Julia holds a Masters in Healthcare Management and a Prince 2 Project management qualification. Julia is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Professor Keith Harding: CBE FRCGP FRCP FRCS FLSW

Medical Director

Keith has had a longstanding interest in wound healing. He has undergone training in both general surgery and general practice. He was appointed as the first Director of the Wound Healing Research Unit in 1991. From 2011 – 2013 he was Director of TIME Institute (Translation, Innovation, Methodology and Engagement) and Head of Wound Healing Research Unit, School of Medicine, Cardiff University and Clinical Lead for Wound Healing in the Cardiff & Vale NHS Trust.

In September 2013 he was appointed as Dean of Clinical Innovation at Cardiff University and in 2014 was appointed as Medical Director of the Welsh Wound Innovation Centre. His clinical practice is exclusively focused on treating patients with wound healing problems with a wide range of aetiologies. He holds external professorial appointments at universities in the UK and Australia.

He has authored over 350 publications in the field of wound healing and has written a number of chapters and books in this area. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Wound Journal published by Wiley. He was the First President of the European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel, First Recorder of the European Wound Management Association and is a Past President of the European Tissue Repair Society. He was Chair of the International Working Group on Wound Healing in Diabetic Foot Disease, Chair of the Expert Working Group that produced a range of International Consensus Documents from 2004 – 2011. Has obtained funding of over £45 million from a range of academic, commercial and clinical sources since the Wound Healing Research Unit was created in 1991.

Keith was awarded the CBE in the New Year Honours list in January 2013 for Services to Medicine and Health Care. In 2013 he was awarded £4.2 million to set up the Welsh Wound Innovation Initiative, part of which has enabled the setting up of the first Wound Healing Centre in the World. The centre is designed to coordinate academic activity, both in terms of teaching and research, in addition to providing a coordinated approach to the care of patients with wounds. In 2014 he was awarded the The Learned Society of Wales Fellowship.