Trustee Board
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Mr Vince Voon
Lay Trustee & Chair of Trustee Board
Vince is a Senior Civil Servant in the Home Office and has held senior commercial roles in technology transformation.
Vince is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply. He graduated from the London School of Economics with an Economics Degree and a Masters in Information Systems.
He is an experienced business transformation specialist in leading major programmes in commercial and financial management, business process outsourcing and performance improvement with a Master Black Belt in Lean and Six Sigma.
Vince previously worked at IBM, PwC, Deloitte and in investment banking, with experience in technology outsourcing, consulting and corporate finance in the UK, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
In his current role, Vince has championed talent and capability, inclusion and diversity initiatives in the Home Office and Civil Service.
He won the Cabinet Office Leadership Award for ‘Best Example of Diversity in a Project (2019), the Home Office Excellence Awards for ‘Inspirational Leadership’ (2020) and is a volunteer sponsor for the Home Office Access Talent Programme that won the ‘Innovation Award’ at the Business Culture Awards (2017/18).
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Dr Bernie Croal
President
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Dr John Ashcroft
Treasurer
Dr John Ashcroft is a Consultant Haematologist working between Mid-Yorkshire NHS Trust (MYHT) and Leeds Teaching Hospitals. He is the MYHT Trust Research Director, Past Chair of the UK Myeloma Society and Treasurer of the British Society for Haematology.
He trained in Cambridge, qualifying in 1993 prior to moving to Leeds to train as a Haematologist and completed his PhD through the Dept of Immunology in the University of Leeds. He is a member of the NIHR cancer research leadership team and sub speciality lead for non-malignant Haematology in Yorkshire and Humber. He has a particular interest in Multiple Myeloma and bone disease and has on-going roles in national trial management groups.
As College Treasurer, Dr Ashcroft is responsible for the College's finances, including; budgeting, preparing the annual accounts, and providing general finance advice in conjunction with the Finance Department.
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Professor Marta Cohen
Vice President, Learning
Professor Marta C Cohen is a Paediatric and Perinatal Consultant Histopathologist and Clinical Director of Pharmacy, Diagnostics and Genetics (2019-2024) at Sheffield Children NHS Foundation Trust and since 2018 she is an Honorary Professor at the University of Sheffield. In 2020 she was awarded the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Marta trained at La Plata National University (Faculty of Medicine) in Argentina, and undertook her training in Histopathology at the Clínicas University Hospital and the Ricardo Gutierrez Children’s Hospital in Buenos Aires, and at Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa.
Marta joined the NHS twenty years ago and, since then, has held various roles: Course Director of the Post-graduate course of the International Paediatric Pathology Association (2014–2018), President of the International Paediatric Pathology Association (2016–2018), Chair and Programme Director of Advanced Training Centre for Paediatric and Perinatal Pathology of European Society of Pathology (2015–), Council Member of the European Society of Pathology (2022–2024) and Academic Lead for Paediatric and Perinatal Pathology, Royal College of Pathologists (2018–). Currently, Marta is a Board Member of the following organisations: International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting (ICCR) (2019–), International Society for Study and Prevention of Perinatal and Infant Death (2016–2020, re-elected for 2020–2024); International Stillbirth Alliance (2022–2025); Scientific Advisory Group of the Lullaby Trust (2022–) , Academic Advisory Board, Academy of Forensic Sciences (2021–), Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC) Foundation UK and is part of the Expert Advisory Board and Executive committee of the Estudy Group in Forensic Microbiology, European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) (2018–2024).
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Professor Sarah Coupland
Registrar
Prof. Sarah Coupland is a senior Consultant Histopathologist at the Liverpool University Foundation Hospital Trusts with expertise in Ophthalmic Pathology, Haematopathology, Molecular Pathology, and Biobanking. She leads one of the 4 supraregional NHSE Eye path services.
Sarah is also the current (and first female) ‘George Holt Chair of Pathology’ at the University of Liverpool, and leads the ‘Liverpool-Ocular-Oncology-Research-Group’, focussing on ocular melanomas and lymphomas. From 2014- 2019, she was also Director of the ‘North West Cancer Research Centre@University of Liverpool’. She is also General Secretary of the ‘Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland’, and actively promotes academic pathology. She contributed significantly to TNM/AJCC and WHO tumour volumes.
Sarah undertook her undergraduate medical studies in Sydney, Australia (UNSW) before completing her PhD (University of Sydney). She moved to Germany where she did her Pathology training, and worked as a Consultant pathologist in the Charité University Hospital Benjamin Franklin in Berlin. In 2005, Sarah moved to the UK with her husband (Ophthalmologist) and three children. Outside work, she enjoys sports, music and photography.
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Dr Noha El Sakka
Vice President, Communications
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Ms Lesli Flinn
Lay Trustee
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Dr Anu Gunavardhan
Chair, Wales Regional Council
Dr Anu Gunavardhan was born in Kerala, completing her MBBS at Government Medical College Calicut and her MD in Pathology at Government Medical College Trivandrum. After passing the FRCPath exams and relocating to the UK, she was appointed as a Consultant Histopathologist at Glan Clwyd Hospital, North Wales, in 2016. She holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Medical Education from the University of Cardiff and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
She has specialist interest in breast pathology and dermatopathology. Dr Gunavardhan is the Lead Breast Pathologist for the Betsi Cadwaladr Health Board and Quality Assurance Pathologist for Breast Test Wales.
As Chair of the Wales Regional Council, she provides professional leadership, helps maintain and develop high-quality pathology services at a national level, and promotes the College through various initiatives.
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Dr Laszlo Igali
Vice President, Professional Practice
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Professor Peter Johnston
Chair, Scotland Regional Council
Professor Peter Johnston is a Consultant Histopathologist (NHS Grampian) and Depute Postgraduate Dean (Scotland Deanery, North Region). Diagnostic work includes cellular pathology with a special interest in haematopathology. An Aberdeen graduate, he has a long commitment to undergraduate and postgraduate medical education, coordinating and innovating in undergraduate teaching over many years. Current postgraduate roles include Director of Medical Education Research in the Scotland Deanery, Chair of the Scottish Diagnostics Specialty Training Board, and part of the Centre for Health Education Research and Innovation in the University of Aberdeen. He is interim Director of the Scottish Medical Education Research Consortium involving the Deanery and the five Scottish Medical Schools.
Professor Johnston is a member of the GMC Curriculum Advisory Group. Pedagogic research is in medical careers decision-making, including novel methods to study how students and trainees value generic characteristics of training posts. Clinical learning environments, educational culture, human factors in educational and clinical settings and doctors’ wellbeing in COVID-19 and beyond are other areas of study.
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Dr Gareth McKeeman
Chair, Northern Ireland Regional Council
Dr Gareth McKeeman graduated with a BSc (Hon) in Biomedical Science in 1999 before going on to completed a PhD in 2003 (both at Queen's University Belfast). He then worked as a Research Fellow (School of Medicine QUB) for 4 years before moving to the NHS in 2007 to start the Clinical Scientist Training Programme. During this he completed an MSc (Clinical Biochemistry with Molecular Biology, University of Surrey), and then FRCPath (Clinical Biochemistry) during Senior and Principal Clinical Scientist posts.
He took up his current post as Consultant Clinical Scientist (Dept. Clinical Biochemistry, Belfast Health & Social Care Trust) in 2015, where he has oversight over the Clinical Biochemistry General Automation Labs across 3 hospital sites and is Chair of the Trust POCT committee. He is also currently Chair of the Northern Ireland Regional Council.
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Dr Stephen Morley
Assistant Registrar
Dr Morley is a forensic toxicologist and chemical pathologist. He initially trained at Kings College London; trained in medicine and chemical pathology in Leicester and Nottingham before taking up a consultant post in Sheffield in 2002. He transferred to Leicester in 2014. He is instructed internationally for his toxicology opinions and is one of only a handful of medically qualified post-mortem toxicologists.
He is the past president of the London Toxicology Group and presently Chair of the Royal College of Pathologists Specialty Advisory Committee on Toxicology. He set up the first UK clinical toxicology network in 2019. He was head of service for chemical pathology in Sheffield for almost 10 years and oversaw a full rationalisation of the service with purpose-built accommodation. More recently he has been Head of School for East Midlands Pathology, so has a broad understanding of the training requirements and workforce issues for both medical and non-medical staff in all clinical pathology specialties.
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Ms Jennifer Phillips
Lay Trustee
Jennifer is Global Senior Legal Counsel specialising in commercial contracts and is the lead lawyer responsible for implementing the global commercial contracting programme at Tate & Lyle PLC.
After completing a law degree at Brunel University and the legal practice course at Bpp law school, Jennifer then became a fellow with the chartered institute of legal executives before qualifying as solicitor of England and Wales. Jennifer has supported businesses to meet their commercial objectives by providing pragmatic and commercially focused legal advice. Having previously worked for companies such as Goldman Sachs, Deloitte, Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) and Mercer she is a commercial lawyer with over 10 years experience leading teams, providing strategic advice to executives and ensuring legal compliance across organisations.
As a lay trustee, Jennifer will support with strategic guidance to advance college goals.
Jennifer is a keen supporter of ED&I initiatives and is excited to support the college in this area.