Robert Smith is Director of Business Compliance and Ethics at Serco.  Serco specialise in the delivery of essential public services, with over 50,000 people working in healthcare, defence, transport, justice, immigration and other citizen services. Over his 28 years with Serco he has gained broad and solid business experience both within operations developing strategy, business planning, risk management and resourcing; and latterly at the corporate centre with particular focus on internal governance, policy and risk management.  More recently his focus has been on business integrity, compliance, culture and values and the impact this has on internal governance and behaviours. Robert is a Chartered Director and has actively supported the Institute of Directors (IoD) where he became an Honorary Life Fellow in 2017.  He was a member of IoD Council for six years, Chaired the Chartered Director Committee and designed and drove a new governance structure creating an Assessment and Standards Committee of which he is a member.  Over recent years he has actively shaped the current curriculum for the IoD Certificate in Company Direction as well as the IoD Diploma in Company Direction.

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.

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 [email protected] 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.

Dr Croal is Chair of the Scotland Regional Council. The Council acts as a conduit for communication between the regions' members and the College headquarters. It also reviews and approves local career-grade job descriptions in pathology specialties and monitors local medical and scientific workforce statistics to keep these up to date. 

Angharad Davies is a Professor of Medical Microbiology and Honorary Consultant Medical Microbiologist at Swansea University Medical School. She qualified in medicine from the University of Cambridge in 1993 and after gaining MRCP undertook her specialist training in medical microbiology and virology at the Royal Free Hospital, London. She went on to an MRC Clinical Research Training Fellowship at University College London, gaining a PhD in aspects of dormancy in tuberculosis.

Angharad is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an elected member of Council of the Academy of Medical Educators. In 2018 she was appointed Royal College of Pathologists' joint lead for Undergraduate and Foundation Education with special responsibility for Foundation. In this role she established the RCPath Foundation Fellowship scheme and a number of other Foundation initiatives. She is also Infection Specialty Lead for Health and Care Research Wales. At Swansea, she is a Consultant Microbiologist for the national Cryptosporidium Reference Unit and theme lead for infection and immunity at the medical school, where she also leads a number of BSc and postgraduate modules.

Angharad is co-deputy Chair of the BMA Women in Academic Medicine group and a member of the UK REF2021 Equality and Diversity Advisory Panel, the RCPath Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Network, and a number of other national equality initiatives.

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.

Dr Anita Hill is Vice President at Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease serving as Global Medical Affairs Lead for Haematology & Nephrology and Consultant for Clinical Development.

Prior to this position, Dr Hill was a Consultant Haematologist for Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, UK and Honorary Clinical Associate Professor for the University of Leeds. She was the Lead Clinician for the National PNH Service, UK. In addition, Dr Hill specialised in aplastic anaemia and haemolytic anaemias, seeing patients both in Leeds as well as throughout the UK in many Outreach Clinics. She led on the first guidelines for the management of primary and secondary Autoimmune Haemolytic Anaemia in 2016 and contributed to the guideline for Aplastic Anaemia, all for the British Society of Haematology.

Prior to these posts, Dr Hill worked as a Consultant Haematologist for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where she was the Lead for clinical trials and research.

She was awarded her PhD for exploring the role of complement and nitric oxide in the pathophysiology of PNH and other haemolytic anaemias.

Dr Hill was active in many clinical trials furthering therapies for PNH, aplastic anaemia and autoimmune haemolytic anaemias and was the Chief Investigator of many international trials for PNH.

Dr Hill has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and was actively involved in the PNH Global Registry. Furthermore, Dr Hill is a member of the Royal College of Pathologists, the British Society of Haematology and the International PNH Interest Group. She served as an elected member of the North of England Regional Council for the Royal College of Pathologists and was a committee member for the UK Red Cell Specialist Interest Group.

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. 

Elijah was born in Mazziba, Uganda, and went to Makerere University Medical School in 1996. After training as junior doctor in Northwest deanery, and after passing his final MRCPath exams, he was appointed Consultant Microbiologist and Infection Control Doctor in 2016.  He now works full time for the NHS. His interests include medical education, orthopaedic infections, research and infection prevention.

He has variously served the trust in several roles, including Chair of the Sepsis Steering Group, part of the trust improvement committee. He is enthusiastic about medical education at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level. He is also on the board of trustee of the educational charity at the trust.

As College trustee, Elijah will contribute to the affairs of the College, ensuring it is well run, solvent and delivers the outcomes for it which it has been set up.

Dr Gareth McKeeman graduated with a BSc (Hon) in Biomedicla 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.

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.

Professor Mike Osborn studied medicine at Guy's & St Thomas' Hospitals, London, qualifying in 1995. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 2000 and a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists in 2004.

Currently he works as a Consultant Histopathologist for North West London Pathology at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, where he is clinical lead. His working time is divided between post mortems, diagnostic gastrointestinal histopathology, bowel cancer screening and teaching. He runs a BSc in Humanities, Philosophy & Law at Imperial College, London.

Dr Sandle was born and educated in Leeds. After pre-registration posts at St James’s Hospital, he trained in general and chemical pathology in Manchester. He was appointed as Consultant Chemical Pathologist at Trafford General Hospital, and latterly at Manchester Royal Infirmary from 1986 to 2020. Locally he served as Clinical Audit Chair, Clinical Director, Deputy Medical Director and Interim Medical Director. Dr Sandle continues as a vaccinator at COVID vaccination clinics.

He chaired the North West Regional Council of the Royal College of Pathologists from 2004 to 2007, having served as Specialty and CPD Advisor in the years prior to that. He also served on the National Quality Assurance Advisory Panel for Chemical Pathology for 8 years and chaired it from 2001 to 2005. Dr Sandle was Director of Professional Standards at the College (2007–2011), Vice President for Professionalism (2014–2017) and is currently Registrar. He chaired the RCPath Informatics Committee (2017–2020), on which he continues to sit as well as on the Quality Assurance Committee. Within the College, he has roles in committee governance, equality and diversity, and College representation on, and collaboration with, outside bodies and sister organisations.

While Vice President, Dr Sandle represented the College in the process for formation of the Faculty of Clinical Informatics, of which he is a Founder Fellow. He serves on the Faculty Council and is Chair of the Governance and Representation Sub-Committee. He is also joint lead for Clinical Audit.

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).