Our people

Michael Barber

SCL was founded by Michael Barber to provide the NHS with consultancy services which are grounded in significant experience and technical expertise, in order to deliver practical innovation, real implementation and value for money. A Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants with over 20 years of experience of providing professional services to a wide range of clients, prior to founding SCL, Michael spent the majority of his career with Ernst & Young, where he co-led the firm’s NHS Collaboration and Integration services and the NHS Finance team.

Michael has particular expertise in the areas of NHS mergers and integrations, ICS development, business planning, business case development and programme delivery. Michael takes particular pride in the depth of experience and technical capability of the SCL team, which underpins the quality of all of SCL’s services.

Richard Guest

Richard joined SCL in April 2023 as a Director, and brings nearly 20 years’ experience of working at Board level, including being the Chief Financial Officer of Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, being a Partner and leading the NHS practice at EY (formerly Ernst and Young), and being a Director at Monitor.

In addition to his SCL role, Richard is a Non-executive director in common at Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust where he chairs the finance committee. Richard is also a Trustee of Pathway, a charity which works with the NHS to improve healthcare for homeless and other socially excluded people.

Richard is a qualified accountant, and his particular areas of expertise are  (i) integration and collaboration between NHS providers,(ii) financial planning, reviews, and improvement, (iii) strategy and investments, and associated business cases and funding, and (iv) governance.

Katy Cox

Katy has supported NHS organisations for over fifteen years, with a career that includes senior positions with Monitor and NHS England, care providers, an ICS and the ‘Big 4’. Katy is a qualified accountant and Prince2 practitioner, a strategic thinker who provides constructive challenge to Boards. Katy thrives on working across a range of different projects, utilising problem solving and analytical expertise.

Katy has provided advisory services to a number of NHS organisations undertaking transactions, including development of business cases, post-transaction integration plans and patient benefit cases. Katy has recently acted as ICP Development Lead for a Wave 1 ICS  where she created a programme to support the development of Integrated Care Partnerships, working with key stakeholders across health and social care.

Tom Norton

Chief Information Officer

Tom is SCL’s CIO, and has a hands-on approach to the delivery of Digital, Change Management, Transformation, Programme Management and Product Development. Tom’s experience in these areas has spanned various sectors, including Health, Finance & Insurance, Aviation and Manufacturing and Media. Past programmes and implementations have helped Tom to become an experienced leader and facilitator of change, and has enabled him to hone and manage full Benefits Realisation processes seeing benefits to fruition.

Tom has over 18 years experience in leading and delivering IT & Digital services, solutions and projects including the management and accountability for large multi-national teams. Tom enjoys working to long term objectives, and has a strategic focus when managing and delivering technology and transformation.

Competent in the management of internal and external stakeholders and suppliers, and a good communicator, Tom has a pragmatic working approach, ensuring the delivery of objectives whilst meeting business, operational and stakeholder needs.

Tom has a true passion for our national health service, and has huge experience leading technology, digital and transformation portfolios whilst holding board accountability within the NHS.  Prior to this Tom led service delivery and transformation for a private healthcare organisation delivering NHS services across the south of the UK.

Ed Aronson

Ed is a member of the ICAEW with over ten years experience of providing professional advisory and consultancy services with a wide range of clients. Ed was previously with NHS Improvement’s Transactions and Sustainable Solutions team where he was responsible for reviewing and challenging plans for NHS mergers and acquisitions. Ed was also previously an Associate Director in KPMG’s Healthcare team where he supported NHS organisations to develop Business Cases for transactions.

Ed has extensive experience of supporting NHS organisations to develop and deliver Business Cases, due diligence and Integration Plans for mergers and acquisitions. Ed has worked on both sides of NHS mergers, having reviewed strategic and business cases, financial models and integration plans at Monitor. Ed has supported a number of system-wide projects, involving analytics and population health modelling, and therefore understands the heavy interdependence of providers with their local health systems.

Hana Katic

Hana is a member of the ICAEW with nearly 20 years of supporting NHS and private healthcare organisations challenged with a range of operational, financial, regulatory and clinical quality issues.

Hana has broad and extensive experience of the NHS and private healthcare sector, having built a successful career with PwC, Monitor / NHS Improvement and the UK’s largest private healthcare provider, as well as having international expertise in the development of public-private partnership initiatives. Hana has also undertaken a number of secondments to NHS Trusts, working alongside and embedded within NHS teams.

Hana is a strong people leader, with a passion for developing high performing teams and motivating individuals to fulfil their potential. Her ability to present complex ideas in a clear and simplified manner, tailored to the target audience, makes her ideally suited for the role of Policy Implementation Lead.

Matt Knight

Matt Knight has over ten years of experience working with NHS and Department of Health clients, specialising in financial modelling and finance business cases. Matt has advised on a number of NHS transactions and large-scale capital programmes as well as developing long-term plans with Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships.

Key projects that Matt has been involved with include; the carve-out and dissolution of Mid Staffs NHS FT, development of the financial plan for NHS Nightingale Hospital North West, advising on the carve-out of Pennine Acute NHST and policy design and implementation of Buy Price = Sell Price for NHS Supply Chain.

Alistair Glen

Alistair is a relationships-based finance and business process improvement specialist. A Fellow of the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants and Prince2 qualified, Alistair is an agile project leader and complex problem solver, with expertise in managing technical experts to design and deliver pragmatic solutions. Alistair has had roles in senior positions across much of the healthcare sector, including the Department of Health and Social Care, NHSI and with NHS providers, as well as with one of the ‘Big 4’ consulting firms.

Alistair’s previous successes have included leading the successful delivery of cost reduction programmes, developing financial models and leading detailed commercial negotiations, and driving improvements to financial reporting and management processes.

Alex Scott

Alex has worked within the health sector for 16 years. A CIMA qualified accountant, Alex’s career in the NHS started with the NHS Finance Graduate Training Scheme and continued with a number of finance roles in the NHS acute sector for 8 years. Prior to joining Seagry Alex worked for Ernst & Young LLP’s NHS Advisory and Corporate Finance teams for 8 years where he specialised in the health care sector and led a wide range of complex, finance-focused projects for NHS clients.

Alex has covered a broad range of projects during his time within the NHS and health-sector consultancy, and has a wealth of experience and expertise in health system reconfiguration planning and implementation, financial modelling and analytics, financial recovery and cost improvement and Business Case development. Alex has also supported the NHS on 10 mergers and acquisitions, covering all parts of the merger process from business case development to implementation of integration plans.

 

Robert Black

Robert has 30 years experience in healthcare strategic planning, turnaround, service redesign and financial management. An early career in NHS finance within Scotland, was followed by general management, strategy and programme leadership roles, which provided skills, experience and creative solution development capabilities, together with a detailed understanding of day to day healthcare management requirements.

Robert led a number of significant improvement programmes across the NHS in England and Wales. This has included developing and delivering transformation and financial recovery in London, North Wales, Lancashire and North East. He has undertaken system-wide reviews and developed case for change proposals for orthopaedics / MSK, Neurological Medicine, Urgent Emergency Care, Cardiology and Respiratory Medicine incorporating primary, community and secondary care. In service transformations and recovery programmes, he has undertaken wide reaching and detailed reviews of workforce, patient flow, capacity / demand and discharge management.

In addition to the above reviews and transformation support experience, Robert has been a central figure in two of the largest acute Trust mergers within the NHS, one in Scotland, one in London.  Robert has also operated as an executive director in the independent sector, responsible for establishing a continuing care provider.  Throughout COVID outbreak, Robert supported North Wales in their out of hospital COVID response and the planning and delivery of their vaccination programme.