QGC Faculty

Michael is Director of the Quality Governance Collaborative and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. He is Ambassador for the British Liver Trust and Chair of the Scottish Board and member of the Scottish Government NHS Corporate Governance Steering Board. He chairs and advises Boards in the Public, Private and Arts sectors.

He was educated in Glasgow, Edinburgh and at Rambert, London and in 1991 became a World Health Organisation Fellow in the field of Governance/Quality. He has been responsible for the authorship and Implementation of “Governance between Organisations” and the “Integrated Governance Strategy” for the NHS. Commissioned by the Department of Health, Whitehall.

In 2003 as Director of Board Development he wrote, “Governing the NHS” with the NHS Appointments Commission. He was appointed a Fellow of Manchester University - HSMU and Chair of the largest international Biomedical event for Philips.

Dr Labinjoh  is a key member of the QGC Faculty, QGC Board Chair and is working on our projects in partnership with the World Health Organisation. She is an elected member of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh’s Council representing Tayside and Central Scotland. She is part of the College’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Committee and is the clinical lead for Enhance, our mentoring programme. She is a Consultant Cardiologist and Clinical Lead for Cardiology at NHS Forth Valley Royal Hospital. Dr Labinjoh is also the Clinical Lead for the NHS Forth Valley Quality Improvement Hub and for Realistic Medicine.

Prof Connell graduated in Medicine from the University of Glasgow in 1977 and MD in 1986. Following this, he held clinical research/clinical scientists posts in Melbourne and Glasgow. He has published more than 250 peer-reviewed papers on aspects of adrenal function and cardiovascular disease. 

From 2000–2008 he held Clinical Director posts in Acute Medicine in West and North Glasgow and was Senior Clinical Endocrinologist in the Western Infirmary in Glasgow, with a major interest in disorders of the adrenal gland. In 2009, he was appointed to the post of Dean of Medicine at the School of Medicine, University of Dundee and became Vice Principal for Research at the University and Head of the College of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing in January 2012. 

He was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1999, and was a member of its Council from 2006–9, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2002, where he is currently Fellowship Secretary. He chairs the Education and Training Advisory Board for the General Medical council; and is Vice Chair of the British Heart Foundation Programme Grants and Chairs committee. Prof Connell was the former Chair of NHS Tayside Board, and former Chair of the RCPE Quality Governance Collaborative. 

Prof Gray was appointed Director General Health and Social Care at the Scottish Government and Chief Executive of NHS Scotland in 2013, a role he held until late 2018. Prior to this he held a number of roles at the Scottish Government, including, Director General of Governance and Communities, Director General Environment and Director General Rural Affairs, Environment and Services. Until 2009, Prof Gray was the Scottish Government’s Director of Change and Corporate Services, with responsibility for senior staff development and deployment; human resources; information services; accommodation and estates services; corporate learning; employee engagement; and the Scottish Government’s business improvement and change programmes.

John Brown was appointed Chair of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde from 1st December 2015.  John is also Chair of the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, the Chair of the NHS Scotland Global Citizenship Advisory Board, the Co-Chair of the NHS Scotland Corporate Governance Steering Group, and Co-Chair of the West of Scotland Health Sciences Network and the Glasgow Health Sciences Partnership. He is an Independent Director of Glasgow Life and a Senior Faculty Member of QGC.

He is a Chartered Management Accountant, has a MBA degree from the University of Glasgow and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership & Management, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management and a Member of the Chartered Governance Institute.

MBChB, MPH (Hons), FNZMA, FNZCPHM, FAFPHM (RACP)

Dr Old is a public health physician and is currently the Deputy Director-General and Head of the Public Health Agency, within the New Zealand Ministry of Health.  Prior to his appointment in July 2022 he held joint positions as Associate Chief Medical Officer for Waitematā District Health Board (DHB), and as Clinical Director, Health Gain for Auckland and Waitematā DHBs.  From January 2020 to July 2022 he was seconded to the COVID-19 response for the Northern Region of New Zealand, mostly recently as Chief Clinical Officer since February 2022.  He has previously held executive roles in strategy, community participation, patient experience, and quality improvement.

Dr Old was a 2018/19 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow and was based between the Clinical Excellence Research Center at Stanford University, and the Social Interventions Research Evaluation Network at UC San Francisco where he researched organisational attributes of primary care practices that achieved good outcomes for traditionally underserved populations.

Dr Old received his medical and public health degrees from the University of Auckland and is a Fellow of both the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine and of the New Zealand College of Public Health Medicine.

He was awarded Fellowship of the New Zealand Medical Association in 2011 for services to the profession and the public.

Anne was Board Director and Director of Clinical Governance & Operations at NHS Professionals, the Department of Health’s company for temporary staff in the NHS (wholly owned by the Secretary of State for Health). Her previous roles include clinician, general manager, programme management and policy development at a national level. She was previously Director of the Northern Ireland Clinical and Social Care Governance Support Team and responsible for the development and implementation of Clinical and Social Care Governance across the Province. She was a key member of the NHS Clinical Governance Support Team in England and the NHS Modernisation Agency. Anne chairs the Independent Safeguarding Commission of the Diocese of Hexham & Newcastle and is a member of the Quality Governance Collaborative Fellowship faculty of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

Dr Myron is a healthcare researcher with expertise in psychology and improvement science. Rowan graduated from Dundee University in 1995 with an MA (Hons) first class in Psychology, she then studied for her PhD at Goldsmiths. Dr Myron first lectured Psychology at the University of Hull, then she moved out of academia to the Mental Health Foundation where she became Associate Head of Research and began working with service user researchers on a range of projects. In 2009, Dr Myron joined the NIHR CLAHRC NWL programme. Dr Myron currently holds a joint role between the University of West London, as Associate Professor for Healthcare Management and the role of Education Lead at CLAHRC NWL. Dr Myron leads doctoral, masters and fellowship programmes that aim to build capacity in improvement methodologies. She works with multi-disciplinary frontline clinical staff and patients to improve services and implement evidence-based change. Follow her on Twitter @RowanM

Dr Brünjes qualified in medicine at Guy’s Hospital.

From his Harley Street practice he established the Premier Medical Group which was acquired by Capita in 2010.  A subsidiary, RTA Ltd, was sold to BUPA in 2005.  In 2016 Harry re-acquired Premier Medical.  In 2017 WARP Technologies and Medicals Direct were added to the Group.  
Dr Brünjes has been Governor of Bedford Modern School, Valderrama Golf Club, Expert Witness Institute, President of the Sussex Medico-Chirurgical Society, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine Vice-President of the College of Medicine since 2010. Dr Brünjes was Chairman of Lancing College between 2009 – 2019 and has been Chair of English National Opera and London Coliseum since 2015.  Dr Brünjes has a lifelong interest in music, theatre, opera, piano and in recent years has written ‘Dial Medicine for Murder’ which he has performed for two seasons at the Edinburgh Festival, a UK tour and most recently a tour in the USA.

Helen qualified in medicine from the University of Cambridge in 1998 and her clinical career has included roles in both NHS Scotland and England. Several years as a Consultant in central Manchester afforded her the opportunity to work across multiple medical specialties involved in the care of patients with complex needs and complex systems.

As a cardiologist with a special interest in imaging, she was a member of the Greater Manchester and Cheshire Cardiac Network, supporting local and regional imaging service development.  As a founding member of Consultants for Change and Development she was clinical lead for large-scale outpatient transformation in central Manchester contributing to the Central Manchester Foundation Trust Quality Review programme, based on CQC methodology.

Having been a Fellow in the inaugural cohort of the QGC fellowship programme, she has now joined the QGC Faculty, dividing her time between this role and the Golden Jubilee National Hospital, where she works as a consultant imaging cardiologist.

Dr Wallace studied Immunology and Medicine at the University of Glasgow and later gained an MBA from Strathclyde Graduate Business School. He practised as a GP Principal for 10 years before being appointed Medical Director of Greater Glasgow Primary Care Trust in 1999. In 2005 he became the Associate Medical Director for the Women and Children’s Directorate in Greater Glasgow and Clyde and for a time combined this role with being interim Medical Director of NHS Quality Improvement Scotland. He was appointed as Medical Director of NHS Forth Valley in 2010 before moving to the same role in NHS Lanarkshire in June 2013. During his time in Lanarkshire, Dr Wallace led a successful quality improvement initiative to address higher than predicted Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratios in two of the Board’s acute sites.

Following his retirement in October 2018, Dr Wallace took up post as Medical Advisor to the West of Scotland Regional Planning Team where he is involved in establishing a Major Trauma Centre at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.  He is also leading the re-design of urology services and developing a strategy for adult specialist cardiac services in the region.  In late March 2020, as Medical Director, NHS Louisa Jordan, Dr Wallace helped set up a temporary hospital to accommodate excess demand for hospital beds resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr Wallace is also an executive coach with most of his clients working in senior roles within the NHS in Scotland. 

Dr Wallace has been chair of the Scottish Association of Medical Directors and was interim chair of the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management for a year while it transitioned to independent charity status. He is also an Honorary Professor in the School of Health and Life Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University and an Honorary Clinical Associate Professor in the College of Medicine, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow.

Dr Smith is chair of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, the Point of Care Foundation, which promotes compassionate, dignified care, Patients Know Best (a company that gives patients access to and control over all their health and social care data, including all records and test results), and of the Lancet Commission on the Value of Death.

Until November 2018 he was chair of the board of trustees of icddr,b (formerly the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh) and until 2015 he was the director of the UnitedHealth Chronic Disease Initiative, a programme with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute that created 11 centres in low and middle income countries that conduct research and build capacity to counter non-communicable disease.

From 1979 to 2004 he worked at the BMJ and was the editor of the journal and chief executive of the BMJ Publishing Group from 1991 until he left. A member of the board of the Public Library of Science from 2004 to 2011, he continues to blog for the BMJ and to publish regularly.

He is a visiting professor at Imperial College Institute of Global Health Innovation. Having qualified in medicine in Edinburgh, Dr Smith worked in hospitals in Scotland and New Zealand before joining the BMJ. He also worked for six years as a television doctor with the BBC and TV-AM and has a degree in management science from the Stanford Business School.

Angela Thomson Grahame QC became an Advocate in 1995 and took silk in 2009. She was admitted to the Bar of England and Wales (Middle Temple) in 2019. She is a practising member of Compass Chambers, Edinburgh and retains a Door Tenancy in 3PB Chambers, London.  She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and an Accredited Mediator.

She undertakes a wide range of civil litigation, but mainly personal injury and clinical negligence, often in large value and complex claims.   She acted for the Greater Glasgow Health Board in the Vale of Leven Public Inquiry into the circumstances of the occurrence of C. Difficile infection and deaths arising at the Vale of Leven Hospital.

She was appointed as a Member of the Task & Finish Group chaired by Leslie Hamilton, in the Independent Review into Gross Negligence Manslaughter (and Culpable Homicide in Scotland) in the medical profession.

Between 2003 - 2007 Angela was a full time Advocate Depute and Senior Advocate Depute for the Crown, conducting High Court criminal trials, Criminal Appeal Court cases and appeals in the JCPC.

Between 2016 and 2020 Angela was Vice Dean of the Faculty of Advocates.  She is ranked by both the leading legal directories Chambers and Legal 500.  Angela is an Honorary Lecturer at Aberdeen University.  During lockdown she graduated with an LLM in Dispute Resolution (with Distinction).

Keith Conradi joined the RAF in 1983 flying fast jets on the front-line before teaching advanced flying training as a Qualified Flying Instructor. After leaving the RAF, Keith flew for Virgin Atlantic operating both long-haul and short haul Airbus aircraft to destinations throughout the world.

Following the tragic events of 9/11 in 2001, Keith joined the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch, becoming Chief Inspector from 2010 to 2016. During this period, Keith investigated aircraft accidents in the UK and overseas, including the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines MH370, the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines MH17 and the helicopter crash on the Clutha Bar in Glasgow. He also represented the UK in the development of European Regulations on air accident investigation and at safety meetings with the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

In 2016 Keith became the first Chief Investigator of England’s Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch. He retired from the HSIB in 2022 having successfully worked with government legal teams to place healthcare investigation on a statutory footing through primary legislation.

Professor Patrick Dunne OBE is Chair of board consultancy Boardelta and the charities The Royal Voluntary Service and ESSA- Education Sub Saharan Africa.

Patrick’s executive experience was with Air Products and with FTSE 100 private equity 3i Group plc where he was Communications Director, a member of its Operating committee and Chair of its Operational Risk forum.

He has helped Chairs across a wide range of sectors in Europe, Africa, Asia and North America to transform the effectiveness of their boards through Boardelta. A member of the Higgs review and author of the award winning “Boards” he has helped to establish many successful courses on board skills over the last twenty years including for the BVCA, Invest Europe and the Financial Times, as well as for numerous commercial and social sector organisations.

Patrick has a passion for education and is a former member of the General Council of the University of Warwick, a Visiting Professor at Cranfield School of Management, and an Associate Fellow at Warwick Business School. He was also the Founding Chair of the EY Foundation and former Chair of the Oversight Board for the Chartered Management Consultant and trustee of the Chartered Management Institute.

Awarded an OBE in the King’s 2023 Birthday Honours list for services to charity and philanthropy in Africa and the UK.