Our team

Lisa joined the St Gemma’s Board of Trustees in September 2023 and became Chair of Trustees in July 2025.

Lisa has worked for the General Merchandise (GM) Business Unit within the Sainsbury’s commercial team for almost 6 years and holds the role of Director of Commercial Operations and Development. Within her role, Lisa is accountable for strategic development and value chain optimisation. She leads Sainsbury’s Asia operations, the Net Zero ‘Plan for Better’ environmental commitments and ensures GM sources and trades safely, legally and ethically. She’s also a Director for the Sainsburys Ireland business and a leadership coach.

Before joining Sainsbury’s, Lisa worked with other international retailers within the Seasonal, Home & Gifting categories, most recently Marks & Spencer, and has 25 years’ experience in the retail and supply sector.

Outside work, Lisa enjoys time with her teenage sons and dog alongside sunshine breaks and yoga.

Dr Jon Smith joined our Board of Trustees in January 2020 and is Deputy Chair of the Board.

Jon has PhD Molecular Biology, BSc (Hons) Biochemistry, MBChB (Leeds), MRCGP, PGCert Palliative Care, PGCert Primary Care Education.

He trained as a GP in North Yorkshire. His interests are palliative care and musculoskeletal medicine. With Dr O’Hare he recently became a trainer and runs the education of doctors and nurses within the practice. In his spare time he is slightly obsessed with skiing, runs and plays tennis. With a young family his specialist interests are rapidly becoming Lego and Bob the Builder.

Hilary joined our board of trustees in January 2017.

Hilary has over twenty years of experience in the private sector, having worked in sales, marketing, retail, performance improvement, and business, product and team development in UK and internationally. Using these skills and experience, Hilary went on to start her own business focused on the not-for-profit sector working with major charities and other service providers.

Hilary has a personal connection with St Gemma’s as her Dad was looked after by the St Gemma’s community and IPU teams and she is part of the board to give something back.

Hilary is a dog owner and enjoys walking. Other hobbies include cooking, socialising and reading.

Barry joined our Board of Trustees in March 2020.

He is an Anglican priest who has many years working in education both for the church and in colleges and universities. He has a long term interest in, and commitment to the work of the hospice movement, and was for ten years an associate lecturer with the Open University when it was pioneering work in the field of end of life care and bereavement support.

More recently he has been involved in theological education working on courses offered by Durham University. He also supports parishes where there is no permanent priest.

He was delighted to be appointed to the Board and he hopes, especially, to support the development and broad understanding of the Hospice’s provision of Spiritual Care.

Kim joined our board of trustees in October 2021 and is a member of the Finance and Investment Committee. Kim was born, raised, and has lived all her life in Leeds. She is married with a daughter and a son.

She is a qualified accountant and has worked for the NHS for almost 42 years. During this time Kim has held senior managerial positions in finance, planning and general management, mainly working in the hospitals in Leeds. For the past 4 years Kim has worked as the Finance lead for the formal collaboration between the six acute hospital trusts in West Yorkshire and Harrogate.

Since 2009, Kim has been the Vice-chair of the Patient Access Schemes Expert Panel for the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Dr Eileen Burns joined the St Gemma’s Board of Trustees in July 2022.

Eileen has been a Consultant Physician at LTHT since 1992.She has undertaken regional work regarding Long Term Conditions and advised the Strategic Health Authority and Department of Health on Older People’s Care.

Eileen has undertaken significant research, education and academic work in End of Life Care for Frail Older People (2020) and was the President of the British Geriatric Society (2026-2018). She is currently a National Specialty Advisor for Older People Centred Integrated Care.

Jackie joined the St Gemma’s Board of Trustees in July 2022.

Jackie is currently Director of Nursing in Barnsley Hospital Foundation Trust. She has previously been a trustee for 5 years at Overgate Hospice in Halifax.

Jackie is an improvement facilitator at the Improvement Academy and is Chief Nurse for South Yorkshire Integrated Care System.

Brigid joined the St Gemma’s Board of Trustees in July 2022.

Brigid retired as Chief Nurse to Barnsley CCG in 2018. She then worked as an Independent Consultant for a short while as well as being a Bank Nurse with St Gemma’s and Leeds Community Trust.

Brigid has significant clinical and palliative care experience, and was also Head of Patient Experience at Lancashire Hospital.

Bassem joined the St Gemma’s Board of Trustees in September 2023.

Bassem studied forensic science at university before deciding to pursue a career in commercial strategy. He started his career at Centrica, on their graduate program, and then spent several years in their various utility businesses, delivering customer-centric and value-driven growth strategies. Bassem now works for Sky as a Propositions lead, responsible for defining, launching and managing new broadband propositions.

Outside work, Bassem enjoys keeping fit, cycling and spending time with friends and family.

Mukesh joined the St Gemma’s Board of Trustees in September 2023.

Mukesh is an accomplished business leader with over 30 years’ experience driving growth and innovation in the technology sector. As an Enterprise Growth Executive, he has expertise in helping businesses extract value from technology services and has a proven track record in areas like outsourcing, digital services, and Artificial Intelligence.

At IBM, Steria, Wipro, Atos, and Capgemini, Mukesh led high-performing sales teams and consistently exceeded revenue goals. He is now leveraging his extensive real-world experience to support small, medium enterprises and start-ups on their growth journeys.

Professor of Palliative Care Lucy Ziegler joined our Board of Trustees as a member of our Clinical and Academic Governance Committee.

Lucy is Head of the Academic Unit of Palliative Care in the School of Medicine at the University of Leeds and is the University’s nominated representative on the Board of Trustees. Lucy’s background is in psycho-oncology where her research focussed on improving the management of distress in patients with cancer. Since 2012 she has led a programme of research that aims to improve the quality of life of patients with advanced incurable disease through timely access to palliative care.

Outside work Lucy enjoys playing and watching sport and spending time with her four children.

Kim Halliday is a qualified accountant with over twenty years post-qualification experience and joins our Board and Finance and Investment Committee.

Kim has worked in the charity sector for the last five years leading Finance and IT teams in charities involved in policing, women in the criminal justice system and domestic abuse. The change in sector followed over ten years in banking and prior to that, a number of other finance roles including internal audit and change management, across various industries including insurance and utilities.

Kim has also served as a Director/Trustee for a small charity supporting older people in the community. Outside work Kim enjoys watching football and rugby league and is a keen supporter of both Leeds teams.

Anna joined St Gemma’s Board of Trustees as a member of the Finance and Investment Committee.

Anna studied Business Accounting and Finance at Newcastle University and qualified as a chartered accountant with professional services firm, PwC, spending time working in London, Leeds and Singapore focusing on external audit and mergers & acquisitions. She has over 15 years of experience working in a variety of different companies, most recently at Sky where she set up financial governance for a cost transformation project and led the finance budgeting and forecasting for customer services teams.

Anna lives locally in Moortown, Leeds with her husband and 2 young children.