Sir David Nicholson

 

Nicholson was educated at Forest Fields Grammar School in Nottingham and graduated from the University of Bristol in History and Politics.  He joined the NHS on graduation, and then the Communist Party.  He remained a member of the CPGB until 1983.  He started in the NHS as a management trainee and for 10 years he worked in mental health mainly in Yorkshire  where he was involved in implementing the policy of transferring care from the old asylums to the community.

 

In 1988, Nicholson moved into the acute hospital sector, appointed as the Chief Executive of the Doncaster Health Care NHS Trust  He introduced Clinical Directorates there in 1988 and the Trust was a national pilot for Total Quality Management. In 1997, he moved to the Trent NHS Regional Office as the Regional Director of Performance before being appointed as Regional Director in November 2000

 

Nicholson was then made Regional Director for the old Eastern and West Midlands Regions between December 2001 and March 2002, combining these responsibilities with his Trent role whilst shadowing as Director of Health and Social Care (designate) for the Midlands and East of England. In April 2002 he formally took up the post of Director of Health and Social Care for the Midlands and East of England.

 

In 2003 he was appointed Chief Executive of Birmingham and The Black Country Strategic Health Authority (BBC SHA). In August 2005 he was asked to take on the additional roles of Chief Executive of neighbouring Shropshire and Staffordshire SHA and West Midlands South SHA.

 

In April 2006 he was appointed Chief Executive of the newly formed London Strategic Health Authority.   In  September 2006 he became NHS Chief Executive in September 2006 in charge of a £90bn budget and 1.3m employees,[

Sir David Nicholson KCB CBE has been Chief Executive of the National Health Service (NHS) in England since September 2006 and in December 2010 was appointed to take up the new post of Chief Executive of the NHS Commissioning Board.  Initially appointed by a Labour government, he came to work closely with the coalition.

 He was awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2004 New Years Honours. He was awarded a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2010 New Years Honours.

 

Sources Department of Health website and Wikipedia