Board of Trustees

Neil Mortensen is Professor of Colorectal Surgery in the University of Oxford Medical School and has been on the staff of the Oxford University Hospitals since 1987. He is Fellow of Green Templeton College. He trained in Birmingham, Bristol and St Mark’s Hospital and has clinical and research interests in a wide range of colorectal diseases. He has published over 300 original papers, 30 book chapters and has edited 8 books. He is Past Chair of the British Journal of Surgery Society, President of the Ileostomy Association, and has been Past President of the Association of Coloproctology GBI and the Coloproctology Section of the Royal Society of Medicine. He is editor in chief of the journal Colorectal Disease. He has given a number of named lectures including Arris and Gale, Goligher, Sir Alan Parks, Honeyman-Gillespie and Bryan Brooke (UK); Duran Smith, Harry Bacon, Charles Buie, Greenstein and Frykman-Goldberg (USA); Edward Wilson Memorial and CSSANZ Oration (Australia), Gimbernat prize (Spain); Fritz de Quervain (Swiss), Gerhard Buess Memorial Lecture (Norway). Since his appointment in Oxford he campaigned for the recognition of colorectal surgery as a specialty and created the present department. He founded the first patient association for those with ileoanal pouches the Kangaroo Club, and in 2004 the charity OCCTOPUS – Oxford Colon Cancer Trust which supports education, research and new technology in colorectal diseases. He became a member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2013.

Tim Mitchell studied medicine at Brasenose College, Oxford before training in Otolaryngology in Oxford, London, Cambridge and Sydney. He was awarded the inaugural Graham Fraser Memorial Fellowship to work with Professor William Gibson in the field of cochlear implantation. He was appointed as Consultant Otolaryngologist in Southampton in 2000 and has a subspecialty interest in cochlear and other auditory implants with the University of Southampton Auditory Implant Service. He has been a RCS Regional Specialty Professional Advisor, member of Council of ENT UK, Vice Chair of the Clinical Reference Group for Specialised Ear Services and a member of the Specialist Advisory Committee for Otolaryngology. He has been a MRCS examiner since 2004 and was Chair of the Court of Examiners from 2014 to 2017. He was elected to Council in 2017. He is Chair of the Learning Committee and the Future Surgeons Forum. He was appointed Vice President in 2020.

Tim Goodacre qualified from St Thomas’s Hospital in 1978 following a BSc year in Psychology. After training in General Surgery as Registrar at the Brook Hospital, two years in rural Tanzania led to training in Reconstructive Plastic Surgery. Appointed to the Radcliffe Infirmary in 1991, he has seen the department grow from 3 to 21 consultants. His specialist interest has been the management of Cleft Lip and Palate, the Oxford team being one of 9 nationally designated centres for cleft care since 2000. Research and lecturing interests include the psychosocial impact of early behaviour on children with facial disfigurement, foetal MR imaging, and the development of a comprehensive outcome measure for cleft care (Cleft Q). He also conceived of a novel self-inflating tissue expander that is now under commercial development (Oxtex). Alongside clinical interests, he is an enthusiastic teacher within the medical school, and has been Regional Specialty Advisor for postgraduate training, President of BAPRAS, and latterly Chair of Professional Standards for the specialty. He has served on numerous advisory groups for plastic surgery (including the Healing Foundation Cleft Collective), and is a member of the Council and Cases Committee of the Medical Defence Union. He is civilian consultant advisor to the Army, and BAPRAS elected representative on UEMS and the EBOPRAS examination board. He is a senior assessor for the Intercollegiate Board in Plastic Surgery examination. He is a Chair of Interface Uganda charity, a trustee of the Semiliki Trust, and member of Restore scientific advisory committee. Elected by BAPRAS Council to serve on the RCS Council in May 2015. He was appointed Vice President in 2020.

Fiona Myint is a Consultant Vascular Surgeon based at the Royal Free Hospital in London. Having qualified at Guy’s Hospital, she trained in General and Vascular Surgery in London. She has a keen interest in surgical education having been a Surgical Tutor, Trust Divisional Director of Education, Trust Undergraduate Teaching Lead, Core Surgery Training Programme Director, General Surgery Training Programme Director and General Surgery SAC member. Fiona has been involved in undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum development and has been an examiner for MB BS and the MRCS for many years. She has sat on the National Selection Boards for both Core Surgery and General Surgery and holds a Masters in Clinical Education and SFHEA. She is keen to encourage undergraduates into surgical training and is the patron of the UCL Surgical Society. More recently she has developed the Harvard Surgical Leadership Program for Harvard Medical School. She was most honoured when the late Professor Jerry Kirk asked her to update his book ‘Basic Surgical Techniques’ and was pleased that he lived to see the book win the BMJ Book Prize for Surgery in 2019. Above all she is a full-time practicing vascular surgeon serving the populations of the Royal Free and the Whittington Hospitals.

Mr Garrett was elected to the role by the Faculty Board in October, and will serve a three year term to 2023. He is a consultant in restorative dentistry at the Eastman Dental Hospital, and served as President of the British Society for Restorative Dentistry in 2017-18. He was elected to the Board of the Faculty in 2015, having previously sat as its invited representative for trainees between 2006 and 2010, and most recently served as the Faculty’s Senior Vice Dean. Mr Garrett succeeds Professor Michael Escudier, who steps down at the end of his term of office having led the Faculty’s high profile campaigns to improve children’s and older people’s oral health.

Consultant Plastic Surgeon Professor Vivien Lees was elected to College Council in 2014. She is Professor of Plastic Surgery at Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester where she is specialty lead and has clinical interests in hand surgery including wrist, rheumatoid and children’s hand disorders. Her principal scientific interests are in functional anatomy of the distal radioulnar joint and forearm biomechanics. She gave the Hunterian Oration at the College in 2010 on this work. She is past editor of the European Journal of Hand Surgery. Professor Lees was an undergraduate in Oxford and undertook clinical studies in Cambridge qualifying in 1985. She underwent plastic surgery training in Billericay and Leeds/Bradford before undertaking an overseas fellowship in Louisville, Kentucky. Having previously served as Chair of the SAC Plastic Surgery, Professor Lees has been an active member of the Councils of BAPRAS, BSSH and BAAPS. She has also acted as examiner for the Intercollegiate Specialty examination in Plastic Surgery. Professor Lees is President British Society for Surgery of the Hand for 2014/15. She has particular interests in the development of educational programmes and led the development of the Postgraduate Diploma in Hand Surgery and the rewriting and reconfiguration of the Plastic Surgery Curriculum in its current modular format. Duties on College Council include Academic & Research Committee, Patient Safety Committee and International Committee. She is particularly concerned with issues of access to surgical careers of the UK in the face of rising costs of training. Recreations include hill walking, PPL, history and pottery.

Biography coming soon

Rachel Hargest is an academic colorectal surgeon at the Cardiff China Medical Research Collaborative. Her clinical interests include anal cancer and AIN, advanced colorectal cancer, polyposis and other familial cancers and intestinal failure, for which the team in Cardiff won the BMJ Gastroenterology Team of the Year Award 2015. She is an expert teacher and trainer of students and junior surgeons. In 2019 she was awarded the inaugural FST Medal by the Faculty of Surgical Trainers of RCS Edinburgh in recognition of exceptional and long-standing contribution to surgical training. In 2017 she was presented with the Silver Scalpel Award, given by ASIT to the best surgical trainer in the UK. Her research interests include genetic changes in colorectal, gastric and lung cancer metastases, early diagnosis of colorectal cancer, gene therapy, anal fistula and the role of guidelines in controlling surgical practice. She supervises both MD and PhD students in Cardiff and Beijing. She is a trustee of SARS, and a member of many professional associations, including ACPGBI, ASGBI, BSG, Royal Society of Medicine (Past President of Surgery Section 2016-17, and former Trustee 2012-19) and The British Society of Gene and Stem Cell Therapy.

Sir Amyas has worked in finance both in the private and public sector and was Comptroller and Auditor General of the National Audit Office between 2009 and 2019. Prior to this Sir Amyas qualified as a Chartered Accountant at Arthur Young and has worked for Coopers and Lybrand, reforming as PricewaterhouseCoopers where he held a global role. He joined the Ministry of Defence in July 2006 as the Defence Commercial Director. Sir Amyas is currently a lay member of the Board of Trustees and Chair of the Finance and Investment Committee.

Pankaj Davé is a Chartered Certified Accountant and has worked internationally as a senior executive leading large multi-disciplinary teams whilst working for globally recognised companies including BP and Amoco in CFO, strategy, commercial, transformation, planning & performance management and oilfield operations roles. He also ran his own strategy consultancy business.

Most recently Pankaj worked in Mumbai for five years for Reliance Industries Ltd, a conglomerate and India's largest company. As a direct report to the Managing Director, Pankaj led the design and implementation of the Reliance Group Management System and successfully led a major business transformation programme to integrate processes, systems, data, organisation and governance.

Pankaj is a member of the Board of Trustees at the Royal College of Surgeons of England and is the Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee. He is also a non- executive director for the University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust and has previously worked as a trustee for Kidney Research UK.

Rob is the leader of Arup’s strategic digital technology ambitions globally. He joined the firm in 2017 bringing over 20 years of experience of technology and digital leadership, digital content development, cloud capabilities and strategic cyber security practice. A seasoned practitioner of leading people through digital transformation, as CIO he heads up a global team based in 90 offices around the globe with 20,000 users. Much of Rob’s work focuses on enabling the firm’s digital transformation, including leading the development of our cloud strategy. He has also led the establishment of the firm’s cyber advisory services. Prior to joining Arup Rob worked across the creative and public sectors. As Chief Technology Officer of the Royal Opera House he created World Ballet Day, an annual live stream event connecting some of the world’s biggest dance companies with millions of viewers around the globe. As the Director of Parliamentary Digital Services he enabled greater access to information about the UK’s democracy by driving open data initiatives. His work connected the public to political debate by developing the largest social media following of any parliament globally. He introduced pivotal cyber security measures that successfully defended the House of Commons and House of Lords during the 2017 cyber attack. Rob is a lay trustee for the Royal College of Surgeons, a Fellow of the Institute of Information Technology and a Cultural Fellow of King’s College London. He is formerly a board member of the National Association for Gallery Education (Engage) and a director of the non-profit arts-technology company Tessitura.

Simon Davis joined the law firm Clifford Chance in 1982 and became Partner in 1994, retiring from the firm in 2020. He was Head of Commercial Litigation in Clifford Chance's London office and a member of the firm's Partnership Council. He is a former President of the London Solicitors Litigation Association and President of the Law Society of England and Wales, and currently a member of the Council of the Law Society. Simon is a member of the Court of Appeal Mediation Panel and an accredited CEDR mediator, and is a trustee of the Access to Justice Foundation and a Champion of LawCare. Simon was appointed as a Lay Trustee on 1 October 2021