The leadership team
The CF team is led by healthcare experts — who offer a wealth of experience and provide strong leadership and direction across all our health systems, life sciences and data innovation projects.
Hannah Farrar
Chief Executive
Hannah Farrar
Since 2013, she has steered the development of CF to the award-winning organisation it is today. Building a company dedicated to improving healthcare through the delivery of management consulting and data services and products.
In supporting our clients, Hannah has an exceptional track record of motivating people and organisations to deliver transformational change. She provides in-depth experience of strategy development and delivery, organisational development and change, financial and economic analysis, building capability and motivation, and navigating complex local and national politics. She provides leadership across the breadth of our client services.
Prior to founding CF, Hannah was an executive in the NHS and has also held positions in the Department of Health. Hannah delivered major programmes of strategic change, including ‘Healthcare for London’ a system strategy for health and care in the capital, which is renowned for having delivered considerable improvements in services such as stroke and trauma care.
Hannah is a member of the Kings Fund General Advisory Council, a non-executive director for Lantum and a visiting professor at Imperial College London. Hannah is a co-author of the book Healthcare for London: Reflections on Leadership, Lessons and Legacy. And has been recognised as one of the top 100 women in healthcare leadership.
Ben Richardson
Managing Partner
Ben Richardson
Over the last two decades Ben has worked across with health systems and life sciences companies on multiple continents. He has worked from national to local levels of health systems on strategy, transformation and development. He has worked in many areas including primary care, diabetes, cardiovascular, cancer, mental health as well as population health management more broadly.
Since 2014 he has supported the development of CF as an award-winning healthcare company operating in management consulting and data services and products.
Over the past two years Ben has led CF work to use data to support the UK’s response to Covid, vaccination of the country, recovery and addressing health inequalities.
Ben’s main focus now is supporting life sciences companies with the uptake of innovation in health systems and in enabling the use of data and digital to transform care and improve outcomes.
Prior to CF, Ben was a Senior Partner at McKinsey, where he served healthcare clients all over the world and led Integrated Care across Europe.
Ben is originally from Canada, and studied at both Princeton and Harvard. Outside of his work, he is an occasional cyclist, a consistent wine enthusiast, and a lover of travel and spending time on the water and in the outdoors.
Bev Evans
Deputy CEO/Partner
Bev Evans
Since graduating with a first in English and Applied Social Sciences from University of Kent, she has followed her passion working in Health and Care and progressed from the NHS Finance Management Training scheme to being a well respected and successful CFO, particularly recognised for being able to convert complex financial aspects into something that is practical and understood. She has worked in acute, community, mental health providers, in commissioning and with regulators.
Over the past two years, Bev has led on the development of a number of successful business cases ranging from hospital redevelopment in Guernsey to a health and well being hub and supported a number of organisations as part of the new hospital development programme. She has also led on supporting systems and organisations to understand their financial positions and what is driving them to enable them transform sustainably. Her main areas of work currently are in understanding the use of Mental Health resources, integrated impact assessments and continued business case development. She is also part of the national learning and development training delivery team on service redevelopment.
Bev is a mum of three and outside of work enjoys travel, theatre and cinema going, rugby union (watching not playing, although her youngest daughter does) and spending time with family and friends. She is also occasionally known to tread the boards in the village players productions.
Jo Andrews
Expert Partner
Jo Andrews
Jo has led clinical services at a regional level, necessitating broad stakeholder engagement, and major service reconfigurations across sites to achieve service sustainability and clinical standards.
At CF, Jo’s major areas of interest are clinical strategy development, pathway and transformation, and workforce planning. Engaging and developing clinical leaders is at the heart of his approach to each of these, and improving the lives of patients and staff in healthcare is what energises him at work.
Away from CF, Jo is a keen cook, enthusiastic member of his local amateur dramatic society and reluctant follower of Tottenham Hotspur. He lives in Sussex with his wife and adult sons, as well as an assortment of animals who regularly appear on conference calls.
Kevin Atkin
Partner
Kevin Atkin
A highly analytical, strategic thinker and change management leader with a drive to make real sustainable improvements in the organisations he supports. With over 20 years of organisational leadership experience, 15 of those within healthcare across the public and private sector. He has extensive experience of supporting organisations to change, including developing strategies, the redesign and reconfiguration of services and delivering operational change at local, regional and national levels. He is experienced in working across the healthcare landscape with leadership, clinical and operational teams alike.
Kevin thrives on working across whole systems and has recently been working with organisations within an ICS to balance community and mental health services to need, he has also supported at place level to implement PHM practical methodologies into PCNs and at a national level to support capacity evaluation of services at local, regional and national levels to support recovery.
Prior to joining CF Kevin worked in supply chain consultancy across Europe, and north and south America and in health consultancy for The Health Works, Finnamore, and GE Healthcare which have enabled him to work for many clients delivering operational change, people change and embedding the enabling technology. He has also worked as a Director in the NHS for 5 years at what is now a place and ICS region ultimately supporting a whole system reconfiguration.
Kevin is a keen cyclist, with the last year putting more miles on his bike than his car. Good for both his waistline and our commitment to being carbon neutral.
Tessa Walton
Partner
Tessa Walton
Tessa is a Partner at CF, working across NHS consulting, life sciences and data innovation practices.
Tessa was a HSJ Top 100 Influential Leaders Wild Card in 2020, and brings 24 years of NHS management and health consulting experience nationally and internationally, spanning national, regional and local levels. She has a wealth of experience in the NHS and the private sector, including most recently the Vaccine Taskforce, where she led logistics, security and supply chain and the interface with deployment partners and setting up the design and planning for the covid vaccine programme in NHS England.
This national experience sits amongst a huge breadth of further leadership experience, including being the Director of Performance and Improvement for NHSE/I London region and Director of Delivery for NHS England overseeing NHS RightCare national programme and the set up of a Delivery Unit. Tessa also brings over 10 years of consultancy experience, having founded and led Spinnaker Health Consulting and Right Place Consulting Ltd., and prior to that came from a background in NHS operational experience in Acute hospitals.
Outside of her work in healthcare, Tessa is a keen sailor and cyclist, having completed multiple charity cycles from London to Paris, London to Amsterdam, and Isle of Wight.
Scott Bentley
Associate Partner
Scott Bentley
Scott brings over 10 years of experience working across both the Life Sciences Industry and NHS. Scott’s interests lie at the intersection of the Life Sciences industry and healthcare systems. He supports Life Science clients in understanding how the NHS functions and where there are opportunities for partnership. He helps them redesign pathways to work more efficiently taking advantage of the latest innovations in both medicine and digital technology. He also has a keen interest in using the wealth of healthcare data available to accelerate the uptake of innovation, be that through data enabled clinical trials, or through the use of real-world evidence to measure uptake.
Phil Livingstone
Associate Partner
Phil Livingstone
Phil brings over 10 years of consulting experience working with NHS commissioners, providers and care systems. Phil has a particular interest in the development of Integrated Care Systems, working at place, provider collaborative and system-wide levels. He helps people connect population need with strategic priorities, care model design and collaborative working. He also supports work on population health management and organisational design. Phil also acted as a tutor on the NHS Leadership Academy, supported senior managers and clinical leads to develop their leadership capabilities.
Prior to CF Phil worked at KPMG in the UK advising NHS clients. He has a PhD in neuropharmacology and is a qualified management accountant.
Outside of work Phil enjoys running several times a week, getting through as many books as possible and travelling again now that the pandemic is receding.
Will Browne
Associate Partner – Data Science and Analytics
Will Browne
Will brings together the consulting toolkit with agile product management and data science to help CFs clients make better decisions with data. He brings over ten years of experience embedding statistics and machine learning in software solutions.
Will’s interests lie in democratising data to enable local decision makers to provide optimal care. He has lead the development of solutions for simulating hospital performance, demand and capacity planning for the pandemic and delivering equitable vaccine uptake.
Prior to CF will worked at BCG as a Senior Data scientists as well as two machine learning startups. He has BA in Physiological Sciences from the University of Oxford, an MSc in Medical Statistics from UCL and is an RSS Chartered Statistician.
Zahra Safarfashandi
Associate Partner
Zahra Safarfashandi
Prior to working at CF, Zahra was a core member of the Deloitte healthcare team working with regulators, providers and commissioners to deliver complex transformation programmes.
As a junior doctor with experience working in a clinical setting, designing and regulating healthcare apps and conducting pharmaceutical and clinical research, Zahra has developed a a good understanding of the multi-faceted challenges facing the NHS.
Her skills include strategy development, programme management and change management in addition to strong problem solving skills, communication skills and a broad knowledge of healthcare in the UK.
Feargus Murphy
Senior Manager
Feargus Murphy
Will Andrews
Senior Manager
Will Andrews
Will joined CF’s Lifesciences practice after prior consulting roles at McKinsey in London, where he was a founding member of the McKinsey Hospital Institute, and at BCG in the US, where he was a manager focused on health care transformations. In between these roles Will spent 5 years in leadership positions in early-stage health tech companies in the USA. At the beginning of his career, Will studied medicine at Imperial College and practiced in London hospitals for 4 years. At CF he has worked on a wide range of projects for Lifescience and provider clients. Outside of work, Will enjoys being with his family, building things, and dreaming about spending more time in boats.
Guy Cochrane
Senior Manager
Guy Cochrane
Nirav Patel
Manager
Nirav Patel
Nirav is an experienced management consultant with a background in acute service redesign, he is passionate about improving patient experience and health outcomes.
He has worked extensively with acute Trusts across the UK to deliver successful change and performance improvement programmes. Nirav builds strong relationships with his clients working in partnership to deliver sustainable and impactful change.
Areas of expertise
- Acute surgical and medical services
- Culture and change management
- Programme management
- Operational analysis and modelling
Joshua Lomax
Manager
Joshua Lomax
Since starting at CF, I haven’t looked back, with my CF journey seeing me progress from analyst to manager, complete a number of extremely interesting projects supporting NHS clients across the country and contribute towards the corporate growth of the company. Particular projects that stand out for me include supporting a health system with addressing patient flow issues over the challenging winter months, supporting London with their Covid-19 planning during the initial months of the pandemic and supporting the national breast screening programme with restoring their service in the wake of Covid-19. Across each of these projects I have engaged with clients ranging from front line staff to board level executives, developed data analytics skills, planned and supported the running of workshops and created reports that have helped inform critical decision making processes.
One of CFs greatest strengths is it’s people. The culture is one of collaboration and support, where asking for help is encouraged and challenges are there to be solved collectively. When you join CF, you won’t have to wait long before you are on your first project and this is exactly what I wanted at the start of my healthcare consulting career. I had the opportunity to learn on the job, underpinned by a bespoke training offer and an extremely supportive set of colleagues who’s primary aim has always been to help me thrive.
Asha Patel
Manager
Asha Patel
Charlotte Osborne
Manager
Charlotte Osborne
Olivia Godwin
Manager
Olivia Godwin
Kaitlin Wolcott
Manager
Kaitlin Wolcott
Kaitlin is a Manager at CF with healthcare consulting experience in the UK and US. She has a background in strategic planning, organisational design, facility planning, and strategic partnerships and has worked for both national and system level clients. In her free time, Kaitlin enjoys running, skiing, watching cooking shows and traveling.
Libby Dixon
Manager
Libby Dixon
Rhys Thomson
Manager
Libby Dixon
Andrew Burley
Financial Controller
Andrew Burley
Andrew is responsible for the finance function at CF, incorporating accounts payable, accounts receivable, monthly management accounts, payroll, expenses, budgeting and the company’s financial statements.
He trained as a chartered accountant at a small central London Accountancy firm, having graduated from the University of Reading where he studied accountancy and finance and achieved his ACA qualification in 2007.
Andrew previously worked for Moore Stephens as an audit supervisor and since then he has held financial controller roles in a variety of industries including property, financial services and consultancy. He has over 10 years of post-qualified experience.
Joel Lever
Head of Business Development
Joel Lever
Joel is responsible for the Business Development function at CF. He works with Partners and Principals to develop CF’s responses to competitive tenders and identifies potential new opportunities for the business.
Joel graduated from Cardiff University where he attained a BA in Business Management and Economics.
Joel previously participated in the management consulting graduate scheme at KPMG where he was focussed on finance transformations of FMCG and retail clients. Joel has held roles for a small consulting firm supporting telecom clients.
Kirsty McGuire
People and Operations Director
Kirsty McGuire
Kirsty is responsible for CF Corporate Operations, including overseeing governance for the company, the assistant function and facilities management. She works closely with the Chief Executive and Chairman to ensure that the strategy is being delivered effectively, with sound governance arrangements in place to achieve this.
Kirsty graduated from UCL where she attained a BSc in Human Sciences.
Kirsty has spent most of her career in the NHS, with roles ranging from clinical duties to private office roles. She joined CF permanently in 2017, after leading recruitment and development of the corporate team for the company on an interim basis during the period of rapid growth.
Andrea Aimar
Head of Human Resources
Andrea Aimar
Andrea is responsible for the Human Resources department at CF, leading and driving the recruitment strategy, performance management and talent assessment, developing the training and development strategy, providing consultation on workforce planning, budgets and labour relations. He works closely with the Managing Partners to effectively plan, design, develop and evaluate human resource-related initiatives that support organizational strategic goals.
Andrea graduated in Communication Sciences in Italy at Universita’ dell’Insubria, subsequently achieving a master’s degree in Human Resources from Il Sole 24 Ore Business School. He also got the PAC certification at HRSE of Lugano in Switzerland and he is a CIPD member.
Andrea has worked in various industry and countries, but has consolidated his experience into consulting. In particular, he managed the HR function of an international accountancy firm for 6 years where he was mainly involved in the group strategy and local declination. He joined CF at the beginning of 2020 to support the quick company growth and to reinforce the long-term HR strategy.
Evelina Butkute
Head of Recruitment
Evelina Butkute
She is passionate about equity, diversity, and inclusion, and creating a level playing field on opportunity for all. Evelina likes to ensure first-class candidate experience and
challenging the hiring status quo.
Outside of work, Evelina’s young family keeps her active and busy. She enjoys an occasional Zumba and is passionate about DIY and upcycling furniture.
Our Advisors
Mike Parish
Chair
Mike Parish
Currently, Chair of Care UK Health Care, Care UK Residential Care and Unity Schools Partnership Trust.
Previous non-executive roles: Chair of NHS Partners Network, Trustee of the NHS Confederation, Non-Executive Director of Sidra Medicine
Previous executive roles: Group CEO Care UK, Divisional CEO and CEO Europe for Exel Plc, Managing Director Tradeteam.
Donna Hall
Advisor
Donna Hall
Donna is currently an Integrated Care System advisor to NHSE, the Chair of the innovative think-tank the New Local Government Network, Chairs Bolton NHS Foundation Trust and is an appointed non-executive advisor to Birmingham City Council. Donna joins Chris Ham as current advisors to the board, who are helping shape the future of CF within the healthcare industry.
Professor Hall was awarded a CBE in 2009 for innovation in public service and was Transformational Leader in the Northern Powerwomen Awards 2017. For eight years, Donna was the CEO of Wigan Council where she developed The Wigan Deal – which delivered 160 million savings and improved services and resident satisfaction.
She is a passionate feminist who championed “Believe in Her” and led a major equality change programme to ensure Wigan Council has a zero gender pay gap. Donna now holds the role of Chair for New Local Government Network and is the Chair of Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, as well as being an Integrated Care System advisor to NHS England. She was appointed as an Honorary Professor of Politics at the University of Manchester in August 2019 and is a Non-Executive Adviser to Birmingham City Council.
Chris Ham
Advisor
Chris Ham
Professor Sir Chris Ham is currently independent chair of the Coventry and Warwickshire STP and non-executive director of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. He has recently been appointed as co-chair of the new NHS Assembly. His interests span many aspects of health policy and management and he has had a long-standing interest in the development of integrated care in the UK and internationally. Much of Chris’s work is focused on translating policy into practice, working with leaders in the NHS, local government and the third sector in the development of integrated care system and the promotion of population health and wellbeing.
Chris is the former Chief Executive of The King’s Fund, before working at The King’s Fund, Chris was professor of health policy and management at the University of Birmingham, and director of the strategy unit at the Department of Health, working with ministers on healthcare reform between 2000 and 2004. As well as his work in the UK, Chris has advised the WHO and the World Bank and has served as a consultant to governments in several countries.
Andrew Ridley
Advisor
Andrew Ridley
Before joining NHS England, Andrew spearheaded a cross-government task force aimed at enhancing the better care fund. His role as Managing Director for the NHS Commissioning Support Unit in North and East London further solidified his expertise in healthcare provision, commissioning, and regulation. From 2005 to 2011, Andrew held key leadership positions at NHS Tower Hamlets (Primary Care Trust), where he successfully implemented numerous health improvement programs centred around primary and community-based care.
Anne Rainsberry
Advisor
Anne Rainsberry
Anne has over 35 years experience of working in all parts of the NHS. She’s held a variety of roles and was latterly a Chief Executive in London before moving to run the capital’s health system as Regional Director. Here she led a number of major service changes across the Capital including the reconfiguration of cancer and cardiac services across north east, north central London, Essex and Hertfordshire, the re-designation of a number of A&Es and the reconfiguration of both maternity and paediatric services. Working with the Mayor of London oversaw the development of a London wide health and care strategy which formed the basis for a new compact between health and local and city-wide government. She is widely credited with delivering the first devolution agreement for the capital focusing on new powers to release estate, transform local communities and drive integration between health and care. Anne was awarded a CBE in the 2017 New Year’s Honours for services to the NHS.
She has an interest in organisational culture, design, development and has led many large organisational change programmes within the NHS, as well as undertaking research in the area of organisational culture and its impact on successful change.
Anne current works as an independent consultant and is a fully accredited executive coach.
Matthew Swindells
Advisor
Matthew Swindells
Matthew is the Chair of the Board for the four acute hospitals that make up the the North West London Acute Collaborative – Chelsea and Westminster Foundation Trust, Hillingdon Foundation Trust, Imperial College Hospital Trust and London North West Hospital Trust. He also runs his own consultancy, MJS Healthcare Consulting, through which he provides strategic advice on digital transformation in global healthcare to a small number of innovative companies.
He has spent his entire career in healthcare, most recently as Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer for the NHS in England. In this role he led the NHS’s operational management, emergency response, major transformation programmes and the creation of Integrated Care Systems, to move the NHS away from a market system towards population health management. He was also responsible for the development of the NHS’s digital strategy and launch of the NHS app, which enables people to access their GP health record and provides the national vaccine passport.
