As a registered charity, the Hospice of the Good Shepherd is governed by a Board made up of a number of trustees. All of our trustees are volunteers and do not receive payment for their services or support. For a list of our trustees please following this link.
The full Board of trustees meets six times each year to review policy, potential service developments, finances and income generation, however our trustees also meet at regular sub-committee meetings.
The day-to-day running of the Hospice is delivered by the senior management team, led by the Chief Executive.
If you’d like to request more detailed information about the governance of the Hospice, then please contact us via email using info@hospicegs.com.
Yvonne joined the Board of Trustees in 2020 and became Chair in 2023Â
Yvonne has wide ranging senior leadership experience at  Board level in the NHS, Local Government and Charities. She is an accountant by profession and spent her senior career in Finance Director and deputy Chief Executive roles in the NHS and Local Government.
Yvonne possesses particular skills in the field of financial management, service delivery and transformation. She has extensive experience of developing business cases and leading on large scale capital developments.
Originally from Ellesmere Port, Yvonne is married and lives in Frodsham. She enjoys modern art, travelling and spending time with family and friends.Â
Yvonne also sits on the board of Chester Zoo.
Bill is a Chartered Accountant with over 25 years’ experience in general practice advising a wide range of owner managed and family businesses on accounting, taxation, audit and business development matters.
Bill has worked at Morris & Co Chartered Accountants for 19 years, the last 12 year as a partner in the firm.
Bill joined the Hospice Board as a Trustee in May 2015 and chairs the Finance and Investment Committee.
Originally from East Anglia, Bill lives in Pulford with his wife Jeanette. Bill enjoys walking, golf, following Ipswich Town Football Club and when in sunnier climes, scuba diving.
Robert Mee joined the Board of Trustees of the Hospice of the Good Shepherd as Chair in March 2018. He then stepped down as Chair and continued as a Trustee from April 2023.
Robert had a 40 year career in banking and financial services and held senior roles including Managing Director of Capital Bank in Chester and Chief Executive of Bank of Scotland Retail Bank before leaving in 2002 and then as a Non-Executive Director for a number of Companies.
Robert is a member of the Cheshire and Warrington LEP where he chairs the Strategy Board and is Chairman of the Cheshire Science Corridor Enterprise Zone.
Robert also chairs the Cheshire Oaks partnership board and is a trustee of Cheshire Young Carers.
Sophie has a range of operational and senior leadership experience from private and not for profit organisations.
Sophie is an Operations Director for an organisation which is reducing the gender gap in tech and has taught over 200,000 women how to code globally.
Sophie has particular skills in the field of operations, business growth, service delivery and HR.Â
Originally from Hawarden, Sophie now lives in Chester. She enjoys travelling to new places, which includes both sunny and cold climates (to enjoy skiing) and also likes to explore local places with her husband Sean and labradoodle Pippa.
Mike Davies is Managing Director of Catalyst Group and has responsibility for over 30 staff. Catalyst have been providing Property Management & Specialist Healthcare Interior Design since 1999 and have been instrumental in changing the way people design residential healthcare interiors, with a specialism in designing for residents with Dementia.
Prior to this, Mike was Director of Property & Procurement at Community Integrated Care (CIC) which was a leading not-for-profit service provider and registered charity.
Mike sits on the Income Generation sub-committee.
Dr. Neil Fergusson joined the board of trustees in September 2017 after working as a consultant anaesthetist with an interest in intensive care at the Countess of Chester Hospital for 26 years. He retired from full time work in 2013 and part time work in 2018.
At the beginning of his retirement from full time work, he spent two and a half years volunteering in Nepal with International Nepal Fellowship treating people in isolated communities and helping set up a new Ear Hospital in Pokhara.
Neil is married to Hilary, they have three adult children and 2 grandchildren. They live in Barrow, near Chester. Neil enjoys running, walking and anything to do with mountains, he is a keen gardener and has a smallholding with a few sheep and chickens. Neil is delighted to be able to continue to use his knowledge to help support the excellent care provided by the Hospice.
Lesley joined the board of trustees in October 2022. She has been working in the NHS nursing for 35 years, working across Cheshire and Merseyside in both community and hospital settings. She is passionate about improving quality and care for both health care workers and patients.
In her spare time she is very hands on, volunteering for festival medical support, particularly attending Glastonbury festival along side her husband and family.
Suzanne started her career in the NHS in 1987, and has worked across multi-disciplinary teams with clinicians, directors and various senior managers, and also in partnership with other statutory organisations, including Councils, the Police, and Fire & Rescue. She has worked across hospital trusts, community services, GP Practices, and various NHS commissioning bodies, and has sat on various Government working parties, representing the NHS, over the years.
Suzanne has a wealth of experience, in Information Governance, and has a LLM Master of Laws Degree in Information Rights Law & Practice. She currently supports the NHS digital & data programmes across the Cheshire & Merseyside Integrated Care Service, ensuring that patient data is processed fairly, lawfully and transparently.
Suzanne has been doing voluntary work since the age of 14, including 10 years general duty voluntary work at the Hospice.
Her NHS and voluntary work highlight the huge importance of confidentiality and protecting patient data in the workplace, as well as sharing data across partner organisations as appropriate. Suzanne is very passionate to use her knowledge, skills and experience at the Hospice.
Suzanne is from the Wirral, and now lives in Cheshire with her husband Peter. They enjoy live theatre, classical music concerts, cooking, and spending time with family & friends.
Gary joined the Board of Trustees in August 2022. Gary started work after leaving school at sixteen joining Lever Brothers (now Unilever) as a laboratory technician. Fortunate enough to continue his education part time, he studied Chemistry and whilst working in the R&D team based in Port Sunlight was awarded a patent for his work. He then took the opportunity to move into manufacturing and after fulfilling a number of roles ended up as Operations Manager in one of the factories. He then moved into IT as European Service Desk manager prior to supporting the outsourcing of the service to a third party after which he was in a variety of global roles. These gave him extensive exposure to contract and vendor management and many opportunities to travel to Europe plus some more exotic locations such as Singapore and India. In May 2020 he retired from Unilever after almost 43 years of service.
His main interest now is centred around the assessment of football referees on most Saturdays, something he is passionate about as an ex referee himself. He also enjoys playing golf, and has also been involved in volunteering for golf events, the highlight being the Solheim Cup in 2019. Gary also decided he wanted to see more of the UK (and possibly Europe) and purchased a VW Campervan to facilitate his travels and new hobby.
Gary sits on the Information Governance and Health and Safety sub committees.
Liz was born and raised on the Wirral and attended Liverpool University Medical School; she graduated in 1985.
Her first job was at the Countess of Chester as a House Officer and then returned to a consultant post as a general surgeon with a special interest in Breast Diseases in 1998 and retired in 2020.
She lives locally with two cats. She is also a trustee for the Ursula Keyes Trust and likes to swim.
Lucy Wardle has lived and worked in Chester as a solicitor for over 30 years and believes that volunteering as a Trustee is a very important role and a great way to support her local community.
Lucy’s background is invaluable for her role on the Information Governance sub-committee.
Lucy has 2 children: a midwife and a musician, of whom she is extremely proud.
Lucy loves running and hiking. She also enjoys reading crime novels, travel and drinking good wine!
The Board is responsible for making sure our Board of Trustees has the skills and experience necessary to effectively govern the Hospice. We recruit new trustees according to the needs of the Hospice.
We’re always interested to hear from people who feel they have the skills and energy to contribute to our ongoing success and who wish to put themselves forward as a potential trustee. For an informal conversation about the role, please contact our Chief Executive.
Rhian Edwards took up the post of Chief Executive at the Hospice of the Good Shepherd in January 2021.
Rhian brings a broad range of skills and experience to the team having worked in the Financial Services, Logistics and Charity sectors. Throughout her career Rhian has led and delivered successful strategic and cultural change, and when doing this has always ensured that the services users and staff are at the heart of the change.
She has worked for some of the UK’s and World’s best-known brands which has included Barclays, Société Générale and Royal Mail and most recently with Tenovus Cancer Care. Rhian sits on the Board of Hospice UK and is a Trustee at Shelter Cymru.
Caroline joined the Hospice of the Good Shepherd in December 2017 as Director of Income Generation and is responsible for all areas of fundraising including lottery and retail. She also has responsibility for marketing and communications. It is Caroline’s job to ensure that we raise sufficient funds to ensure the financial sustainability of the Hospice and that our community know about the care we offer and how they can support the work we do.
Caroline has been fundraising since 1990 and has been involved in Hospice fundraising since 2000. She is passionate about the Hospice movement and has had personal experience of the difference Hospice care make to both patients and their families. Caroline has been a member of the Institute of Fundraising for over 20 years and a member of the North West Committee since 2007 and served as Chair of the North West for 3 years. In 2017 Caroline was made a Fellow of the Institute of Fundraising in recognition of her services the North Fundraising Community.
Yvonne Thurman ACMA joined the hospice in August 2023 as Head of Finance
Yvonne is a qualified accountant brings with her over 30 years’ experience working in finance. She has a background in both public and private sector including working for the NHS.
Lisa joined the Hospice of the Good Shepherd in January 2023 as Director of Quality and Improvement. As our Patient Safety Incident Response Lead, Lisa is responsible for ensuring there are systems in place to monitor hospice compliance with standards set out by the Care Quality Commission and relevant legal frameworks. Lisa supports the overall delivery of effective and safe patient care in line with local and national priorities.
She has 19 years’ experience working in NHS settings, with 9 years working across various clinical governance roles including the Quality and Incidents Manager and laterally the Head of Complaints at Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.  As a 1st class graduate of BA Hons Business Management and Leadership ascertained through work based studies, Lisa is passionate about the whole system thinking, to ensure our people have access to individualised quality care and treatment. Â
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Hospice of the Good Shepherd,
Gordon Lane, Backford, Chester, CH2 4DG
Hospice: 01244 851091
Fundraising: 01244 851 811
Lottery: 0151 356 8899
Email: info@hospicegs.com
Charity Number: 515516 Company Number: 01843427
