Board of Trustees

Mr Andrew C. Swift 

President of ENT UK

Andrew Swift is Consultant ENT surgeon and Rhinologist at Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool, and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Liverpool and Edge Hill University. Having qualified in 1977 from the University of Sheffield, he gained his specialty training in Bristol and Liverpool. He has had a long-term interest in the nose since researching the respiratory effects of nasal obstruction for his ChM thesis. 

He began performing endoscopic sinus surgery in 1989, when the technique was new to the UK, and has since trained many surgeons. He is an enthusiastic teacher and has particular interests in frontal sinus disorders, the endonasal repair of CSF leaks and septorhinoplasty. He has organised courses and conferences and was local organiser for BACO 2015 in Liverpool. 

Mr Swift is a previous examiner and assessor for the Intercollegiate FRCS-ORL, a European Board examiner for ORL, Hospital Governor, recent member of Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and full honorary member of the German ENT Society. He was President of the Liverpool Medical Institution 2004-5, President of the Section of Laryngology and Rhinology of the Royal Society of Medicine 2011-12, and President of the British Rhinological Society 2009-2012, as well as Co-President with Professor Valerie Lund of the European Rhinologic Society conference in London, April 2018. He is now the new President of ENT UK.

Miss Helen Cocks

President-Elect of ENT UK

Prof Nirmal Kumar

Professor B Nirmal Kumar, Chair ENT UK Foundation, past President

Professor Nirmal Kumar is currently Chair of the ENT UK Foundation which is the philanthropic and fundraising arm of ENT UK and was President of ENT UK (2019-2022). His full-time clinical role is Consultant ENT surgeon at WWL Teaching NHS Foundation Trust, UK where he is also Associate Medical Director having previously been Director of Medical Education for several years. Regionally, he led the ENT Northwest research network for the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) between 2015 and 2022 and is currently leading many NIHR trials. Nirmal is Honorary Professor at Edge Hill University Medical School where he is UG clinical lead and is also quality lead for the PG MCh & MMed programme. He is a FRCS (ORL) examiner, former vice-chair of the Specialist Advisory Committee in ENT and current council member of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. Nirmal is Fellow of the Academy of Medical Educators, Fellow of the Faculty of Surgical Trainers, RCS Edinburgh, Honorary Fellow of Sri Lanka College of otolaryngology, and Indian Academy of ORL-HNS. He is MD, PhD examiner for several Universities in the UK and abroad, delivered invited key-note lectures and orations around the world and has published more than 200 peer reviewed articles in the medical literature.

Miss Kay Seymour

Honorary Treasurer

Kay Seymour was appointed as Consultant ENT Surgeon at St Bartholomew's and The Royal London Hospitals in 2010. She studied medicine at Churchill College, Cambridge and trained in ENT in London, including at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, and the Cochlear Implant Unit at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital. She is interested in all aspects of otology and paediatric ENT, and enjoys a varied clinical practice in both paediatrics and adults. She has a strong interest in education and training, and lectures nationally on ENT courses. She currently holds the posts of Honorary Treasurer of ENTUK, Treasurer of British Society of Otology and Council Member of Otology Section of the Royal Society of Medicine.

Miss May Yaneza

Honorary Secretary

Miss May Yaneza is a Consultant ENT Surgeon in NHS Lanarkshire. Her special interests are Rhinology (including endoscopic DCR), Facial Plastics (Skin Cancer) and Teaching and Training. She graduated from King's College, London in 2004. She then headed on a North-West trajectory during her training and landed in the West of Scotland ENT Deanery in 2008.

She completed the Dunedin, New Zealand Fellowship in Facial Plastics and Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery in June 2014 and has been a Consultant in Scotland since October 2014. She completed an MSc in Medical Education in 2014 and was President of the Association of Otolaryngologists in Training (2012-2013).  She is the Undergraduate Lead for ENT at the University of Glasgow.  Outside of work May enjoys oil painting and hill walking.

Miss Catherine Spinou

Trustee

Miss Catherine Spinou is a Consultant Head and Neck Surgeon based at the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals. She completed her Otolaryngology training in the West Scotland Rotation. She undertook a Head and Neck Fellowship at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. She has a Head and Neck practice encompassing malignant and benign H&N and Thyroid disease. She has authored a number of papers and acts as a reviewer for peer review Journals. She is the Clinical Lead for the RWH ENT Department and the Chair of the Black Country H&N MDT. She is the Chair of the West Midlands H&N Expert Advisory Group. She is a Regional Professional Representative to the Royal College for ENT Surgery and she has been sitting in the ENT UK council since 2013. She is a Council member of the West Midlands Clinical Senate.  In 2016 she was appointed Honorary Treasurer for BACO, which she has found a great challenge and an even greater honour.

Miss Victoria Ward

Trustee

Mr Tim Mitchell

Trustee

Tim Mitchell is a Consultant ENT Surgeon at University Hospital Southampton. He has a subspecialty practice in otology and undertakes cochlear implant and other auditory implant surgery as part of the University of Southampton Auditory Implant Service.

He has a major interest in training and assessment. He was a member of the Specialist Advisory Committees in Otolaryngology and Audiovestibular Medicine from 2012-2017. He has regularly been involved with ENT National Selection and is a member of the organising committee for BACO 2020. He has been a MRCS examiner since 2004 and was Chair of the Court of Examiners at the Royal College of Surgeons of England from 2014-2017, with experience of examining in the UK, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

Mr Mitchell is a member of the Council of the British Society of Otology. In 2017, he was elected to the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, where he chairs the Learning Committee and Future Surgeons Forum. He has been elected as Vice President of RCS Eng from 2020-2023.

He has been a strong advocate for equality through the recruitment of female surgeons as MRCS examiners and through the support of Women in Surgery and Women in ENT Surgery. He is one of only 5 men to be awarded Honorary Membership of the Medical Women’s Federation.

Mr Andrew Gamble

Lay Trustee

Mr Andrew Foster

Chair of ENT UK Finance Committee

CBE, Interim Managing Director, the NHS Leadership Academy

Andrew was appointed as Managing Director of the Leadership Academy in November 2019 with additional responsibility to Chair the work on Leadership Culture which will be a central feature to the NHS People Plan, due to be published in early 2020. He is also a Non-Executive Director at Health Education England.

Previously he was Chief Executive at Wrightington Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust from  January 2007 to October 2019. His main interests have been quality and staff engagement with a particular desire to learn from the best hospitals in the world.  Over the years WWL has developed a significant reputation for all round performance, whilst also achieving almost all major targets and enjoying financial stability. WWL has won many national and regional awards including HSJ Provider Trust of the Year in 2014. It is rated ‘Good’ by the CQC in all domains, for all sites and for Use of Resources. Before WWL, he spent five years as the NHS Director of Human Resources (Workforce Director General) at the Department of Health with principal responsibility for implementing the workforce expansion and HR systems modernisation set out in the NHS Plan of 2000.  Previously he spent two years as part time Policy Director (HR) at the NHS Confederation. Andrew was also the Chairman of Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust from 1996 to 2001 and before that Chairman of West Lancashire NHS Trust and non-executive director at Wrightington Hospital NHS Trust.

From May 2016 to November 2018 Andrew was sponsor CEO for the NHSI A&E Improvement Plan in the North of England.

Qualifications:​ Honours Degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Keble College, Oxford, 1976.