UCLH appoints David Probert as its new chief executive

UCLH is delighted to announce the appointment of David Probert as its new chief executive. He will take up the post in the late summer. 

David has been chief executive of Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust since April 2016 where one of his key achievements has been to lay the foundations for Oriel, a pioneering new eye-care research, education and treatment centre in partnership with University College London.

Before he joined Moorfields, David was director of strategic development at UCLH, where he led the planning and development of our two new hospitals – the Royal National ENT and Eastman Dental Hospitals and the Grafton Way Building for surgery and cancer.

David has also held senior operational leadership roles at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust.

David said: “It is a huge honour to be returning to UCLH as chief executive. UCLH is a national and international leader in clinical care, education and research and, in the last year, its staff have shown enormous resilience and professionalism in responding to the pressures of the pandemic. I am very much looking forward to working alongside so many talented teams to deliver the very best healthcare we can to the patients and communities we serve.”

UCLH chair Baroness Julia Neuberger said: “We are delighted to be welcoming David to UCLH. He is an outstanding leader with a strong track record in developing NHS services to meet modern healthcare needs.

“David joins us at a time of unprecedented strain on the NHS. I have every confidence that he will inspire our teams to continue to meet the challenges of the pandemic head on, lead the hospital into recovery mode, and also build on our strengths as a leading academic and research-driven healthcare institution.” 

UCLH’s current chief executive Professor Marcel Levi will be stepping down on 31 March 2021.

Marcel has been appointed as chairman and chief executive of the Netherlands Research Council and chief scientific officer of the Netherlands.

Between 1 April 2021 and late summer, current deputy chief executive and chief financial officer Tim Jaggard will be acting chief executive of UCLH. During this interim period, UCLH’s chief nurse, Flo Panel-Coates, will be acting deputy chief executive.