Meet the team
Melanie Banks – Director of Redevelopment and Strategic Planning
Melanie is Director of Redevelopment and Strategic Planning, with overall responsibility for delivering a range of projects on both sites. Melanie is an experienced manager and has worked for the Trust since 2012, joining the redevelopment team in 2015.
Phil Brand – Construction Director
Phil Brand is the Construction Director for hospital redevelopment at both hospitals. Phil has overall responsibility for delivering the redevelopment programme at the Trust and brings with him a wealth of experience working for major international construction and consulting firms, managing large scale construction projects in both the public and private sectors. Phil is familiar with all aspects of efficient and effective project delivery from development of business cases, preplanning, design, procurement, construction and operations and maintenance.
Kyle McClelland – Construction Project Director
Kyle is the Construction Project Director. Kyle is a local boy, being born and raised in Hemel Hempstead and has around 18-years of experience working with the NHS on strategic and capital developments, including 12 years at West Herts Hospitals, in Watford.
Kyle’s role is to procure the Works Contractors and specialist advisers who will deliver the New Clinical Buildings. Once they are selected, Kyle will then lead and manage the teams through the complex delivery of the buildings in to operational use. Kyle joined the Redevelopment Team in January 2020.
Caroline Roberts – Senior Programme Manager
Caroline joined the Redevelopment Team in January 2021 in her role as Senior Programme Manager for hospital Re-development for Bedfordshire Hospitals. Caroline is an experienced General Manager with a clinical background and has worked at both L&D at Bedford Hospital. Caroline has experience in working across the system and has worked in both Community & Acute Trust settings.
Caroline joins the team with a wealth of clinical and operational knowledge and will lead the strategic development of projects across both sites.
Jon Hall – Construction Project Manager
Jon is the senior project manager for hospitals revelopment. Jon is responsible for working with the trusts design and construction teams to deliver new facilities for the hospitals.
Alex Gallagher – Project Manager, Clinical Design
Alex has been a nurse for 30 years and has been in senior nursing and transformation roles. Alex has spent the last 5 years working with Trust and Construction teams on hospital redesign and developments. Alex joined the Redevelopment team in December 2019 and is responsible for the clinical design development of the New Ward block and Acute Services Block with the Trust Clinical teams.
Michael Poole – Capital Project Redevelopment Manager
Mike is the Project Manager overseeing the Energy Centre Redevelopment Scheme as well as multiple other Service Upgrade provisions. Previously having been employed as the Senior Capital Projects Manager at the East & North Herts NHS Trust in Stevenage, gaining 19 years + Healthcare experience within an Estates Capital Redevelopment role.
is role is to oversee the design and construction of the Energy Centre, facilitating all works of the Main Contractor and all other specialist parties the Trust has directly employed to deliver an Energy Hub supporting our changing site over the coming years.
Jill Casbard – Assistant Programme Manager
Jill has worked for the Trust since 2003, within the Women’s and Children’s Division. In May 2020 she joined the redevelopment team to support the delivery and implementation of a portfolio of projects within Redevelopment across both Trust sites. Jill is the key liaison officer for all parties including contractors, staff, patients and residents to ensure robust communication throughout the Redevelopment of the hospital and works closely with the communications team to ensure key messages are delivered timely and effectively to all stakeholders.
Alica Nawaz – Business Manager
Alica joined the Trust in November 2019, and brings with her over 10 years of experience working with the British Airport Authority across a portfolio of Projects, including the Heathrow Terminal 2 Construction Programme (£2.3b). Alica provides business management support and leadership for the clinical strategy and redevelopment programme which, includes clinical change project and major capital infrastructure projects.
Josh Skelcey – Assistant Project Manager
Josh recently joined the Redevelopment team as an Assistant Project Manager. Josh is a local boy, who was born and raised in Dunstable. Previously he was a professional rugby player and brings a high level of experience, working in high pace, team environments.
Josh will be working closely with contractors and specialist advisers to help deliver and manage complex site redevelopments, whilst minimising disruption amongst the Bedfordshire Hospitals.
Sandie Knott – Programme Administrator
Sandie has joined the Redevelopment Team as Programme Administrator. Sandie will work across all projects supporting the Strategic Development, Procurement, Construction and Management Teams. Sandie has worked in the Trust’s Estate Team for over 5 years as Admin Support and has a good overall understanding of the Trust’s systems and processes.
Ruth Paterson – Programme Manager for Strategic Planning and Redevelopment
Ruth joined the Trust in August 2022 as the Programme Manager for Strategic Planning and Redevelopment. Ruth is an experienced manager who has worked in the NHS since 2016, with experience in acute and specialist services. Ruth is responsible for leading the transition planning of clinical teams into the new hospital building.
Olu Fashola – Equipment Project Manager
Olu has over 10 years’ experience in project management, working on a range of projects in health and IT in Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire, and London. Olu has joined the team as an Equipment Project Manager, which is an important link between stakeholders, contractors and budget managers. His role involves managing expected deadlines and budgets, stakeholder and supplier engagements, building specifications and managing expectations. Olu joined the team primarily to work on delivering the new clinical buildings but has involvement with redevelopments across all sites.