Following a competitive recruitment process, we are pleased to announce three strategic appointments to Health Data Research UK: Gerry Reilly as Chief Technology Officer, Professor Neil Sebire as Chief Clinical Data Officer and David Seymour as Partnership Director.

Gerry will develop and deliver HDR UK’s technology strategy in collaboration with the research sites and our strategic partners, including the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and NHS Digital.  Neil will lead the development of the health data standards and quality strategy to enable researchers to navigate and understand the potential use and value of UK health data research assets. David will provide strategic leadership for the newly founded UK Health Data Research Alliance and will lead the development of strategic partnerships for HDR UK.

Each of these roles are key members of the Health Data Research UK team, leading development of the Digital Innovation Hubs, UK Health Data Research Alliance and Gateway for industry, NHS and academic partners.

Gerry Reilly started his career in the research group at Sony Broadcast, then to Stewart Hughes where he led the software development of health diagnostic tools for helicopters before moving to Digital Equipment (DEC). After 11 years at DEC, he joined IBM as a strategist and spent nearly 20 years holding a range of technical and executive roles with his final role at IBM as Vice President for Event Services for IBM Cloud and Watson group. Gerry has been interim Chief Technology Officer at HDR UK since June 2018. He is a Fellow of British Computer Society, Chartered Engineer and Chartered IT Professional.

Neil Sebire is Professor of Pathology at University College London (UCL) Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) Institute of Child Health, Chief Research Information Officer (CRIO) at GOSH and Director of the GOSH Digital Research, Informatics and Virtual Environments (DRIVE) unit. He is a highly published clinical academic, including several leading textbooks, Founding Fellow of the Faculty of Clinical Informatics and has held several national leadership roles including chairing the Childrens Cancer and Leukaemia Biological Studies group and Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) Paediatric Pathology Committee, and member of RCPath Council.

David Seymour is a serial public service entrepreneur. He co-founded Fusion48 in 2014, a clinically-led service provider for healthcare organisations to enable their planning and provision of high quality, cost effective services; and co-founded 2020 Delivery in 2006, now one of the UK’s leading public service consultancies. David was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company following five years as an Army officer. During his 6 years with McKinsey, he served private and public sector organisations as well as being seconded to the UK Government’s Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit.

Andrew Morris, Director of Health Data Research UK, said:

“I am delighted to welcome three outstanding individuals to the team, with complementary leadership and domain skills across patient care, clinical research, cutting edge technology and building partnerships at scale.”

Caroline Cake, Deputy Director of Health Data Research UK, said:

“We are pleased to make this announcement and welcome Gerry, Neil and David to the Health Data Research UK team. Their combination of skills and expertise show the exceptional team that we have developed to support the Digital Innovation Hub Programme and the wider HDR UK ambitions. They will help us to deliver our mission to unite the UK’s health data to make discoveries that improve people’s lives.”