Meet the trustees

Vindi has been Chair of Marie Curie since January 2018.

He is an Operating Partner at the private equity firm, Clayton Dubilier & Rice since 2010 and is also the lead on the firm's global ESG program. He is Chair of UKGI since Sept 21 and was the Senior Independent NED on the Board of GlaxoSmithKline plc from 2016 to 2022; and he's been a NED on The Economist Group Board since 2020.

He is a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council and on the Board of the International Chambers of Commerce (UK chapter).

Prior to this, he was the President of Global Foods, Home & Personal Care on the Executive Board of Unilever Plc and Chairman & MD of Hindustan Unilever in India. He has served on the boards of the Thomson Reuters Corporation, Marks and Spencer plc and the CBI (Confederation of British Industries.)

He holds a B.Tech. Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad). He is a Member of the Global Advisory Council of the Saïd Business School (Oxford) and a Member of the Governing Board of the Indian School of Business (Hyderabad).

Through the Kamini and Vindi Banga Family Trust, Vindi and his wife support the Performing Arts, Thought Leadership and Cancer Research throughout the UK. In his free time Vindi enjoys the opera, a round of golf, visiting museums and art galleries, and spending time with his young granddaughter.

Chrisha is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and an experienced executive director with over 25 years service within the NHS.

She has served on the boards of three acute NHS trusts, including Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust where she held Director of Finance and Deputy Chief Executive positions between 2011- 2015, and was Interim Chief Executive in 2014.

More recently she was the Group Chief Finance Officer at Barts Health NHS Trust, and utilised her extensive experience in turnaround to lead the Trust on its road to financial recovery. She retired from the NHS in August 2019.

Chrisha enjoys volunteering her time and expertise for the benefit of the wider community. She joined Age UK Sutton as a Trustee in May 2020 and Marie Curie in September 2021.

Dr Rachel Burman has been a Consultant in Palliative Care for over 20 years. She has worked in a variety of settings including community homes and hospice and has been at King’s College Hospital for the last 12 years. She has a particular clinical and research interest in palliative care for people with a non-cancer diagnosis, especially neurodegenerative disorders. She is an integral part of the MND Clinic at King’s. 

She also has an interest in ethics and has an MA in Medical Ethics and Law as well as a Law degree and these, in combination with her clinical experience, inform her role in teaching and training as well as positions held past and present including with the Association for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland, University of London Senate Panel and as a previous King’s College Hospital Foundation Trust governor.  

Richard spent 27 years in the UK water industry before retiring in September 2019. He was Chief Executive of Kelda Group and Yorkshire Water Services Ltd from 2010 to 2019. Prior to that he was the Chief Operating Officer of Yorkshire Water (2008-2010) and Director of the Company’s Water Business Unit (2003-2008). He was also Chairman of Kelda Water Services and Keyland Developments, a trustee of the global water and sanitation charity Wateraid, a Board member of the water industry trade body Water UK, Chairman of the Business in the Community (BITC) Advisory Board for Yorkshire and the Humber, HRH Responsible Business Ambassador to Yorkshire and the Humber and a member of the BITC Water Taskforce.

Richard’s career has had a heavy emphasis on leading change and improving business performance. He is now developing his non-executive portfolio across the charity and commercial sectors.

Richard Harding is Herbert Dunhill Professor of Palliative Care & Rehabilitation at the Cicely Saunders Institute, King's College London. He is Director of the World Health Organisation Collaborative Centre for Palliative Care, and Vice Chair of the World Hospice Palliative Care Alliance. 

Richard's global research portfolio focuses on the generation of robust, relevant evidence to advocate for accessible, quality palliative and end-of-life care. His research focuses on patient and family-centred outcomes to determine quality, and delivering the knowledge ended to ensure that policy and practice are driven by evidence.

He leads a number of research themes that aim to increase palliative care provision that is responsive to the specific needs of neglected groups, including non-cancer patients and their families, LGBT people, children, and people in low and middle income countries. 

Mary has more than 30 years' experience as a nursing professional and has held a number of distinguished roles in Northern Ireland.

Mary has held the positions of the Director of Nursing at the Public Health Agency and Health and Social Care Board, which are the major regional organisations for health protection, health and social wellbeing improvement and commissioning. Mary also held the position of Director of the Royal College of Nursing Northern Ireland.

In 2019, Mary was awarded the Mercy Medal by the Belfast Trust and Mater Hospital Trustees in recognition of her contribution to health care. And in 2021, she was awarded Fellowship of the Royal College of Nursing for her contributions to nursing in Northern Ireland.

Mary has served on the Northern Ireland Marie Curie Advisory Board from 2020 and is a trustee of the Mater Hospital YP Fund which is a charitable fund created to support the ongoing work of the staff at the Mater hospital in care of those most in need. More recently, Mary became an Associate of the HSC Beeches Leadership Centre providing professional support to the Regional Hub for the management of Critical Care and Respiratory Capacity in Northern Ireland during the pandemic.

Mary also volunteers and provides direct support and advice to families bereaved during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mary is married to Brendan and they have two children Kevin and Roisin.

Prerana Issar is currently the Chief People Officer for Sainsbury's and previously was the Chief People Officer for the NHS in England. She has over 25 years' leadership experience across multiple sectors. Prerana worked with the consumer goods giant Unilever for 15 years, in India and in global roles, focusing on leadership development, organisation culture and executive team performance. Thereafter, she worked for 6 years at the Nobel Peace prize winning food assistance agency, the United Nations World Food Programme as CHRO and subsequently as the Director for Public-Private partnerships.

Prerana was the first Chief People Officer for the NHS in England, and led Workforce policy and pandemic response during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Trish has 40 years’ experience in the health and social care environment. She started her career as a nurse and worked in the NHS as a clinician, a manager and finally as a director of a Trust in East London. From there, she joined Nuffield Health and spent 15 years in various roles including Hospital Director, Regional Director, Commercial Director, Group Clinical Director and ultimately as Managing Director of the Hospitals Division.  

Trish has spent the past seven years working in social care roles as the Chief Executive of Embrace Group, an independent provider of health and social care for adults and currently as the Chief Executive of Keys Group an independent sector provider of residential and education services for children and young people. Trish is passionate about ensuring people engaging with services receive personalised care and support of the highest quality.

Born and bred in Pembrokeshire, Chris gained an honours degree in Pharmacy in Cardiff before starting his working life with Boots the Chemist, subsequently going on to own and build two successful independent community pharmacy businesses in the West Country and back in Pembrokeshire.

He has extensive experience in the Public Sector having been Chair of four separate health organisations in West Wales concluding as Chairman of Hywel Dda University Health Board, the Welsh NHS Confederation and the coordinating chairman of all health organisations in Wales.

He is currently Chair of the Life Sciences Hub Wales Ltd, Chair of Pharmacy: Delivering a Healthier Wales delivery group and a member of the Health and Care Research Wales Advisory Board.

Chris is Chairman of the Port of Milford Haven (third largest port by volume in the UK) and a Non-Executive Advisor on the Board of Alliance Healthcare Distribution UK Ltd (largest Pharmaceutical Wholesaler in the UK).

He has several voluntary and charitable roles including Co-Chair of the Bevan Commission (an international renowned think tank), a Trustee and Board member of Marie Curie UK, Chairman of the Wales Advisory Board for Marie Curie, Chair of the Haverfordwest Swimming Pool Trustee Board and Vice President of Dyfed St John Council.

Chris was awarded a fellowship by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in 2006 for outstanding contribution to the practice of community pharmacy and an Honorary Doctorate (DLitt) by Swansea University in 2018 in recognition of his distinguished career and contribution to public life in Wales. Most recently he has become Deputy Lieutenant of Dyfed and a member on the King's award for Enterprise (Sustainability Development) judging panel.

Maria McGill CBE has a wealth of experience in palliative and end of life care for people of all ages.

Having started her career as a Registered General Nurse in 1983, she joined Marie Curie in 1997 as Clinical Services Manager and Centre Manager at the former building for the Glasgow Marie Curie Hospice, known as Hunters Hill.

In 2004, she took up her first Chief Executive role at Highland Hospice for six years, before making a move to CHAS in 2010, which saw her lead the charity over a 10-year tenure.

Maria has recently joined Marie Curie's Board of Trustees, in addition to joining the charity's Scottish Advisory Board.

She has also served as a trustee for various organisations, including Together for Short Lives and Chair for the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care – Council and is an oversight board member for The Promise.

Maria was awarded a CBE in the Queen's 2020 Birthday Honours for services to palliative care and charity.

Mittu Sridhara is a purpose-driven, seasoned, Board-level business and technology leader who has spearheaded four highly successful digital transformation journeys. Mittu joined Clayton Dubilier Rice as Operating Principal in 2023 after 30 years as a technology executive. He was most recently the Chief Operations Officer of Eurowag, a leading pan-European integrated payments and mobility platform focused on the commercial road transportation (CRT) industry.

Prior to Eurowag, Mittu was the Chief Technology Officer of Careem, a super-app for the greater Middle East region which became a wholly owned subsidiary of Uber in 2020. He also previously held Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Product Officer roles at Hepsiburada, TUI Group, Landbrokes PLC and Sabre Corporation. Mittu has a M.S. in industrial engineering from North Carolina State University and a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology.

He is well-versed in cybersecurity and contemporary technologies, adept at balancing change with operational excellence, making him an inspirational leader in the digital world.

Until 2021, Ian was a vice chair and senior audit partner at Deloitte LLP. Over 35 years he advised and audited a wide range of large listed groups in a variety of sectors. This brings Ian extensive experience of strategy, operational excellence, governance, risk management, accounting, processes, systems and internal controls. As a senior advisor, Ian worked with many management teams, boards and audit committees.

Ian is a governor and chair of the Finance and Audit committee of a school and a director of a youth charity. He is also a Prince's Trust business mentor.

A holder of BSc from Exeter University, Ian is also a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Mr Wohanka has held a number of roles as Chief Executive (up to 2012) of asset management businesses. He has also been a consultant advising large financial institutions on varying aspects of their asset management activities.

Mr Wohanka was previously chairman of the board of trustees of the Nuclear Liabilities Fund. This trust is responsible for the financing of the decommissioning of the UK's AGR fleet of reactors. He is also chairman of the board of trustees of the Pension Super Fund, one of the UK's two pension consolidators. In addition, he is a trustee, responsible for investments, of the James Neill pension fund. He is also a member of the advisory board of Intermediate Capital Group ("ICG"), a FTSE 100 asset manager specialising in private assets. Finally, he is a Trustee and chair of the Investment Committee of Marie Curie.

Between 2009 and 2012, Mr Wohanka was Chief Executive of UBP Asset Management. Prior to this, he was Chief Executive of Fortis Investment Management (2001-2009) and Chief Executive of West LB Asset Management (1998-2001). During 1996 and 1997, he was Chief Executive of Institutional and Mutual Division of Barings Asset Management. From 1990–96, he worked at Paribas Asset Management, latterly as CEO.