Rachel Savery appointed interim Managing Director of Cardiff Health Partners

17 December 2025

Cardiff Health Partners (CHP), a strategic partnership between Cardiff University, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board and Velindre University NHS Trust, has appointed Rachel Savery as its interim Managing Director.

CHP is a unique collaboration between three of Cardiff’s leading health organisations to strengthen healthcare delivery, foster research excellence, economic growth, and social wellbeing across the capital and wider South East Wales region.

As its interim Managing Director, Mrs Savery will operate across the strategic partnership with overall responsibility for ensuring the transformative potential of CHP is on track to be delivered.

Cardiff Health Partners aims to create thousands of skilled jobs and contribute up to £800 million to the region’s economy over the next decade.

Speaking of her appointment, Rachel Savery said: "I’m delighted to take on this role at such an exciting time for Cardiff Health Partners. This collaboration brings together world-class expertise to improve patient care, accelerate research, and create real economic and social benefits for our region. I look forward to working with our partners to turn this vision into reality.”

Prior to joining CHP, Mrs Savery was Head of Programme at Advanced Therapies Wales, a unique national programme driving collaboration and innovation in cell and gene therapies to improve patient care and position Wales as a leader in advanced therapies.

Carl James, interim Chief Executive Officer at Velindre University NHS Trust said: "Cardiff Health Partners is about achieving more together than we can alone. Rachel’s appointment as interim Managing Director gives the partnership clear focus and momentum to align our strengths and deliver for the region.”

Cardiff Health Partners’ initial focus will be on globally recognised competitive strengths including Cancer, Brain Therapies, and Precision Medicine.

It will see the three organisations linking assets and capabilities across the partnership into coherent testbeds and pathways. It’s hoped this will help reduce barriers through shared governance, streamlined research delivery, and federated data access.

Cardiff University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Wendy Larner, said: “We are delighted to welcome Rachel as interim Managing Director. This is an important appointment that will help to deliver our shared commitment of improving health outcomes, driving innovation, and creating lasting benefits for our patients and communities. We will work collaboratively, with our industry partners, to serve as a catalyst for positive change, setting new standards for collaboration and impact.”

The three partners individually and collectively have at their disposal key assets across Cardiff – ranging from cutting edge research centres to education spaces, dedicated trials and experimentation infrastructure to large scale implementation capabilities.

Suzanne Rankin, CEO at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, added: “I see Cardiff Health Partners as the means to optimise the opportunity to bring, collaborate, amplify and accelerate access to the lifechanging benefits of these new interventions and treatments for the people of South-East Wales as well as globally.”