The head of an Oxford college and an accomplished corporate lawyer are set to join Oxford Health as the NHS Trust continues to strengthen its governing board.

Professor Sir Rick Trainor, rector of Exeter College, and Geraldine Cumberbatch, a solicitor with both public and private sector experience, join the organisation on Friday, April 1, 2022.

They are the latest in a string of new recruits  – most recently Andrea Young, former chief executive of North Bristol NHS Trust and Sir Philip Rutnam, former permanent secretary at the Home Office – and replace several long-service non-executive directors, including Sir John Allison, former air chief marshal.

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust Chair David Walker commented: “Non-executive directors bring valuable external experience to their stewardship of the trust. Through our latest appointments, the board now feels more diverse and representative of our staff and the public we serve, but also endowed with directors’ tremendous track records in health, the law, education and public management.

“I’m confident this reconstituted board can expertly steer Oxford Health and seize the great opportunities ahead as we integrate care and develop our Warneford campus.”

Geraldine’s experience as in-house counsel at the Port of London Authority (PLA) has seen her implement strategies to manage and minimise financial expenditure.

She relishes the opportunity to work as part of a Foundation Trust that has a ground-breaking reputation for medical research coupled with proposals to redevelop the Warneford Hospital site in Oxford to further enhance research, and to improve care to patients and service users.

Geraldine, who is a trustee of several charitable organisations, looks forward to lending her legal skills to the Board and drawing on her experience at PLA to staff attraction and retention.

Professor Sir Rick Trainor has been the rector of Exeter College at the University of Oxford since 2014 and was previous head of two other universities, Greenwich and King’s College London (KCL).

He brings substantial senior leadership expertise, particularly in higher education and extensive experience in fostering academic-clinical links evidenced by his time as a board member of King’s Health Partners, the academic health sciences centre linking KCL with three NHS trusts.

He has wide-ranging boardroom experience having served on governing or advisory boards of the Museum of London, the Royal Academy of Music and the Francis Crick Institute. He is a former president of Universities UK and a former chair of Oxford’s Conference of Colleges and is currently a Pro-Vice­Chancellor (without portfolio) of Oxford University.

Sir Rick believes he can help Oxford Health deal with the many social, economic, cultural and political factors that an organisation responsible for mental and community services has to take into account.