Our Trustees

Dame Suzi Leather DBE, DL - Chair

Appointed to the Board: September 2023

Dame Suzi Leather has chaired the Alzheimer Society Board since September 2023. She has held high profile leadership positions in regulation, health, and the charitable sector, chairing the Charity Commission, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, the Higher Education Ombuds Service, the School Food Trust, the School Meals Review Panel and the Council of Food Policy Advisers. She was the founder Deputy Chair of the UK Food Standards Agency and has also served on the Council and Ethics Committee of Exeter University.

In the health field she sat on the General Medical Council, chaired the integrated care system for Devon, the Exeter and District Community NHS Trust and the Ethics Committee of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

Suzi has a particular interest in the needs of disadvantaged communities. She is a past chair of the Lankelly Chase Foundation, was a trustee of StepChange, the debt advice charity, and chaired the Plymouth Fairness Commission.  

More widely, she served on the State Honours Committee and the boards of Consumer Focus and the United Kingdom Accreditation Service. She is a Patron of the UK Clinical Ethics Network, a vice president of Hospiscare, a member of Pinhoe and Poltimore Parochial Church Council (PCC), has been a school governor and is a Deputy Lieutenant of Devon.  

Both of Suzi’s parents had dementia. 

Professor Hugh P. McKenna CBE - Vice Chair

Appointed to the Board: September 2019

Professor Hugh McKenna CBE, PhD, B.Sc(Hons), RMN, RGN, RNT, DipN(Lond), AdvDipEd, FFN RCSI, FEANS, FRCN, FAAN, MEA, MEASA is a general and mental health nurse. He has written over 250 publications, including 18 books. His research has been cited 31,428 times. He is a Fellow of four international nursing organisations, received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Royal College of Nursing and a lifetime achievement award for his work in mental health. He has 2 Honorary Doctorates, 7 international visiting professorships, and membership of the Academia Europaea, and the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. He was appointed Commander of the British Empire for his work in health and community.

In 2024 he received the STTI’s Award (Sigma Theta Tau International) as one of the top 100 nurses over the last 100 years; awarded by Nursing Times as one of the top 70 nurses since 1948; appointed to the Hong Kong Research Assessment Exercise 2026; became the Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing’s Editor in Chief; appointed to the UK Research Diversity Advisory Panel; and chaired the Study Steering Committee for research on older persons’ oral hygiene.  Hugh sits on the Department of Health’s Clinical Ethics Forum and is a non-executive director of a Health & Social Care Trust, chairing its clinical ethics committee.  

In 2023, he was appointed Vice-Chair of Alzheimer’s Society. He sits on its Governance and Nominations Committee, People and Remuneration Committee and Safe Practice committee. He is the Society’s lead trustee for safeguarding.  Clinically, he has cared for people living with dementia, conducted research on dementia, and supported his father-in-law who had Alzheimer’s dementia. 

Susan Allen, OBE

Appointed to the Board: March 2021

Susan Allen has worked in financial services for more than 30 years and has extensive experience across retail, corporate, global banking, operations and strategic roles with a specific focus on transformation and business leadership.  

She joined Yorkshire Building Society as CEO in March 2023 from Barclays, where she was Head of Customer Transformation and a member of the Barclays UK Executive Committee.

Before that, Susan was the CEO of Retail & Business Banking at Santander UK and an Executive Director. Prior to joining Santander UK, she held several significant roles at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

Susan is also a non-executive director at TheCityUK and sits on the Council of the Building Societies Association.

Throughout her career, Susan has been a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion, being recognised by the British LGBT+ Award in 2020 for her corporate allyship with Santander’s LGBT network. In 2021, Susan was awarded an OBE for her outstanding contributions to the financial services industry during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Susan has personal experience of Alzheimer’s within her own family and is passionate about the role the Society can play in supporting those living with dementia and all those who care for them. 

Phil Andrew

Appointed to the Board: November 2023

Phil Andrew is Group Chief Executive at Orbit, one of the UK’s foremost builders and providers of social housing. He is Chair of the Society’s Finance and Investment Committee.

Phil has more than 30 years’ experience in leadership positions across the for-profit, governmental contracting and not-for-profit environments. The last 15 years he has specialised in commercially minded organisations that are driven by social purpose.  

Prior to joining Orbit, Phil served as Chief Executive at StepChange Debt Charity and as Chief Executive of Working Links. He has also held several senior positions in the UK and France including Chief Finance Officer of Sodexo UK & Ireland, and Chief Executive, Sodexo Justice Services. He is a chartered accountant, qualified treasurer, Chartered Housing professional and Chartered Marketer, and was previously Vice-Chair of Raven Housing Trust and Chair of the Breck Foundation, an online safety awareness charity.

He brings his lived experience to his Trustee role, having supported several close family members living with dementia.

Sube Banerjee, MBE, FMedSci

Appointed to the Board: March 2021

Sube Banerjee MBE FMedSci is Pro-Vice Chancellor and Professor of Dementia at the University of Nottingham where he leads its Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. He trained as a doctor and an epidemiologist at St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the Institute of Psychiatry. He has also studied at the London Business School. He works clinically as an old age psychiatrist focussing on the development and delivery of high-quality memory assessment services and post-diagnostic care.  

He has led the development and delivery of health strategy and policy including the Department of Health for England’s National Dementia Strategy. He has also worked with governments and the World Health Organisation (WHO) on national and international strategies to improve health for older adults with complex needs and those with dementia.

He has wide experience in senior management and leadership roles in the health service and in universities. His research is practical and concentrates on inequalities and inequities in care, outcomes for people with dementia and generating high quality evidence on quality of life and quality of care in dementia that can be rapidly translated into better care and treatment. 

Anthony Battle

Anthony Battle has worked in data, digital and technology for 25 years within the energy, natural resources, and automotive industries in both strategic and operational roles. He has extensive global experience in  delivering transformational outcomes and sustainable change, particularly across natural resources exploration, oil and gas operations, mining operations, manufacturing, supply chain and business to customer & business to business retail. 

Most recently, Anthony was Group Chief Digital Information Officer at Jaguar Land Rover, with responsibility for leadership of the information & digital technology operations and transformation across design, engineering, industrial operations and retail, inclusive of architecture, cyber security, data, AI and automation. 

Before joining Jaguar Land Rover, he was the Chief Information Officer & Chief Technology Officer for Shell Energy, a member of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors, with responsibility for both business to customer and business to business areas in the UK and Europe. 

Prior to Shell, Anthony occupied senior leadership roles in Anglo American and Eni, living and working in both Europe and the Caribbean. 

Anthony is a governing body co-chair of the Evanta UK & Ireland CIO community, helping digital leaders to share ideas, validate strategies and solve critical leadership challenges through peer-to-peer insight and collaboration.

Anthony has experience of dementia within his family and is committed to helping use technology to create better outcomes for everyone. He is the Chair of our Technology Task and finish Group, leading transformational change in our use of technology. 

Andy Doyle

Appointed to the Board: June 2025

Andy Doyle is the Chief People Officer at Kantar. He is a transformation specialist committed to improving business performance with experience developing strategy and driving cultural change.

Prior to joining Kantar, Andy was Chief People and Culture Officer for National Grid Plc, the UK and US-based electricity systems operator. In his role there, he focused on setting and delivering the global human resources agenda in line with the commercial strategy of the Group. Prior to National Grid he was CHRO and a member of the executive leadership team that successfully floated Worldpay and managed its subsequent merger with Vantiv Inc. Andy previously also led the HR function at broadcaster ITV plc and utility services and construction company Morrison plc.

Andy has held non-executive roles in different capacities for the last two decades. He was the former Chair of the Loughborough Student’s Union and a previous Governor and Chair of the Remuneration Committee at Middlesex University as well as a former non-executive director at Fenwick.

Andy has personal experience with a number of family members having lived with dementia. He used the Alzheimer's Society services when helping them navigate their care and is passionate about ensuring there is a world in which dementia no longer devastates lives.

Caroline Fawcett

Appointed to the Board: March 2019

Caroline is an experienced Customer Experience Consultant and non-executive director. She is Chair of the Society’s People and Remuneration Committee. She has served on Boards in both the financial services industry and the public sector. These included the Board of a leading NHS Trust that provides health and social care services for people with mental ill-health and learning disabilities.

She currently holds non-executive director positions with Cambridge and Counties Bank and with LifeSight Debt Charity, the pension trustee for Willis Towers Watson’s master trust pension scheme.

Caroline has spent a large part of her career leading customer driven change programmes across a wide range of public and private sector organisations, increasing their focus on their customers and introducing cultural change to improve both customer and employee experiences. These included customer transformation programmes at the Care Quality Commission and Prudential Assurance.

Previously, Caroline was Customer Experience Director at Legal & General, having spent over 25 years in marketing and customer experience roles in the financial services industry.

As well as her professional involvement with people with severe dementia while working with the NHS Trust, Caroline has direct experience of caring for her late mother who had both Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. She had the opportunity to get to really understand the valuable work of Alzheimer’s Society in both capacities.

Dr Malte Gerhold

Appointed to the Board: November 2023

Dr Malte Gerhold has held senior leadership roles in the public, private and third sector in health and social care, in the UK and abroad. Malte us chair of the Society’s subsidiaries, Alzheimer’s Trading Ltd and Alzheimer’s Foundation for Research into Alzheimer’s Disease.

He is the former Director of Innovation and Improvement at the Health Foundation, a charitable foundation with the mission to improve health and health care in the UK. He was also a Director of THIS Labs, a start-up that uses large-scale, online collaborative approaches to enable successful improvement and innovation in health and care.

Previously, Malte was Chief Integrated Care Officer at Birdie, a digital care management start-up helping to reinvent care at home. Before that he was Executive Director of Strategy and Intelligence at the Care Quality Commission. He has lived and worked in Sierra Leone, and in the UK, he worked at the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit, the Department of Health, and Accenture.  

He has direct experience of dementia through his father, who lived with dementia for over ten years, and his mother who cared for him at home for much of this time. 

Anthony Lobo

Appointed to the Board: November 2023

Anthony Lobo is a chartered accountant and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He has held several senior leadership roles including senior partner and board member at KPMG in the UK, where he chaired the Audit Committee and was a member of the Risk Committee and Audit Board. As a partner at KPMG for more than 16 years, he specialised in mergers and acquisitions across a variety of sectors and acted as global lead partner for one of the firm's largest clients. 

He also ran several of KPMG's subsidiary businesses He has lived and worked in Africa, Asia and Europe during his career and has a wealth of experience in understanding and managing complex businesses. He is also an independent member of the Audit & Risk Committee and Financial Planning Committee of the National Portrait Gallery Anthony is the Chair of the Society’s Audit and Risk Committee. He has direct experience of dementia through his late mother who developed posterior cortical atrophy in her early 60s. 

Professor Paresh Malhotra

Appointed to the Board: June 2025

Professor Paresh Malhotra is Head of the Division of Neurology in the Department of Brain Sciences at Imperial College, London, and Honorary Consultant Neurologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. He completed his medical training in Oxford and carried out a PhD at the University of London (Imperial and the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience).

He specialises in cognitive disorders and dementia. His clinical and research work focuses on developing and evaluating new diagnostic approaches and treatments for these diseases. He is actively involved in national and international research collaborations, including projects investigating hearing loss and dementia, and biomarker studies in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

He is a member of the UK Dementia Research Institute and contributes to the ACORD initiative on innovative trials for dementia and neurodegeneration. At Imperial he is Clinical Academic Training lead for Neurology and co-chair of the Department of Brain Science’s Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee.

He has previously chaired the Association of British Neurologists Cognitive Neurology Special Interest Group and has been Deputy Chair of the Alzheimer’s Society Research Strategy Council.

His research has been supported by the Alzheimer’s Society, Alzheimer’s Research UK, NIHR, MRC, LifeArc and the Biomedical Research Centre at Imperial. He currently serves as the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Research Delivery Network (RDN) National Specialty Lead for Dementia and Neurodegeneration and leads a work package in the UK Dementia Trials Accelerator.

His work has been featured in, and he has provided expert comment for, multiple media outlets including Sky News, ITV, the BBC, The Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Daily Mail as well as the wider international press.