Our weekly guide e to healthcare's most influential people

Published: 21/02/2002, Volume II2, No. 5792 Page 22 23

Name: Geoff Scaife

Job: Chief executive, Birmingham and the Black Country SHA

Style: Survivor - politicians come and go, but he's still there.Colleagues find him 'focused', with 'high expectations'.He's 'fun'with 'a wicked sense of humour'.But one observer describes him as 'Teflon man'and says: 'He made a miraculous conversion from being a proponent of the internal market to suddenly, when Labour came in, talking about fundholding being divisive.'

Background: Spent his early career in the prime minister's private office under Harold Wilson and Ted Heath.Became Department of Health regional principal, liaising between ministers and West Midlands HAs, in 1981.Was a King's Fund fellow, based at Wirral HA from 1983-85 before becoming director of planning there.Moved to Mersey regional HA as assistant general manager, getting the top job in 1989.Stepped up to chief executive of the NHS in Scotland in 1993, holding the post for seven years.Spent weeks denying his imminent departure, then left without a job to go to, just before being named in a damning Scottish Parliament audit committee report on Tayside.

And whisperers suggested there was little love lost between our man and then Scottish health minister Susan Deacon.'I have enjoyed it in Scotland. I have seen through a big agenda and four secretaries of state, ' said Mr Scaife, putting it all in perspective.Bounced back as chief executive at Birmingham HA, then the SHA.

Future prospects: Having strategic fun with an area roughly the size of Scotland, but without that irritating parliament.At least until a West Midlands regional assembly comes along or academia claims him.