A former NHS manager who is now the highly regarded chair of NHS West Midlands and leads on board development for the NHS national leadership council, Elisabeth Buggins recently led a review of organ transplants to foreign private patients and is a former chair of the government’s organ donation task force.

She is seen as the most influential of the SHA chairs, with a quiet way of getting people to take notice of her. She takes pride in building strong, competent teams and has weathered the Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust storm this year.