UNIVERSITY Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust have three new non-executive appointments to its board of directors.

Professor Cyrus Cooper, Jane Bailey and Catherine Mason have begun their three-year terms.

Prof Cooper is director of the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, vice-dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Southampton and an honorary consultant rheumatologist at UHS.

He leads an international programme of research into the epidemiology of musculoskeletal disorders – with more than 900 published papers on osteoporosis and rheumatic disorders – and was awarded an OBE for services to medical research in 2015.

Ms Bailey is a former senior commercial vice-president of pharmaceutical company Glaxo where she specialised in leading global research and development teams in the formation of strategies to bring new medicines to patients.

She later ran her own strategy development consultancy working across a range of healthcare organisations and, in 2017, gained an MSc in public health at King’s College London.

Ms Mason has experience in transport and healthcare having served as group chief executive for Translink and managing director of NATS, as well as chief executive of Allied Healthcare and chief operating officer for Spire Healthcare Group.

She has an MBA from Henley Management College and is a chartered fellow of the Institute of Directors and a fellow and former vice-president of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.

Peter Hollins, chair of UHS, said: “These three excellent appointments to our board of directors bring a multitude of experience in medicine, healthcare, pharmaceuticals and business and we are delighted to welcome Cyrus, Jane and Catherine to work alongside us.“They all possess a vast array of knowledge, skills and achievements which will be extremely valuable to the management of our organisation.”

All non-executive appointments are made on merit and political activity plays no part in the selection process. However, in accordance with the original Nolan recommendations, there is a requirement for appointees’ political activity (if any declared) to be made public.

Prof Cooper, Ms Bailey and Ms Mason hold no other ministerial appointments and are not involved in any political activity.

The three non-executive appointments were led by the governors’ nominations committee and approved by the Council of Governors in accordance with the requirements of the trust’s constitution.

Each will receive a non-executive director remuneration of £10,000 to £15,000 per year.