David Knowles

Bio

David Knowles is a Senior Associate of the King’s Fund, a charitable foundation in London, England, which has a high national profile for health policy analysis and as a major provider of personal and leadership development programs for senior health service executives and clinicians. From 1997 to December 2006, David was Director of Leadership Development at the Fund, but worked also as an active member of the academic faculty. He directed for 8 years the Kings Fund''s flagship Top Manager Programme, and was also director of the Experienced Chief Executives and NHS Directors programs. He has contributed to and been a faculty member of many other NHS focused programs. He has consulted to national and provincial Governments in Australia, South Africa, Poland, Hungary and Russia.

Featured Work

Since 1997 he has organised and led an annual study tour to Canada for NHS Chief Executives and Directors and has hosted the annual Change Foundation study tour to London.

Before coming to the Kings Fund, David was a Chief Executive for 18 years in Central London Health Districts, during which time he had responsibility for some major and politically controversial change projects, notably the building of the new Chelsea and Westminster Teaching Hospital, which also involved the closure of 7 hospitals and reducing staff from 9500 to 6500. Earlier in his career he was, for 3 years, a manager at Sick Kids in Toronto.

David's first degree was in economics at the LSE and his postgraduate qualification was in Social and Business Administration at the University of Manchester. He is a former President of the UK Institute of Health Management and was a Trustee and then Chair of the Sargent Cancer Care for Children over a period of 24 years.

An Associate Professor at the University of Lancaster, David is a non-executive member of his local Primary Care Trust and a member of the Board at St. Anthony’s Hospital.