Executive Directors
Paul Calaminus, Chief Executive
Paul joined the Trust in March 2017 as Chief Operating Officer and was appointed as Deputy Chief Executive in December 2019 and interim Chief Executive in October 2020. He was appointed as Chief Executive in March 2021.
Paul joined the NHS management training scheme in 1995, completing training in the Oxford and Anglia region.
Paul has worked as a Service Director at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and then Chief Operating Officer at Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust.

Dr David Bridle, Chief Medical Officer
David was appointed as Chief Medical Officer on 2 May 2023. He was previously in the interim role from July 2022.
He joined ELFT in 2006 as a Specialist Registrar.
In 2010 he was appointed as Consultant In General Adult Psychiatry, working in a sector general adult consultant post in Newham where he also served as an Associate Clinical Director for a period of two years.
In 2014 he was appointed as Clinical Director in City & Hackney where he also worked as a consultant in Primary Care Liaison Psychiatry.
In 2018 he was appointed as the Medical Director for ELFT's London Mental Health Services and continued in a limited clinical role in Primary Care Liaison.
In 2022, he was appointed as ‘Responsible Person’ for the Use of Force Act. His role it is to ensure that the organisation complies with the requirements of the Use of Force Act. Clinical directors are nominated leads for the Use of Force Act. The clinical directors carry out the responsible person’s functions that are delegated to them.

Tanya Carter, Chief People Officer
Tanya joined the Trust in 2016 as the Associate Director of Human Resources and was appointed as the Trust’s interim Director of Human Resources in May 2018, until her substantive appointment in July 2018.
Tanya has Human Resource management experience spanning over 23 years within a number of public sector organisations; a significant period of which has been spent in middle and senior management positions, managing multi-disciplinary teams.
Tanya has worked in a primary care trust and three acute care NHS trusts, as well as working in two London local authorities and further education colleges. Her experience also includes lecturing on undergraduate programmes and working as a management consultant with PriceWaterhouseCooper (PwC).
Tanya has a Postgraduate diploma in HR Management, an MA in Strategic HR Management, and a certificate in Organisational Development. She is also a Chartered Fellow Member of the Charted Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD).

Richard Fradgley, Executive Director of Integrated Care and Deputy Chief Executive
Richard joined the Trust as Director of Integrated Care in June 2015 and joined the Trust Board in 2017. He was appointed as Deputy CEO at the Trust in June 2022.
Richard was previously Director of Mental Health and Joint Commissioning at NHS Tower Hamlets CCG where he worked as part of the East London Mental Health Consortium commissioning mental health services across east London. Prior to that, Richard worked in a variety of commissioning and provider leadership roles, including General Manager and CMHT Manager roles in the Trust.
Richard is a qualified social worker and has worked in acute hospital social work, mental health social work and as an Approved Social Worker.
Richard’s qualifications include BA(Hons) in English Literature, Diploma in Social Work, MA in Social Work, Masters in Public Administration.

Samanthi Gibbens, Interim Chief Finance Officer
Samanthi was appointed as Interim Chief Finance Officer in July 2022 having joined the Trust in April 2022 as Deputy Director of Finance.
Prior to this Samanthi held Assistant Director of Finance roles at Whittington Health NHS Trust and Camden & Islington NHS Foundation Trust for the past 8 years. She has over 20 years of valuable experience across various parts of public health finance including at Department of Health - London Regional Office where she joined the Civil Service on a graduate training programme and later moved to North Central London Strategic Health Authority.
Samanthi worked in previous roles as lead finance manager for major service transformations at East & North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, involving A&E and Maternity consolidations and service expansion at Mount Vernon Cancer Centre.
Samanthi’s qualifications include qualifying as an accountant member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accounting (ACMA) and BA (Hons) in Accounting & Finance.

Philippa Graves, Chief Digital Officer
Philippa joined the Trust in July 2020 as Chief Digital Officer. She was previously the Chief Information Officer for Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and has been an Executive Director of Operations & Transformation in two acute trusts prior to this.
Philippa has worked in a variety of senior strategic and operational roles and in a range of settings including A&E and estates. She has a background in radiology, and has conducted research into neurology, pathology and paediatrics at King’s College Medical School.
Philippa’s passion are digital transformation, to learn what good looks like from all sectors, and she led a team that partnered with a F1 racing company to learn about the value of analytics in the diagnosis of problems, and to share with them the knowledge to manage a fully mobile delivery platform. She has also partnered with a HIMSS level 7 hospital in Cascais in Portugal which is a world leader in digitally informed healthcare.
Philippa’s qualifications include BSc (Hons), MBA and is an NHS Digital Academy Leadership Graduate.

Edwin Ndlovu, Chief Operating Officer
Edwin was appointed as Chief Operating Officer in June 2021 having formerly been appointed as Director of Operations in January 2020 and Interim Chief Operating Officer in October 2020.
Edwin is a mental health nurse by background. He has held various nursing and management roles in a range of settings including Forensic Mental Health Services and Adult Mental Health Services.
Edwin was the Borough Lead Nurse and Associate Clinical Director for Newham adult mental health services between 2009 and 2015 before taking up the Borough Director position for Tower Hamlets in 2016.
Edwin holds a Registered Nurse qualification RMN, MPA and the Ney Bevan Healthcare Leadership Programme award.

Dr Amar Shah, Chief Quality Officer
Amar has been the Chief Quality Officer at the Trust since 2017 and is a consultant forensic psychiatrist. He has led the approach to quality at ELFT for the last decade. Amar’s portfolio includes quality, performance, strategy, planning and business intelligence.
Amar is the national improvement lead for mental health at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, leading a number of national improvement collaboratives on the topics of mental health equality and joy in work. He is chair of the QI faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, honorary visiting professor at the University of Leicester and City University, London, chair of the expert reference group on quality at NHS Providers, and is a Council member at the Healthcare Costing for Value Institute at the Healthcare Financial Management Association. Amar is an improvement advisor and faculty member for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, teaching and guiding improvers and healthcare systems across the world.
Amar’s qualifications include MBBS, MRCPsych, MA (Hons), LLM, MBA and PGCMedEd.

Lorraine Sunduza, Chief Nurse & Deputy CEO
Lorraine graduated from De Montfort University with a mental health nursing qualification.
Lorraine has over 20 years’ registered nurse experience. She started her career working in adult mental health inpatient services and joined the Trust in 2002 as a charge nurse in the forensic directorate.
In 2010 Lorraine was appointed as Head of Nursing for Forensic Services and in 2015 was appointed as Deputy Director of Nursing for London - Mental Health. She became Interim Chief Nurse in November 2017 and was substantially appointed in June 2018. Lorraine was appointed as Deputy CEO at the Trust in June 2021. She is a Myers-Briggs Step 2 Administrator and Nye Bevan Health Care Leadership Programme.
Lorraine’s qualifications include Registered Nurse (Mental Health).

Dr Mohit Venkataram, Executive Director of Commercial Development
Mohit was appointed as Executive Director of Business Development and Performance at the Trust in November 2016 having previously been the Commercial and Business Development Director from February 2011.
Mohit has extensive operational management experience in acute trusts, community trusts, and social care and mental health organisations. Mohit was the former Deputy Managing Director for Newham Health and Social Care Services across Newham Primary Care Trust and the London Borough of Newham. He has also worked as a practicing clinician in the private and statutory health sector abroad.
Mohit’s qualifications include MBBS, MBA and a PGDMLS.
