Karen Marshall currently leads the Degree Apprenticeship and Outreach and Engagement Programmes at Accenture’s Newcastle Delivery Centre.

Liaising with delivery partners, schools and key regional digital partners, the programme delivers engagement activities promoting digital careers to 20,000 young people, teachers and parents across the North East each year.

Karen has worked for over 30 years with Digital and Technology companies, supporting strategic collaborations to influence and advise on the development of qualifications, products, services, policies and strategies to address regional skills needs.

Annie was formally appointed to the role of Chief People Officer for the new NHS Integrated Care Board for the North East and North Cumbria in July 2022 – an exciting opportunity to work with Exec colleagues and all system partners, to value and respect all people working in health and care services, to understand and respond to the health needs of our population an ensure fairer outcomes with access to high quality, safe and compassionate health services across the North East and North Cumbria.

Prior to that she worked in an outstanding provider organisation, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust as Director of Patient Experience since December 2009 – this was a new senior leadership role for Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, designed to strengthen Board accountability and ensure visibility and momentum for a trust wide Patient Experience Programme. In 2018 her responsibilities expanded to embrace a new role as Chief Experience Officer. It is the first post of its kind in the NHS, with Board level responsibility for leading improvements in staff experience and well-being and integrating this with the existing Northumbria patient experience programme.

Annie is a Health Foundation Generation Q fellow – a pioneering programme, aimed at developing a new generation of skilled and effective leaders of quality improvement in healthcare. She was a founding director of RUBIS Qi, which was established in 2016 – an externally facing improvement arm of Northumbria Healthcare and NHS consultancy offering coaching and improvement support across the NHS.

Before joining the executive management team in 2009, Annie enjoyed 13 years of senior clinical leadership responsibilities as Clinical director of the award winning, Stroke Northumbria service, as well as Allied Health Professional lead for the North East Cardiovascular Network. 

Annie is a speech and language therapist, qualified mediator, teacher and senior lecturer. Her particular interests lie in the development of clinical practice within education, coproduction and the role of the service users as teachers.