Richard Stubbs

Richard is the Chief Executive Officer of Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber as well as Chair of the Health Innovation Network. With more than two decades of experience in the healthcare sector, Richard is an inspirational leader who offers a unique combination of local, national and international perspectives.

As a long-standing member of the NHS Assembly, a board member of NHS England’s Accelerated Access Collaborative, a member of the NIHR Strategy and Engagement Board and the Innovation Ecosystem Programme Advisory Group, Richard is helping shape the future of the NHS and steering major health innovation programmes. Richard represents the UK on the Global Scientific Committee and works closely with UKTI to export the UK’s healthcare excellence around the world.

Richard has led thinking on the link between health and economic prosperity, and on tackling health inequality. His influential report Levelling Up Yorkshire and Humber; Health as the new wealth post-COVID led to calls by the House of Lords Public Services Committee for “better targeted plans” promoting health, education and skills in more deprived areas.

Proud of his Yorkshire roots, Richard undertakes a variety of roles focused on developing the region as a great place to live and work. He has recently been appointed as an Ambassador at Sheffield Hospitals Charity, focusing on maximising technology, research and innovation to improve the lives of people across the region. He is the former chair of the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority Local Enterprise Partnership, a business-led regional function responsible for local economic development.

Richard is an Honorary Professor at Sheffield Hallam University and chairs the advisory board for their Advanced Wellness Research Centre (AWRC), a £14m research institution established to develop innovations that will improve population health and physical activity and is a visiting fellow at the university. He is also Chair of the NIHR HRC in Paediatrics and Child Health Steering Committee, the only dedicated paediatric NIHR HRC.

A commitment to diversity and inclusion runs through everything Richard does, and for the last two years he has been recognised by the Health Service Journal in their Top 50 BAME power list as “one of the BAME figures exercising the most power and influence in English health policy.”

In his spare time, Richard is an avid Sheffield Wednesday FC fan and enjoys coaching an under 13’s football team.