Meet the team

Peter Lock – Chair

Peter became the Chair of Accelerate in March 2023, having served as a Non-Executive Director on the Board for the prior 2 years.

Peter has worked in healthcare as an executive for over 17 years, as well as having financial services, utilities and consultancy experience. In addition he has significant Non-Executive Director experience working with independent co-owned social enterprises, delivering high quality, innovative community healthcare services, in partnership with the NHS. He also sits on the Board, as a Non-Executive Director, for BD Group, a property and facilities management company.

He currently runs a consultancy business, predominately working with financial services and healthcare clients. Prior to this Peter worked for the global healthcare company, Bupa, for over 14 years, where he held various executive positions, in commercial, business development and operational roles.

Peter is passionate about people, customer and patient centricity, innovation and helping organisations grow.

Alpana Malde – CEO

Alpana joined Accelerate as Commercial Director in July 2022. She brings a wealth of commercial and financial expertise to the Accelerate Strategic Leadership team. She has worked in commercial and not for profit organisations, and since 2004 has been part of leadership teams in two hospices. She was responsible for negotiations with the NHS and also for the financial strategy in these roles.

Alpana says , “ I am very excited to join Accelerate at a crucial juncture. I hope my commercial skills will support Accelerate to secure its position as the leading provider of complex wound and lymphoedema care in North East London and beyond.”

Caitriona O’Neill – Director of Clinical Services & Lymphoedema

Caitriona joined the Team in 2008 as the new Lymphoedema Service was launching for Tower Hamlets. At this point the clinical service sat within the Primary Care Trust. Caitriona is one of the remaining members of the Accelerate team that spun out of the NHS in 2011 when it became a social enterprise.

Caitriona trained as a Registered General Nurse at Waterford Regional Hospital in the 1990s before moving to London to pursue a career in palliative care.  Palliative care for many years was a great passion and out of this she developed a keen interest in Lymphoedema, particularly around the lack of service provision and variation with a keen desire to address this inequity.

A key area of Caitriona’s work within Accelerate over the years has been the development of access to other boroughs within North East London where previously there was no provision for Lymphoedema. Caitriona has been a proud trustee for the British Lymphology Society since 2016 which has allowed for collaboration and joint working with external colleges and she is also a member of the pan London Lymphoedema Practice Group.

Georgina Ritchie – Director of Education

Georgina has over 20 years of experience in clinical practice, teaching and learning.

Georgina trained and served as a military nurse within the British Army, serving in mainland UK and on operational duties until 2004, when she moved to the NHS.

Georgina has held roles within the NHS such as community staff nurse, district nursing sister and modern matron, before coming into education in 2010. Georgina spent ten years at The University of Central Lancashire, most recently leading The Family, Community and Public Health portfolio, and has focused specifically on developing education in community and district nursing, as well as leg ulcer and lower limb care and management, whilst always maintaining an active role in clinical practice.

Georgina is registered as a community specialist practitioner and V300 non-medical prescriber with the Nursing and Midwifery Council and holds a master’s degree in education (MEd).

She is passionate about education as a foundation to support confident and competent clinical practice within the fields of tissue viability and lower limb care.

Rebecca Elwell, Director of National Clinical Services

Rebecca has over 25 years experience of working as an ANP in Lymphoedema and is a proud trustee of the BLS. She has recently joined Accelerate having previously been working in an acute NHS Trust for over 20 years

Rizk Saade – Vice Chair & Non-Executive Director

Rizk is the Vice Chair of the Board and the Chairman of the Remuneration Committee. He brings years of experience in private investments, investment banking and management consulting across the US, Europe, and the Middle East. Rizk was most recently a Vice President within the Mergers & Acquisitions team at HSBC in London where he advised companies on acquiring and selling assets, raising debt and equity, and pursuing growth opportunities. Prior to that, he was a strategy and management consultant.

Mr. Saade has experience starting and running a number of successful businesses in the UK and is a Vice Chair and Trustee at The Philological Foundation, a London-based educational charity where he leads investment activities.

Fran Davies – Non-Executive Director

Fran Davies joined the Accelerate CIC Board in April 2023. She trained as a Registered Nurse at St Bartholomew’s Hospital School of Nursing following which she qualified as Registered Midwife. Fran’s clinical career has included experience across primary, secondary, and tertiary care as a District Nurse, Clinical Nurse Specialist in breast cancer and as a clinical and operational manager in various Trusts in London. Whilst a Breast Care Nurse she managed early stage lymphoedema of the arm for the patient in her caseload.

Fran also spent two years within the charitable sector managing a large community workforce delivering end of life care. Most recently she has worked with the London Region of NHS Improvement as a Quality Improvement Director.

Fran also serves as a Non-Executive Director at CSH Surrey, a community based healthcare social enterprise, that is employee owned. Fran chairs the People Committee and also sits on the Quality Committee.

In 2016 Fran, along with seven colleagues from her training school, set out to establish a Livery Company for Nurses. She served as Master of the Company from October 2020 until May 2022.

Fran is passionate about excellent clinical care and ensuring that patients and their carers receive high quality and safe care.

Will Evans – Non-Executive Director

Will designs and runs sustainable social businesses and helps others to do likewise. He is an expert in strategy design and balancing growth, financial sustainability, and impact. He is a firm believer that all organisations should contribute positively to the communities that support them and works with a wide range of them to define and deliver on purpose.

He is a founding director of Ignition Brewery, a not-for-profit brewery that employs people with learning disabilities and showcases their talents in making great beer. Ignition is a sustainable business that pays the London Living Wage and is expanding nationally to further its core purpose of creating meaningful jobs for people with learning disabilities. More beer, more jobs.

Diane Hayes – Membership Representative

Diane attends our board meetings on behalf of our membership.