Samantha Jones (civil servant)

She began her NHS career in 1989 working as a nurse at the Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street.

In 2007 she was appointed to the position of Chief Executive of Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Described as “pioneering, brave, and courageous" by the judges, she was voted one of the top 50 innovators[2] in the NHS in 2014.

Returning to the private sector in 2019 as CEO of NHS care providers Operose Health – a UK subsidiary of the US Centene Corporation.

She was appointed interim permanent secretary and chief operating officer of the new Office of the Prime Minister in February 2022 having previously been Boris Johnson's Expert Advisor on NHS Transformation and Social Care.