Chris Stanford

Chris Stanford is Head of the Global Healthcare Practice handling senior executive and non-executive roles across the public, private, voluntary and independent sectors, including medical research,  and education.

 
Chris spent 35 years in the Royal Navy with some key appointments including major sea commands during the Cold War and the Gulf and Bosnian conflicts, before joining Odgers Berndtson in 2002. Operational tours were interspersed with senior positions within the MOD, involving procurement, HR, finance, operations, heritage, defence policy, and international relations. In his final appointment Chris led the Change Implementation Team with personal responsibility for revitalising the Defence Medical Services, under direct Select Committee and Ministerial scrutiny. Working closely with the Department of Health and NHS, he transferred the last military hospital to NHS ownership, established an innovative Royal Centre for Defence Medicine in Birmingham and introduced a major programme to improve recruiting and retention.

Educated at St. Paul’s and Merton College Oxford, he was also awarded an honorary doctorate by Birmingham City University. Chris is a Fellow of the Nautical Institute and of the Royal Society of Arts, a Master Mariner, Chairman of the Somerset and Dorset Marine Society and Sea Cadets, a Younger Brother of Trinity House and a Governor of King Edward VII Hospital (Sister Agnes).