Meet our Advisory Board for 2025

As we are approach Care Show London 2025, I would like to  take a moment to celebrate our wonderful Advisory Board. Providing invaluable feedback and innovative new ideas to improve the show, our Advisory Board help us to maintain the quality of the educational content we deliver through our conference programme. 
The group are well equipped to provide up-to-date knowledge and information on regulations, challenges, and priorities within the sector, allowing us to bring you the most engaging, relevant, and timely conference sessions possible. 

 

Claire Johnsen

Claire Johnsen is Head of Innovation at award-winning provider Hallmark Care Homes. In her role, she is responsible for innovation, progressing an enterprise culture, and helping position Hallmark as a social care challenger. She recently designed and launched the Care Accelerator, a new model for an accelerator, creating equal part to leadership development and innovation. 

Previously, Claire was senior innovation adviser to a global incubator in Cambridge's science park.

 

Zoe Fry


`Zoe started working in nursing homes at the age of 13 and this is where her love for the older generation began. This led her to train to become a nurse and start her career in the NHS where she quickly worked her way to being a surgical ward sister, matron for general medicine and then general manager.

In 2008 she purchased a small nursing home and transformed it, celebrating Outstanding ratings from the CQC in 2014 and then again in 2017.
Zoe shares and celebrates best practices across social care while helping others improve and this year Zoe was recognised for Services in Social Care and Services to Nursing by being awarded an OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List.

 

 

Dudley Sawyerr


Dudley Sawyerr is part of the Social Care & NHS team with KWSEL - Inclusion, Diversity, Equality and Wellbeing (IDEW) Southeast London and Head of Marketing - Care Vision care management software. As a consultant his role is to increase awareness across the health and social care sector to overcome the disparities and challenges faced in one of the largest culturally diverse workforces in the UK.

Dudley is also proud to be the Chair of Registered Managers at London Care and Support Forum (LCAS) for 15 London boroughs. The forum provides much needed support and guidance in this fast-moving regulatory environment. He also now works with Skills for Care as a Co-Chair for the Race Equity Reference Group.

 

 

Ali George 


Ali is the founder and Managing Director of Arcadia Care Homes, a multi-award-winning dementia care provider in South Wales.

 

 

Neil Eastwood


Neil began his connection with social care in 1977 as a paid home help to aging parishioners from his father's church. More recently as a director at the UK’s largest homecare provider with 10,000 staff, he attempted to understand and address the persistently high care worker turnover rates the organisation experienced.

This led to presenting his findings at care sector events around the world and in 2017, publishing a book, ‘Saving Social Care’, about his findings, now in its second edition with over 10,000 copies sold.

He is also Founder and CEO of Care Friends, an employee referral app, which won the 2023 King's Award for Innovation and is now used in over 2,500 care settings in the UK, Ireland and Australia. The app has generated over £8M in performance related earnings for care workers and added tens of thousands of their friends and connections to the workforce.

 

 

Ann Taylor


Ann, a founding Director of Hilton Nursing Partners, has over 25 years' experience of holding senior managerial positions within the health and social care sector.  Ann chairs the Kent Integrated Care Alliance and sits on various local, regional and national groups to support the development of new models of care and the workforce development strategies to deliver them.

With a reputation for designing and developing new services Ann is responsible for creating the Hilton Model from her own personal experience of supporting her mother through a difficult year of hospital admissions, re-admissions and long-term condition management. 

To Ann, holding a social care leadership role cannot not be measured on a salary, but how society view us, the value we bring to support our community, the responsibility we undertake to ensure people are able live their lives well.

 

 

Karolina Gerlich


 Karolina Gerlich is the CEO of The Care Workers’ Charity and has worked as a care worker for over 12 years. She is a passionate advocate for the rights and wellbeing of the social care workforce, campaigning for positive change within the social care industry - and is on the Leadership Team for the newly launched IMPACT Centre.  She is proud to represent the social care workforce and embodies the mission that no care worker should face hardship alone.

 

 

Lindsay Rees


Lindsay joined QCS in May 2022 as the Head of Social Care Content following 17 years working as senior leader in Adult Social Care. She is a qualified adult nurse and has previously held operational leadership roles, including registered manager, regional support manager, regional clinical quality manager, head of quality and director of health.  

Lindsay is an experienced professional who brings with her expertise in commercial operational leadership, clinical governance, quality assurance and quality improvement in nursing homes. She has dedicated her career in social care to leading, supporting, and mentoring teams to provide exceptionally high standards of care for people in social care. 

Her role at QCS is an exciting opportunity to use her extensive operational knowledge and insight to drive forward quality and innovation and continue her mission to support people to live well in social care.

 

 

Sonia Rai 


Sonia Rai is Founder and Director of Nectar HR - an HR consultancy with a difference. Sonia is CIPD Accredited with a degree and master's in human resource management.

Sonia has over 20 years HR experience. Sonia’s passion is HR delivered with excellence and a pet hate is ‘generic off the shelf’ HR solutions. 

Sonia and the team are all CQC experts and regularly support their clients in preparations and inspections. Sonia is also an expert in strategic and operational HR. From recruitment issues to best practice employment, complex disciplinaries or strategic people planning, Sonia is happy to discuss it all.

 

 

Geraint Thomas 


`Geraint Thomas has worked within UK health and social care sector for more than 15 years and is a self-professed geek with heart - combining an odd blend of technical expertise with a passion for health and social care. Having worked with over 200 organisations, Geraint has consulted, procured and implemented countless technologies into the sector - from CRMs, Payroll/Finance and Care Planning solutions to the more innovative technologies such as IoT, Robotics, Big Data and AI/Machine Learning.

 

 

Mark Topps


Mark is a passionate and multi-award-winning social care leader who has worked in the care industry since 2004 and is currently working as a Regional Support Manager. Mark can be found regularly advocating, appearing on television, radio and podcasts, and he has started numerous high-profile campaigns which have been debated in parliament and across the world with a combined petition signature list of over 1.7million, creating a change in legislation and culture within the industry.

Mark is also the Social Media & Marketing Director at NACAS (National Association of Care and Support Workers) and the co-founder of ‘The Caring View’ (a social care podcast, YouTube show and free resource initiative for the sector and ‘The Health and Social Care Club’ which is an audio only event hosted on LinkedIn. Two fun facts about Mark; he once held the record for the largest Environmental Campaign and is the owner of an ice cream van business.

 

 

Lori  Pinkerton-Rolet


A Past President of the British Institute of Interior Design (BIID), Lori Pinkerton-Rolet has been Director of award-winning Park Grove Design since 1993, specialising in Care, Dementia and Retirement design with a client list which includes: The Royal Hospital Chelsea (Chelsea Pensioners), McCarthy & Stone, Hamberley Developments and The Royal Star & Garter Homes. Park Grove believes 'great interior design affects people's quality of life’ and creates unique projects based on inclusive design principles. She also conducts independent research for companies including Akzo Nobel (Dulux) and regularly lectures on Care and Retirement design issues. In January 2021 she launched www.ThirdAge.Design, an information hub, podcast and international on-line community providing free information on critical Care and Retirement design developments in a time-saving format - for those who don't want to be left behind.

 

 

Hannah Montgomery


Hannah is a multi-award-winning Chartered Marketer with a passion for social care. For over 18 years, she’s worked globally marketing within the care sector, with her work being recognised in The Times and The Guardian. She is always on top of regulatory changes and evolving agendas. In 2016 she set up a marketing consultancy firm which supports suppliers selling into social care, Golddust Marketing, which she continues to run today.

At the same time, she also founded (and continues to run) Re-engage Lichfield, a charity to tackle social isolation among older people in the region. Re-engage Lichfield changed to become the first Grace Cares tea party group. Hannah is also involved in supporting Lichfield Dementia Friends, who aim to gain dementia friendly status for the city.

Towards the end of 2021, Hannah was so concerned about the state of a sector she loved so much that she created the 360° social care debate. The mission was to ensure that the right people discuss the challenges for the social care sector from every perspective, to inform and create holistic solutions within the sector.

In 2023, Hannah co-founded Grace Cares. Grace Cares is a not-for-profit organisation which has been set up to support older people and care workers across the UK. They collect, donate, and sell pre-loved care equipment to enhance people’s quality of life, support care workers and older people in need with community groups and grants and leave a better planet for future generations. They are already partnered with the NHS and supporting their ‘Delivering a Net Zero Service’ strategy.

 

 

Issac Theophilos 


Issac Theophilos is the author of the Amazon nursing home bestseller book How to get outstanding: An ultimate guide for care homes. Issac is the Director of OCH care home consultancy and web platform outstandingcarehomes.co.uk. Issac is an ex-care manager of a CQC outstanding rated care home in all the five areas of inspection. Issac believes everyone deserves outstanding care when unwell; he is on a mission to help your care home to make that happen through his work.

 

 

Palvi Dodhia


 A care home provider who started her career at a number of investment banks before finding her passion in care. Along with Jay Dodhia (co-founder/ CEO), they have used their complementary skills to build Serene Care into an award-winning boutique care homeowner-operator that specialises in improving the lives of elderly residents who may have dementia. Her passions lie in not only ensuring Serene Care’s residents get the best quality care possible but also in being an active member of the wider social care innovators community and supporting charities such as the Care Workers Charity, Dementia UK, and Championing Social Care amongst others.

 

 

Jay Dodhia 

Jay is a CFA charter holder and co-founder/ CEO of Serene Care, whose mission is to revolutionise social care, ensuring great quality care is affordable to all. He is applying his extensive property, finance and digital experience to do so, having started his career in M&A/investment banking at Goldman Sachs before working within private equity real estate and property development. Along with Palvi Dodhia (co-founder/ COO), they have used their complementary skills to build Serene Care into an award-winning boutique care homeowner-operator that specialises in improving the lives of elderly residents who may have dementia.

 

 

Raina Summerson 

Raina has worked in social care for 30 years, holding a variety of roles within local and central government, including as a qualified social worker and as a regulator. She joined Agincare in 2004. Based in Dorset, Agincare has grown to become a leading independent provider of domiciliary, live-in and residential care with a turnover of c.70m, a workforce of c.4,000 and strong links with LAs and CCGs across the country. Agincare has a strong values-based culture, supporting an ambitious growth plan and underpinning a commitment to quality care delivery. Raina works actively across the sector, including with the UKHCA.