Our Board of Trustees

Joel Marks is the Chair of Healthworks.

He co-founded commercial insurance broker Cheviot Insured with Charlie Hoult in 2012. Previous to this, Joel, a chartered accountant, worked at Insight Investment and was a UK Equity fund manager with Scottish Widows where he looked after £17 billion of pension fund money. This equalled approximately 1.5% of the UK equity market.

Joel sits on the Investment Committee of The Sage Gateshead, overseeing their endowment fund, and he is a trustee of The RGS Educational Trust which leads the bursary campaign for RGS and oversees their endowment fund.

In his spare time Joel is also an amateur poultry farmer.

Tricia Cresswell became a trustee in February 2018 and is currently Vice Chair.

Her professional background is in public health medicine; she has recently retired after 36 years working for the NHS and Public Health England.  Tricia worked first as a General Practitioner in North Tyneside and subsequently as Director of Public Health in Newcastle and North Tyneside, then in Durham and Chester-le-Street and finally in County Durham and Darlington.  Latterly she worked as a Deputy Medical Director for the North East Strategic Health Authority and as a Consultant in Health Protection for Public Health England.  She has experience of tackling inequalities in health at policy, strategic and operational level and has particular interests in social justice, health equity and women’s and children’s rights.

Since retirement she has completed an MA in Creative Writing and is engaged in a number of writing projects.  She is also a trustee of the Newcastle Parks and Allotments Trust and of the Northumberland Wildlife Trust.

Diane Creighton has been a Trustee since Feb 2016.  Diane trained as a Home Economics teacher in the City in 1976 and has been here ever since.

She brings over 30 years experience in Social Housing through various roles working in Homelessness and Advice, Housing Management, Service Development, Policy and Performance,  Strategy and Business Development, Governance and Communication as well as Project Management of Welfare Reform.

Diane has a track record of working with people from many different backgrounds and in often challenging and continually.  changing environments.  She is committed to the region, its people and its culture. Diane has other experience as a Board member with a small Mediation Project and was Vice Chair of a local Housing and Support Charity for a number of years.

Diane is an amateur artist, sings in a choir and enjoys hiking in her spare time.

Mike is currently the Chief Operating Officer at Connect Health Ltd., an independent healthcare provider specialising in the provision of community and occupational musculoskeletal physiotherapy services, covering more than 10% of the population of England. Prior to Connect, Mike spent 3 years in the NHS establishing and managing a major transformation programme, working across organisational boundaries to design and implement changes that have gone on to deliver £1bn savings whilst improving effectiveness and patient experience.

Mike started his career qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, then moving into management consulting and during 18 years with Deloitte and KPMG, worked with a broad range of organisations to improve their operational effectiveness and efficiency.

Mike brings a broad range of operational, commercial and financial experience to his role as a Trustee at Healthworks Newcastle.

Debra has over 25 years experience of working with communities and in neighbourhoods across Newcastle. She has worked in both the voluntary and charitable sector, and for Newcastle City Council. She brings a wealth of experience gained through her work in Family Support, Community Development and more recently in her current role with Connected Voice in Newcastle, where she supports voluntary and charitable organisations in the City.

Debra says “I’m passionate about giving people the skills they need to take positive action for themselves. I have always followed the work of Healthworks as an organisation because I think the way they approach health improvement, by working alongside people and communities, is impressive and importantly, it works! The future is exciting for Healthworks and I am proud to be part of it.”

Jonathan is an internationally experienced marketer, growth hacker and digital specialist.  He has a successful record of developing and delivering digital transformation and rapid organisational growth through multi-channel campaigns on multi-million pound budgets.

Jonathan is currently serving as Vice Chair of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, as a Board Trustee of several community focused charities, and as Digital Marketing Director at Newcastle University.

He brings over 15 years’ multi-sector experience, including Higher Education, Hospitality, E-Commerce, and Gaming and Events.

Michelle is registered qualified adult nurse and a specialist public health nurse and currently works as a senior nurse covering the North East and North Cumbria in the NHS England Nursing and Quality Team.

She has specialised in public health, workforce development, workforce wellbeing and more recently health and social care governance and quality.

She brings 17 years experience working in the NHS, Public Health England (now known as UKHSA) and Health Education England as well as the voluntary sector. She has also previously worked for the Open University as a practice tutor on nursing programmes and has contributed to nursing textbooks

She has an MSc in healthcare leadership and has undertaken coaching and mentor training with the institute of leadership and management. She is a mentor for the social mobility foundation

She has particular interests in social mobility , health inequalities and education and development of the health and social care workforce.

Charlie became a Trustee in February 2022 and is Chair of the Finance, Risk and Audit Committee.

Charlie started her career qualifying as a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser with KPMG in London, and has held various senior tax roles both in house and in practice.

Prior to joining KPMG, Charlie graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Biology with French from the University of St Andrews, specialising in biomedical sciences and public health and has maintained a keen interest in these areas.

Charlie brings a broad range of financial and commercial experience to her role as a Trustee at Healthworks Newcastle.