Governance – Board Members

Dirk Vennix MBA FCIPR

ARMA Chair

A sector leader with substantial expertise in delivering and managing campaigns in both the third sector and corporate fields. He currently leads CIRIA, a major not-for-profit membership organisation which aims to improve performance in the construction and built environment sectors.

Dirk has significant experience in successfully delivering communications and stakeholder engagement campaigns including sponsorship creation and fundraising, working for more than 25 years in the private and not-for-profit sectors in the UK. He previously led the Confederation of Timber Industries as Chief Executive and worked for Centrica plc and Liverpool John Moores University. Dirk started his career as a journalist and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (FCIPR). Dirk gained an MBA with distinction at the University of Bradford in 2000.

Stephen Chew

Stephen Chew graduated from Imperial College School of Medicine (formerly St Mary’s Hospital Medical School) in 2002. He undertook further training in rheumatology and medical specialties at teaching hospitals in and around North West London. In 2008 he started Sport and Exercise Medicine (SEM) higher specialist training, working at the Olympic Medical Institute for 18 months, as well as centres of excellence in and around central London such as UCLH and Imperial College NHS Trust. He was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London in November 2020.

Stephen holds an honorary Consultant appointment at Imperial College Heathcare NHS Trust where he helps run a diabetes and physical activity service. He previously held a substantive post as Consultant SEM Physician at Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust until May 2016. His private practice is in central London, and his current sport appointment is at Wasps Premiership Rugby team. He sits on the Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine Council and has been their representative to ARMA for the past two years.

Stephen has a keen and dedicated interest to the utilisation and intervention of physical activity for health. He is a co-author of the NHS “Sport and Exercise Medicine – A Fresh Approach” document on utilisation of SEM.

Chris Martey (Vice Chair)

Chris is a clinician, educator and healthcare leader with experience across third sector, primary, community and secondary care health systems. Chris is a Chartered Physiotherapist working as a Musculoskeletal (MSK) Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP). Based in Wales, Chris complements his clinical role with a leadership role as a Multi-Professional Primary and Community Care Education Lead.

Chris has a keen interest in healthcare leadership, strategy, and policy, and is now in his second term on the Board of Trustees for the Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Alliance (ARMA).

He has a passion for Rheumatic and MSK Diseases and is a former Executive Committee Board member for the British Society for Spondyloarthritis (BRITSpA, 2019-2022) and former Clinical Advisor on Versus Arthritis’ Adult Inflammatory Research Advisory Group (2020-2023).

Sarah North

Sarah has an extensive professional background in health regulation, including governance, policy, and strategy research and implementation, with a strong commitment to quality assurance. She has worked for over twenty five years in health regulation/policy, initially for the General Medical Council and then was instrumental in setting up a new regulator, the UK Public Health Register, in 2003. She has worked also for Public Health England, and now works at the Institute of Osteopathy as Head of Policy and Standards.

Sally Pembery

Sally qualified as a Podiatrist in 1984 from the Northern College, Manchester. Following fourteen years in the NHS and industry, she embarked on building a private practice in Esher, Surrey, specialising in MSK lower limb conditions. Sally gained her MSc in clinical Podiatric Biomechanics at Staffordshire University. In addition to her thriving private practice, Sally and her associates have also provided podiatry services to Fulham, Chelsea and QPR football clubs, the London marathon and the All England Tennis Club during the Wimbledon Championships.

Sally provides care as a first point of contact allowing her to see patients from many backgrounds and often sees the life changing situations that MSK conditions and pain can have on people’s lives, family commitments and working environments. Sally has developed a multidisciplinary environment in the clinic, delivering individualised person centred MSK solutions for anyone who requires it in a time sensitive and caring way.

Ruth Sephton

Ruth Sephton is a Consultant Physiotherapist who has specialised in the management of musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions for over 30 years. She is currently employed at Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust leading a multidisciplinary community MSK service. Ruth has a keen interest in education and has extensive experience of delivering post-graduate education in advanced MSK practice. She also strives to ensure research is implemented in practice and has published research in the MSK field. Ruth is a Fellow of the Musculoskeletal Association of Physiotherapists (MACP) and a Versus Arthritis MSK Champion.

Over the course of her career Ruth has worked in service transformation, business development and as Assistant Clinical Director at the Trust. She has worked on projects to improve MSK services with the CSP, Advancing Quality Alliance, NHS England and Public Health England. Ruth is passionate about promoting high quality care for people with MSK conditions and is delighted to be joining the ARMA board of trustees.

Professor John Skinner

John Skinner qualified at King’s College Hospital School of Medicine in 1988. He trained in Norwich and London. He was appointed a senior lecturer at the Institute of Orthopaedics in 1999 and also a consultant at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital. His surgical practice is divided between bone and soft tissue tumours and hip and knee surgery. He has a large practice in revision joint replacements. His research interests have included DVT prevention, aspects of reconstruction and implant design after tumour surgery. He chairs the Joint BOA, NJR, BHS and MHRA committee advising on aspects of metal bearing hips; and has been the advisor to the British Hip Society and the BOA on metal hips for the last 5 years.

John is a co-director of the London Implant Retrieval Centre. He is the president of the British Hip Society. In 2004 he was awarded the prestigious ABC travelling fellowship to the United States of America. At the RNOH Stanmore he chairs the Infection Control Committee and the Medical Staff Committee.

Dr. Jane Taylor

Jane has spent most of her working life in education and until taking ill health retirement 12 years ago, was a Senior lecturer in English at Manchester Metropolitan University. She now works part time from home for the Open University.

Jane was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis aged 26 and antiphospholipid syndrome and osteoporosis in her 30s. She subsequently also developed osteoarthritis. As well as her own experience she supports and cares for two close family members with a number of long-term conditions.

Jane has been a passionate voice in advocating for those with lived experience to be part of health and social care research She is involved with NRAS and is currently Chair of Versus Arthritis’s Patient Insight Partner group and a member of their Charitable Purposes Committee working to ensure patient insight is part of all their research and policy initiatives. Jane also chairs the European Patient Council for APPROACH, a 25 centre IMI-funded project on osteoarthritis and is a member of the NICE guideline committee on the diagnosis and management of Gout. An area that Jane feels particularly concerned about is improving care for people living with multiple long-term conditions which often include at least one MSK disease. For the last two years she has been a member of the Expert Advisory Group to the Richmond group of Charities and RCGP Taskforce on Multimorbidity working to produce and share good practice in this area.

As someone who has benefitted throughout her life from the work of charities, Jane is looking forward to working with ARMA to increase awareness of and improve the quality of life for all those living with MSK conditions and for those who care for them.

Zak Vora

TREASURER

Zak was born and raised in London, having studied at City University Business School before starting a distinguished career in the City. Having also worked in Finance abroad he returned to the UK and set up his own small financial business over ten years ago.

Aside from ARMA he is involved with numerous local charitable causes. Set up the Supporting Locals Initiative four years ago and, having worked with the homeless for over a decade, recently set up a Soup Kitchen project in North London to help support the homeless and needy.

Dale Webb

Dr. Dale Webb has been CEO of NASS since November 2017. With an MSc and PhD in health policy, he first worked in public health in the NHS and then as a health services researcher where he undertook numerous national evaluations of health policy interventions.

Dr. Webb has worked in senior leadership charity roles for almost 20 years.

At NASS, he has led the creation of an All Party Parliamentary Group on axial SpA, the development of the Aspiring to Excellence healthcare improvement programme, and more recently A Gold Standard Time to Diagnosis.

Debbie Wilson

I can never remember a time when arthritis wasn’t a part of my life. I was diagnosed with JIA when I was very young and the treatments at that time were very different to those we have now. Throughout my childhood JIA spread to many joints and my school life was far from easy, however I graduated with a degree in Statistics and Economics. I then went on to have a very successful career as a senior researcher/statistician at the Home Office, working on the impact crime has on children and young people.

After raising my two daughters I decided on a complete career change. I now work as the Young Persons’ Project Manager at NRAS and have been developing the young person side and JIA-at-NRAS. Not only do I know the impact of living with arthritis for nearly all my life, but I am also a parent of children with MSK conditions, both my daughters have hypermobility syndrome and my eldest was also diagnosed with JIA. I am passion about helping everyone impacted by arthritis and MSK conditions, especially children and young people as the misconceptions that children do not get arthritis, or it is only an old persons’ disease still exist. It is an exciting time to be an ARMA trustee working on Best MSK Health and Health Equalities and making sure that children and young people are represented.