Our Kind Care Board

HC-One is proud to introduce our distinguished Kind Care Board; our board members share a wealth of experience in health and social care having worked at the highest levels in local government, the Department of Health and NHS and in leading independent care sector providers.
 

David Smith

Chief Financial Officer

David has been part of HC-One since the company’s inception in 2011; as Chief Financial Officer he has held a prominent role in all HC-One’s acquisitions and re-financings as well as being a key part in the company’s ever-increasing financial resilience.

David is a charted accountant with a degree in physics and over ten years’ experience in the care sector. He has a wealth of financial expertise from a number of senior finance positions and working for Price Waterhouse Cooper in the UK, United States and Middle East.
 

Sir David Behan CBE

Non-Executive Chairman

Sir David Behan originally joined HC-One in 2018 as a Non-Executive Director, subsequently becoming Chairman in November 2019.

His role has included working closely with the Board and Senior Management Team to ensure HC-One continues to deliver its ambition of becoming the first-choice care provider for Residents and Colleagues across the UK.  He has also been particulary focused on ensuring high standards of care are delivered across the organisation. 
 
With over 40 years of experience in health and social care, Sir David’s career highlights include being the former Chief Executive of the Care Quality Commission, the regulator for health and care services in England, for six years; the Chief Inspector of its predecessor, the Commission for Social Care Inspection; and Director General for Social Care, Local Government and Care Partnerships at the Department of Health.   Sir David is also the current Chair of Health Education England, the body which provides national leadership and coordination for the education and training of the health and public health workforce in England. 
 
In 2004, Sir David was appointed the CBE for services to social care and was knighted for his services to health and care in the 2017 New Year’s Honours list.
 

James Tugendhat

Chief Executive Officer

James joined as Chief Executive in September 2020; a key reason James gives for joining was HC-One’s commitment to being the Kind Care Company. He is working with the team to foster a culture that actively encourages simple kindness in everything we do, and to deliver the company’s ambitious mission of being the ‘first choice’ care home, for Residents, Relatives and Colleagues in every community served.  
 
James has worked across a wide range of sectors, having started his career in consumer and financial services, before holding leadership roles in healthcare and the broader care sector. Most recently, he led the European and international division of US-based Bright Horizons. Prior to that, he spent a number of years with Bupa where he worked across several parts of the group, including leading Bupa’s NHS commissioning effort. He has also been President and CEO of Boston-based Health Dialog, a ground-breaking health analytics and disease management business acquired by Bupa. James is also Non-Executive Director of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. 
 

John Ransford CBE

Board Director

In a public service career spanning over forty years, John Ransford gained extensive leadership experience of personal social care, health and wellbeing and government at local, regional and national levels.  John spent fourteen years at the Local Government Association (LGA) which represents all local councils in England and Wales.
 
After advising and leading on social care, health and public protection services, he became Chief Executive of the LGA for three years until 2011.  Since 2011 John has served as a board member for a number of leading care operators including HC-One where he has been a Member of the Executive Team for several years.  John was awarded the CBE for services to social work in 1997.

Sir William Wells

Senior Independent Non-Executive Director

Sir William has held non-executive roles in the NHS since 1968, and spent fifteen of those years working in social care. His career in the public sector has included roles as a Governor of the Royal Free Hospital in Gray’s Inn Road, Chairman of the NHS Appointments Commission (2001-2007), Chairman of the Commercial Advisory Board to the Department of Health (2003-2007) and Member of the General Council of the King’s Fund (1995 to date).

Sir William was awarded a knighthood in March 1997.