About us

Tim Brooks

Chair

Tim Brooks has led many famous and diverse media brands, ranging from Health Service Journal to the Guardian; and from New Musical Express to the BMJ. He is chair of the advisory council of the British Library, and of NLA Media Access, a copyright management organisation owned by the UK’s major news brands. He is also a director of the Professional Publishers Association, and has twice served as a visiting fellow in strategy and entrepreneurship at London Business School. Tim invests his time and experience in enabling talented people and established publishing companies to flourish in today’s rapidly-changing information economy.

Caroline McNamara

Deputy chair, non-executive director

Caroline (Carol) McNamara has 30 years’ experience working in the publishing and information industry. She works at CABI, a not-for-profit international organisation owned by 48 governments. In her role as chief commercial officer, she is responsible for delivering income and growth for the organisation in addition to all customer communications. As most of her career has been spent in digital publishing she has an in-depth understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing publishers such as RCNi as customers demand greater flexibility from products and services in the move to a digital environment. Throughout her career she has worked in international markets and is accustomed to operating at board level in commercial and governmental organisations. Carol is also a qualified member of the Institute of Directors.

Kay Fawcett

Non-executive director and specialist clinical adviser

Kay Fawcett is a registered nurse with more than 40 years’ experience in healthcare, in a career spanning clinical practice, predominantly in emergency care; education, healthcare leadership and management. Chief nurse in two successful trusts, she retired from her role as executive chief nurse at University Hospitals Birmingham in 2013 to take up a portfolio career. Kay is an independent nurse adviser and has recently held an interim director of nursing role in Warwickshire supporting an acute trust. She also works as an adviser to Health Education England, providing advice on educational support of the care workforce and chairing the Trailblazer Apprenticeship development for unregistered staff. She worked on the nursing associate development and the Trailblazer for the registered nurse apprenticeship. Alongside this, Kay provides coaching and leadership to senior staff across the NHS at both Executive and sub Board level. Kay is also an associate of the Florence Nightingale Foundation, honorary senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham and a visiting professor at Birmingham City University. She was awarded the OBE in the birthday honours in 2014 for services to nursing.  

Aisha Holloway

Non-executive director and nurse academic adviser

Aisha Holloway is professor of nursing studies and head of nursing studies at the University of Edinburgh. She recently completed a CNO clinical academic research fellowship involving a programme of research funded by the MRC-PHIND exploring the feasibility and development of alcohol interventions in male remand prisoners in the UK. A registered adult nurse she has clinical experience in general medicine, acute medical admissions and intensive care. Aisha was previously the programme director for the master’s in advancing nursing practice in nursing studies and was the convenor of the Athena SWAN assessment team for the School of Health in Social Science leading the successful Bronze Award submission. Aisha has previously been seconded to the Scottish Government alcohol policy team as an honorary nurse consultant for alcohol research and policy. She is also chair of the Scottish Alcohol Research Network. Aisha studied at the University of Abertay, Glasgow Caledonian University and the University of Nottingham, and is a former chair of the Nursing Council on Alcohol. She was a member of the Department of Health alcohol policy team workforce training group and sits on the Alcohol Leadership Board at Public Health England.

Roy Grant

Non-executive director and adviser on HR and operations

Roy Grant joined RCNi board on 1 November 2013. Before this he worked as HR director in several sectors including banking, health and manufacturing. Most recently, Roy worked in media for Trinity Mirror Plc facing all the familiar challenges of its products moving online. Since 2013 Roy has worked as an HR consultant as well as holding non-executive roles for RCNi, Your Housing Group and Career Connect. His experience includes all aspects of human resources with an emphasis on merger and acquisition, change management and employee relations. Roy is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.    

Martin Richardson

Non-executive director and chair of audit committee

Martin Richardson has 40 years’ experience in the publishing industry. He has held a variety of executive positions with international publishers, most recently as a managing director with Oxford University Press. Martin has served on the boards of a number of trade organisations and has chaired the Published Licencing Society. He has also presented and published papers on the online development of scientific and medical publishing, particularly in the areas of new technology and business models. Since retiring from full-time work, Martin has become a consultant providing strategic advice to organisations such as the RCN and has contributed to a major writing project on the history of OUP, published in 2017. He is also studying music composition with the Open College of Arts.

Sophie Wybrew-Bond

Non-executive director and adviser on audience engagement and digital skills

Sophie Wybrew-Bond has 25 years' experience in media and information services (B2C and B2B) starting out as a marketer, then progressing from publisher through to managing director at Bauer Media's Entertainment portfolio. Most recently Sophie has been head of brand (creative & content) for Marks and Spencer, where she developed a publishing/content operation and oversaw every visual and written expression of M&S (from shop windows to advertising).