Organisational structure
Chief Executive
Alan Doran
For 12 years, Alan was a civil servant in the then Department of Health and Social Security. He worked as the main link with two Regions on their 10-year plans and led the team that developed the first national set of Performance Indicators.
Following a stint as Private Secretary to the Permanent Secretary (during which time the Griffiths Management Inquiry Report was produced), Alan went to run a Family Practitioner Committee in the NHS.
He had successive posts at Regional Health Authority and Regional Office level and ran two Health Authorities - one during the introduction of the internal market and the other at the time of the NHS Plan and the evolution of Primary Care Trusts.
Alan then returned to the Department of Health to lead on winter planning, emergency admissions and A&E performance and then subsequently worked on Star Ratings and emergency planning.
In May 2005 Alan led the team that produced the Government's White Paper Our health, our care, our say and the 'Your Health, Your Care, Your Say' listening exercise. This sets out a strategic vision for health and social care services outside hospital based around individual needs.
Alan's last post at the Department was as Director General of Corporate Management.
Director of Compliance
Nick Jones
Nick Jones joins the HFEA from the Care Quality Commission, where he was Head of Planning and Performance. He has worked in health care regulation (within the Commission and its predecessor bodies) for eight years.
He has led high profile work including leading the overall regulatory approach affecting NHS organisations, social care providers and councils; a ground-breaking review of learning disability services in the NHS and independent sector; and the development of strategic and business plans – establishing and measuring the anticipated outcomes of health care regulation.
Prior to this, he worked in the social housing industry in housing associations, consultancy and as a regulator putting in place a new regulatory framework.
Nick is passionate about placing people at the heart of services and the importance of their involvement in improving the quality of care. He is also passionate about the role that regulation can play in partnership with people who use and provide services to bring this about.
Nick lives in Muswell Hill, North London with his partner and three children.
Director Strategy and Information
Peter Thompson
Peter Thompson joined the HFEA in January 2009 as Director Strategy and Information. After a brief first career in academia, Peter joined the civil service in 1997 and went on to work for a number of Government departments over the next 11 years.
Among a variety of roles, Peter was responsible for the Government's policy on the legal recognition of transsexual people, including in 2004 taking the Gender Recognition Bill through Parliament and establishing the Gender Recognition Panel, a tribunal to approve applications from transsexual people to change their legal status.
Peter also led the team which was responsible for the justice element of the UK Presidency of the EU in 2005.
More recently, Peter worked for the Ministry of Justice leading the strategic co-ordination across Government of the Prime Minister's Governance of Britain programme of constitutional renewal.
Director of Finance and Facilities
Mark Bennett
Mark Bennett joined the HFEA in December 2008. Prior to this, Mark worked for Transport for London (TfL) for five years, where he managed the statutory transport planning, target reporting and funding processes with the 33 London Boroughs.
In addition, he managed a project to deliver a web-based portal connecting TfL with the boroughs.
Mark is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and also has a Masters Degree in Environmental Decision Making from the Open University.
In previous roles, Mark has held Senior Positions in a wide variety of different sectors and industries including Shell and general management consultancy. He has lived and worked in Brunei, Bulgaria, Romania, Egypt and Vietnam as well as the UK.
Senior Legal Advisor
David Gomez
David Gomez joined the HFEA as Senior Legal Advisor in October 2007. Prior to joining the HFEA, he was the legal advisor to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.
In that role, he was involved in negotiating with the Department of Health over the content of the Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians Order 2007, drafting secondary legislation to implement the Order and was responsible for the complete overhaul and reform of the Society’s fitness to practice and disciplinary machinery.
A regulatory law specialist, David was called to the bar in 1995,and cross qualified as a solicitor in 2001. He has held positions in the Government Legal Service, as an in house lawyer, and as a solicitor in private practice.
Whilst in private practice, he acted for the most of the health care regulators and participated in the review of mechanisms for legislative reform of those bodies organised by the Department of Health.
David has drafted statutory instruments, rules, regulations and fitness to practice procedures for various regulatory bodies including the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the General Medical Council, the General Social Care Council (and the Care Councils in Wales and Northern Ireland), and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
David is co-author (with Joanna Glynn QC) of “Fitness to Practise: Health Care Regulatory Law, Principle and Process.”
Page last updated: 15 March 2009