The Board of Directors

Sir William Wells
Non-executive Chairman

Aged 71 – Sir William brings a wealth of experience to the Board having held numerous positions in both the public and private sectors in a career that has spanned more than 40 years. From 1964 Sir William worked as a property consultant becoming partner at Chesterton and Sons in 1966, managing partner in 1984 and chairman of the business, following incorporation in 1991, until his retirement, in 1997. His board level experience commenced in 1972 and since that time he has held positions in many well known organisations. Sir William began a parallel career in the public sector in 1968 as a governor of the Royal Free Hospital in Grays Inn Road, London and has continued unbroken in the NHS to date, together with other posts in health, education and science including: 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).

(1) Appointments committee
(2) Remuneration committee

Stephen Minion
Executive Deputy Chairman

Aged 65 – Stephen is a chartered engineer with a long career in design and development of commercial property. Following his BSc degree in engineering he initially joined the London Borough of Harrow, where he gained chartered engineer status. He worked for George Wimpey & Co where he learnt his main ‘stock in trade’ as a property developer before starting his own company in 1978. In 1991 he co-founded Ashley House where his specialist area centres around the overall delivery of the company’s core product and the development of new services.

Jonathan Holmes
Chief Executive

Aged 43 – prior to joining Ashley House in 1998 Jonathan followed a career in sales and marketing with an emphasis on setting up new ventures. In the 1990s he worked in the City for Thomson Financial Services and latterly the capital markets and Eurobond regulator ISMA. At Ashley House he is responsible to all stakeholders, shareholders, employees, clients and trading partners, for ensuring the continued commercial success of the business.

Antony Walters
Finance Director

Aged 44 – Antony has a BA in accounting and qualified as a chartered accountant in 1992. He gained an Executive MBA from Warwick University in 2004. He joined Ashley House in February 2010 having held various senior management positions within Celesio Group/Lloyds Pharmacy which he joined in 1996. Immediately prior to Ashley House, Antony was managing director of Sapphire Primary Care Developments which Ashley House acquired from Lloyds Pharmacy in November 2009

David Hartshorne
Chief Operating Officer

Aged 57 – David has been with Ashley House since November 2008 and is responsible for the operations of the Company. David is a chartered civil engineer and previously spent a number of years with John Laing where he established ExcellCare as a leading participant within LIFT. His career has involved leadership of client organisations participating in PFI and PPP infrastructure projects across a wide range of industries in the UK and overseas.

Andrew Gibson, MBE
Non-executive Director

Aged 62 – Andrew's first career was as a high-ranking army officer specialising in logistics. From there he went on to become one of the top performing chief executives within the NHS gaining the coveted three-star rating in every year it was published, initially as chief executive of City Hospitals Sunderland and latterly as chief executive of Newcastle PCT before stepping down at the end of 2005. Andrew joined Ashley House in January 2006.

(1) Appointments Committee
(2) Remuneration Committee (Chairman)
(3) Audit Committee

Andrew Willetts
Non-executive Director

Aged 48 – Andrew graduated from Keble College, Oxford in 1985 with a degree in modern history before going on to qualify as a chartered accountant with what is now PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1991. Since then he has held senior financial roles in a number of companies in the retail and wholesale sectors, including Waterstones, and most recently as director of shared services at Hagemeyer (now Rexel SA). He joined Lloyds Pharmacy in July 2003 becoming Finance Director in 2007. Andrew is also a director of the trustee companies for Admenta UK plc pension schemes and had main board responsibility for Sapphire Primary Care Developments until its sale to Ashley House plc.

(3) Audit Committee (Chairman)

Steve Gray
Non-Executive Director (Alternate to Andrew Willetts)

Aged 51 - Steve is trading director of Lloydspharmacy. Steve began his career in finance at Britvic before opening his own retail and wholesale business in 1984. After seven years Steve sold a successful business and went on to hold various roles within Operations, HR, Logistics and Business Development functions at Our Price/WHSmith and Retail Variations. Steve joined  Lloydspharmacy in 2004 as Regional Manager becoming Operations Director in 2008 and trading director in 2010.