Simon Stevens

Simon Laurence Stevens, Baron Stevens of Birmingham (born 4 August 1966) is a British public policy adviser, former CEO, and independent member of the UK House of Lords. He served as the eighth Chief Executive of the National Health Service in England from 2014 to 2021. He first joined the NHS in 1988, and worked at the Department of Health and 10 Downing Street, as well as internationally, including in Guyana, Malawi, and in the United States. A former member of the Labour Party, Stevens was a councillor in the London Borough of Lambeth from 1998 to 2002. Stevens served as a senior executive at the UnitedHealth Group from 2004 to 2014, an American for-profit managed health care company which offers health care products and insurance services. He was a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics from 2004 to 2008. Stevens was appointed as Chief Executive of NHS England after a worldwide competitive search, and served under Prime Ministers David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson. During his tenure as Chief Executive, Stevens was annually ranked the most influential person in UK health. Upon the announcement of his retirement as head of the NHS, he was hailed by the Health Service Journal as the most important figure in NHS history since Aneurin Bevan. On 5 July 2021, he became a crossbench Member of the House of Lords before stepping down from NHS England after seven years on 31 July 2021. He was succeeded by his deputy, Amanda Pritchard.