COHPA is currently governed by a board of directors consisting of a Chair, Deputy Chair, and representatives of each type or size of commercial provider, (being small, medium or large). On a day to day basis COHPA is run by its own administrative team (Charlotte Cross, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).
The current board is made of of the following members :
Geny Foster - Chair
Geny 
was appointed as Managing Director of Medigold Consultancy in July 2005. Geny has developed and maintained excellent relationships with many of our clients and has been a keen innovator of many of the administrative policies and procedures for which Medigold excels. Geny joined Sedgwick Noble Lowndes Health Consultancy in January 1998 shortly before the management buyout of Medigold was completed from the Healthcare Division of Sedgwick Noble Lowndes. Geny's previous positions were as both HR and Administration Director and Manager, where she was responsible for the administration of all contracts within Medigold and for the smooth running of the Head Office, together with responsibility of all HR Services. She is also responsible for most of the computer software development, and design and development of the various clinical databases in use within the company.
Andrew Noble - Deputy Chair
Andrew Noble is Managing Director of Health Management Ltd, a leading independent Occupational Health provider, which provides occupational health services to large corporates / FTSE 100 companies and public sector clients such as Central Government Departments, Police Forces and NHS Trusts. Andrew has been Managing Director of Health Management Ltd for 10 years since founding the business in 2001 with Dr. Alasdair Emslie, Richard Emslie and Dr. Rupert Hall-Smith, all of whom work in the business. Health Management operates from a number of regional centres and now employs over 300 staff, including one of the largest groups of Consultant Occupational Health Physicians in the UK. It is actively involved in the training and supervision of OHPs and OHAs and has a number of StR training posts. Andrew is a graduate of Bristol (B.Sc Joint Hons) and Cambridge (M.Phil) Universities.
Gary Gear - Director
Gary has worked in the field of work and health for twenty-five years. For the first ten years he worked directly for the Department for Work and Pensions focusing on Incapacity Benefit and Disability Living Allowance issues. Seeing first-hand the impact not working has on both individuals themselves and society as a whole, fuelled a passion within him to improve the situation in the UK. Fifteen years ago Gary switched to the private sector and now leads Atos Healthcare Occupational Health business, the UK’s largest Occupational Health provider. His focus remains on improving the health of individuals, companies, and the UK economy. Gary is a staunch advocate of high quality Occupational Health provision and its ability to changes lives. The position we have today in the UK in which the majority of employees have no provision is something Gary is seeking to change.
Carole Miller - Director
Carole is a Specialist Practitioner in Occupational Health and Health and Safety. Her Company Priority Occupational Health Ltd, of which she is a Director, was formed on 4 November 2004. Carole has extensive experience in designing, implementing and providing occupational health services at a strategic level. With a focus on strategic solutions, Carole’s experience encompasses service delivery primarily for the manufacturing, pharmaceutical, power industry, construction, banking and health care sectors. Carole’s career has been directed to the provision of the full range of integrated occupational health services, which have included audit, safety, ergonomics and organisational stress management. All of which have most recently been provided through occupational health and safety consultancy. This experience has enabled Carole to demonstrate proven interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to combine business strategy and vision with customer orientated delivery. .
Karen Talbot - Director
Karen Talbot is currently Sole owner/Director of Diverse Health Solutions Limited, she has worked within Occupational Health field since 1995, gaining her occupational health degree in 1999. Karen’s main areas of expertise in the OH field are customer care, business acumen and quality provision. She strives to increase the OH profile in all her clients and professional contacts throughout the UK. She held directorship previously for 4 years for the Association of Occupational Health Nurse Practitioners (UK). Karen joined the COHPA Board in 2009 and was the elected Chair for 2010. She maintains that Occupational Health practitioners at all skills and educational levels require the business acumen to work effectively with organisations, to have the correct level of training and to increase the occupational health profile nationally.
Paul Young - Director
Paul Young is the Sales Director for Organisational Health within the Health and Wellbeing division of Capita. His focus is on business development and proposition development, understanding customer’s requirements in the Corporate Healthcare market and developing commercial propositions to meet those requirements. Paul has almost 20 years of experience in a variety commercial management roles, of which 15 years he has focussed in the Healthcare sector. He has a proven track record of leading teams to deliver customer focussed solutions in Healthcare and Occupational Health markets. Paul was the General Manager of Aviva’s Occupational Health business until it was formally integrated into Capita during 2012. Paul is a Chartered Management Accountant, and has a 1st class MBA from Manchester Business School.
Members agreed at the first Extraordinary General Meeting of the association that COHPA will have no conpuslary number of directors written into the constitution ; the minimum number being one and no maximum. However an inspiration was recorded in the minutes that 2/3 of the Board should always be representatives of small or medium sized providers, unless not enough members stand for these positions and in which case open invitations would be issued for the remaining positions.