Adrian Roberts, group Chief Finance Officer at the Trust, has been named Finance Director of the Year at last night’s Healthcare Financial Management Awards (HFMA) Awards.
He was commended for his work helping steer the trust through the merger to form the £1.6bn turnover organisation and in overseeing a successful financial turnaround programme.
The latter turned a deficit approaching £17m in 2015/16 into an operating surplus of more than £56m in 2016/17. He was central to the programme and to engaging clinicians with the savings and productivity programme, even getting across the importance of the work through a series of short videos.
He was also an instrumental figure is securing a successful merger – for example, developing the detailed business case required by the Competition and Markets Authority and NHS Improvement.
Judges said he had demonstrated strong leadership and developed a finance department that is considered best in class in a number of areas, including procurement and contracts and income.
They added: ‘He has clearly demonstrated substantial achievement across all of the key award criteria. Adrian Roberts is an exceptional finance director and has consistently delivered excellent results both in the area of finance and in the wider managerial context where his insight, commitment and technical ability have been a huge asset to his trust.’