HCL

Alan Walker

Chairman.
Alan qualified with KPMG Glasgow as a member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland in 1974 and following a period with Price Waterhouse in Paris has been engaged in industry and commerce for over 25 years. He specialises in corporate mergers and acquisitions on behalf of AB Wilh Becker of Sweden and other Swedish multinationals in the UK, continental Europe and North America where he also attended The Harvard Business School. He is CEO of Inveresk PLC, Executive Chairman of SWP Group PLC and holds a number of non-executive directorships in medium sized industrial and commercial businesses.

Kate Bleasdale

Executive Vice Chairman.
Having graduated from London University with a BSc and MSc in Nursing and following a brief nursing career, Kate Bleasdale set up her first medical locum agency - now Pulse Staffing - in 1986. Pulse gained a turnover of over £185m by 2001, making it at that time the second largest healthcare staffing company in the UK.

In 2003, Kate founded Healthcare Locums (HCL). Floated on AIM in November 2005,  the Company has grown both organically and by acqusition and is now the UK's largest specialist healthcare staffing company, with an annualised run rate turnover of approximately £206m.

Kate is twice winner of the AIM Entrepreneur of the Year (1997 and 2008).  She was also named Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 at the Quoted Company Awards.  Most recently she won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® Award 2009 for Business Services.

Diane Jarvis

Chief Financial Officer.
Diane qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young in 1988. She joined Courtaulds PLC in 1991, becoming a finance manager within the coatings division by the time she left in 1997. Diane joined Match Group plc as financial controller and was Director of Finance and Managing Director of the Medicentre Division when she left to join Crown Sports PLC in 2001. She became Group Finance Director at Crown Sports in 2002 before joining Healthcare Locums as Finance Director in 2005.

Alasdair Liddell

Non-Executive Director.
Alasdair graduated from Oxford in 1970. His career includes twelve years in Chief Executive positions in the NHS; a further six years working at the most senior level in the Department of Health, as National Director of Planning for the NHS, with Board-level responsibility for NHS information and IT, communications, and a number of key policy areas; and a founding role in a new media consultancy. He was a member of the top management board of the NHS for 12 years, between 1988 and 2000, and also has Board-level experience in both charitable and private sectors. He was awarded the CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours 1997 for services to the NHS.

Mo Dedat

Chief Operating Officer.
Mo is a chartered accountant. During his career he has spent 10 years in the London office of PricewaterhouseCoopers, gaining experience across a range of clients and industries and covering a wide range of work.  He then worked for 4 years at Sears plc, firstly as Group Financial Controller and then as Commercial Director for one of their high street retail chains. In 1998 he joined the IT specialist recruitment company Computer People as their Finance Director.  Following the company’s acquisition by Adecco in 1999, Mo’s finance responsibilities grew to cover Computer People’s operations in mainland Europe and he also took on operational responsibility for their e learning business.  In 2003 Mo became Finance Director of Ajilon, covering Adecco’s specialist brands in the UK: Office Angels, Roevin and Jonathan Wren, in addition to Computer People. Mo’s last role with Adecco was that of Finance Director for all of their UK & Ireland operations.