Non-Executive Director
Professor Hugh McKenna is a nurse by background and until recently, was Dean of Medical School Development and PVC Research and Innovation at Ulster University. He has over 250 publications, including 17 books. He was appointed Commander of the British Empire and is a Fellow of four prestigious organisations. In 2013, he received an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Royal College of Nursing and in 2014, a Lifetime Achievement Award. In a 2018 Government report he was named one of the most influential nurses in the 70-year history of the NHS. In 2019, he was appointed Member of the Academia Europaea, and in 2020 a Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts. He chairs the WHSCT Clinical Ethics Committee and sits on the Department of Health’s Clinical Ethics Forum, advising on ethical issues facing health and social care. Until recently he was chair of INSPIRE, the largest mental health, learning disability and addiction charity on the island of Ireland.
In 2023, he became Member of the Hong Kong Standing Review Board, named by Stanford University as one of the World’s Top 2% of scientists, received the Sigma Europe Award as one of the top 100 nurses over the last 100 years, awarded by Nursing Times as one of the top 70 nurses since 1948, became Editor in Chief of the Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing and was appointed Vice Chair of Alzheimer’s Society UK.