Private hospital company Spire Healthcare Group has announced that Adèle Anderson, Tony Bourne and Simon Rowlands will step down from the board at the company’s annual general meeting in May next year and replaced by three new non-executive directors.

Paula Bobbett will join as an independent non-executive director from 1 November. Bobbett  has significant retail and digital commerce expertise and is currently chief digital officer at Boots UK where she is leading the retailer’s digital transformation. Prior to joining Boots in 2020 Bobbett worked in senior roles at Dixons Carphone for seven years, latterly as head of online experience, and previously at Avon.

Debbie White will join as an independent non-executive Director from 1 February 2023. White is an experienced PLC director and is currently interim HR director of BT Group. She was the chief executive of Interserve Group from 2017 to December 2019 which she joined from Sodexo where she held various executive roles including global chief executive of Sodexo Healthcare and Sodexo Government.

Natalie Ceeney will join as an independent non-executive director on 1 May 2023. Ceeney is a seasoned portfolio director with a general management background and experience in digitalisation, transformation and regulation. She is a non-executive director of Anglian Water Services, Openreach, Ford Credit Europe and Liverpool Financial Services (LV=). Ceeney will become a member of the remuneration committee on appointment and chair the committee from 12 May 2023.

The company further confirmed that: Martin Angle will step down as senior independent director after the AGM and White will assume the role. He will remain the company’s deputy chairman; and Angle will take over from Adèle Anderson as chair of the company’s audit and risk committee from 1 May 2023. Anderson will remain a member of the audit and risk committee until she steps down from the board.

Sir Ian Cheshire, Spire Healthcare’s non-executive chairman, said: “We are delighted that Paula, Debbie and Natalie have agreed to join Spire’s board. The breadth of their expertise and experience will be a highly valuable addition to our board and the company. I would also like to thank Adèle, Tony and Simon for their considerable contribution to Spire over a combined 20 years on the board, and in the case of Tony and Simon this has been since the company listed in 2014.”

Spire Healthcare has 39 private hospitals and eight clinics across Great Britain.