Behavioural care specialist The Priory Group has appointed Alexandra Ryan (pictured) as group director of business development and Karen Langton as group director of human resources.

These are new roles to the group’s operating board and will come effective from 1 January.

Both are internal appointments; Ryan was previously Priory Healthcare’s service development director, a role she assumed in October 2016. She joined Priory Healthcare in 2011 as a business development manager.

In her new board role, she will oversee the Priory Group’s sales, bidding, marketing and communications functions.

Langton steps up to her group-wide role from her current role as Priory Healthcare HR director.

Trevor Torrington, Priory Group’s chief executive, said: “The appointments reinforce our commitment to developing and progressing internal talent wherever possible, as part of our Priory career pathways programme. They also reinforce our desire to increase, wherever possible and appropriate, the number of talented and gifted women in top jobs within the business.”

The Priory Group helps more than 30,000 people a year across more than 450 sites and is organised into three divisions – healthcare, education and children’s services, and adult care.