Chris Ham

Professor Chris Ham, CBE is a health policy academic who started life as a political scientist. He has been chief executive of the King's Fund since 2010. He was professor of health policy and management at University of Birmingham's health services management centre from 1992 to 2010. He was seconded to the Department of Health where he was Director of the Strategy Unit working with Alan Milburn and John Reid until 2004. He was said to be "unrivalled in his ability to distil and synthesise complex policy developments and present them in a clear and digestible manner for non-specialists" in 1999. He is frequently called upon to chair large conferences on health policy in England. He was said by the Health Service Journal to be the 38th most powerful person in the English NHS in December 2013.