About ImproveWell

Lara Mott is the CEO and Co-founder of ImproveWell; the award-winning, real-time feedback solution for improvement and everyday innovation in the NHS. With an impressive array of experience in healthcare private equity, biotechnology and life sciences consulting businesses, Lara has a genuine passion for tackling key issues facing the NHS and other healthcare systems around the world. She co-founded ImproveWell in 2016 to empower frontline healthcare professionals to drive change. In April 2024, Lara was recognised as one of 30 rising leaders across the life sciences sector in the fifth annual listing of In Vivo’s Rising Leaders and she was previously named a “rising star” among the top 50 female leaders in UK healthcare in November 2017 . In 2019, Lara was a finalist for ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ at the ‘Women in IT’ and Inclusive Tech Alliance Awards and became the British Medical Journal’s first Entrepreneur in Residence. ImproveWell has been nominated for several awards, such as the Nursing Time’s Workforce Summit’s 2023 Retention Shortlist and Health Service Journal’s ‘Workforce and Wellbeing Initiative of the Year’, while also winning ‘Major Project Go Live’ award at HTN’s Health Tech Awards and ‘Digital Solution of the Year’ in the Integrated Health Awards 2023. Lara holds a first class degree in Pharmacology from Bristol University where she was awarded the Hans Heller Memorial Prize for outstanding performance.

Dr Na’eem Ahmed BEM FRCR FRCP is a consultant radiologist, medtech and NGO founder, and health policy researcher.
In 2008, Na’eem founded Selfless, a non-governmental organisation working in Bangladesh, which supports healthcare delivery and global health leadership development through ‘skillanthropy’ in low-income settings.
In 2016, Na’eem noticed his colleagues on the frontline had the best ideas for improving an overstretched NHS, and his idea for a frontline feedback and quality improvement smartphone app went on to become ImproveWell.
Na’eem has held several health policy advisory roles including Senior Clinical Fellow to the NHS National Medical Director, Policy Advisor to the Secretary of State for International Development, Advisor to the former Chief Executive of the NHS, Sir Simon Stevens, and Senior Clinical and Policy Advisor to the Department of Health and Social Care, UK.
His most notable healthcare role was Director of Workforce Supply, Safety, Modelling, Oversight and Deployment, and NHS Staff COVID-19 vaccinations at NHS England during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing assurance on the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine for NHS staff and overseeing the NHS’s response to workforce challenges prompted by the pandemic.

John brings a wealth of technical expertise to ImproveWell with more than 20 years of experience in software development and product management. Most recently, he was Chief Operating Officer of ag-Grid, a fast-growing UK-based technology company, where he led the growth and support of a global customer portfolio and significantly expanded business operations. John holds a BSc in Economics and Finance from University College, Dublin.

Nicola McQueen was appointed as CEO of NHS Professionals, the largest temporary staff supplier to the National Health Service, in September 2019; she had joined NHS Professionals as interim COO in January 2019. She is passionate about workforce business issues, having spent the past 20 years supporting and creating effective staffing strategies across both the private and public sectors. McQueen is also CEO of Doctors Direct, the locum service from NHS Professionals. Most recently, she led NHS Professionals through the coronavirus pandemic, successfully attracting tens of thousands of healthcare professionals into the NHS.

Jason is a technologist with a 25-year track record, holding several leadership and board positions for both privately owned and publicly listed organisations. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Forge Technologies, a digital IT services business focusing on three technology pillars: future workplace, cloud optimisation and network transformation. Prior to this, Jason was Executive Director at Ocean Intelligent Communications, an IT managed services provider with a focus on cloud services, for seven years resulting in an acquisition by digital transformation company, CANCOM, in 2018. Jason previously spent 16 years with Bistech Group plc, the IT services provider, holding a variety of senior roles rising to Sales Director and member of the Executive Board.

Bernardus is a qualified finance professional with over 20 years of dedicated and results-orientated experience, providing strategic direction, financial management and advisory services to a variety of organisations from corporate to owner founders, start-ups and PE/VC backed businesses. He has a proven track record in fast growing tech, SaaS and digital environments with extensive experience in managing Finance teams, HR and operational functions associated with start-up and fast-growing businesses. In addition to being a qualified accountant Bernardus holds an honours degree in finance from the University of Pretoria.

Claudia is a digital and marketing specialist with some 24 years’ experience across B2B, clinical and consumer marketing. Most recently, Claudia launched a digital platform for early-stage innovators in medtech, leading a multi-disciplinary team to take the concept from blank page to fully-formed product with extensive customer reach and collaborations with major industry stakeholders. Prior to this, she launched a multi award-winning digital magazine app for Harrods. Claudia holds a Join Honours BA degree in French and German, and a number of marketing and digital qualifications.

Rachel is a communications expert with more than 15 years’ experience in healthcare PR. She previously led the communications and patient advocacy practices for OVID Health, a health communications agency. She joined OVID from GSK, where she led global communications for the inhaled respiratory medicines team. She is the former UK Communications Director for GSK where she was part of the UK senior leadership team and oversaw internal and external comms. Her background is in science communications, having previously been a Science Press Manager for Cancer Research UK, where she worked with all the leading national and trade health journalists on a regular basis.

Hannah has 10 years of experience of working in the healthcare sector. Hannah started her career in management consulting and has held roles at an SME and later KPMG where she supported healthcare organisations in their operational improvement and quality governance programmes. More recently she worked for one of the UK’s largest healthcare providers, Spire Healthcare, as a senior commercial manager. Hannah holds a BSc in Neuroscience and an MSc in the study of population health from the London School of Economics.

Ben brings over 10 years of Customer Success/Client Experience expertise to the ImproveWell Team. Ben started his career at Groupon, before moving to a Google Ventures backed Marketing Technology start-up. Most recently, he spent four years within the Education Technology industry, where he led a global Customer Success team with a key focus on product uptake and expansion. Ben holds a BA in English Literature from the University of Surrey.

Since graduating from Cardiff University in 2017, Alex has been deeply passionate about the world of healthcare, and specifically in improving healthcare systems through digital platforms. Alex’s sales career began when he was selected from a graduate programme to join an account management team. During these years, he worked closely with stakeholders across NHS Trusts to transform the way they communicate with patients. Alex has a natural ability to connect with customers and understand their specific business challenges, helping advise on the adoption of new and innovative technologies.

Amy is a successful sales and marketing professional with more than 20 years’ experience across multiple industries, including event management, live music, healthcare and health tech and robotics. Having led B2B sales and marketing teams within corporate businesses, she moved to supporting the marketing and operations functions of start-ups. Amy is a true all-rounder and is our Executive Assistant and multimedia production specialist, providing support in both administrative tasks and content production. Amy’s hobbies consist predominately of walking her dog and riding her horse, but she can also often be found globetrotting, at music festivals or playing video games.

Shannon is our Marketing Executive. Specialising in design, motion graphics, brand and social media, Shannon graduated from the University of Surrey with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Digital Media Arts. She has experience in animation, film, illustration and graphic design. Shannon has previously worked on a series of creative projects, including an animation that was selected for the Paris Lift-off film festival and a finalist at the Florence Film Awards. Prior to joining the ImproveWell team, Shannon was an illustrator and designer for a mental health organisation, responsible for their logo and mascot rebrand in late 2020. 

Armed with a Bachelor’s in Biomedical Science and Master’s in Blood Science, Nish embarked on her professional journey within the NHS as an Associate Practitioner during the early stages of her career. With her deep-seated commitment to healthcare, she made a pivotal shift in 2021, transitioning into the role of a Customer Success Manager where she collaborated with an array of healthcare clients, including world’s leading pharmaceutical companies and influential medical publications. Fueled by her medical expertise, coupled with experience in customer success and passion for technology, Nish is now embarked on a mission to enhance the healthcare landscape and make a global impact.

Ranti is part of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between ImproveWell and Bournemouth University. As our KTP associate she is working to bridge the gap between academia and industry, and apply state-of-the-art AI techniques to the ImproveWell Platform. Her 10-year career in the tech domain commenced as an Electronics Design Engineer in the Metrology Industry at Renishaw Plc. She later moved to academia and conducted focused research, lectures, and workshops in Robotics and Deep Learning in the Healthcare sector. She holds an MEng in Electronic Engineering with Computer Engineering from the University of Warwick and an MRes in Medical Robotics and Image-Guided Intervention from Imperial College London. She is currently completing her PhD in an Augmented Reality Surgical Training Simulator for Total Hip Replacement as a part-time student and full-time staff member at Bournemouth University.

Emma is Data Protection and Freedom of Information Practitioner with a Post Graduate in Information Rights Law and Practice. Currently completing a masters in Information Rights Law and Practice with focus on algorithmic decision making and the impact on privacy.

Emma specialises in complex, multi-agency information sharing projects, transparency/fair processing campaigns, data protection impact assessments, liaising with Information Commissioner, information risk management, HIPAA to GDPR gap analysis and compliance projects.

Marcin Budka received his dual MSc/BSc degree in Finance and Banking from the Katowice University of Economics (Poland, 2003), BSc in Computer Science from the University of Silesia (Poland, 2005) and PhD in Computational Intelligence from Bournemouth University (UK, 2010). Between 2003 and 2007 he was working as an engineer, project manager and team leader in a smart-metering start-up company, before pursuing an academic career. In the years 2011-2012 he was appointed as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland. Between 2015 and 2017 he was the Head of Research in the Department of Computing and Informatics at Bournemouth University.