Helen McKenna Director

Helen joined Hanover from the NHS, where she was Chief of Staff to Jacqui Smith, the Chair in Common of Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust and Barts Health Trust.

Prior to working in the NHS Helen was Senior Fellow at The King's Fund, where her role spanned the Fund's policy and communications functions and involved analysing emerging policy issues and advising on their implications both internally and externally, as well as conducting research into NHS reforms and workforce. She was also a senior spokesperson for the organisation with regular appearances on national broadcast outlets including BBC News, Channel 4, Sky etc. Helen also established and hosted the highly successful King’s Fund’s podcast.

Helen started her career at the Department of Health as a fast-stream trainee and then as a manager, where her roles included working on the Health and Social Care Act reforms, leading a review of the NHS Constitution, supporting the Department of international health and trade, and working directly for two ministers (Andy Burnham and Ben Bradshaw).

Helen has a Masters in Health Policy from Imperial and is a trustee at The Listening Place (a suicide prevention charity).