David Nicholson (civil servant)

David Nicholson CBE is an administrator in the English National Health Service, appointed its Chief Executive in September 2006.

Nicholson graduated from Bristol University with a 2:1 in History and Politics. In the 1970s he was a member of the Communist Party and remained so until 1983.

In 1988, Nicholson was appointed as the Chief Executive in the first wave Doncaster Royal Infirmary NHS Trust. He introduced Clinical Directorates there in 1988 and the Trust was a national pilot for Total Quality Management. In 1997, he moved to the Trent NHS Regional Office as the Regional Director of Performance before being appointed as Regional Director in November 2000.

Nicholson was then made Regional Director for the old Eastern and West Midlands Regions between December 2001 and March 2002, combining these responsibilities with his Trent role whilst shadowing as Director of Health and Social Care (designate) for the Midlands and East of England. In April 2002 he formally took up the post of Director of Health and Social Care for the Midlands and East of England and had responsibility for 8 Strategic Health Authorities covering 20 million population.

In 2003 he was appointed Chief Executive of Birmingham and The Black Country Strategic Health Authority (BBC SHA). In August 2005 he was asked to take on the additional roles of Chief Executive of neighbouring Shropshire and Staffordshire SHA and West Midlands South SHA.

In April 2006 he was appointed Chief Executive of the newly formed London Strategic Health Authority. However he had little opportunity to make his mark, as it was announced on 27th July 2006 that he would be taking up the role of NHS Chief Executive in September 2006 in charge of a £90bn budget and 1.3m employees. . This became his fifth job-change in a year.

Nicholson was awarded a CBE in the 2004 New Years Honours list, and received the honorary award of Doctor of the University from the University of Central England, Birmingham.

He has two sons (one a recent graduate and one studying at University) and is a passionate supporter of Nottingham Forest Football Club.