Naaz Coker

Naaz Coker is Chair of St George's Healthcare NHS Trust, one of UK’s largest NHS Trusts which has at its heart St. George's Hospital, one of London's premier undergraduate teaching hospitals. She was also the Chair of British Refugee Council, from 1998 - 2003, a large charitable organisation providing services and promoting the rights of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK and abroad and runs her own Leadership Development practice. Naaz has made significant contributions to the professionalisation of institutions in the voluntary sector, faith-based and public sector.

Her career spans 35 years in the public and voluntary sectors. She spent 20 years in the NHS where her roles ranged from Pharmaceutical and Clinical Director to General Manager in acute NHS Trusts in London followed by ten years at the King's Fund, a charitable foundation working in the field of health and social care, where she was the Director of the Race and Diversity programme and fellow in Leadership Development. She has written widely on racism and ethnic health inequalities in the NHS and the plight of refugees and asylumm seekers in the West.

She has held many other voluntary appointments including Chair of Aga Khan Health Board UK, Member of Management Committee of St Cecilia's Leonard Cheshire Home in Bromley Kent, trustee of the Media trust, London. She is currently a trustee of the RSA, a member of Oxfam Association and a member of the Ethics Committee of Dr Fosters. In May 2003, she was awarded ‘Asian Woman of the Year’ by the Asian Guild and in June 2004 she won the Asian ‘Women of Achievement’ award in the public sector category.

Naaz grew up in Tanzania and completed her University studies in the UK. She graduated in 1971 with an Honours degree in Pharmacy and in 1974 she gained a Masters degree in pharmacology from the University of London followed by a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the Open University Business School in 1991. She was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science by Leeds Metropolitan University in July 2005.