We at POhWER are proud to announce we have appointed Dr Felix Davies as our new Chief Executive. He will take up the role on 2nd September, when he replaces Vicky Browning OBE who has been interim CEO since January.

Felix is a respected health care leader with over 25 years of experience in mental health, acute, community, social care and primary care settings.  A registered clinical psychologist, Felix is also Secretary and a board-certified patient advocate of The Patient Advocate Certification Board.

Having spent the first 15 years of his career in the NHS, Felix worked for several national providers including Tracscare (now Accomplish), a specialist provider of support to people with mental health needs, learning disabilities, autism and acquired brain injuries, and mental health charity St Andrew’s Healthcare.

His most recent role was Chief Operating Officer at veterans’ mental health charity Combat Stress, where he has worked for the past five years. During his career, Felix has been a senior leader in several NHS Trusts, voluntary sector and private sector organisations and has worked in the UK, Germany, India and Japan.

POhWER chair Antony Kildare said: “We are delighted to welcome Dr Felix Davies as POhWER’s new Chief Executive. He has a proven track record as both a clinician and senior health and social care leader.  At its heart, POhWER is about people, and we were impressed by Felix’s passion for achieving the best possible quality for service users, clients, staff and partners.

“It’s an important time for POhWER as we move towards developing our next five-year strategy in a challenging environment for social care services. The trustees and staff look forward to working with Felix to deliver an inspirational new strategy which continues our vital work to make real, sustained improvement to the lives of the people we support.

“I would also like to thank Vicky Browning for her contribution and outstanding leadership over the past few months.’’

Incoming CEO Dr Felix Davies said:

“I am delighted to have been appointed as Chief Executive of POhWER.  I have known about the great work of POhWER since it was established and have seen at first hand the positive impact it has on the people it supports, both in the workplace and within my own family.

“I feel strongly about the need to help people have a voice, have their rights respected and to navigate our complex health and social care system as effectively as possible.  This has led to me providing advocacy myself as a board-certified patient advocate, and to promoting advocacy internationally as Secretary of the Patient Advocate Certification Board.

“I look forward to joining the POhWER team, and co-producing a new strategy that builds on POhWER’s excellent achievements to date, and that brings its crucial services to positively impact on even more people”.

We can’t wait to welcome Felix to the team in September.