Our team.

Ruth is responsible for the overall strategy and leadership of the organisation, the delivery of the business plan and financial and impact targets.

Ruth's role involves:

• Developing new partnerships, company strategy and overall direction of the organisation
• Developing and managing relationships with stakeholders
• Working closely with the Executive Team and Senior Leadership Team

Ruth started her career in the UK Civil Service, including a stint in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit. From there she moved into the third sector, focussing on management, business development and innovation in organisations that focus on mental health, voice and advocacy. More recently Ruth has concentrated on social innovation and improvement in the health space, working for Nesta’s HealthLab and People Powered results team. From there Ruth had a spell in mental health commissioning and policy working for Cambridge and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group and NHSE (East) Mental Health Clinical Network.

Ruth joined THIS Institute in 2019 as Strategic Development and Enterprise Lead, working on commercialising Thiscovery and also contributing to the overall leadership and strategy of the team. In February 2023 she became interim and then permanent CEO of THIS Labs.

Ruth holds a BA in Engineering and Social and Political Science from the University of Cambridge, an MA in Contemporary British History from Queen Mary, University of London and an MBA from Cranfield University.

“I’m passionate about making high quality health and social care and I believe this is only possible through real, sustained and meaningful collaboration with the people that use and deliver health and care. I want to develop Thiscovery into an asset for the whole system that will support and enable meaningful collaboration and innovation through actionable insight.”

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Jenni is responsible for the design and delivery of the organisation’s services and products, and leads on our approach to working with expert participants and clients to deliver high impact projects.

Jenni’s role involves:

• Leading the Insight and Innovation Team to deliver the best possible expert participant and client experience across all aspects of our work
• Developing new methodological approaches and new functionality on Thiscovery
• Developing new strategic partnerships and driving impact at scale

Jenni is a health services researcher by background, having been in academic research posts for over twenty years at Universities, including the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and University College London – most recently as Principal Research Associate at the University of Cambridge. Her research has spanned pretty much every possible methodological approach, including surveys, interviews, randomised controlled trials, observational research and a whole host of others – but she is predominantly a mixed methods researcher. Jenni has worked on topics including patient experience, the quality and safety of maternity care, the organisation and delivery of primary care, inequalities in care, and long term conditions. Jenni has extensive experience of teaching qualitative research approaches, mixed methods and surveys at postgraduate level and of supervising postgraduate and doctoral students.

Jenni has a BA(Hons) in Archaeology and Anthropology from the University of Cambridge – an MSc in Public Health from LSHTM – and a PhD in Health Services Research from UCL.

“Our work is important because I strongly believe that bringing together the insights and expertise from all those who work in or use health and care, using innovative approaches which make it easy for people to contribute, is crucial to improving health and care. I am excited about the possibilities of using my background in academic research to shape rigorous but accessible online research and collaboration to make it easier to define problems and generate solutions. Giving everyone a voice and an opportunity to contribute is something we can help with, and I am really looking forward to seeing the platform develop and grow.”

Lorna manages a portfolio of projects hosted on Thiscovery. She works with clients to deliver research and consultation projects that aim to build evidence about how to improve health and social care. Lorna's role involves:

• Strategic oversight and delivery of Thiscovery’s programme
• Development of effective partnerships with clients and guiding them the design, delivery and reporting of their Thiscovery projects
  
• Contributing to continuous learning and improvement to ensure success of our insight generating work

Lorna has extensive experience in providing operational leadership to healthcare projects and programmes in both academic and NHS research environments. She worked for the NIHR for over 10 years in a variety of operational roles driving the delivery of clinical and applied health research programmes and leading on patient and public involvement. Before joining Thiscovery, she worked at THIS Institute managing their complex portfolio of research and quality improvement projects, before taking leadership of new strategic programme developing a novel approach to healthcare improvement.

Lorna holds a first class BSc (Hons) in Psychology from the University of Sheffield.

“I am passionate about supporting clients to develop engaging and robust online research, quality improvement and other projects that can make a positive difference in the way health and care is designed, delivered and improved.”

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Gaurav is responsible for enabling the organisation to successfully deliver its strategic goals, objectives and business plan.

Gaurav’s role involves:

• Managing all internal functions including; legal, finance, HR, payroll, governance, office management, and internal IT systems
• Developing, managing and reporting on progress against the agreed business plan
• Responsibility for the effective working of the THIS Labs Board

Over the years Gaurav has worked predominantly in the Health sector. He spent 15 years with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). For the majority of his time there he worked on major change initiatives, including implementing a Case Management System for managing professional conduct cases against registrants, implementing revalidations for nurses and midwives, transferring offices, portfolio management and advising the Executive Team on strategic programmes. He also helped set up PMO capabilities for the organisation and was an Assistant Director in the Office of Chief Executive.

Gaurav graduated from India in Commerce and Business Management. He also has an MBA in IT from the University of Lincoln and an MSc in Insurance and Risk Management (Distinction) from Bayes Business School (formerly CASS Business School), City University.

“I have a strong passion for health and care improvement and I believe that through our work we can make strong and visible impact to the wider health of our citizens.”

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Sam is responsible for the marketing of Thiscovery to those needing a tool for generating actionable insights. He also works with partners, website developers and others to increase Thiscovery's user base.

Sam's role involves:

• Managing and adding new content to the Thiscovery website
• Producing engaging content for prospective partners on Thiscovery's potential for generating invaluable insights to support improvement in health and care
• Supporting with the design of improvements to the Thiscovery platform's user experience

Sam has previously worked in communications, PR and marketing roles across the retail, agriculture, finance and education sectors. Prior to joining Thiscovery, he held a communications position within the Admissions Office at the University of Cambridge.

Sam is interested in delivering an engaging experience to growing communities with a shared passion. He holds a first class BA (Hons) in History from the University of Lancaster.

“Thiscovery is developed by like-minded people with a common drive for positive change. We extend this shared principle to the platform itself and are focused on improving how Thiscovery engages with people on things that matter.”

Rebecca is responsible for managing the schedules and communications of the CEO and COFO and handling a wide range of high-level administrative tasks for them and the wider team. She helps to improve the communication, organisation and efficiency of the whole organisation.

Rebecca's role involves:

• Diary management, general admin and travel arrangements
• Office management and producing meeting minutes
• Supporting with organising internal events and attendance at external events

Rebecca has previously worked in the Hospitality and Super Yacht industry, in E-Commerce as a Website Content Co-ordinator, and as a PA in the NHS (CUH).

She has a BA (Hons) in Graphic and Media Design at the University of the Arts London.

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André leads the Platform Engineering team at THIS Labs, overseeing the development and delivery of our key product, Thiscovery. He is responsible for technical architecture, security, quality management, and ensuring the successful execution of the development roadmap.

André's role involves:

• Managing the Platform Engineering team
• Overseeing technical delivery and ensuring platform security
• Fostering innovation and continuous improvement

André has extensive experience in software engineering and data analysis in an academic context, with roles in leading research institutions in the UK and abroad.

His background is in scientific research, with a PhD from the University of Cambridge, and MSc and BSc degrees from the University of São Paulo.

“Our work is crucial for driving large-scale improvements in health and care. I am passionate about using technology for social impact and value our evidence-based, inclusive, and collaborative approach.”

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Jay works alongside the Insight and Innovation team and Platform Engineering team to support with the delivery of projects launched on Thiscovery.

Jay's role involves:

• Supporting with survey design and setup and implementing client requests
• Copywriting and creating project landing pages and communications to participants
• Securely transferring data to clients

Jay has worked in a range of roles at BT and PlusNet, including Sales, Knowledge Management, and Billing Analysis. Jay's responsibilities during this time included being a team leader, copywriting, and managing the billing system.

Jay has a BSc in Biochemistry and Microbiology and is studying a Level 4 software development apprenticeship through Digital Native.

“My hopes are that our work will continue to support the NHS in building up their evidence base for changes and improvements. I really want our work to make real differences to people accessing services within the health and care system to improve patient care and staff resilience.”

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