Mike Farrar

Mike Farrar, CBE, FRCGP, FRCP, Dip.H.Ed, BA Hons

Mike is a highly respected health and care leader, latterly as an independent management consultant with 13 years of CEO experience in the NHS. He has built two successful independent consulting practices, working with clients such as PwC, Celesio, ABPI, J and J, Health Foundation, Medtronic, Intuitive, RCGP, Visionable, Hanover and Pfizer.

He remains a prominent thought leader and consultant to the NHS, supporting over 15 ICSs and NHS Boards. Additionally, he works internationally, transforming healthcare in the Middle East, Japan, Northern Ireland, US, and Australia.

Mike was previously the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, North West England SHA, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire SHAs, Tees Health Authority and Head of Primary Care at the Department of Health, where he negotiated and introduced PMS and then the new GMS Contract including the use of QoF, moving away from the previous fee for service model.

He also works in the charitable sector and in sport, where he has held a variety of influential roles including Chair of Swim England, having also served as the Vice and Interim Chair of Sport England, and as National Tsar for Sport and Health.

He was awarded the CBE in 2005 for services to the NHS and is an Honorary Fellow of both the Royal College of GPs and of the Royal College of Physicians.

During the COVID-19 Crisis and Recovery, Mike worked between March and July 2020 on a pro bono basis as the Acting Deputy CEO at Kings College Hospital NHSFT in London. Mike was appointed as ProChancellor and Chair of Keele University in 2022 and also, in the same year, as Chair of ukactive the national representative body for the physical activity and leisure sector.