Our leadership team
Meet the senior leaders who guide Martlets services.
Our leadership team
Claire Irving CEO
Claire Irving joined Martlets as CEO in March 2022.
Claire brings with her a wealth of experience from her previous roles, having worked at St Catherine’s Hospice since 2006, following a career in fundraising, business development and project management in national charities and NGOs. She was appointed Director of Income Generation at St Catherine’s Hospice in 2015 and acted as Interim Chief Executive during 2020.
Sharon Howes
Deputy CEO
Sharon joined Martlets from an NHS Acute Trust in May 2017. She is a highly committed and motivated leader and has spent her career in healthcare and financial services. Sharon has held several leadership and senior manager roles in human resources in Brighton. She has also supported a diverse range of workforce projects and service improvements to improve education and to deliver service redesign.
Most recently, Sharon has been a programme manager and change consultant for a range of workforce cost improvement projects, helping to deliver sustainable workforce change and continuous improvement. She is a Prince 2 and MSP practitioner — systems that are leading the way in project management technology.
Dr Simone Ali
Medical Director
Simone has been a Consultant in Palliative Medicine at Martlets since March 2004. She graduated from Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, University of London (now part of Imperial School of Medicine) in 1993. Simone did her post-graduate general medical training in and around London. Her interest in palliative medicine began in 1998 as a junior doctor, and this led to her specialist training from 1999-2003.
Since being at Martlets, Simone was Clinical Director of the community palliative care team from 2010-2016 and has been Medical Director since June 2013. As well as her clinical commitments, she has an active teaching role with links to Brighton and Sussex Medical School, the Institute of Cancer Research and with GPs and primary care teams in the local area. She has a large strategic role in the locality working with other providers and commissioning bodies to ensure that palliative and end of life care is of the highest quality and safety.
Simone has a particular interest in medical ethics and obtained her MA in Ethics of Cancer and Palliative Care in 2005 from Keele University. She is also passionate about clinical leadership, completing the NHS Staff College Senior Leadership Programme in 2012 and going on to be invited to be part of their faculty in 2013.
When she is not working, Simone enjoys being a busy mum, wife, daughter and friend, indulging in foreign travel and singing, rustling up a good home cooked meal and building on her very basic knowledge of the arts.
Michael Barford
Director of Finance and IT
Michael joined Martlets in June 2022. He is a CIMA qualified accountant with a background covering commercial, public and non-profit sectors.
Michael worked in manufacturing companies while studying in the early part of his career and qualified while working in the NHS in senior financial management roles. He moved to the commercial sector with BT where he held various positions before specialising in communications regulation, which led to him joining a national internet and comms provider as Regulatory Director. Subsequently, Michael has held senior management positions in further education and charities as well as continuing consulting activities in the communications sector. He joins Martlets from Independent Lives, a disability and care charity based in Worthing, where he was Director of Business Planning & Finance.
Fiona Mulliner
Director of Income Generation
Fiona joined Martlets in 2020 and is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM). Her global marketing career has spanned five continents and began in Asia where she was Vice President of Marketing for STAR TV (the equivalent of SKY), overseeing consumer and trade marketing across India, the Middle East, South-East Asia and China. She then joined BBC Worldwide in the USA to run their new joint venture with Discovery Channel.
Fiona returned to the UK in a global role for BBC Worldwide and later joined London & Partners, the Mayor of London’s official trade, investment and promotional agency. She was director of campaigns and most recently, director of commercial ventures and domestic tourism.
She says: “I live with my husband and children in Sussex. During the first COVID lockdown I began volunteering for a new foodbank, the Worthing Food Foundation, where I helped with food packing, delivery and fundraising. This experience led to my decision to find a new role in Sussex (here at Martlets) which allows me to use my expertise for the benefit of a local charity and the community.”
Karen Taylor
Director of Clincal Services
Karen was born and raised in Australia and trained there to become a registered nurse in 1981. She arrived in Brighton in 1984 and worked part time in a variety of healthcare settings. Her palliative care experience began at the Tarner care home in Brighton which later become Martlets. (Tarner was one of the three charities that joined together to become Martlets in 1997).
She says: “What struck me from the first night I worked at Tarner was the quality of care and the respect shown to every patient. Hospice care has changed over the years, but the core clinical values of care and respect are still as strong as ever. I am forever proud of the work that we do at Martlets and of the staff and volunteers that make it all happen.”
Claire Irving CEO
Claire Irving joined Martlets as CEO in March 2022.
Claire brings with her a wealth of experience from her previous roles, having worked at St Catherine’s Hospice since 2006, following a career in fundraising, business development and project management in national charities and NGOs. She was appointed Director of Income Generation at St Catherine’s Hospice in 2015 and acted as Interim Chief Executive during 2020.
Sharon Howes
Deputy CEO
Sharon joined Martlets from an NHS Acute Trust in May 2017. She is a highly committed and motivated leader and has spent her career in healthcare and financial services. Sharon has held several leadership and senior manager roles in human resources in Brighton. She has also supported a diverse range of workforce projects and service improvements to improve education and to deliver service redesign.
Most recently, Sharon has been a programme manager and change consultant for a range of workforce cost improvement projects, helping to deliver sustainable workforce change and continuous improvement. She is a Prince 2 and MSP practitioner — systems that are leading the way in project management technology.
Dr Simone Ali
Medical Director
Simone has been a Consultant in Palliative Medicine at Martlets since March 2004. She graduated from Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, University of London (now part of Imperial School of Medicine) in 1993. Simone did her post-graduate general medical training in and around London. Her interest in palliative medicine began in 1998 as a junior doctor, and this led to her specialist training from 1999-2003.
Since being at Martlets, Simone was Clinical Director of the community palliative care team from 2010-2016 and has been Medical Director since June 2013. As well as her clinical commitments, she has an active teaching role with links to Brighton and Sussex Medical School, the Institute of Cancer Research and with GPs and primary care teams in the local area. She has a large strategic role in the locality working with other providers and commissioning bodies to ensure that palliative and end of life care is of the highest quality and safety.
Simone has a particular interest in medical ethics and obtained her MA in Ethics of Cancer and Palliative Care in 2005 from Keele University. She is also passionate about clinical leadership, completing the NHS Staff College Senior Leadership Programme in 2012 and going on to be invited to be part of their faculty in 2013.
When she is not working, Simone enjoys being a busy mum, wife, daughter and friend, indulging in foreign travel and singing, rustling up a good home cooked meal and building on her very basic knowledge of the arts.
Michael Barford
Director of Finance and IT
Michael joined Martlets in June 2022. He is a CIMA qualified accountant with a background covering commercial, public and non-profit sectors.
Michael worked in manufacturing companies while studying in the early part of his career and qualified while working in the NHS in senior financial management roles. He moved to the commercial sector with BT where he held various positions before specialising in communications regulation, which led to him joining a national internet and comms provider as Regulatory Director. Subsequently, Michael has held senior management positions in further education and charities as well as continuing consulting activities in the communications sector. He joins Martlets from Independent Lives, a disability and care charity based in Worthing, where he was Director of Business Planning & Finance.
Fiona Mulliner
Director of Income Generation
Fiona joined Martlets in 2020 and is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM). Her global marketing career has spanned five continents and began in Asia where she was Vice President of Marketing for STAR TV (the equivalent of SKY), overseeing consumer and trade marketing across India, the Middle East, South-East Asia and China. She then joined BBC Worldwide in the USA to run their new joint venture with Discovery Channel.
Fiona returned to the UK in a global role for BBC Worldwide and later joined London & Partners, the Mayor of London’s official trade, investment and promotional agency. She was director of campaigns and most recently, director of commercial ventures and domestic tourism.
She says: “I live with my husband and children in Sussex. During the first COVID lockdown I began volunteering for a new foodbank, the Worthing Food Foundation, where I helped with food packing, delivery and fundraising. This experience led to my decision to find a new role in Sussex (here at Martlets) which allows me to use my expertise for the benefit of a local charity and the community.”
Karen Taylor
Director of Clincal Services
Karen was born and raised in Australia and trained there to become a registered nurse in 1981. She arrived in Brighton in 1984 and worked part time in a variety of healthcare settings. Her palliative care experience began at the Tarner care home in Brighton which later become Martlets. (Tarner was one of the three charities that joined together to become Martlets in 1997).
She says: “What struck me from the first night I worked at Tarner was the quality of care and the respect shown to every patient. Hospice care has changed over the years, but the core clinical values of care and respect are still as strong as ever. I am forever proud of the work that we do at Martlets and of the staff and volunteers that make it all happen.”