Dame Ruth Carnall DBE, was appointed as Chief Executive of NHS London in April 2007. Prior to that, since 2004, Ruth worked as a freelance consultant in NHS London and government departments including the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit and the Home Office. Ruth was a non-executive director at the Cabinet Office until 2010 and until April 2007 was a non-executive director at Care UK plc and Chair of Verita, a small private company who undertake investigations and enquiries in the public sector.

Prior to 2004 Ruth worked in the NHS for over twenty-five years. During this time, she has undertaken senior leadership positions at local, regional and national levels. Her career began in finance holding various posts in a number of NHS organisations before taking the position of finance director at Hastings Health Authority in1987. In1992 Ruth became Chief Executive at Hastings and Rother NHS trust. She was Chief Executive of the West Kent Health Authority for six years before she moved to the civil service to take the position of Regional Director, South East and then Director of Health & Social Care for the South. From April 2003 until the end of September 2004 Ruth served as Director of the Departmental Change Programme at the Department of Health.

Ruth lives with her husband and two teenage sons. She was awarded her CBE for
services to the NHS in 2004 and later received a DBE in 2011.