Penny Woods was appointed chief executive of Picker Institute Europe in May 2009. She leads the organisation in developing its strategy to grow quality improvement services and remain recognised leaders in research, policy analysis and its gold standard survey business.

Prior to joining the Picker Institute, Penny supported a variety of start up companies in healthcare as an investor, advisor and non-executive director and enjoyed seven years in a variety of senior roles at BTG plc. She spent many years as a management consultant in the broad healthcare sector, working for a range of clients including governments in the UK and overseas, multi national companies, NHS organisations and private providers of healthcare. Penny is a qualified doctor and has an MBA from INSEAD.