Jo Pritchard OBE
Chair
Jo has spent her career working in health and social care as a nurse, senior manager and leader. She worked in most areas of the NHS as well as over two years in the American health care system.
Jo led the establishment of the first employee-owned social enterprise to come out of the NHS and ran it for eleven years. She and colleagues were convinced of the benefits of operating community health services as a business but with the focus on employee happiness and in using any profit for social good. During this time she was instrumental in the development of government policy to support public sector mutuals.
Appointed as a Commissioner on the Prime Minister’s Nursing and Midwifery Commission in 2010, the following year she was awarded an MBE for services to social enterprise. In 2017 Jo was honoured with the Employee Ownership Association’s Philip Baxendale Fellowship award and was made an Honorary Fellow of Social Enterprise UK. She was awarded an OBE in 2021 for services to social enterprises in health and social care.
Her current roles include Non-Executive Board Director at SEUK, Trustee of Ownership at Work and Visiting Professor at University of Surrey.