Message from Tracey

Published: 3 March 2021

I am delighted to announce that, following an extensive recruitment process, Dr Fu-Meng Khaw has been appointed to the Board as our National Director of Health Protection and Screening Services and Medical Director.

Meng joins us from Public Health England (PHE) where he is Director of Programmes for Place and Regions in PHE with responsibility for Port Health and PHE’s role in the national Diabetes Prevention Programme. He has played key national roles in PHE’s response to COVID-19, including as chair of the Centres and Regions Operations Cell, Director of the Programmed Delivery Unit to optimise quality and consistency of response, Chair of the Variant and Mutation Taskforce, National Incident Director and Deputy Chief Medical Adviser for NHS England’s Test and Trace.

Meng trained as an orthopaedic surgeon before embarking on a career in public health. After a short period as Consultant in Health Protection with the Health Protection Agency, he was appointed as Director of Public Health in North Tyneside in 2009 and later in Newcastle upon Tyne in 2011. In 2013, he took up the role of Centre Director for Public Health England (PHE) East Midlands where he led a team providing public health advice and support to improve the public’s health across the East Midlands. He worked with local government, the NHS and other stakeholders to serve the resident population of 4.6 million people.

Our Health Protection Service has been at the forefront of the national response to COVID-19 and I’m really pleased to be able to welcome Meng whose skills, experience and leadership will strengthen an already high performing service.

Dr Fu-Meng Khaw said:

“This is a critical time, not just for protecting the public from coronavirus today, but for making sure that we keep building resilience for the future. I’m really looking forward to meeting everybody and to working with teams across Public Health Wales and across the wider system in Wales to address this.”

Meng will join us in June 2021. In the meantime, Andrew Jones will continue in his role as Interim Executive Director of Public Health Services and Senior Responsible Officer for the Enhanced Health Protection Response and Dr Eleri Davies will continue to act as Interim Medical Director.

I would like to thank both Andrew and Eleri for taking on these interim roles and for doing such exceptional jobs in leading us through the pandemic over the last few months. They have provided stability and sound guidance throughout this period and I am extremely grateful for their ongoing leadership and contribution.

More about Meng

Meng is Chair of the Final Membership Examiners for the Faculty of Public Health and holds an honorary associate professorship with the University of Leicester. He is an honorary fellow at the University of Birmingham Leadership Institute where he supports the delivery of leadership programmes.

Internationally, Meng is a member of the Consortium Technical Advisory Service, supporting the development of the Better Health Programme of the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office Prosperity Fund. Meng is a trained facilitator for the International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHI) Staged Development Tool.