In 2024 Hilary took on the role of Senior Responsible Owner for NHS England’s Data for Research and Development Programme.

Hilary has worked in both the public and private health sectors in the UK and Ireland. During her career in the NHS, she has undertaken a broad range of roles, including in education, clinical operational management, clinical service design, capital programme management, electronic healthcare application design and deployment.

She qualified as a registered nurse in 1985 and specialised in renal nursing. She worked at St Mary’s Hospital Paddington, London, where she held a joint senior lecturer practitioner post with Thames Valley University, provided senior nurse management for St Mary’s renal services and led post-graduate specialist renal nurse education for North West Thames.

In 2002 she joined University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust and led the Research Development and Innovation Department, delivering a range of regional and national programmes such as the West Midlands Genomics Medicine Centre. She also managed flagship NIHR research infrastructure (including the Biomedical Research Centre, Clinical Research Facility, HealthTech Research Centre and Applied Research Collaboration) as well as the West Midlands Secure Data Environment, part of NHS England’s Data for Research and Development Programme.

In October 2023 Hilary was awarded an Honorary MBE for her services to genomic delivery in the NHS.

She joined Moorfields Eye Hospital in 2024 as Director of Discovery.