Helen played a key role in the leadership team that oversaw the transition of CDS CIC from the local NHS Trust to an independent employee-owned social enterprise in 2011. In the early stages of CDS CIC’s formation, she was a student on the university's postgraduate certificate in Social Enterprise Management, and the two-year course helped her understand more about the social enterprise sector and develop the leadership and management skills the organisation needed to succeed.
Helen said, “I am honoured to have been recognised in the Anglia Ruskin Vice Chancellor’s Alumni Awards along with many others who have achieved so much on the back of their studies. The course I followed in Social Enterprise Management helped me to grow in confidence to develop from my clinical role as a dentist to take on more leadership responsibilities in CDS CIC and to eventually become chief executive. The course was invaluable in helping me to develop the strategic, entrepreneurial and judgment qualities to become CEO and to instil a deep knowledge and belief in the social enterprise business model and how it can deliver public services effectively.”
Helen was appointed CEO in 2022 and prior to that was chief operating officer overseeing special and paediatric dental care, epidemiology and oral health improvement across much of the East of England and the East Midlands.