Frieza Mahmood

Frieza was appointed as Chief People Officer of Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust in December 2020.

Her early HR experience was predominantly in the private sector working for Cadbury Schweppes and Accenture. After undertaking a degree in Human Resource Management BSc, Frieza started her career on the National Graduate Management Training scheme for the NHS where she completed further Post graduate qualifications in the field of HRM and continued to work.

Frieza has spent the last 15 years working in senior HR roles in England across multiple NHS environments from acute trusts, to community and mental health organisations with extensive STP, ICS and partnership working. She also holds a Non-Executive Director role outside of the NHS in Education for WHMAT in Birmingham one of the largest Academy School Trusts in the country and is also a Careers Ambassador for the Black Country Consortium. She is active in the field of leadership research and development and also dedicates her time to the organisation of professional development and training for the Healthcare People Management Association (HPMA) as a member of the West Midlands committee

Frieza is passionate about widening access to opportunities and facilitating participation for hard to reach groups. She is also actively focused on improving staff experience to aid retention and deliver better outcomes for service users.

Frieza said:

“I believe outstanding patient experience is intrinsically linked to the creation of cultures in which highly motivated, skilled and well supported staff are empowered to work collaboratively to deliver the best quality care. It is particularly important to me to shine a spotlight on the amazing role that our staff play in delivering fantastic care for our patients. I would like to use my influence and leadership skills to tackle complex issues where we have traditionally struggled to make significant progress in the health service most notably the areas of fairness and transparency. I feel there is substantial further work we can do in the areas of EDI and distributed leadership approaches related to these spheres.