The NIAS Trust Board comprises of a Chair, 5 Non-Executive Directors and 5 Executive Directors (including the Chief Executive). The Chair is responsible for leading the Board and for ensuring that it successfully discharges its overall responsibility for the organisation as a whole. The Non-Executive Directors are appointed by the Department of Health (DoH) and they are appointed on merit to act in a personal capacity on the Trust Board.
The Executive Directors, led by the Chief Executive, are the full-time operational Directors of the Trust and are responsible for the operation of the organisation and for the implementation of the Board’s decisions.
Executive Directors and Chair
Michele Larmour, Chair
Michele Larmour was appointed Chair of the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service in April 2023.
Michele brings significant strategic leadership experience to the role. She is a leadership consultant and international strategic police advisor, successfully contributing to reform in Mongolia, the Balkans, Ireland and North Africa, to clients facing critical leadership challenges whilst undergoing transformational change. Michelle is also an Associate Assessor with the College of Policing, UK, an Associate Leadership Coach with Queens University, Belfast, and has held non-executive roles with Birmingham Metropolitan College. She is currently the Chair of the Police Rehabilitation and Retraining Trust.
An experienced executive leader, Michele has more than 31 years’ service in UK policing, most recently as Assistant Chief Constable, in England’s second largest force, West Midlands Police, having significantly contributed to the one of the largest UK policing transformations before leaving in 2017. Previously Michele served for more than 28 years within policing in Northern Ireland.
Michele has a BSc (Hons) Degree, graduated top performer on the UK Strategic Command Course and has completed the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Leadership Programme.
Maxine Paterson, Chief Executive
Maxine Paterson was appointed as Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service in April 2025. Maxine was appointed NIAS Deputy Chief Executive in March 2023.
Maxine Paterson was appointed to the position of Director of Planning, Performance and Corporate Services in April 2020. Maxine joined the public sector to the HSC via the Business Services Organisation in 2013 having held the position of Head of HSCNI, HR and Finance Shared Services since 2016. Prior to that, Maxine held a number of operational management positions with the shipping and logistics industry. She holds a Degree in Business Management and a Post Grad Diploma in Contact Centre Management.
Dr Nigel Ruddell, Medical Director
Nigel was appointed as NIAS Executive Medical Director in November 2018, having previously held the position of Assistant Medical Director from January 2009. He graduated from Queens University Belfast in 1992 and trained in the Ulster Hospital, Dundonald, before working for nine years as a General Practitioner in Dromara, County Down. He has always had a keen interest in prehospital emergency care and has responded as a voluntary BASICS doctor alongside NIAS since 2000.
Nigel is an examiner for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, a lecturer with the British Association for Immediate Care and an Associate Member of the College of Paramedics. He is a member of the MCUI(UC) Medical Team providing emergency care at local motorcycle racing and equestrian events. Within NIAS, he has a particular interest in the provision of medical equipment and emergency drugs as well as major incident management and emergency triage. Nigel is Medical Director for the Northern Ireland HEMS service and regional advisor for the Hazardous Area Response Team.
Michelle Lemon, Director of HR
Michelle worked in HR and Training in the private sector prior to joining NIAS in 2001 as Equality Manager, establishing an equality function for the first time in the organisation. She progressed to the role of Assistant Director of HR; Equality, PPI and Patient Experience and has since undertaken the role of Director of Human Resources in NIAS on a temporary basis on a number of occasions over the past six years.
From October 2018 to December 2019, Michelle was seconded to the Department of Health to lead on specific workforce policy work streams, including the recent NIAS pay agreement and contributing to the planning for the introduction of a BSc in Paramedic Science in Northern Ireland.
Michelle’s academic and professional background has included holding a BSc (Hons), CPP with Associate membership of CIPD and a MSc in Business Improvement. She is a former Board member of Employers for Disability.
Michelle was appointed to the post of NIAS Executive Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development in September 2022.
Seamus Mullen, Director of Planning, Performance and Corporate Services
Séamus Mullen was appointed as the Director of Planning, Performance, and Corporate Services in April 2025. Previously, he was employed as the Assistant Director of Strategic Planning and Partnerships at the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS). Before his time at NIAS, Séamus held senior positions in the Public Health Agency, the EU Peace Programme, and Rural Development.
His career includes extensive experience in strategic planning, policy development, research, and evaluation across statutory, community, and voluntary sectors. He has a strong track record in commissioning services, engaging stakeholders, and making evidence-based decisions.
Séamus brings a wealth of expertise in corporate strategy, performance improvement, and data-driven decision-making. With a background in public health and planning, he is dedicated to driving innovation and continuous improvement within NIAS. His goal is to enhance service delivery, performance and corporate governance to meet the evolving needs of communities across Northern Ireland.
Lynne Charlton, Director of Quality Safety and Improvement
Lynne is a nurse and has held a number of senior clinical and managerial posts across the HSC within Trusts, former Health and Social Care Board (HSCB) and the Public Health Agency (PHA). Lynne was appointed to a new Director of Quality, Safety and Improvement post within NIAS in November 2019 and has a range of responsibilities for which she is nominated lead Director in the organisation, including patient safety, patient experience, quality improvement, partnership working, real time user feedback, co-production, safeguarding, environmental cleanliness and Infection, Prevention and Control (IPC).
Non-Executive Directors
Mr Paul Corrigan
Paul graduated from Queens University Belfast in 1986 when he joined Royal Mail and had a 28 year career finishing as the Logistics Director for NI. Paul has been an Independent Arbitrator and Appeals Chair with the Labour Relations Agency since 2002. He was a Non-Executive Director with the Northern Health & Social Care Trust for the past eight years where he was Chair of the Audit Committee. Paul is currently a Commission Member with the Local Government Staff Commission, a Lay Member of the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal and also sits as a Lay Member on one of the fitness to practice committees of the Pharmaceutical Society NI.
In May 2022 Paul was appointed as a Non-Executive Board Member with the Department of Education NI and sits on their Audit and Risk Committee.
Paul volunteers with the leading educational charity Young Enterprise NI.
Mr Phelim Quinn RN, MSc
Phelim Quinn has had a 42-year career in health and social care services in Northern Ireland and Ireland.
He is a qualified Mental Health and Adult General Nurse (UK). He is also a qualified Health Visitor. Phelim held several nursing and managerial positions across health and social care services in Northern Ireland.
He was appointed as the Director of Regulation and Nursing at (RQIA) in 2005 where he oversaw the merger of pre-existing structures and establishment of new systems and structures.
In 2012 he was appointed as Director of Regulation and Chief Inspector of Social Services in the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) in Ireland. In 2014 he was appointed as HIQA’s CEO leading on the regulation of health social care services, statutory investigations, service and governance reviews, standard setting and the delivery of Health Technology Assessments for Ireland’s health and social care system.
Dr Philip Graham FInstKT, FRSA
Philip holds degrees in Economics, Public Policy and Legal Issues from Queen’s University and Ulster University. He began his career in the aerospace industry developing expertise in both procurement and contracts. Subsequently in Queen’s University he was responsible for Managing Intellectual Property, Research Contracts, and Consultancy.
An expert in managing Knowledge Transfer (KT) and strategy between business and research organisations, as Executive Director of the Association of University Research and Industry Links he grew it into the largest association of its kind in Europe. As an early champion of the professionalism of KT he was the first Executive Director and Fellow of the Institute of Knowledge Transfer. He has sat on all government KT policy Committees stakeholder groups, research councils, and grant awarding bodies.
He is a member of the Governing Body of the Northern Regional College, is Chair of its Education Committee and sits on its Audit and Risk Committee.
Mr Jim Dennison
Jim Dennison is the Chief Executive of the Simon Community NI, Northern Ireland’s largest and longest-serving homeless charity. Prior to this, he was Head of Operations at the Chartered Institute of Housing and Director of EU Programmes at the Community Relations
Council.
Jim is a Non-Executive Director of the NI Ambulance Service and Chair of its People, Finance and Organisational Development Committee. He holds an Honours Degree in Politics from the Queen’s University of Belfast; a Post-Graduate Diploma in Regional and Local Development from the Dublin Institute of Technology; and is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Housing.
Mr Dale Ashford QFSM
Dale Ashford served the public of Northern Ireland for 30 years in various roles within the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue service before retiring, in 2017, having been Interim Chief Fire Officer/Chief Executive.
Throughout his career, which included front line service, Dale held a number of senior positions including Head of Health and Safety and of Learning and Development. He spent a number of years as an integral member of the Corporate Management team.
Dale was responsible, as Director of Community Protection, for much of the progressive and innovative work undertaken by NIFRS, in collaboration with regional and national partners, to improve community engagement, particularly around road safety, as part of a wider public safety programme.
He has a Master’s Degree and is a graduate of the Executive Leadership Programme with Warwick Business School.
Dale was awarded the Queen’s Fire Service Medal in 2015 in recognition of his services.
