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Leanne Watkins

Chief Operating Officer

About Me

Chief Operating Officer

Leanne has worked in the NHS since 1994, starting her career as a financial management trainee in Nevill Hall Hospital. She moved to the Isle of Wight in 1997 as a management accountant and soon transferred her analytical skills to move across into general management with a particular focus on planned care. She moved back to Gwent in 2002 where she undertook a series of operational and corporate performance roles before becoming the General Manager in Scheduled Care where she stayed until 2017.


In November 2017 she moved across to concentrate on the Clinical Futures strategy and helped the organisation transition into the full Clinical Futures model which culminated in the early opening of the Grange University hospital to support the organisations response to the pandemic.


As a Gwent resident, and someone who has spent the bulk of her career in Gwent she is passionate about driving forward improvements in service delivery in Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, having developed a system wide approach to her leadership style. She is dedicated to supporting and developing her teams, and undertook Coach the Coach in Dartmouth Institute in 2017 in pursuit of this.