Caroline ClarkeCaroline Clarke, the chief finance officer of the Royal Free London, has been named one of the top 50 trailblazers in public finance by industry experts.

The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accounting (CIPFA) has named her in the top 50 alongside Danny Alexander, the chief secretary to the treasury, and Paul Baumann, the chief financial officer of NHS England.

According to Lem Bingley, content development director for Public Finance, the CIPFA’s magazine, those named are all “champions at driving change for the better” and added that they were all “extraordinary pioneers possessed of the determination, diligence and professional creativity needed to do things differently” .

Caroline, who joined the trust in 2011, said:  “I’m delighted to have been included in this list of people. In the 21st century health service we are challenged by declining funding and a fragmentation of the welfare and health systems. Our job is to create an alternative future for our patients, which takes all this into account. So our biggest professional challenge is to integrate all this across various institutional boundaries and to create new systems and ways of working.”

Caroline’s leadership helped the Royal Free London gain foundation status in 2012 and steered the acquisition of Barnet Hospital and Chase Farm Hospital in 2013.

Image: Caroline Clarke, chief finance officer and deputy chief executive of the Royal Free London

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Notes to editors

Media contacts: mary.mcconnell2@nhs.net or call 020 7472 6665

About the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

The Royal Free began as a pioneering organisation and continues to play a leading role in the care of patients. Our mission is to provide world class expertise and local care. In the 21st century, the Royal Free London continues to lead improvements in healthcare.

The Royal Free London attracts patients from across the country and beyond to its specialist services in liver, kidney and bone marrow transplantation, haemophilia, renal, HIV, infectious diseases, plastic surgery, immunology, vascular surgery, cardiology, amyloidosis and scleroderma and we are a member of the academic health science partnership UCLPartners.

In July 2014 Barnet Hospital and Chase Farm Hospital became part of the Royal Free London. Read our news story: A bigger trust, a better future.