Spire Healthcare appoints Gillian Fairfield as Group General Counsel
Gillian joins Spire, which has 39 hospitals in England, Wales and Scotland, on the back of a 20-year legal career covering corporate law, regulatory, finance and governance.
Her previous experience includes 12 years as a partner in the corporate division of leading international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills. Whilst there, Gillian worked on several high-profile deals including AbbVie’s £32 billion takeover for pharmaceutical multinational Shire Plc, ABInbev’s £79 billion takeover bid for SABMiller and Pearson’s sale of its stake in the FTSE to the London Stock Exchange.
She went onto become a non-executive director to a longstanding Herbert Smith Freehills client Lonmin PLC, a FTSE-listed public company, until its takeover last year by Sibanye-Stillwater. Most recently Gillian was at Slaughter and May where she was a senior consultant.
Her new role sees her join Spire Healthcare at a significant time in the health sector as the public and private sector work collaboratively to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. Gillian will focus on further developing Spire’s clinical governance systems and processes, responding to legislative and regulatory changes in the UK healthcare sector and will have a crucial role in the growth of the company.
Gillian Fairfield said: “Throughout my career, I have focussed on developing longstanding relationships with the companies I have worked with, helping them to shape both strategic and commercial strategies. This is something I am looking forward to replicating at Spire, particularly at such a pivotal time when healthcare and its delivery has never been more in focus.”
Justin Ash, Chief Executive at Spire Healthcare, commented, “Patient safety, quality of care and corporate governance are critical elements of our strategy and I am delighted that Gillian will be joining us to provide the legal leadership to these areas. She brings significant breadth of experience working with listed companies and will be an invaluable member of our senior team.”
In 2016, Gillian was named Client Partner of the year at the British Legal Awards. She is also currently a Trustee for the National Trust for Scotland, sitting on the Investment Committee.
