Trust appoints successor to longest serving acute CEO

A trust has appointed a new chief executive to replace England’s longest serving acute CEO, who is retiring this year.

Rob Cooper will take over from Ann Marr at Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Trust in December. 

The appointment follows Ms Marr announcing her retirement over the summer after 22 years in the role. However, she agreed to stay on in post until a successor was ready to replace her. 

Ms Marr became chief executive of St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals Trust in 2003, and then CEO of Southport and Ormskirk Trust in 2021, before the two organisations merged to become MWL last July.

Mr Cooper is the trust’s managing director and first joined STHK in 2015 as an assistant director of operations for medicine. He became the trust’s chief operating officer before being promoted to managing director at MWL.

HSJ analysis last year suggested Ms Marr was the longest-serving acute trust CEO in the country at the time, ahead of Dame Cally Palmer who leads the specialist Royal Marsden Foundation Trust.

Ms Marr began her career as a junior clerk and was later a director of finance at two trusts in Merseyside. She was also chief executive of Liverpool Women’s Hospital prior to joining STHK.

Under her leadership, STKH was rated “outstanding” by the Care Quality Commission in March 2019. She was awarded an OBE for her services to the NHS in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List.

Following Mr Cooper’s appointment, MWL chair Richard Fraser said: “His unwavering focus on quality, patient care, and staff experience has always shone through and I am sure that with the support of the trust board, the executive team, and colleagues, he will build on the achievements of Ann Marr who has led the trust with such distinction for more than 20 years.”