New Non-Executive Director joins the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust Board

NHS England has confirmed the appointment of Michael Wright as a new Non-Executive Board member of Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust (YAS) with effect from 1 July 2026. 

Michael has significant NHS experience and a wide range of leadership skills, particularly in financial management, procurement, audit, assurance and risk, and charity governance. He has worked within NHS Trusts for over 25 years, with 11 of these at Board level.

Michael is currently Managing Director at Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, joining them in January 2025 from The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust where he had been Managing Director/Deputy Chief Executive since 2020. Michael previously worked at Barnsley Hospital as Director of Finance and has also spent time at Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. 

Michael succeeds Andrew Chang whose term of office came to an end on 30 June 2026 after six years at the Trust. Michael’s appointment runs from 1 July 2026 until 30 June 2029. 

As a non-executive member of the YAS Board, Michael’s role is to work alongside other Board colleagues to ensure the Trust has a clear strategy and works to ensure that communities and patients receive high quality, safe services for patients and local communities.  He will be Chair of the Finance and Performance Committee and a member of the Charitable Funds Committee.

Martin Havenhand, Chair of the Trust Board, said: “I am delighted to welcome Michael to the Board.  His skills and extensive experience, along with the strong alignment of his personal values with YAS values, will be extremely beneficial to the Trust and we look forward to working with him.  I would also like to formally thank Andrew Chang, who has stepped down after six years, for his significant contribution.”

Non-executive appointments to NHS Trusts are made by NHS England and made in accordance with the Governance Code for Public Appointments. NHS England ensures that all appointments to NHS trust boards are made in a way that is open, transparent and fair to candidates. 

ENDS

Notes to Editor:

The other Yorkshire Ambulance Service Non-Executive Directors are Amanda Moat  (Deputy Chair), Saghir Alam OBE, Tabitha Arulampalam, Becky Malby BEM and Melanie Hudson.  Associate Non-Executive Directors are Katherine (Katie) Lees and Rebecca Randell. Information about the Board is published on the Trust’s website.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust covers almost 6,000 square miles of varied terrain from isolated moors and dales to urban areas, coastline and inner cities and provides 24-hour emergency and urgent healthcare services to a population of more than five million people. The Trust employs just over 7,000 staff and has support from nearly 1,000 volunteers.

In 2025-26, our Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) staff received 1.25 million emergency and routine calls, an average of 3,400 calls a day. We responded to more than 909,000 emergency incidents through either a vehicle arriving on scene or by telephone advice. 

Our Patient Transport Service made over 675,000 journeys transporting eligible patients to and from hospital and treatment centre appointments, and the Trust’s NHS 111 service helped around 1.8 million patients across Yorkshire and the Humber, Bassetlaw, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire.