Council
Council Membership:
- President: Robert Clayton
- President Elect: Hiro Tanaka
- Immediate Past President: Mark Davies
- Honorary Secretary: Jitendra Mangwani
- Treasurer: Callum Clark
- Media & Communications Committee Chair: Karan Malhotra
- Education Committee Chair: Anna Chapman
- Clinical Practice Committee Chair: Joel Humphrey
- Scientific Committee Chair: Dave Townshend
- Chief Operating Officer: Jo Millard
- Director: Rick Brown
- Trustee: Steve Hepple
- Trustee: Steve Bendall
- EFAS Representative: James Ritchie
- Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Lead: Lauren Thomson
The rules for election to the BOFAS Council can be found here.
Robert Clayton - President
Robert Clayton moved to Edinburgh in 1994 and graduated in 2000. He undertook Basic and Higher Surgical training in the South East Scotland region. He undertook fellowship training in Foot & Ankle surgery in Glasgow in 2009 before taking up post as a Consultant Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Surgeon in Fife in 2010. He has a highly specialised elective and trauma foot and ankle practice. He has an active role in undergraduate and postgraduate medical education and orthopaedic research. He is a council member of the Foot and Ankle Scotland group and has served on faculty at numerous courses and conferences in the region.
Elected: March 2024
Hiro Tanaka - President Elect
Hiro Tanaka is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon in Newport, South Wales. He is passionate about improving the quality of surgical training and promoting clinical leadership in the NHS. He has contributed to the developments in BOFAS Education as well as the BOA. He was the BOFAS treasurer from 2019 to 2025 and is currently the Honorary Secretary of the BOA. He co-directs the BOA Future Leaders Programme and is an FRCS (Tr & Orth) examiner.
Elected: January 2025
Mark Davies - Immediate Past President
Mark B Davies is a graduate of Southampton University from 1993 who subsequently underwent specialist training in Sheffield. He undertook two Fellowships, one in trauma and limb reconstruction in Sheffield and the other in adult foot and ankle surgery in Brisbane in 2005. He is a consultant and honorary clinical lecturer in the Sheffield Foot and Ankle Unit, the lead for undergraduate education in orthopaedic surgery and the SFAU lead for research and audit.
Elected: March 2023
Jitendra Mangwani - Honorary Secretary
Jit Mangwani is a Consultant Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Surgeon at University Hospitals of Leicester. He undertook higher specialist training in orthopaedics on the Royal London Hospital rotation. He has a keen interest in medical research and education. He is chief investigator for several outcome studies on ankle fractures, Achilles tendon rupture and other foot and ankle conditions. He is principal investigator for a number of multi-centre national studies. He is currently leading BOFAS James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership project. He has been conferred the title of ‘academic champion and honorary fellow’ by University of Leicester. He serves on the editorial board of several reputable orthopaedic journals. His contribution towards research in foot and ankle conditions has been recognised with several national and international prizes. He has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and authored several chapters in books including AO manual of fracture management on Foot and Ankle Trauma. He is passionate about medical education and is involved in both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and training. He is regularly invited as a faculty to national and international courses and conferences. He is actively involved in the training and teaching of General Practitioners and Allied Health Professionals.
Elected: March 2023
Callum Clark - Treasurer
Callum Clark is a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Frimley Health NHS Trust. He was appointed in 2004 after training in Cambridge, London and Melbourne, Australia. He has held a number of leadership roles and runs a busy foot and ankle surgical practice since then. One of his keen interests is education, and he set up a successful postgraduate Foot and Ankle fellowship programme in 2007 and was elected to the BOFAS Education Committee in 2013 (re-elected 2016) which he chaired from March 2022 to January 2025.
Elected: January 2025
Karan Malhotra - Chair Media and Communications Committee
Karan Malhotra is a Consultant Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Surgeon working at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore, UK. He is also an Honorary Associate Professor with University College London. He graduated from Manchester with honours before beginning his core surgical and early registrar training in Yorkshire. He completed his registrar training on the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital Training Rotation, London. He undertook Foot & Ankle Fellowships in Singapore, Melbourne and Stanmore. He is actively involved with research, medical education and quality improvement. He currently has a complex, tertiary foot and ankle practice and regularly teaches on national and international courses and conferences. He is the recipient of multiple national and international prizes and is widely published. He has extensive experience with IT and databases and was co-opted to the BOFAS Outcomes Committee in October 2017 and the IT Committee in November 2019, then was elected as a full member in March 2021. He was elected as the BOFAS Media & Communications Director / Committee Chair in March 2024.
Elected: March 2024
Anna Chapman - Chair Education Committee
Anna Chapman is a Consultant Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon at University Hospitals, Coventry and Warwickshire, with a specialist interest in Foot and Ankle surgery.She qualified from Guy’s, King’s and St. Thomas’s Hospitals School of Medicine in London and completed her Orthopaedic training on the Warwick rotation. She undertook Fellowship training in Bournemouth and Bristol, and was appointed as a Consultant in 2012. She completed a Masters Degree in Medical Education at the University of Warwick in 2010 and continues to pursue her interest in all things educational. Anna is currently the Lead Training Programme Director for the West Midlands and is a member of the Specialist Advisory Committee, and the Portfolio Pathway Lead. She has served two terms on the BOFAS Education Committee (2015-2023) and was the Lead for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for BOFAS from 2022 to January 2025.
Elected: January 2025
Joel Humphrey - Clinical Practice Committee Chair
Joel Humphrey is a Consultant Foot and Ankle Surgeon at Milton Keynes University Hospital. He graduated from Barts and The London Medical School, and completed his higher surgical orthopaedic training on the South-East Thames rotation. He undertook a foot and ankle reconstruction fellowship in Cambridge and a complex trauma fellowship in Oxford. He has a broad clinical practice, treating all conditions of the adult foot and ankle. He is passionate about patient outcomes post surgery and has been elected onto the BOFAS Clinical Practice Committee.
Elected: January 2025
Dave Townshend - Chair Scientific Committee
Dave Townshend was born in Edinburgh and graduated from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1997. He has been a Consultant in the Northumbria NHS Healthcare Trust since 2010 where he is also the Clinical Director of Research and Development. Dave is the current Chairman of the BOFAS Scientific Committee, Visiting Professor with Northumbria University and an Honorary Senior Lecturer with University of Newcastle upon Tyne. His Research fellowship was at the University of Otago, New Zealand and Foot and Ankle Reconstruction fellowship at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Dave’s research interests include outcomes of total ankle replacement, day case surgery and ankle arthritis networks.
Elected: March 2023
Jo Millard - Chief Operating Officer
Jo Millard is Chief Operating Officer for the British Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society. Her role is wide ranging and sees her working alongside the Education Committee, organising and running 6 UK training courses and 2 International training courses each year; with Scientific Committee, as PSP co-ordinator on the BOFAS Foot & Ankle Surgery PSP; and Outcome Committee, as Data Protection Officer. Jo also sits on BOFAS Council and works closely with the BOFAS Treasurer on the society accounts in addition to organising the Annual Scientific Meeting each year with the Society President.
Rick Brown - Director
Rick Brown graduated from the University of Cambridge and King’s College Hospital, London, before completing orthopaedic training on the Middlesex & Stanmore Rotation, London and then Fellowships in Sydney and at Harvard, USA. After appointment as a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon in 2004, he established the new Foot and Ankle Service in Cheltenham and ran a Regional Paediatric Foot Clinic at Bristol Children’s Hospital. In 2016 he was appointed as a Consultant in the Foot & Ankle Team at The Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, Oxford, where his practice covers all areas of Foot & Ankle surgery including sports injuries, neurological conditions, complex forefoot pathology, arthritis and young adult problems. He is an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer in Orthopaedic Surgery of the University of Oxford. Education in Foot & Ankle surgery is his special interest. Since 2012 he has served on the BOFAS Education committee, of which he was the Chairman. He designed several new Courses in the UK as well as overseas and is an experienced Course Director and Chairman of Instructional courses either at conferences or as a webinar. He has served on the Court of Examiners of the FRCS (Tr & Orth) for eight years. He was Elected as BOFAS President Elect in March 2022.
Steve Hepple - Trustee
Steve Hepple is a NHS Consultant Foot & Ankle Surgeon, Honorary Senior Lecturer in Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery and recent Clinical Director Musculoskeletal Services at North Bristol NHS Trust. He trained initially in Sheffield and Bristol before undergoing specialist training in Brisbane and Dallas. He specialises in sports injury, trauma and foot & ankle surgery including ankle arthroscopy and replacement.
Steve served two terms as BOFAS Treasurer and is a BOFAS Past President. He is also a faculty member of AO trauma.
Steve Bendall - Trustee
Steve Bendall qualified from Charing Cross Hospital and trained in London latterly on the St George’s Hospital training program being appointed in Haywards Heath in 1997. He was an FRCS Orth examiner for ten years and one of the TPD’s for the then new HEEKSS training program. He has been an active member of BOFSS which later became BOFAS since 1999 and has been involved with Ed Comm and later founded Out Comm in the run up to being BOFAS President in 2014. He served as a trustee on the BOA and was also a Visitor for the HCPC from his involvement with surgical podiatry. He is currently GIRFT system lead for T&O and has supported the NCIP project which is currently being rolled out. He also contributed to the ankle arthritis networks that BOFAS is developing and continues to publish in this area, and is a sub editor of Orthopaedics and trauma.
His role as a Trustee is to provide Council both support and scrutiny in their strategy and decisions making.
James Ritchie - EFAS Representative
James Ritchie is a Consultant Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Surgeon based in Tunbridge Wells and was appointed in 2005. He trained in the SE Thames Region and has undertaken a Specialist Foot & Ankle Fellowship at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital at Stanmore. He is committed to medical education and runs the South East Thames Foot and Ankle training programme and the Guy's Hospital Foot and Ankle Course.
Lauren Thomson - Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Lead
Lauren Thomson’s journey into the world of foot and ankle surgery began after graduating from the University of Leicester. She honed her skills during her junior training in the West Midlands before returning to her East Midlands roots as an SPR. It was here, under the mentorship of the renowned Miss Patricia Allen, that Lauren discovered her passion for the intricate, ever-evolving challenges of foot and ankle surgery. Her dedication led to her being awarded the prestigious Gold BOFAS Fellowship, which took her to Sydney, Australia, for advanced training under the esteemed Dr Andrew Wines.
Now based at Rotherham General Hospital, Lauren expertly balances her professional life with her love for adventure. Alongside her wife, Aoife, she delights in exploring the world, with frequent trips to Dublin to celebrate their shared love of travel, culture and a good quality Guinness.
Role Commenced: January 2025