Professor Patrick Vernon is the Chair of the Birmingham and Solihull NHS Integrated Care Board (BSol ICB). Patrick initially took up the role on an interim basis in January 2023 and was appointed as permanent Chair in January 2024. He was the first non-executive director to be appointed at the BSol ICB and was selected to specifically lead inequalities – the first to be appointed in the country.
He received an OBE in 2012 for his work on tackling health inequalities in relation to ethnic minority communities. In 2019, he was awarded a lifetime achievement award for campaigning and advocacy work by the Sheila McKechnie Foundation.
Patrick is a former non-executive director for Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust and Healthwatch England.
In 2020, Patrick established the Majonzi Fund, which provides grants to families and community organisations to hold commemoration events for individuals from Black and racialised communities who died from COVID-19 during the pandemic. Patrick also chairs the Walsall Together Partnership Board, working to create happier partnerships working in the locality.
In 2020, Patrick was selected by British Vogue as one of Britain’s top 20 campaigners and was included in the 2020 power list of 100 influential Black People in Britain. Also in 2020, Patrick co-authored 100 Great Black Britons. Patrick writes blogs and articles for the national and international media on healthcare, cultural heritage and race.
In August 2021, Patrick was appointed by Wolverhampton University as Honorary Professor of Cultural Heritage and Community Leadership for the Department of Community Development.
Professor Vernon says:
“An anti-racist city is about the ability to look ahead because one aspect of activism is that you are looking at the future through the lens of the current issues and problems that you’re experiencing. So, we need to have people who have that future vision of a world or a community or society.”
