Gillian Leng

Professor Gillian Leng, CBE, MBChB, MD is a professor of public health.

Leng studied Medicine at the University of Leeds from 1982-1987.¹⁾ The school awarded her an honorary degree of Doctor of Science in 2022.

She is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London, and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

Leng has served as a member of the Royal Society of Medicine since 1999. She became a trustee in 2013, and was appointed as Honorary Librarian in May 2017, finishing her term in September 2021.²⁾

Leng was on the Board of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for over 20 years (2001-2021), most recently as its Chief Executive.

As NICE’s Chief Executive, Gillian was responsible for delivering a new 5 year strategy to put NICE at the forefront of global evaluation of new technologies. This was underpinned by a vision for creating dynamic living guidelines for frontline healthcare staff.

Prior to this, Gillian was instrumental in establishing the original clinical guideline programme at NICE, followed by setting up an implementation work programme to ensure the recommendations changed practice. She also developed many of NICE’s new initiatives including indicators for the Quality and Outcomes Framework and for the online portal NICE Evidence.³⁾

Leng is a visiting professor at King's College London.⁴⁾

Leng was a speaker at the World Neuroscience Innovation Forum in 2017, where she discussed gene and cell therapy in treating neurological diseases.⁵⁾

Leng is a trustee of the Guidelines International Network.

Leng is a member of the Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges.⁶⁾ The commission is a partnership spawned out of COVID-END, which includes McMaster University, and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.⁷⁾

Leng joined Brevia Health in May 2022.⁸⁾

Leng is a honorary visiting professor at the National University of Singapore.⁹⁾