Try to Find Who Runs DHCW. You Can't

Try to find the person responsible for programme delivery at an organisation under government intervention for programme delivery failures. The title exists: Director of Programmes and Engagement. The salary was once disclosed. The person holding the role has no LinkedIn profile, no website biography, no Senedd appearance, no conference record, and no published work. This is DHCW's leadership in 2026.

This article is about accountability, not corruption. "Ghost directors" refers to the absence of public visibility — directors who hold consequential titles and draw significant salaries but who cannot be found, verified, or scrutinised by the public whose money they spend. Whether this opacity is deliberate or merely negligent is a question only DHCW can answer. What is documented here is the gap itself.

Part One: The Leadership Nobody Can Verify

What follows is drawn entirely from public records: DHCW's published annual accounts (2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24), Companies House filings, LinkedIn, DHCW's website, Senedd committee records, and conference attendance lists. We have checked every source available to any member of the public who might want to know who is running their digital health organisation. In most cases, we found nothing.

Michelle Sell — Director of Programmes and Engagement

Michelle Sell has held three director-level titles at DHCW in four years. She was Chief Operating Officer in 2021. By 2022, she had become Director of Planning, Performance, and Chief Commercial Officer. In 2025, she became Director of Programmes and Engagement.

Three director-level titles in four years. Each represents a different organisational function. COO is responsible for operations. Chief Commercial Officer is responsible for procurement and commercial strategy. Director of Programmes is responsible for programme delivery. These are not minor variations in nomenclature. They are fundamentally different roles with different skill requirements and different accountabilities. The frequency of these changes raises a question that DHCW has never addressed: was each role change the result of a formal appointment process, or were titles reassigned to fit the person rather than the function? We note that there may be legitimate organisational reasons for title changes, including restructuring, and we do not presume to know DHCW's rationale.

Her salary was disclosed in the 2021/22 annual accounts at GBP 90,000 to GBP 95,000, recorded under her then-title of COO. In the 2022/23 accounts, her salary ceased to appear in the disclosure table — despite the fact that she continued in a director-level role throughout that period. Annual accounts are prepared under accounting standards and subject to external audit by Audit Wales. There are limited explanations: either the accounting treatment changed, or the role was reclassified in a way that removed the disclosure obligation, or the omission was an error. We do not know which explanation applies. We note only that whichever it is, it has never been publicly explained.

We attempted to find any public trace of Michelle Sell beyond DHCW's own organisational structure. There is no LinkedIn profile. There is no biography on DHCW's website. She has made no appearances at Senedd committees. She has not spoken at any digital health conference we can identify. She has not been quoted in any media report. She has not authored or co-authored any published material.

As Director of Programmes and Engagement, she is directly responsible for programme delivery at DHCW. In March 2025, the Welsh Government escalated DHCW to Level 3, citing "serious concerns about the ability to deliver major programmes." [Source: GOV.WALES, May 2025] The person whose job title places her at the centre of that failure cannot be found by anyone looking from outside.

Chris Collis — Digital Transformation Lead

Chris Collis holds the title of Digital Transformation Lead at DHCW. His background, based on publicly available records, appears to include work in digital television security and standards development. He holds a degree from the University of Birmingham, the subject of which is not disclosed in any source we have identified. [Source: LinkedIn and publicly available conference records — we note that this characterisation is based on available public records and may not capture his full professional background.]

He is not a board member. He has no profile on DHCW's website. He has not appeared before any Senedd committee. He has not spoken at any digital health conference we can identify. He has no publications in healthcare informatics or digital health.

Digital transformation at DHCW encompasses how the entire NHS in Wales transitions from legacy systems to modern platforms. It is the central strategic challenge facing the organisation. This function is being led by someone whose publicly available professional background does not appear to include healthcare digital transformation. There may be relevant experience or qualifications that are not publicly visible. But that is precisely the point: no member of the public, no Senedd member, no journalist can verify whether the person leading digital transformation at NHS Wales has the credentials to do so, because no information about those credentials has been made publicly available.

Sam Lloyd — Executive Director of Operations

Sam Lloyd holds the position of Executive Director of Operations at DHCW. This is a board-level role. His salary is disclosed in the 2023/24 annual accounts at GBP 125,000 to GBP 130,000, with total remuneration including pension contributions of GBP 150,000 to GBP 155,000. [Source: DHCW Annual Report and Accounts 2023/24]

We have been unable to identify any publicly disclosed academic qualifications for Sam Lloyd. We conducted the same searches described above: LinkedIn, DHCW's website, Senedd records, conference records, and published material. This does not mean he has no qualifications — it means that for a board-level director of a national public body, earning over GBP 150,000 in total remuneration, no qualifications are visible to anyone conducting due diligence from outside.

His professional background, as far as can be determined from publicly available sources, is in English public health agencies. We have identified no prior experience in the Welsh NHS before his appointment to DHCW. The Welsh NHS operates under different legislation, governance frameworks, and commissioning structures than NHS England. This distinction does not render English experience irrelevant, but it does mean that assumptions about transferability should be tested rather than assumed.

The Accountability Scorecard

Part Two: The Off-Payroll Workforce

DHCW's annual accounts disclose that the organisation employs at least 23 off-payroll workers at a rate of GBP 245 or more per day. Market rates for senior digital health interims — programme directors, technical architects, commercial advisers — range from GBP 500 to GBP 800 per day. At conservative estimates, the collective cost is in the range of GBP 1.5 million to GBP 4.5 million per year. [Source: DHCW Annual Report and Accounts 2023/24]

Of the 23, we have been able to identify precisely one by name: Stuart Davies, engaged through Hafod Interim Limited — identified not through any DHCW disclosure, but through Companies House filings.

These individuals are not employees (not subject to DHCW's performance management or disciplinary procedures), not board members (not subject to governance disclosures), and not formal contractors engaged through published procurement processes. Yet they fill roles of consequence — programme directors, technical architects, commercial advisers. They make decisions. They influence strategy. They spend public money. And no one outside DHCW knows who they are, what they are paid, what they do, or how they were selected.

For a detailed examination of the off-payroll workforce, see The Shadow Workforce.

The Full Picture

Consider what the Welsh public is being asked to accept.

An organisation under Level 3 government intervention for programme delivery failures. The director responsible for programme delivery has held three titles in four years and cannot be found by anyone outside the organisation. The person leading digital transformation has no publicly visible healthcare credentials. The executive director of operations has no disclosed qualifications and no prior Welsh NHS experience. A director-level salary ceased to appear in published accounts without explanation.

Alongside these directors, a shadow workforce of at least 23 off-payroll individuals — costing millions of pounds per year — fills senior roles, makes decisions, spends public money, and answers to no one outside the building.

This is not an accusation of concealment or corruption. It may reflect nothing more than an organisation that has never prioritised public transparency in its leadership disclosures. But the effect is the same regardless of intent: the people making the most consequential decisions at DHCW are the people least visible to the public. That accountability gap did not arise by chance. It was built, maintained, and never challenged — and it serves the interests of those inside it at the expense of everyone outside.

Right of Reply: CareNHS welcomes a response from DHCW to the matters raised in this article. No response has been received to date. We invite any individual named to provide details of relevant qualifications, credentials, or professional background not currently visible in the public record. Any corrections or additions will be published promptly. Contact: carenhs@carenhs.org

All figures in this article are sourced from DHCW's published annual accounts (2021/22, 2022/23, 2023/24), Companies House filings, LinkedIn, DHCW's official website, Senedd committee records, and publicly available conference and publication databases. Where information could not be found, we state that explicitly. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence — but when a national public body makes it impossible to verify the credentials of its own leaders, the absence itself is the evidence.

carenhs.org is an independent public accountability campaign focused on NHS Wales digital infrastructure. We welcome corrections and responses from DHCW, the Welsh Government, and any individual named in this article. Contact: info@carenhs.org

Related pages:

• The Ghost Directors — directors who never challenged failure
• The Shadow Workforce — the full off-payroll workforce analysis
• Nepotism & Empire-Building — The Evidence — credentials gap and insider appointments
• Financial Waste — The Evidence — the cost of the shadow workforce