Frieza Mahmood

Frieza was appointed as Chief People Officer of North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust in June 2025. Frieza started her career in the NHS, 20 years ago on the National Management Training scheme. She has spent the last 15 years working in senior HR roles in England across multiple NHS environments. These range from acute trusts to community and mental health organisations with extensive partnership working. Frieza is an experienced NHS Board Director having worked as a Chief People Officer for the last 5 years at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Hospitals Trust where she led the development and implementation of an innovative workforce planning model and transformational change programme to support the opening of the new Midlands Metropolitan University Hospital.

Frieza has an undergraduate degree in BSc Human Resource Management from Aston Business School and carried out further postgraduate qualifications in Human Resources, Organisational Development and Healthcare Leadership.

Frieza carries out several other regional and national roles outside of her responsibilities at Combined Healthcare. These include a non-executive director role outside of the NHS in the education sector for Washwood Health Multi Academy Trust, (WHMAT) one of the largest academy school trusts in the country. She is committed to education and development and has a number of aligned responsibilities which include working as a careers ambassador for the Midlands and East region, contributing to the development of higher education curriculums for local universities, participating in a range of organisational development transformational change programmes often beyond traditional boundaries to include NHS Scotland’s Leading2change initiative. She is also active in the field of leadership development, for which she speaks and dedicates her time to the organisation of professional development and training in her role as a vice president for the national Healthcare People Management Association (HPMA).

Frieza is passionate about widening access to opportunities and facilitating participation for hard-to-reach groups. She is also actively focused on improving staff experience to aid retention and deliver better outcomes for service users.

Frieza said:

“I believe that outstanding service user experience is directly linked to the creation of cultures in which highly motivated, skilled and well-supported staff, are empowered to work collaboratively to deliver at their absolute best. I am passionate about using my influence and leadership skills to continually strive for improvements in this area.”