Kate Simpson is an experienced director, with a background in social innovation and people powered change. Over the past decade, Kate has delivered innovation programmes with partners in local government, health and social care, the third sector and communities.  

Kate joined PPL from Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good, where she was one of the directors of the People Powered Results team, which pioneered new approaches to achieving change and innovation in systems. The team worked with over 500 local and national organisations to create the conditions and cultures required to rapidly adopt new innovations and scale what works. 

Kate has led national transformation programmes, such as the Elective Care transformation programme in partnership with NHS E, and place-based transformation and innovation work in places across the UK. Her expertise includes relationship management, facilitation, coaching, coproduction and codesign, strategy development and programme management.  

Prior to her role at Nesta, Kate held a series of leadership roles within the third sector, including managing housing related support services and leading a randomised control trial looking at the link between health and housing. She holds a post graduate diploma in Mental Health Practice, which involved a year of frontline practice within acute and community mental health services.