Richard Kennedy is an NHS obstetrician and gynaecologist specialising in reproductive medicine and IVF since the mid eighties. He set up and led the NHS IVF service in Coventry in 1990, the first such NHS programme in the West Midlands. He has led an active research group in reproductive medicine at the University of Warwick, now Warwick Medical School where he holds an honorary Readership. He publishes regularly in peer reviewed journals and is a reviewer for a number of journals. He was a member of the RCOG Infertility Guidelines Committee and has been a long serving member of the British Fertility Society where he served for five years as Honorary Secretary. He is the Secretary General of the International Federation of Fertility Societies, a position held since 2007. He has held NHS management roles since the early 90’s and has been the Medical Director/ Chief Medical Officer of University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust with overall responsibility for quality of care and patient safety, governance and clinical performance since 2007.

Mr Stephen Keay

• Clinical Director of Obstetrics & Gynaecology
• Consultant in Obstetrics, Gynaecology & @Reproductive Medicine at UHCW
• Senior Lecturer in Reproductive Medicine at Warwick University

Stephen graduated from Edinburgh University where he did his clinical training in Obstetrics & Gynaecology before moving to Bristol University where he undertook his MD thesis “The relationship between poor ovarian response to gonadotrophin stimulation and the outcome of in vitro fertilisation” under Professor Mike Hull and Professor Julian Jenkins. His main clinical interests are in Infertility and Reproductive Endocrinology. His research interests are in the mechanisms controlling ovarian response to stimulation and the role of glucocorticoids in IVF practice and has published widely in this area.

He is currently Clinical Director of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and was Person Responsible for the Centre between 2007 and 2011. He has previously Chaired the Coventry Research Ethics Committee and is a member of Board of the Postgraduate School of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, in the West Midlands Deanery, and Chairs the Rotations committee. He is lead for the CLRN, West Midlands South, Reproductive Health and Childbirth Research Group.

Dr Rina Agrawal

• Consultant in Reproductive Medicine& Obstetrics/Gynaecology at UHCW
• Hon. Associate Professor in Reproductive Medicine at Warwick University

Dr Rina Agrawal is a Consultant and Hon. Associate Professor in Reproductive Medicine and in Obstetrics / Gynaecology with dual accreditation in the UK and in India. She received her formal training in Repdroductive Medicine and Assisted Conception at University College Hospital, London where she did her PhD. She was the Director at London Women’s Clinic and Hallam Medical Centre, the first centre in the UK to offer Assisted Reproduction and has worked with Professor Howard Jacobs who contributed enormously to the field of IVF and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Professor Robert Edwards who pioneered IVF and created the world’s first IVF baby, Professor Stuart Campbell who pioneered the use of Ultrasonography and Professor S L Tan who heads the department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at McGill’s University

She also has an independent practice at Harley Street in London and has individually managed over 6,000 cycles of IVF/ICSI and more than 7,000 insemination treatment cycles over the last 17 years.

Rina has published extensively over the years in several international journals. She has over 50 publications, written a book on PCOS and has been an invited speaker at over 75 national and international meetings over the years.

Her areas of expertise within the field of Reproductive Medicine are Polycystic Ovary Syndrome; Unsuccessful Implantation during IVF, Angiogenic factors in reproduction on which her PhD is based, Ovarian Hyperstimulation Syndrome, Ovarian Stimulation Protocols and Ultrasonography including Doppler and 3D ultrasonography.

Mr Tarek Ghobara

Consultant Obstetrician, Gynaecologist & Subspecialist in
Reproductive Medicine at UHCW

Dr Ghobara started his Reproductive Medicine training at the Centre for Reproductive Medicine in Coventry in 1997 up till 2002. Between 2003 and 2008 he worked at University of Bristol and Bristol Centre for Reproductive Medicine where he gained the accreditation as a Subspecialist in Reproductive Medicine and surgery.

In addition to his wide experience in assisted conception techniques including IVF and ICSI he has special interest in Laparoscopic & Hysteroscopic Surgery for treating Endometriosis, Fibroids and Surgical Treatment of Fallopian Tubes. He also runs the Male Subfertility Clinic at CRM.

His research areas were treatments using thawed frozen embryos in addition to Intra-Cytoplasmic Sperm injection Treatment.

Junior Medical Staff

Dr Radha Venkatakrishnan, Specialist Registrar, Obstetrics & Gynaecology
Dr Harish Bhandari, Clinical Research Fellow
Dr Mohammed Akhtar, Clinical Research Fellow
Dr Chellappah Gnanachandran, Specialist Registrar, Obstetrics & Gynaecology

Nursing Staff

Sarah Beddowes
Nurse Manager

Sarah trained as a nurse and then as a Midwife qualifying in 2000. She worked as a Midwife in Birmingham and then in the Channel Islands before returning to the UK in 2004 as a staff nurse working in infertility at Birmingham Women’s Hospital. While there she progressed through training to become a Sister, learning to scan, perform IUI treatments as well as undertaking an extended role as a nurse specialist performing embryo transfers.

Sarah joined the CRM in February 2008 as Nurse Manager. Her role involves co-ordinating the nursing team and managing staff requirements as well as sitting on the quality management team. She is a member of the British Fertility Society and the Royal College of Nursing.

Sarah is currently undertaking a Masters degree in Advancing Practice with a view to further extending her role. This will include independently seeing patients in clinics.

Nursing Team

Louise Wilson, Sister
Fiona Oldfield, Sister
Olivia Sabin, Sister
Rachel Rust, Sister
Debbie Darrell, Staff Nurse
Ann Yarwood, Staff Nurse
Natalie Austin, Staff Nurse
Buffy Connor, Health Care Assistant
Tracy Vaughan, Health Care Assistant

Scientific Staff

Professor Geraldine Hartshorne
Scientific Director

Geraldine is the Scientific Director, a post she holds together with a Professorial Fellowship at Warwick Medical School. Her PhD, awarded in 1989, was supervised by Professor Robert Edwards, IVF pioneer and Nobel Prize winner in 2010. She held appointments at the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, before moving to Warwick in 1995. Her work spans a wide range of research and clinical service development. Her research interests are mainly focused on human egg development, embryo viability assessment, and the social and ethical dimensions of human assisted conception. As well as gaining knowledge that is important for progress, her research ensures that services at the CRM are continually updated and that improvements can be introduced rapidly. Geraldine is involved in many professional and academic activities, for example, she is Chair of Examiners in Clinical Embryology at the Royal College of Pathologists and an editor of the learned journal 'Reproduction'.

Dr Sue Montgomery
Head of Embryology / Person Responsible

Sue has worked as an embryologist at the CRM since 1992, when she took up a post as Trainee embryologist, with six months previous experience at a private unit in Birmingham. Having completed two years' training, she continued to gain experience, assuming the role of Senior Embryologist in 1995. Also in this year, she introduced the technique of Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI) to the unit, together with Dr Hazel Baker who joined the embryology team. Whilst continuing to work full time, she completed a part-time PhD, in 2004. The research involved studying the effects that fragmentation has on further human embryo development, giving an insight into which embryos from a fragmented group are most likely to implant. She is currently the Head of Embryology, managing the day to day running of the embryology laboratory, including the scientific components of the treatments that we provide and all of the embryology staff. Sue is a state registered clinical scientist and an associate of the Royal College of Pathologists. She is also a national assessor for the Association of Clinical Embryologists (ACE) certificate in clinical embryology. She is also currently the person responsible for the centre, to the HFEA.

Scientific Team

Jaswinder Rai, Senior Embryologist
Dr Deborah Taylor, Senior Embryologist
Sarah Drury, Senior Andrologist
Pavan Kachhwaha, Embryologist/Andrologist
Dr Caroline Watkins, Embryologist/Andrologist
Sarah Turner, MLSO
Scarlett Poulter, Trainee Embryologist
Dr Fataneh Ghafari, Trainee Embryologist
Paula Frost, Senior Cryobank Officer
Claire Thompson, Laboratory Administrator

Counselling Team

Justine Barrett, Specialist Infertility Counsellor
Linda Best, Counsellor

Administration Team

Lisa Martin, Quality Manager
Julie Corkery, Assistant Administration Manager
Vivienne Scaysbrook, Support Secretary
Tracy Peckett, Support Secretary
Karen Brough, Receptionist
Debby Flowers, Receptionist
Pauline Jackson, Receptionist
Julie Jacques, Receptionist