Executive Management Team

Sara Gallagher

Director of Operations

With extensive experience in care home operations, governance and regulatory improvement, Sara works closely with home managers, regional teams and quality colleagues to support safe, effective and person-centred care. Her achievements include leading service improvement programmes, strengthening governance and compliance processes, supporting successful service development, and building confident leadership teams in her homes.

Sara is passionate about supporting and enabling her team to continuously improve their services and ensuring residents, relatives and colleagues experience Avante’s values in everyday practice.

Sara loves to spend time outside in her leisure time, whatever the weather, having a keen interest in walking, horse riding and gardening.

Veronica Anthony-David

Director of People and Organisational Development

Veronica Anthony-David is the Director of People & Organisation Development. Veronica is a positive disruptor who loves challenging thoughts and processes. She is passionate about building synergies and driving positive change, by leveraging people, data and infrastructure. As Director of People & Organisation Development, Veronica has found her previous experience in running a consultancy business and her most recent roles as Chief Transformation Officer of a Further Education College/Institute of Technology and Head of HR – UK Operations at a global engineering installations company, to be invaluable. In these roles, she built a strong reputation as a resilient change agent and trustworthy leader.

Veronica graduated with a B.Sc. Honours degree in Industrial Chemistry and started her career at an International Food Research Institute before doing a short stint at a plastic manufacturing company. She obtained a M.A. in Human Resources Management in 2008. Veronica is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, a Root Cause Analysis Facilitator, Predictive Index Facilitator and she is currently undertaking the ILM Level 7 in Executive Coaching and Mentoring. She served as a primary school governor for almost ten years.

Chris Francis

Director of Property and Development

Chris has 30+ years experience in Asset Management and Property Development which he gained working for a variety of property companies and housing associations in the south and south east of England. Born in Somerset, Chris spent his early career in property sales and construction and during the last 15 years he has operated at Head of Service or Director level, leading multi-disciplinary teams to deliver a range of repairs, maintenance and property development services.

Chris located to the Kent area in 2009 and joined Avante in February 2020 as Director of Property and Development. Whilst being new to the Care sector, Chris brings with him a wealth of executive leadership experience and has an excellent track record in formulating and implementing business strategy.

He enjoys delivering services which make a difference to the quality of life for customers and thrives on solving problems and implementing business change. Chris confesses to being something of a petrolhead with an active interest in cars, motorbikes and aeroplanes which he combines with his other interest as a keen amateur photographer.

Nick Barker

Director of Quality

Nick Barker is an influential and strategic Director bringing to Avante Care & Support 5 years of experience within a health tech-enabled start-up with over 100 sites across the UK and 15 years within health & social care. Dedicated to innovation, continuous improvement, driving efficiency & standardisation and scaling businesses. Nick offers highly developed leadership & management skills and a very broad knowledge of the care sector and is passionate about providing high-quality care.

Nicks’s experience includes leading operational, quality, business development and health & safety teams within the UK.

As Director of Quality, Nick plays a crucial role in the Executive team and is responsible for the overarching strategy across quality & governance, data & insight, Learning & Development and Innovation within Avante Care & Support.