Joe Garcia MBE is an energetic executive leader and consultant with more than 40 years’ experience across NHS Ambulance services and lately the charity sector. He has a proven track record in helicopter aviation strategy, emergency operations, technology assurance and transformational programme delivery. He has held senior roles across several English ambulance trusts, including over four years at board level as director of operations at South East Coast Ambulance Service, before becoming a director of Reforma Associates in 2021.

Joe is currently chief executive of the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS), where he leads one of the UK’s most clinically advanced Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS). At GNAAS he has driven a comprehensive organisational modernisation programme, including a multi-year aviation strategy to replace the charity’s legacy fleet with state-of-the-art Airbus H145 aircraft, strengthened clinical governance structures, enhanced people-culture initiatives, and the launch of major capital fundraising campaigns. His leadership has focused on operational resilience, safety, equitable access to critical care across the north, and the development of sustainable, future-ready services.

Joe is recognised for his highly visible, empowering leadership style and his ability to win hearts and minds through clarity, compassion and analytical problem-solving. His hybrid expertise — spanning frontline operations, control room functions, communications technology, digital transformation and organisational redesign — enables him to bridge clinical, operational and technical disciplines with credibility.

He was awarded an MBE in 2021 for services to emergency response, particularly for his contributions during the Covid-19 pandemic.