Simon Denegri is National Director for Patients and the Public at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), and Chair of INVOLVE – the national advisory group for the promotion and support of public involvement in research funded by NIHR. He was Chief Executive of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) from 2006 until 2011 and, prior to this, Director of Corporate Communications at the Royal College of Physicians from 2003. He also worked in corporate communications for Procter & Gamble in the United States from 1997 to 2000. He has a long-standing personal and professional interest in the needs and priorities of people with dementia and their carers and currently chairs the Lay Champions Group for the national portal on dementia research that is to be launched this year. He is a member of the NIHR Advisory and Strategy Boards, and a Board member of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC), Farr Institute and care.data programme respectively. He blogs about the public and health research at http://simon.denegri.com/ and publishes his poetry at http://otherwiseknownasdotcom.wordpress.com/
