Group CEO
From a small village in the Welsh valleys of the United Kingdom, young Julia aspired to pursue a nursing career in the big city of London.
However, she did not know then that the good Lord had bigger and better plans for her; way beyond the city and even beyond her nation.
After her work in London, predominantly with sick children - at renowned tertiary hospitals such as Great Ormond Street and St Bartholomew’s (commonly known as Barts) - she soon found herself serving at the Dallas Children and at the Mount Hermon Hospitals in the USA.
Her training with British Royal Air Force, in flight physiology, led her next to Saudi Arabia. Here, she set up the first neonatal/pediatric flight team in Saudi Aramco.
She was not only soon transporting small children on life-support, with complex equipment, onboard flights between Saudi Arabia, UK, USA and other countries, but also ensuring that, on the ground, the intensive care units under her charge were working efficiently, giving children the best healthcare possible.
Along with this work, she also completed her MBA, and studied healthcare management at Harvard Business School.
After relishing the challenges of leading teams, in high adrenaline-pumping hospital environs of Saudi Arabia for 15 years, she was planning to move. Ahead of her was a new opportunity to go and help set up a hospital for woman and children in the Caribbean nation of the Bahamas.
But from Bahrain, just at that time, came a call. Dr George Cheriyan, from the American Mission Hospital, asked her if she would like to take up a new challenge.
He wanted to know if she can come and help improve the quality of healthcare, and to take it to several new locations, within Bahrain. It was also to help patients from different corners of the country to have quick access to healthcare.
This invitation to reach out and serve the growing population, in newer ways than what the founding missionaries had originally envisaged, a century earlier, seemed exciting.
She soon took a decision, in 2011, in favour of Bahrain, over the Bahamas. She’s been in the hospital’s leadership ever since.
From bolstering medical technology and clinical services in Manama, to moving a small clinic to a large Medical Centre in Saar, she’s been actively involved in the hospital’s rapid growth.
She also oversaw the opening of new branches in Amwaj, Riffa, and also in the designing and the launch of the brand new King Hamad American Mission in A’Ali.
Group CEO Julia Tovey's Message
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