Chair – Dr Olwen Williams OBE
Olwen (she/her) has been working in the field of Sexual Health and HIV since the late eighties. Driven by a deep commitment to equality, she has striven to ensure the marginalised and vulnerable have access to high quality, multilingual healthcare. As a Welsh speaker, she recognised the importance of being able to receive care through medium of Welsh and returned to North Wales as a Consultant physician in 1992, going on to establish the regions HIV service, North Wales Sexual Assault Referal Centre SARC and Sexual health/ HIV services in H.M. Berwyn Prison. She has held key leadership posts, laterly, chair of the Academy of Royal Colleges in Wales, Vice President Royal College of Physicians(RCP) in Wales. During her time as President of British Association of Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) 2018-20, she championed the establishment of Fast Track Cardiff – furthermore she expressed a vision of Wales becoming the first Fast Track Nation . Following retirement from clinical practice , she spent 3 years as Associate Director of Clinical Leadership at Health Education and Improvement Wales (HEIW) before taking up the Chair of Fast Track Cymru.
Contact Olwen at: ChairFastTrackCymru@outlook.com
Vice Chair – Lisa Power MBE
Lisa Power (she/her) is one of the co-founders of Fast Track in Wales, having previously been a consultant for UNAIDS, the HIV Justice Network, the European AIDS Treatment Group and a number of other HIV organisations. Prior to this she was Policy Director for Terrence Higgins Trust, developed their treatment services and work with African communities and long term survivors and coordinated the HIV voluntary sector in a London consortium. She has presented and published extensively on HIV criminalisation, on HIV and ageing and on sexual health information resources. She appears regularly in TV and radio documentaries about HIV and was the historical advisor to the acclaimed Its A Sin series. She is also a well known queer activist and historian and a Trustee of the national LGBTQ+ museum, Queer Britain
Trustee – David Gillespie (Research and Evaluation)
Dr David Gillespie (he/him) is a Principal Research Fellow and Deputy Director at Cardiff University’s Centre for Trials Research and co-directs the Wales Applied Virology Unit. A medical statistician by training, he has designed and analysed clinical trials since 2007, completing a PhD in 2016 focused on medication adherence and its methodological complexities. His research centres on infectious diseases (including sexually transmitted infections and HIV), and antimicrobial stewardship, with a strong emphasis on the design and evaluation of public health interventions. Dr Gillespie has held a Health Research Fellowship examining HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and plays an active role in shaping HIV policy in Wales, supporting evidence-based approaches to prevention and care. He is committed to interdisciplinary collaboration in virology and is a methodological expert in causal modelling, clinical trial design, and handling missing data. Although, as a Charity, Fast Track Cymru does not lead on research he utilises his knowledge and experience of this field to the Board of Trustees whilst offering updates and information relating to work in the area.
Trustee – Darren Cousins (Clinical Care)
Darren (he/him) is a board member for Fast Track Cymru but usually works as a Sexual Health & HIV Consultant for Cardiff & Vale. He has trained and worked across most of the UK health systems in the past few years and has a longstanding interest in HIV prevention and digital health initiatives. The privilege of seeing people who attend clinic having access to better diagnoses, treatments and preventions such as PrEP means he has the best job in the world as a doctor. He also has insight into the challenges that matter to people day to day, and works hard to make sure that services reflect what people need and want to get the best possible sexual health. Darren is particularly interested in ensuring that digital services are safe, reliable and imaginative to need the needs of all the populations. He also works in electronic prescribing in Cardiff and is currently the BASHH Cymru Wales chair, representing the of clinicians in Welsh Government policy on Sexual Health and HIV. He also works as an External Clinical Advisor for the London Sexual Health Programme.
Trustee – Dr Alessandro Ceccarelli (Campaigns and Communications)
Dr Alessandro Ceccarelli (he/him) is one of the co-founder of Fast Track Cymru, Wales’s initiative to end new HIV transmissions by 2030. A long-time advocate for HIV prevention and stigma reduction, he created the first-ever Wales HIV Testing Week in 2021 and co-led high-impact campaigns like Stop HIV Stigma and Are You PrEPped?, reaching hundreds of thousands and shaping national policy. As former Head of LGBTQ+ Policy for the Welsh Government, he led the LGBTQ+ Action Plan and supported the development of the HIV Action Plan, embedding lived experience and equity throughout. Now Director of Services at METRO Charity, one of the UK’s leading HIV, sexual health, and LGBTQ+ support providers, he oversees testing, prevention, peer support, inclusive education and health services across London and the South East. He is a Trustee of the National AIDS Trust (supporting HIV Outcomes and the HIV Confident Charter), a Trustee of LGBT Consortium, and a Non-Executive Director at the University of South Wales and Coleg Merthyr Tydfil, focusing on inclusive education and equality.
Trustee – Zoe Couzens OBE (Public Health and Services)
Zoe (she/her) has worked in Public Health in Wales for more than twenty years. Prior to this she was a dietitian specialising in HIV care. She is proud to be part of Fast Track Cymru, a coalition that is bringing people together to inform the public about blood borne viruses thereby reducing stigma and normalising testing so that Wales can provide the care and treatment that will support the elimination of transmission of BBVs in Wales.
Treasurer – Henry Field (Finance and People)
Henry Field (He/They) acts as our treasurer and HR Support. He has a background in HR, Recruitment and Diversity and Inclusion.
Henry has worked across the public, private and charity sectors, so brings a varied experience to help us have the best impact we can, from behind the scenes.
Fast Track Cymru 