President
David Godfrey
David qualified from the RVC in 1988 and has had a career largely in practice. This started with small animal practice and taking the RCVS certificates in small animal dermatology and medicine. He then moved to Solihull, had nine years in feline-only practice, became board certified in feline practice, wrote a RCVS Fellowship thesis on feline osteoarthritis only to move on to a few years at the end of the phone working for a commercial laboratory. The last 12 years have seen David back to his roots, working as an Advanced Practitioner dermatologist and BAER hearing tester peripatetically around the West Midlands.
David has been a BSAVA member since a student and began volunteering in the regions, then as Chair of Regions, Honorary Treasurer and now Junior Vice President as well as being back on the West Midlands regional committee.
David is married to Rosie, Chair of BSAVA PetSavers. They have two grown up children working in the Arts – Ella and Oscar. Spare time involves walking, reading, painting, watching films and TV and looking after Albert, a North American box turtle (straightforward), and Natasha, a cat with severe allergy (not straightforward).
Senior Vice President
Julian Hoad BVetMed BSc(hons) MRCVS
Julian graduated from the Royal Veterinary College in 1996, having previously completed a microbiology and biochemistry degree and worked with HIV and related retroviruses for several years at the institute of Cancer Research in London.
After three years of mixed practice in Kent he settled into small animal practice in Surrey and Sussex. He has been partner, owner and now clinical director of a first opinion practice in West Sussex for the past 15 years.
He has a strong interest in ultrasonography, soft tissue and orthopaedic surgery and has written and given talks in these subjects to vets and nurses throughout the UK and abroad.
He has written chapters in several veterinary and nursing text books (and a virology manual) and is currently co-editing the new BSAVA Manual of Advanced Veterinary Nursing.
Julian has been married to Sylvia for 16 years and has two daughters, two cats and an elderly dog. He is a keen climber and mountaineer; skier and canoeist. Although when the weather is unfavourable he is happier to be involved with the local amateur dramatics group.
Vice President
Susan Little
Having qualified from Glasgow in 1992, Susan spent most of her full time career in small animal general practice. Starting up and growing her own practice whilst raising a young family was certainly busy and challenging, but joining a BSAVA regional committee created friendships and support, as well as a different, very social perspective. Becoming a regional officer and organising Scottish Congress led into terms as Regions CoOrdinator and PetSavers Chair. With an interest in management and leadership, she has held Managing Director and Business Development Director posts, covering multiple practices in Scotland and the Scottish Borders.
Alongside working in practice, she served as the vet member on the RCVS RVN PIC committee and in various roles at the R(D)SVS, supporting undergraduate admissions and examining.
No longer active in clinical work, Susan is involved with several charities, enjoys travel whenever possible and exercise on occasion. She lives in Edinburgh and currently only has one cat, who would very much prefer to move somewhere more sunny, despite his white coat!
Junior Vice President
Niall Connell, BVMS CertSAO FRCVS
Having grown up in the West of Scotland, Niall gained his BVMS degree from Glasgow and entered mixed practice in Fife. He joined PDSA in London where he enjoyed his first BSAVA congress at London Novotel. He then relocated to Glasgow to continue his PDSA career.
Niall obtained his CertSAO just before becoming Senior Veterinary Surgeon at East Glasgow PDSA. He did occasional sole charge locums too.
Niall took ill health retirement from clinical practice in 2010, suffering from secondary progressive Multiple Sclerosis. He volunteered for an NHS hospital patient information centre in Glasgow. He now does e-portfolio assessment and occasional teaching at Glasgow vet school.
Niall served on RCVS council for ten years and was RCVS president in 2019/20 which included the first four months of the Covid pandemic. Then he was RCVS Treasurer for two years. He was chair of the Diversity and Inclusion group. In 2022 he became FRCVS for meritorious contributions to the veterinary profession and is currently chair of the RCVS Fellowship Board.
Niall received an honorary doctorate in 2023 from Edinburgh University for contributions to diversity and Inclusion.
Niall is a trustee of the Scottish SSPCA. He has really enjoyed his work with the BSAVA volunteer development committee.
He lives in South Ayrshire with his wife, Colette. They have three grown up children and three grandchildren. A Border Terrier and a ginger rescue cat rule the house.
Honorary Secretary
Adam Gow
Honorary Treasurer
Jo Megarity RVN
Jo has worked in the veterinary industry since 2007 and has always had a special interest in rabbits. She owns LagoLearn, which provides rabbit specific CPD to veterinary professionals in the UK and Internationally. She spends a significant amount of voluntary time highlighting animal welfare, is the Secretary of the AZEVN, a BSAVA volunteer and is proud have been the President of the BVNA in 2019-2020. Jo has received several awards over the years including the Blue Cross Veterinary Nurse of the Year, the IFAW Animal Advocate Award and an RCVS Innovation Award.
Co-opted Board Member
Peter Graham BVMS CertVR PhD DipECVCP MRCVS
Peter remained at Glasgow University after graduating in 1989 as Small Animal House Physician, Research Scholar and Lecturer in Clinical Pathology until 1996 obtaining his PhD in 1995. Subsequently, he was an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University from 1996 and Managing Director of Dechra Pharmaceutical’s Laboratory services, NationWide and Cambridge Specialist Laboratories 2002-2014. He is now Professor of Endocrinology and Clinical Pathology, University of Nottingham. He is a past president of the European Society of Veterinary Clinical Pathology.
Peter has been a BSAVA Member since the mid-1990’s and has held roles on North West and East Midlands Regional Committees and on PetSavers Grant Awarding Committee and Big Project Board.
Peter and his partner Nick live in Leicestershire with their 3 young children and spend much of their time outside work ferrying them to their various after-school activities.
Chief Executive Officer
Amanda Stranack
Amanda graduated in Human Sciences from UCL in 1993 and in seeking her next steps, a fortunate introduction led to a role in small but growing business delivering corporate events. This started her career in the world of corporate events where she moved through project management and account director positions and finally to senior management positions working with the boards to develop commercial and business strategies.
For some time she had looked for a position to move to the client side of events, seeking for the chance to shape and build events strategically from within an organisation and the Head of Congress position at BSAVA fitted the bill. BSAVA Congress is the UK’s largest annual association event and something to be proud of, within the veterinary profession but also the world of professional associations and events as a whole. After 4 years in this role Amanda moved to the Director of Operations position and became Chief Executive in 2019.
FCA- Non-executive director
Stephen Spill MA (Oxon)
Steve is BSAVA’s first non-executive director, and a non-veterinarian.
Steve graduated in History from Christ Church, Oxford and went on to qualify as a Chartered Accountant. He has enjoyed a long executive career, initially as an auditor and later a business adviser and manager. The final segment of his executive career was as Chief Operating Officer of the Central & Eastern European operations of a major global professional services group, where he oversaw its operations in more than 30 offices across 19 countries.
As well as London, Surrey and South Wales, Steve has lived and worked in Rome, Budapest, Prague and Warsaw.
Steve now holds a portfolio of non-executive positions which, as well as BSAVA, include social housing, an NHS trust, international employee benefits and a mental health charity. His specialisms are finance, risk management and business growth strategy.
He lives in the Vale of Glamorgan in converted farm buildings, surrounded by (mainly large) animals, his involvement in small animals limited to the family cat, watching the neighbour’s sheepdogs at work, and providing protection for a hedgehog family. He enjoys cycling and walking in the rural Vale and travelling.
