Assura plc announced that Ed Smith has been appointed to the Board as Non-Executive Director with immediate effect. Ed Smith was Chairman of NHS Improvement for three years and the Lead Non-Executive Director for the Department for Transport until the end of December 2017. He is also the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council at the University of Birmingham. He was the former Global Assurance Chief Operating Officer and Strategy Chairman of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Before retiring from PwC, he had a 30-year career as a Senior Partner, holding many leading board and top client roles in the UK and globally.