CEO MONTHLY / MAY 2026 13 NPO CEO of the Year 2025 (UK): David Cunningham & Business Leadership & Dedication Excellence Award 2025 Kids Operating Room was formally launched in 2018, though its team had been working in the development of healthcare systems and children’s surgery since long before. Whilst working together on a project in Kampala, Uganda, Co-Founders Garreth and Nicola Wood were exposed to the challenges surgeons faced in accessing operating rooms for children’s surgery. This spurred them to create Uganda’s first ever operating room dedicated to children’s surgery in 2015, a “one-off” project that soon evolved into a non-profit organisation driving forward a global vision of bringing safe surgery to every child in need. Today, Kids Operating Room works directly with Ministries of Health, local surgeons, and their teams in their hospitals to transfer operating rooms, pre-op, and post-op rooms into dedicated spaces for children’s surgery. The organisation has installed operating rooms in countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin-America, supporting surgeons who had previously operated under torchlight and crumbling ceilings, with only broken equipment and adultsized instruments to hand. When embarking on its next project, Kids Operating Room identifies a hospital that is either lacking a paediatric operating room or desperately requiring an update. It then liaises directly with the local surgeon and their team to discover precisely what medical equipment will make the biggest difference to the children in their care. Always striving to support the local doctor, the organisation will never send surgeons from high-income countries but support the local team to build a sustainable healthcare system that is respectful of those already working in these spaces. After assessment, Kids Operating Room ships stateof-the-art equipment to the hospital from its Centre of Global Operations in Dundee, along with the iconic KidsOR artwork to decorate the space. A team of experts will meet the equipment to help the local teams unload, set up, and commission the medical equipment, whilst a separate team of artwork installers arrive to decorate the room. Upon completion of the installation, Kids Operating Room remains in touch with the local team to provide ongoing support with any maintenance and replacement needs. Kids Operating Room has followed this mission since 2018, refusing to deviate until every child is provided with the care they need. The organisation has evolved its methodologies in order to bring this vision to fruition sooner, now supporting the training of specialist surgeons and anaesthesia providers, for example. It also, when necessary, will speak up and advocate on behalf of children whose voices are not being heard in the debate about access to healthcare resources. With this willingness to evolve, Kids Operating Room is seeing more and more children accessing lifesaving care with each year that passes. This lifechanging work is steered by CEO David Cunningham, a seasoned professional dedicated to empowering local healthcare systems. David boasts extensive experience in global health policy, governance, and infrastructure development, serving as a Trustee of the Foreign Policy Centre, Director of Global Hospital Ltd, and Trustee of KidsOR USA. He has also served as a member of the Organising Committee at the Global Initiative for Children’s Surgery and a member of the Scottish Government’s Global Health Executive Committee. David holds a Fellowship with the Royal Society for Public Health and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Dundee. He has completed the Harvard Global Health Delivery Program and chaired the Scottish Government’s review on donating medical equipment, making significant contributions to policy improvements in global health resource allocations. What’s more, he served for nine years as a Board and Standards Committee member at the UK Fundraising Regulator, playing a key role in shaping ethical fundraising practices across the sector. Ultimately, David’s unrivalled experience has positioned the CEO as a global leader in children’s health programs, having impacted millions of children around the world through philanthropic projects. At the core of his efforts is an unwavering dedication to achieving Universal Health Coverage, ensuring that all children are provided with access to quality healthcare regardless of where they are born. For his significant strides towards achieving surgical equality for all children, leading him to propel Kids Operating Room forward in its overarching mission, David Cunningham has been named the UK’s NPO CEO of the Year 2025. Contact: Suzanne Yuill Company: KidsOR Web Address: www.kidsor.org Fighting for children’s right to accessing surgery around the globe, Kids Operating Room is an Edinburghbased global health charity dedicated to supporting low- and middle-income countries in developing sustainable surgical services for children. This is a mission overseen by Chief Executive Officer David Cunningham, an expert in healthcare infrastructure development within low-resource settings. Following David’s recent recognition in the Global CEO Excellence Awards 2025, we took a closer look at the charity’s exceptional work.
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