Governance
The Board of Trustees/Directors is responsible for determining the overall strategic direction of NCA, for its policies, for its financial health and for ensuring that it upholds and follows its charitable objectives and any legal requirements. The Principal of the College is accountable to and reports to the Board. As a registered charity, we at the Northern College of Acupuncture exist to advance education for the public benefit. While commercial organisations may offer similar services with the intention of generating profit, our purpose is to provide learning, research, and information that support the wellbeing of the wider community. Our charitable status ensures that all our resources are dedicated to furthering this educational mission, rather than to any non-charitable activity. This commitment shapes our governance structure and guides us to operate with transparency, accountability, and a clear focus on serving the public good.
Board members:
Helen Thomas
(Chair)
Helen is a freelance education consultant with over 25 years’ experience in higher education. She has extensive experience in quality management and enhancement, professional standards in teaching and learning, and accreditation and validation processes.
David Jay
(Company Secretary)
David is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and a former Company Accountant, Financial Director and small business owner. David acts as Vice-chair for the College.
Nicholas Haines
Nick was co-founder of the College. He is an entrepreneur, international speaker, author, strategist, teacher in Chinese energetics, the creator of the Vitality Test and co-founder of the Five Institute, and a Kindness Ambassador. He has past experience as an acupuncturist and owner of a complementary therapies clinic.
Graham Webb
Graham's diverse career spans from managing computer operations in the textile and clothing industry, to international product marketing. He has over 20 years' experience in Further and Higher Education as a Senior Lecturer and Senior Manager, and serves as a Director/Trustee of the Educational Trust as well as being a member of the Academic Advisory panel for a Dubai university.
Kate Wicklow
Kate is an experienced member of the HE policy community with extensive experience with a variety of providers and a focus on the experience, needs and rights of students. She is currently a Policy Manager for GuildHE and a reviewer for the QAA. She is also a trustee of a London university’s student union.
Sebastian Maciocia
Sebastian joined the Board of Trustees at the Northern College of Acupuncture in August 2024. He brings extensive business development experience from the financial sector, bringing over 18 years' experience in senior roles at global asset management firms. He currently serves as Commercial Leader for the Financial Institutions Group at Mercer UK, where he is also a member of their Global Wealth Management Leadership Team.
Sebastian is also active in the world of Chinese medicine, serving as a Director of Su Wen Herbs Ltd, a company focused on continuing the work and legacy of his late father, Giovanni Maciocia in TCM education.
Olga Crosse
Olga joined the Board of NCA in March 2025. Olga runs her own HR consultancy specialising in the small business sector and also co-owns and runs a specialist SEMH tutoring company. Olga brings over 25 years' commercial experience in advising and running companies. She has served as a Committee member of BAAB for over 8 years and has been a devotee of acupuncture for many years.
Mike Cummings
Mike is a medical doctor who qualified from Leeds in 1987. He served as a medical officer in the Royal Air Force for 6-7 years from the late 80’s where he unexpectedly came across acupuncture. He has been Director of Education for the British Medical Acupuncture Society (BMAS) since 1997 and Medical Director since 2001. He has been one of the editors for the BMAS journal Acupuncture in Medicine since 1999.
He is an Honorary Clinical Specialist at the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine, which is part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where he supports NHS acupuncture services.
His principal academic and clinical interests are musculoskeletal pain, and in particular, needling therapies in the treatment of myofascial pain syndromes.
