Meet the Leadership Team
Symmr Sandhu
Chief Executive Officer
Symmr founded Dignus in 2006 having worked in the Health and Social care space since the late 1990’s.
Symmr has experience of a wide range of service provision including services for children in educational settings, complex care services for individuals with high acuity needs and elder adults in residential and nursing settings.
Before founding Dignus, Symmr held management positions with Advantage Healthcare (elderly care provider), was joint founding partner of Options Group (a children’s and young adults service provider) in addition to being a shareholder and Director in the family’s elderly care group. Symmr also serves as a director of a pharmacy business that operates in Birmingham on behalf of a prominent local charity.
Carl Brown
Chief Financial Officer
Carl joined Dignus as CFO in September 2019. Carl has extensive health sector and private equity experience with significant experience in financing, re-financing, corporate governance and of businesses experiencing rapid organic growth.
Prior to joining Dignus, Carl has spent over 15 years in senior leadership roles within the specialist healthcare sector with Voyage Care (one of the UK’s largest LD and specialist care home providers), Allied Healthcare (previously one of the UKs largest home care providers) and spent four years in Toronto, Canada where he held a senior leadership position in the Ontario home care sector.
Carl qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG Birmingham and has a BSc and MSc in Economics.
Ammer Sandhu
Director of Estates
Ammer is a founder shareholder of Dignus Group, and a key part of the team responsible for the group’s organic growth to date. He is now responsible for overseeing developments and the maintenance of the existing and growing property portfolio.
In addition to Dignus Group, Ammer has been part of the family business since 2003, working in the senior operations team of the elderly care division up until its sale in 2019.
Ammer has worked within the healthcare industry since qualifying with a bachelor’ Engineering Degree in 1999, initially specialising in the medical device industry. He gained vast experience working with Boston Scientific in the Republic of Ireland and the USA.
Rich Tomlinson
Director of IT and Systems
Rich joined Dignus in January 2022 as Director of IT and Systems, a new role for Dignus created to support its sustainable growth.
Rich has extensive health sector experience having worked with Interserve Healthcare and Allied Healthcare over a 10-year period.
Prior to joining Dignus, Rich has held a number of senior IT roles within private and public sector organisations, with his previous role being Head of User Services at HMRC.
Notable initiatives that Rich has been involved in are the COVID 19 Chancellor schemes, managing teams that contributed to rapid rollout of the schemes, and being programme lead for the rollout of offender rehabilitation workshops for a Ministry of Justice contract at HMP Berwyn.
Rich is passionate about improving business processes and the way people work, with the use of technology.
Emma Stanford
Head of People
Emma joined Dignus in July 2021 as Head of People, with responsibility for HR, Recruitment and Learning & Development.
Emma is a CIPD qualified HR professional with over 10 years’ experience developed in the Financial, Recruitment and Healthcare sectors.
Emma has spent her first 12 months with Dignus building a new HR team and implementing processes and procedures to support the wider business deliver the company strategies and performance objectives.
Wendy Swain
Head of Dignus Support
Wendy joined Dignus in June 2022 to provide leadership and management for Dignus Support. Her career spans over 30 years in the health and social care sector in a range of leadership and management roles within quality and operations.
Wendy started her career working within the NHS as a RGN, before moving into the social care sector and working for organisations including Housing and Care 21, Home Instead and Carefour. During this time, she worked across a range of services including Children’s Education under OFSTED registration, holding registration for CQC as both RM and NI for Adult Social care within Domiciliary care, supported living and TDDI, supporting outcomes for those with Dementia, LD, MH and Forensic, ABI and physical health needs.
Wendy has extensive working knowledge of start-up processes, operations, governance, quality, auditing, action planning and compliance. She has a real passion for the sector and supporting organisations to achieve potential, working towards achieving excellence and improving outcomes for service users.
Karla Brown
Director of Operations
Karla joined Dignus Group in August 2022 as Director of Operations. Karla is also the Nominated Individual for Dignus Group.
Karla initially trained as an Allied Health Professional in the NHS working within Critical Care. She also worked in the ECT Suite, supporting patients receiving Electro Convulsive Therapy whilst under general anesthesia.
Following several years working in the NHS, Karla made the decision to join the Social Care Sector where she has worked for the past twenty years supporting people with Learning Disabilities, Autism, Mental Health Disorder and Complex Needs. Karla has been a Registered Manger, Regional Manager, Regional Director and Director of Operations.
Karla also works as a Volunteer for the Trussell Trust, the Birmingham Christmas Shelter and is also an NHS Volunteer Responder as part of the National Response to Covid-19.
Julie Smith
Director of Business Development
Julie joined Dignus in November 2023 as Business Development Director and has extensive experience in both Health and Social Care Sector working in business development leadership roles for Cygnet , Priory and Care in Mind.
Julie has led in the development and commissioning of new services, tendering, marketing, and building strong partnerships with Health and Social Care Commissioners. Her passion and drive for business development focusses on making a difference for organisations relationships with external stakeholders to enable services to be developed to support complex individuals in the least restrictive setting and improving outcomes.
For the Business Development Team and the Dignus group, the vision is to collaborate with Integrated Care Boards and Local Authorities to become their preferred provider for supporting individuals with complex needs and to drive the growth of services across the Dignus Footprint.