We are delighted to announce that Dr Ian Smith has become the new Chair of the INF UK Board of Trustees.

Ian brings a wealth of experience of Nepal and international healthcare from a career working with United Mission to Nepal (UMN) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). He has been on the INF UK Board since 2020 and replaces Michael Thomas, who is standing down at the end of his 10-year term of office.

Ian said: “I am so grateful for the wisdom and faithful leadership that Michael has brought to the INF UK Board for so many years and he will be a hard act to follow. Alongside John as CEO they have done an incredible job, especially leading INF UK through the move away from being a missionary-sending to a resourcing organisation working closely with our Nepali partners.

“The Board is full of people with great experience, commitment and a heart for prayer, which means we are well equipped to face whatever challenge and opportunities that lie ahead.”

INF UK’s Board is a group of volunteers who have governance, strategic and legal responsibilities for the charity. You can find out more about the other trustees in the About INF section of our website.

God’s call to Nepal

Ian’s path to Nepal is a story of learning to follow God’s path. It was his wife Sally who already had a strong call to serve overseas before they married, which became a united calling after Ian returned from his 1979 medical elective in India with a vocation to work in community health.

They expected to serve in Asia, but Nepal was not specifically on the radar until an opportunity with BMS led them there in 1984, with Ian as a doctor and Sally using her nursing expertise (see photo at the top of the page).

“God was clearly leading us to Nepal at that time,” Ian reflects. They were initially based at UMN’s Amp Pipal Hospital in Gorkha district, but he also visited INF’s Green Pastures Hospital to receive leprosy training and worked closely with the INF tuberculosis (TB) programme in Surkhet. Ian was primarily involved in TB control from 1991.

In 1998 the WHO took on responsibility for what had become Ian’s national TB role, and a year later they moved to work in Geneva.

He added: “Sally and I have always been careful not to overstay our welcome. Our calling has been to act like scaffolding while a building goes up, and then its role is done. We have always prepared others so we could hand over to Nepali successors. By 1999 there was a real sense of God saying it was time to move on, after a wonderful 15 years in Nepal.”

Ian and Sally moved to Europe with the two children they had adopted in Nepal, who are now both in their 30s and living in the UK.

Ian went on to serve as an advisor and then Chief of Staff to the WHO Director General. He left WHO in 2017 and returned to the UK, but was invited back two years later and supported the WHO Global Preparedness Monitoring Board during the Covid-19 pandemic before fully retiring in 2023. Sally and Ian are now training to be Licensed Lay Ministers in the Church of England, through their local church of St Oswald’s Arncliffe.

Initial priorities as Chair

“INF has changed immensely since I first visited GPH in 1984,” he reflected, “and we continue to learn about the UK’s role in that. In partnership with our supporters and our friends delivering the work in Nepal, we will ensure that INF UK remains a key part of meeting people’s needs in Nepal.

“I would be very grateful for your prayers as the Board enables the charity to fulfil its vision of fullness of life for the most disadvantaged Nepalis. We have some initial priorities, including appointing John’s successor as CEO and looking ahead with our strategic plans for the next five years.

“We also need to look at how we work in true partnership and contribute to how the development sector is navigating the shifting roles between the UK and Nepal.

“I would be so grateful for you to continue on this path with us, and please do pray that the Board can be an effective support for the UK staff team and our partners in Nepal.”