A top-level director in Leeds has been appointed the new chief executive of Airedale NHS Trust.

Adam Cairns, currently director of communications and corporate affairs at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, will replace Bob Allen on September 1.

Trust chairman Professor Brian Jewell said: "It was the unanimous view of the appointing panel that Adam has the right combination of background and experience to take on the role of our chief executive at an important time for the trust."

In his application for the job, Mr Cairns, 42, stated: "My vision for Airedale is that it becomes a truly world class, local health care provider, recognised by everyone as being a superb organisation to belong to -- that it is an organisation that works flexibly and in full partnership to ensure the best deal for patients and leads on new ways of delivery, is confident about its role and is in command of its future."

Prof Jewell could not agree more.

"That's a vision that I am sure we can all happily sign up to, and I hope very much that Adam will be warmly welcomed as a new member of the Airedale family," he said.

Mr Cairns's present role in Leeds includes responsibility for all communications, for the engagement of the trust in civic activities and for public and patient involvement on behalf of the wider health community. In addition, he also has a trouble-shooting role on behalf of the trust's chief executive and has played a key part in the implementation of a major cost improvement programme in the Leeds hospitals.

Mr Cairns, pictured, who lives in Bingley, has a degree in law from the University of Hull and a diploma in health services management.

His executive training and development activities have included spells at the Harvard Business School and Johns Hopkins Medical Centre, in Baltimore, USA.

His NHS career began in 1983 as a national management trainee at the Yorkshire Regional Health Authority, followed by a number of years with Calderdale Health Authority.

He spent time working in the north-west implementing clinical directorates at Hope Hospital, Salford, before moving to Leeds, where he has held the posts of director of contracting, director of the Yorkshire Heart Centre and director of acute medicine and cardiovascular services. He took up his present post in 2002.

Along with expressing his delight at Mr Cairns's appointment, Prof Jewell thanked Janet Crouch for her tremendous job in holding the fort as acting chief executive during Bob Allen's secondment to the Department of Health. "I am immensely grateful to her for her loyalty and services to the trust," he said.