Spotlight on Our People: Lexie Norman

Lexie has joined The London Clinic at an important time for philanthropy.

As we deliver our Centenary Strategy, she and her team want colleagues, patients, and supporters to better understand how our charitable status makes The London Clinic different and how philanthropic support can help us achieve more.

Working alongside colleagues in Philanthropy and Charitable Impact, one of her ambitions is to make our charitable purpose more visible and easier for everyone to understand.

For Lexie, philanthropy is about much more than fundraising.

It is about connecting people with the difference they can make, telling the stories of the work happening across The London Clinic, and helping colleagues, patients and donors understand what it means to be treated in or connected with a hospital that is also a charity.

“What we’d love is for staff to feel excited about the fact that they work for a hospital that is also a charity. We’re the largest independent charitable hospital in the country – that’s something to be really proud of” Lexie says.

What does philanthropy mean at The London Clinic?

The London Clinic has been a charity since 1935. Unlike a shareholder-owned hospital, surplus is reinvested into areas including patient care, our people, education, research, equipment, and charitable activity.

Philanthropy can help us go further.

To Lexie, a key part of the team’s job is finding and telling the stories that show donors what their support could make possible.

“There are amazing procedures, plans, and patient stories happening all over the hospital,” she says. “It is important for philanthropy to be able to curate and coherently represent these to donors.”

That could ultimately mean support for anything from relatively small pieces of clinical equipment to major programmes and facilities.

Making it easier for patients to say thank you

Colleagues across The London Clinic may already meet patients or families who want to express their thanks for the care they have received.

Sometimes that might mean recognising an individual colleague. In other cases, a patient may ask whether they can make a donation to support the hospital.

Lexie wants to make sure there is a clear, sensitive, and appropriate way to respond when those conversations happen.

From art history to climate change

Lexie’s career is a good example of how professional development does not always follow a straight line.Her undergraduate degree was in history of art, followed by a master’s in Irish art history, where she became interested in political communication through art.

She then studied sound engineering and lighting design before spending five years at the BBC, including work in behind-the-scenes production and talent negotiation.

After leaving the BBC, Lexie studied psychology and specialised in environmental psychology. That led her into climate change communications.

She joined a climate foundation in Brussels when it had a team of around seven people and helped the CEO develop the organisation as it grew to more than 500 colleagues operating globally.

By the time she left after a decade, Lexie says she was ready to learn something new.

“Climate is such an important issue but, a decade in, I felt a hankering for a new problem and a new challenge.”

Healthcare had long interested her, and the Head of Philanthropy Operations vacancy immediately stood out.

“I looked at the job and thought, ‘My God, that’s perfect,’” she says.

That experience now shapes her work at The London Clinic.

Philanthropy involves understanding complex services, bringing information together, managing programmes, building relationships, and communicating a clear story about why something matters.

It also requires working across organisational boundaries – something Lexie has done throughout her career.

Looking ahead

The vision is for colleagues to feel informed and confident, for patients who want to give back to have an appropriate way to do so, and for the stories and opportunities across The London Clinic to be clearly connected with people who want to support them.

“In any sector, Philanthropy has enormous potential to unite,” Lexie says.

“I’m really looking forward to working with everyone to help make that happen.”