ECL Board

Keir Lynch joined ECL in January 2016 from Essex County Council where he had been Executive Director for Strategy, Transformation, Commissioning Support and Traded Services

Prior to joining Essex County Council he spent six years with the Bank of Ireland Group, as the UK HR Director, where he contributed to the significant expansion of the Corporate Banking business into the UK market and the development of a retail franchise through a joint venture with the Post Office Ltd.

For the previous 10 years, Keir held a number of senior HR roles in GEC (latterly Marconi). He was the HR Director for GEC Capital Division and, following the £7bn demerger of the defence business in 1999, he was the Vice President of HR of the high growth Optical Networks Division of what had become a global telecoms company. Keir read Humanities BA (Hons) at Greenwich University and then completed his MBA through the Open Business School.

Keir is also a member of the Charted Institute of Personnel and Development.

Claire Shuter joined ECL in January 2017 and became a Director in June 2019.

Prior to ECL, Claire worked in local government for 15 years at County and District Councils in Essex. With a BA (Hons) degree in Music from The University of York, the early part of her career was at Chelmsford Council working in Events and Arts Management. Her interest in business management led her to complete two postgraduate Management qualifications with the University of Essex.

In 2008 she joined Essex County Council’s Arts & Heritage team and progressed into the corporate centre of the authority leading teams in the Cabinet and Executive Office. In 2013 Claire was appointed Head of Business Support and led the Business Support transformation programme; delivering £5m savings through the implementation of a new service model for 600 administrative staff. The success of this project led to her appointment as the sponsor of the Support Services transformation programme and the authority’s Essex 2021 programme which included the strategy development for digital transformation in Essex where her passion for digital was ignited.

Claire joined ECL as Head of Strategy, Marketing and Digital and led the strategic development of the company, modernised the marketing offer and championed digital innovation including the introduction of StoriiCare.

Claire is recognised as a leading figure in digital transformation of health and social care in Essex and is the chairperson of the Digital Boomers steering group.

In her spare time Claire is a School Governor and enjoys spending time with her young family.

Joe Coogan joined ECL as Director of Operations in August 2016. Joe has 20 years’ experience working in social care in a variety of roles as a provider, commissioner and leading social work teams. Joe has held senior leadership roles in the public, private and voluntary sector and is committed to providing excellent outcomes for people with social care needs.

Joe joined ECL from PwC where he was the lead consultant for social care, supporting transformation, integration and efficiency projects for councils and the NHS. Prior to that he was the Director of Operations for a charity called Kisharon that operated supported living services, wellbeing hubs, social enterprises, special needs schools/colleges, supported employment and integrated early years provision and was able to improve financial stability, whilst ensuring all services were rated outstanding or good by both the CQC and Ofsted.

Joe fulfilled the role as Assistant Director Transformation (Commissioning) at the London Borough of Havering for five years from 2008-2013 driving significant performance improvements and achieving savings through investments in prevention. For two years prior to joining Havering, Joe held the Head of Adults role at the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham leading all social work teams and commissioning budgets.

In his spare time Joe is a keen sports person, playing football in the Essex veterans league, tennis and golf. His family supports guide dogs for the blind and act as puppy walkers, taking the young dogs in for a year to give them basic training and socialisation before they go to the main training centre at Woodford Green. Joe says ‘It’s always hard waving the dogs off when they leave but it is so rewarding when they qualify as fully trained guide dogs and help visually impaired people maintain their independence’.

Michael joined ECL as Chairman of the Board in September 2019. He is a Fellow of Chartered Certified Accountants and has an extensive career with KPMG and more recently with Deloitte. At KPMG Michael held a number of senior positions including Chief Operating Officer and Member of the Executive Committee. Following this he held the position of Managing Director of Anchor Trust; the UK’s largest not-for-profit care provider and is currently a Non-Executive Director of Housing 21; a leading, not-for-profit provider of Retirement Housing. Michael is also a Trustee of Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew.

Vineeta joined ECL in October 2020 and brings strong financial management, commercial and entrepreneurial skills developed over 25 years in blue chip global firms, such as Merrill Lynch, as well as at niche start-up emerging market investment banks.

Since 2011, Vineeta has held Non-Executive Director and Audit Chair positions across a variety of public and voluntary sector organisations. Some of her current roles include the Chair of the Audit and Finance Committees and a Board member of Waltham Forest and East London CCG; Chair of the Audit Committee at Sandwell Children’s Trust and Chair of the Risk and Audit Committee for the States of Jersey.

Vineeta gained an M.A. in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University and was trained as an internal auditor at Unilever.

Bruce joined Housing 21 as Chief Executive in 2013 with a track record of successfully managing change and addressing challenges in order to improve the provision of housing and care services for older people.

Bruce has previously been Chief Executive for Hanover Housing Group, Chief Executive of Wolverhampton Homes and Deputy Chief Executive of Anchor Trust.

Bruce has served as a Board Member for a number of housing associations and charities including twice serving as an appointee on behalf of the regulator.

He completed a PhD considering the differences in attitudes and expectation of the governance role of boards of housing associations in 2017 and is currently studying for a further PhD on the priorities and preferences of residents of Retirement Housing and Extra Care.

Bruce lists some of his key achievements in housing:

• Successfully changing strategy and structure to reflect challenges in the retirement housing and care sector, and the future expectations of older people
• Improving levels of staff satisfaction and engagement
• Consistently delivering strong results and value for money
• Identifying and delivering major growth and development projects, including corporate acquisitions and the negotiation and implementation of PFI contracts.

Bruce’s early career was as an in-house lawyer and he is a qualified solicitor, he is also a keen runner and supporter of Bath Rugby.

Steve joined ECL in April 2021. He has 30 years’ senior human resources management experience in market leading organisations, including Duracell Inc, EMI Music plc, Esselte AB, and Laird Group plc. Between 2002 and 2016 Steve held Group Human Resources Director posts in large multi-site health & social care provider companies, including Care UK plc and The Lifeways Group.

Steve now operates his own HR interim, project, and consultancy services company. He is also a director of an international R&D infrastructure company, a trustee of a regional charity supporting disadvantaged children and families, and a trustee of a multi-academy trust of schools for children with social, emotional, and mental health needs.

Steve has an Honours degree in Business Studies, and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development.