Our board of directors

Sherry Malik - Chairman

Sherry has worked in the public sector for nearly 25 years, as well as helping manage the family business. She has a broad range of leadership, business, and management skills gained in executive and non-executive roles in a variety of organisations and through inspecting/auditing and managing front line services. Sherry is a qualified social worker.

In the past, she has worked as a non executive director of the Children's Workforce Development Council and as Vice Chair of the Barnet and Chase Farm NHS Hospitals Trust.

She currently works as the Director of Strategy and Social Work Education for the General Social Care Council and has also previously worked as the Corporate Director of Strategy and Performance at the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass) for six years, where her brief included business planning, service user engagement, quality assurance and equality and diversity.

Prior to this, she worked as a Deputy Area Performance Lead and Senior Performance Specialist for the Audit Commission for three and a half years and as a senior manager in a national childcare voluntary organisation (Action for Children, formerly NCH) and several local authorities. She also helped manage the family business, which were large restaurants in California and London, as well as a furniture import business.

Sherry strongly believes that creating a shared agenda across professional disciplines, services and the community is the best way forward to deliver better outcomes for service users with diverse needs. She also strongly believes that the best of the commercial sector and the public sector can be realised in the delivery of services through Essex Cares.

Philip George - Vice Chairman

Philip is a solicitor, and is now a consultant to his old firm, Birkett Long, where he was Managing Partner.

He led the firm's Commercial and Corporate Finance team for some years, and successfully led the firm's applications for ISO 9001 and Lexcel accreditation.

He has experience in dealing with a wide variety of commercial issues (particularly in the healthcare sector), including advice on partnerships and joint ventures, sales and purchases of companies and businesses, and on various Private Finance Initiative and Private Public Partnership projects.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, a member of the Education Law Association, a Board member of Colchester Business Enterprise Agency, and Vice Chair of the Colchester Mercury Theatre. In his spare time, he enjoys cricket, walking and the theatre.

Clayton Beckwith - Non Executive Director

Clayton Beckwith has extensive business expertise around recruitment and training, plus experience with other voluntary and joint working organisations.

In June 2004, he was seriously injured after being hit by a car, spending three months in hospital. He was left confined to a wheel-chair, unable to walk. Since the accident, Clayton has developed chronic pain, which has seriously affected his and his family’s life.

Clayton has now learnt to walk again and manages short distances. He is a member of the Fair Access to Colchester Group for people with disabilities and has just set up the Chronic Pain Lifeline Support Group for sufferers of chronic pain in Colchester.

Cliff Broadhurst - Non Executive Director

Having being made redundant after almost 35 years in banking, Cliff is now able to spend more time focusing on “the things that matter”.

Aside from banking, Cliff has a history in the voluntary public sector, having been a local councillor, school governor and parent representative.

At work, as a member of the European Staff Council, he was heavily involved in reviewing and advising on all business plans and hopes to add a different dimension to the wealth of experience already on the board and within Essex Cares.

Wendy Grafton - Non Executive Director

Wendy’s background is in sales and marketing in the papermaking and packaging industry. Her first degree is in mathematics, and she was awarded an MBA from Cranfield School of Management in 1992.

For 10 years she worked as an independent business improvement consultant mainly with Siemens. She majors in strategy development, balanced scorecard development, process mapping and business analysis.

She has worked with Cornerstone Trust since September 2005 advising the CEO on the organisational structure and developing a fundraising and marketing strategy. Cornerstone Trust is a charity that works with vulnerable adults in West Essex, offering support via training and advocacy. She took on responsibility as the CEO in April 2008 and has moved the organisation to a more formal and sustainable structure.

She is a director of Advocacy (Essex) Services Ltd and she works closely with the other 6 directors to provide Advocacy Services across Essex using partner organisations, including Cornerstone Trust.

She lives in Bishop’s Stortford with her husband Steve, and 3 children.

Dr Caroline Dollery - Non Executive Director

Caroline is a busy GP working within a training practice in Danbury, a village just out to the east of Chelmsford.

She is married with two teenagers who keep her busy. Caroline also loves hill walking, playing the piano and reading.

She is passionate about improving access to good care and joint working with health and social care. She is also a Trustee of Maldon MIND.