Chair: Rosie Cooper
Rosie was appointed as Mersey Care's chair on 1 December 2022 and her three year term of office ends on 30 November 2025.
Before taking on her role at Mersey Care, Rosie had a long and successful career as an elected politician with extensive experience of the Health Sector. Alongside this, she worked for the Littlewoods Organisation, starting in the buying division and progressing through the company to eventually become Corporate Communications Manager for the Littlewoods Group.
As the daughter of deaf parents, Rosie’s career was shaped by her drive for equality in access to public services for all. First elected in 1973 as a Liverpool City Councillor, she remained on the council for 28 years and in 1992 was chosen to be the Lord Mayor of Liverpool.
In 2005, Rosie was elected as the Member of Parliament for West Lancashire, a position she successfully retained across four General Elections, until standing down after 17 years in 2022.
During her time as an elected politician, Rosie also held several high profile roles within the Health Sector and third sector, including being Vice Chair of Liverpool Health Authority and a trustee for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. Between 1996 and 2005 she was Chair of Liverpool Women’s Hospital, which successfully gained Foundation Trust status during her tenure.
As a Parliamentarian, Rosie was an highly regarded and long standing member of the Health Select Committee, regularly working to gain assurance from NHS officials and Government Ministers on matters of Health Care Policy. Always a determined advocate for both patients and NHS frontline staff, she has been a significant force in gaining support for a number of independent enquiries into culture and care at a number of NHS organisations.
In her final year as an MP, Rosie successfully gained cross party support for her British Sign Language Bill (BSL), which received royal assent in April 2022, recognising BSL as a language in its own right.
Rosie chairs the Council of Governors, the Board of Directors and the Remuneration Committee.
Non-Executive Director: Gerry O’Keeffe (also the Senior Independent Director)
Gerry was appointed on 18 April 2013 and his current term of office ends on 30 April 2024.
Currently retired, he worked for CSC from 2000 until 2014 and was their Chief Operating Officer from 2011, reporting to the CEO for UK & Ireland, responsible for ensuring P&L, Client Satisfaction and revenue growth were delivered by all parts of the business. Other roles at CSC included Head of UK Healthcare Business Unit (2007-11), Vice President of the NHS Account (2006-07), New Business Capture Executive (2005-06) and Chief Operating Officer National Grid Account (2003-05).
He has lifetime experience of working in information technology and consulting businesses, strong business profit and loss experience in many complex global companies, leadership experience managing large teams in both UK and international companies and executive leadership experience of large transformational programmes to meet changing business needs.
Qualifications: MBA Heriot-Watt University
Non-Executive Director: Nick Williams
Nick was appointed on 1 January 2014 and his current term of office ends on 30 April 2024.
Nick currently is the Group Director, Transformation at Lloyds Banking Group, accountable for the investment made annually to drive the technology, data and digital transformation across the organisation. Prior to this role Nick has held numerous leadership roles in commercial banking, retail and running the Digital Bank. Nick is also a Government advisor on Digital Skills, advisory Board member at Digital Leaders UK and founding Board member of Future.now
Qualifications: MEng. Chemical Engineering, Loughborough University (1997)
Non-Executive Director: Scott Etherington
Scott was appointed on 17 January 2022, having previously been appointed as a Board Advisor in January 2021. His current term of office ends on 16 January 2025.
Scott is currently Finance Director of the Co-operative Group, with responsibility for the Food, Funeralcare and Insurance divisions. Prior to this Scott has held a number of leadership positions, with extensive experience across Retail, Leisure and Pharmaceuticals.
Scott has a particular passion for Data, and how it can be applied across different types of organisations to drive transformational change.
Qualifications: BA Economics, MSc International Economics, Qualified Accountant
Non-Executive Director: Marie Boles
Marie was appointed on 1 September 2022 on a three year term, which ends on 31 August 2025.
Marie is a registered Mental Health Nurse, who has held a number of posts covering a wide range of roles throughout her 39 year career, including as an Honorary Lecturer, a Principle Officer for Mental Health with a local authority and a number of operational nurse management roles within inpatient, community, adult secure and adolescent mental health services. Marie has experience as a Named Nurse for safeguarding and has been a member of a number of Safeguarding Partnerships.
Marie retired in August 2022 as the Interim Executive Director of Nursing & Care at Cheshire & Merseyside Integrated Care System and prior to that held a range of senior management roles at NHS England, including Director of Nursing (Cheshire & Mersey), Deputy Chief Nurse (North Region) and Head of Nursing (Greater Manchester & Lancashire). All these roles had a focus on quality, patient safety, nurse education, service transformation and training. Upon retirement Marie was awarded the Chief Nursing Officer’s Gold Award in recognition of her outstanding achievements throughout her nursing career.
Marie is a member of the Commissioning Committee, the Quality Committee and the Remuneration Committee.
Qualifications: Registered Mental Health Nurse (RMN), Diploma in Management Studies, Masters in Business Administration.