New COO announcement
Embargoed until 5.00pm on Wednesday 2nd March
The Trustees are delighted to announce that Patricia Coleman-Taylor has been appointed as Chief Operating Officer of Narthex, replacing Nigel Brookhouse who retires at the end of September after seventeen years of service.
Patricia’s early career was spent in the food industry, managing manufacturing companies. She then set up a consulting company to help manufacturers produce foods to organic standards. She also worked as an inspector for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), verifying that organic and animal welfare standards were fully maintained at every stage of the food production process.
In 2002, recognising that there was a significant need for more support of the most vulnerable in society, Patricia took over a struggling social care provider. Since then, she has built an organisation which values the uniqueness and significance of every individual above all else. Her team now provide over 9000 hours of care and support to vulnerable people every week of the year.
Patricia believes that we are all custodians of an extraordinary world, and that it is our responsibility to use our unique gifts to protect our environment and to care for those who benefit least from society.
Patricia says, ‘I am so excited to be joining Narthex, and to be working with such an outstanding group of colleagues. The team is already achieving so much! I am really looking forward to sharing with them in building up the unique and invaluable service to the community that Narthex provides’.
Jamie Walsh, the Chair of Narthex Trustees, says ‘We are absolutely delighted that Patricia is coming to work with us. We think that her gifts of relationship-building, and her vision for the future of Narthex, are just what the organisation needs over the coming years to help it flourish and serve the people of Sparkhill and south-east Birmingham”.
Details of the transition process are currently being finalised. We expect that staff colleagues will have an opportunity to meet Patricia at the end of April, and that she will join the team formally on Tuesday 3 May. She will take up the full responsibilities of Chief Operating Officer on 16 May, with Nigel remaining in a support role until July. He will then begin a well-earned period of extended leave which will take him up to his retirement date.