Meet Our People

View the profiles below for more information on our senior leadership team.

 

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John Baumback

Executive Chairman
John Baumback

John Baumback

Executive Chairman

John joined Seetec in 1984 as a YTS trainee studying COBOL Programming, the leading business language of the day. Following his traineeship, for the next 6 years he taught programming and a number of IT disciplines to hundreds of local trainees. Seeing first-hand the impact that learning and development has on individuals’ life chances has been a strong influencing factor across the rest of his career. He became the Executive Chairman of the Seetec Group in January 2023.

Before becoming the Executive Chairman of the business, John was appointed the Group Chief Executive Officer in 2015. He spent eight years as the executive lead at a strategic and operational level. John has delivered a number of significant transformational changes to the business in his various leadership roles. He oversaw the mobilisation, transition and transformation of the Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) from a public sector organisation into one of the leading providers of probation services in the UK. John also led the team on the Ministry of Justice negotiations for the acquisition of the South West CRC contracts.

He continues to work to ensure employee owners at all levels of the Group feel empowered to make comments or have opinions. John is passionate about encouraging colleagues to embrace the opportunity to take a longer-term view and to use their skills to further help shape the organisation’s future.

The breadth and depth of John’s knowledge across all areas of the business, gained through his 35 years of continued service, has enabled him to form and develop an experienced and diverse senior team that are committed to Seetec’s culture, values and delivering its strategic vision. His innate understanding of the complexity of the external operating environment has been pivotal to the changes made to Seetec’s commercial, financial, risk and corporate governance processes to support the growth aspirations under a single strategic framework that is guiding the direction of the Group up to 2032.

Lesley Barry

Group Finance and Corporate Services Director
Lesley Barry

Lesley Barry

Group Finance and Corporate Services Director

A qualified accountant, Lesley joined Seetec in 2002. She is responsible for strategic financial management across the Group, helping to drive value for money, performance and supporting the sustainable new business through pricing and commercial due diligence. Lesley is also responsible for the management of the Group’s property portfolio.

In a career spanning 40 years, Lesley has worked almost exclusively in an owner managed business, with exposure to all aspects of financial management, from bookkeeping to leading on acquisitions and disposals. She has always been close to the business-end of the organisations she has worked for.

She has spent a few years as an operations director with responsibility for delivering financial targets, as well as contract delivery and staff management.

With the majority of her career spent in the training industry, Lesley has seen first-hand the impact that addressing barriers to progression in life has, not only on individuals, but their families and particularly their children. Passionate about equality of opportunity for everyone, she recognises that limited resources must be deployed where they can have most impact and generate maximum value for money.

Suki Binning

Chief Operating Officer

Suki Binning

Chief Operating Officer

Suki led KSS CRC through its transition to the private sector. Suki has amassed over 22 years of experience working in probation and is a passionate advocate for its role in protecting the public and helping people to turn away from crime.

Under her leadership, government inspectors judged KSS CRC in 2017 to be “performing well”. In 2018, the area became the first in the UK to launch an academic research unit for probation work, drawing on probation and academic expertise to evaluate what works to reduce individuals reoffending.

Suki is a qualified probation officer and has previously worked at the Ministry of Justice, the National Offender Management Service (now called HMPPS) and inspectorate on national policy and standards.

Muriel Hayman

Chief Finance Officer

Muriel Hayman

Chief Finance Officer

Muriel joined Seetec in March 2022 as a Finance Director.

As a qualified Chartered Accountant, Muriel is an experienced Private & Public sector Financial and Operations Leader.

Muriel is focused on her mission to partner with business leaders to build efficient, data lead teams and processes through system implementation.

A true collaborator at all levels with the ability to enhance business outcomes and give real commercial and strategic insight, Muriel is skilled in managing and motivating large diverse teams in fast changing environments.

Karl Milne

Executive Director, Employability and Skills: Ireland
Karl Milne

Karl Milne

Executive Director, Employability and Skills: Ireland

Karl became Executive Director for Seetec Employment & Skills Ireland in January 2020. Prior to that he was an Operations Director with Seetec since their entry to the Irish market in April 2015 to deliver the JobPath employability contract.

Karl is proud of the impact Seetec has made on the communities it serves in Ireland through the JobPath contract, the first of its scale and type commissioned in the country. He’d like to support the SESI team in becoming a long-term valued partner for commissioners delivering essential services to communities in Ireland.

He has held senior operations roles in multiple sectors including cinema, entertainment retail and retail pharmacy. His own experience of redundancy and unemployment when Xtra-vision was sold by Blockbuster in 2010 drew him to the sector when the opportunity arose.

Karl has a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from University College Dublin which he enhanced with an MBA from Dublin City University.

Amy Rice

Executive Director, Education and Justice

Amy Rice

Executive Director, Education and Justice

Amy joined Seetec in September 2022 and has responsibility for Interventions Alliance as Executive Director for Education and Justice.

She has more than 20 years of education and justice experience, having held various leadership roles in these sectors. In her most recent role, she served as Chief Executive Officer of a multi-academy trust of 17 schools across Yorkshire. Prior to that she was a Director in the Ministry of Justice, holding various roles spanning operational delivery, policy, commissioning, leadership and talent. She also led on major programme delivery, as well as sponsorship of the national Inspectorates and scrutiny bodies.

As a non-executive Amy sits on the Board and Audit Committee of Northumbria University, and served on the board of TdF2014, the company charged with delivering the highly successful English stages of the Tour de France in 2014. She was also part of the Interim Executive Board of a large secondary school, taking it out of special measures.

Mark Harrison

Director of Employability UK

Mark Harrison

Director of Employability UK

Mark has over 25 years’ experience in the employability sector and has held senior operational positions for some of the UK’s leading business services providers.

Mark started his career with Jobcentre Plus working on the frontline, before moving into the sector as an Employment Coach at Working Links working on the Employment Zone contract in 2000, going on to work in various operational role before moving into senior operational management, across employability, skills, youth and justice, in the public, private and voluntary sector.

Mark is extremely passionate about being able to make a difference and support as many participants to progress, through our various programmes by ensuring we enable delivery teams to provide the right support at the right time.

Katy Lewis

Operations Director, Pluss

Katy Lewis

Operations Director, Pluss

Katy is a dedicated operator and strategic leader who ardently advocates for a person-centred approach to leadership. With over 15 years of distinguished leadership and management experience, and a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, Katy brings a wealth of knowledge, extensive expertise, and formidable leadership acumen to her role as the Operations Director for Pluss, a Social Enterprise within the Seetec group.

Katy’s career spans more than 15 years in the education and training sector and for over a decade, she held a leadership position overseeing youth training contracts at a prominent provider in Wales. During this tenure, she was also the strategic lead for learner and staff wellbeing and the Chair for the National Training Federation of Wales’s Prevent and Safeguarding Group. This group played a pivotal role in shaping and implementing the Prevent agenda across the training sector in Wales and received high commendation from the Welsh Government and Estyn.

Stuart Canning

Executive Director, Commercial and Corporate Governance
Stuart Canning

Stuart Canning

Executive Director, Commercial and Corporate Governance

Stuart joined the group in 2017 initially serving as Commercial Director. Since June 2019 he has also assumed the Director of Corporate Governance position. Across both roles, he is tasked with drafting and negotiating on any type of agreement across the business and assessing its risk, contractual compliance, and legality of contracts. In addition, he is tasked with the strategic management of Company Secretary activities and overall contract governance of the Group.

He has accumulated 20 years’ experience of negotiating, managing, and delivering large and complex contracts with both customers and suppliers. This has been accrued working with large companies such as Capita, BT Global Services and Accenture.

Sasha Ashton

Group HR Director
Sasha Ashton

Sasha Ashton

Group HR Director

Sasha is responsible for the design and implementation of the Group’s People Strategy that supports the overarching strategic aims of the organisation. Alongside this, she leads a HR team responsible for the delivery of a full range of HR functions.

Sasha holds an LLB (Hons) and is a committed HR professional. With over 20 years’ experience of partnering with executive and leadership teams, she is passionate about the positive impact an effective People Strategy can have on business performance. She has a proven track record in implementing extensive change management programmes in fast-paced, multi-site environments.

Prior to joining Seetec, she worked in businesses in both the private and public sectors. Sasha believes people are the heart of the organisation and that having the right people in the right roles, performing at their best is critical to business success.

Ann-Marie Conway

Associate Director - Employee Ownership

Ann-Marie Conway

Associate Director - Employee Ownership

Ann-Marie joined Seetec in 1999 initially heading its HR department and is part of the team that has seen it grow from a small regional business to a large employee owned public and business service provider.

She now leads the organisation’s employee ownership strategy, working closely with colleagues to bring ownership to life. Her focus is to enable every colleague to influence the direction of the business and work together for the benefit of the people and communities that Seetec serves.

Ann-Marie is a qualified HR professional and has more than 27 years’ experience across a range of sectors including retail and financial services. Her areas of HR expertise include organisational change, wide-scale restructures, complex TUPE transfers, employee engagement and internal communications. She has a Humanities degree from University of Exeter, a Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management (University of East London) and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management and the Institute of Employability Professionals.

Ann-Marie was delighted when Seetec made the move to employee ownership, seeing it as a natural progression of its core values. She believes that it is a logical step for Seetec employees to have ownership of the business, given Seetec helps people to take ownership and responsibility over their lives.

Peter Cooper

Seetec Founder
Peter Cooper

Peter Cooper

Seetec Founder

In 1984 Peter established Seetec, as an ITeC, with funding from the DTI, MSC, Essex and Rochford Councils and with the private sector sponsors – Access, British Telecom, ICL and Sony. Based in Hockley, Essex, where the Group’s head office is still located, it provided intensive 12-month training programmes for unemployed trainees and later adults, leading to careers in programming, personal computing, and electronics.

As a founder of Seetec, over 35-years he grew the business from six staff members to over 2,000 and to a turnover of £150m. Seetec is now one of the leading public and business service employability, justice and skills specialists in the UK and Ireland. Over the years he has led a diversified portfolio of businesses as a computer reseller, developing a software house in health informatics, providing open learning and TBT. He is passionate about corporate social responsibility and supporting charitable projects, local communities, and their environment, including the conservation of woodlands and heritage assets.

He has been privileged to work with a hard-working management team, passionate co-founders and dedicated colleagues who share the same spirit and passion for improving people’s lives. From the beginning, employee ownership and a culture of creating profit for social good, has sat at the heart of the business. As Seetec Founder, Peter believes it was a logical step for colleagues to take on the ownership of the business. This is because Seetec was founded to help people take ownership and responsibility over their lives. Peter will continue to support the embedding of employee ownership and the Group’s future growth ambition.

David Reynolds

Non-Executive Director
David Reynolds

David Reynolds

Non-Executive Director

A vastly experienced Chartered Accountant, David worked in the City of London until 1974 when he took a position in Industry with a large manufacturing company.

After several promotions he became Chief Accountant for National Plastics Limited, a subsidiary of Courtaulds Limited (now Akzo Nobel). In 1979 he became a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and he returned to private practice until his retirement in June 2012. He has continued to work as a part-time consultant with Goldwyns since retirement.

After working with the organisation in a professional capacity, David joined the Seetec Board in March 2015 as a Non-Executive Director. He chairs the Finance, Pay and Renumeration and Audit, Risk and Assurance Committees.

David has always used his skills and expertise to support his local and business community; this includes in his capacity as member and treasurer of the Rotary Club of Rochford, member and former Trustee of the Rochford and Rayleigh Citizens Advice Bureau and Treasurer (and Chairman in 2000) since 1994 of the Rochford Business Luncheon Club.

Neil Bates

Non-Executive Director
Neil Bates

Neil Bates

Non-Executive Director

Neil has over 35 years’ experience working within technical and professional education and skills. He spent 30 years as Chief Executive and Principal of PROCAT, the UK’s first new College of Advanced Technology, and is a former Chairman of the AELP (Association of Employment and Learning Providers).

Neil is a member of the City & Guilds Council, and in 2014 he was awarded Fellowship of The City & Guilds of London Institute in recognition of outstanding professional and personal achievements, which include founding the first Technical Trust school in the UK and raising £56 million of investment in three centres for advanced technical education. In 2019 he succeeded Lord Baker, the former Education Secretary, as Chairman of the Edge Foundation, one of the UK’s leading education charities dedicated to improving education for young people.

Neil is passionate about realising the economic and social potential of people and businesses through enhanced skills, training and qualifications. He is committed to working with industry to develop a talent and skills agenda that enables businesses to prosper while empowering individuals to build brighter futures.

Stephen Otter

Non-Executive Director

Stephen Otter

Non-Executive Director

Stephen is an experienced leader and non-executive director with extensive experience and understanding of the justice and healthcare sectors, and substantial expertise in organisational governance.

Alongside his non-executive director role in Seetec, Stephen is the Chair of South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust. He is also lead advisor with Interpeace on a project to strengthen peace and security in Ethiopia, and prior to that was the senior rule of law advisor with The Asia Foundation on an urban safety project in Myanmar.

From 2012 to 2016, Stephen was one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Constabulary, responsible for inspecting UK policing and law enforcement in areas which included the Metropolitan Police, National Crime Agency, and counter-terrorism policing.

Prior to this, he was the Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police, where he combined leading the 6,000-strong police force with being the national lead on equality, diversity and human rights for the UK’s Association of Chief Police Officers. In 2008, Stephen was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal. He holds a master’s degree in Criminal Justice Policy from the London School of Economics, and a postgraduate diploma in Criminology from Cambridge University.

Graham Martin

Non-Executive Director

Graham Martin

Non-Executive Director

Graham has served as an Independent Trustee Director for the Seetec Employee Ownership Trust Board since 2019. He had previously worked at Seetec for 20 years, originally joining in 1996 as a Programme Manager delivering retail and warehouse, and distribution NVQ assessments. He later rose to become Seetec’s Chief Operating Director in 2009.

Graham has wide and in-depth experience of both Skills provision and Welfare to Work programmes, along with leading the organisation through several Ofsted inspections, DWP PAT audits and Merlin assessments. During his time as the chair of Seetec’s Delivery Board he oversaw the implementation of several new and innovative delivery models and performance improvement strategies across DWP programmes.

Graham has a passion for empowerment and believes the Employee Ownership model fits with his belief that involving staff and giving them more responsibility and say in the business will ultimately drive innovation, increase business performance, and impact positively on the lives of colleagues and customers alike.

Paul O’Toole

Non-Executive Director

Paul O’Toole

Non-Executive Director

In addition to his role as Chairperson of Seetec Employment Services Ireland, Paul O’Toole is Chairperson of Grangegorman Development Agency and of B & B Ireland. He is also a member of the Governing Authority and is the Deputy Chairperson of Maynooth University. Additionally, he is a member of the board of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation.

A former senior public servant, he was the Chief Executive of Ireland’s Higher Education Authority and of SOLAS, its Further Education and Training Authority. He also held roles as Director General of FÁS, Ireland’s former National Training and Development Authority and as Chief Executive of Tourism Ireland, an all-island body.

He holds a Master of Business Studies degree from University College Dublin and is a fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants.

Robert Coyle

Non-Executive Director

Robert Coyle

Non-Executive Director

Robert holds non-executive directorships with Seetec, a Local Authority Trading Company and a Real Estate Investment Trust. Additionally, he holds a number of roles with Local Authorities. In particular he sits on a number of audit and risk committees across a range of organisations.

In his executive career Robert held CEO roles in the outsourcing industry in the UK and internationally. He also held senior roles at PwC and KPMG, having originally trained as a Chartered Accountant.

His wide ranging experience enables him to advise the businesses he works with on areas such as growth, funding, M&A, risk management and audit.

Micaela Joannou

Employee Trustee Director for Seetec
la Joannou

Micaela Joannou

Employee Trustee Director for Seetec

Micaela has been with Seetec since 2017, driven by a passion to support people subject to Probation to make positive change for the benefit of the individual and wider society. Her first role involved motivating individuals to challenge their beliefs and attitudes – whilst providing support to overcome barriers and develop new ways to approach perceived challenges – in turn allowing people to reintegrate into their communities and live their life free from offending.

In April 2021, Micaela relocated to Manchester to continue supporting people on probation in a different capacity and became a Learning Facilitator in the Warrington Activity Hub, as part of Seetec’s Interventions Alliance. Nine months later she joined the Professional Standards, Research and Development Team as a Learning and Development Consultant, creating and facilitating professional training for practitioners, within the company and externally.

Micaela is proud to be an Employee Owner at Seetec. She has been involved right from the very beginning, becoming an Employee Champion in 2020. During this time – and now as the elected Employee Trustee Director – she’s been a keen advocate for embedding employee ownership throughout the company, recognising that by using a collective ‘employee voice’ and empowering colleagues to drive positive change, we have the ability to deliver much improved outcomes for the people we help and the communities we serve.