Meet the team

Keith Stevens, Chair

Keith retired from Coutts & Co. in 2001 after 32 service. He carried out a variety of roles in the Bank but most of his time was spent specialising in taxation and medical finance.

In 1991 he became a non-executive director of the RNTNE hospital in the first wave of trust hospitals until it merged with the Royal Free. After retiring Keith worked for the Royal Household for a short time and he became a Parish Councillor.

He is currently Chairman of East Sussex Association of Local Councils (ESALC) and of East Sussex Strategic Partnership (ESSP). Keith is also the Treasurer for a number of voluntary organisations.

Roger Sweetman, Non-Executive Director

Now retired , Roger was an active trade union member, and had experience of different officer roles within his branch throughout his 35 year career in the Civil Service, which was almost entirely spent in East Sussex.

He has been involved in the voluntary sector for many years as a member of numerous groups including the Hastings & R other Health & Social Care Forum, trustees of Hastings Voluntary Action, and of a Community Centre. He was chairman of the Hastings Charity, the Friends of St. Mary-in-the- Castle for 10 years and he is proud that with the Secretary and other trustees he obtained one of the first grants in excess of £1 million from the National Lottery.

Always a campaigner for and advocate of equality and diversity since the mid 70’s. He has always had a special interest in health, social care and gay rights. He is a member of his surgery’s PPG and proud to be a patient representative for Hastings & Rother on ESHT (East Sussex Health Trust’s End of Life Care Improvement Group).

Roger lives in Hastings with Paul, his civil partner and Monte, their Blenheim King Charles Spaniel.

Baldev Soni, Non-Executive Director

Baldev moved to the UK from Kenya at the age of 16 and his first job was working at Tesco for 50 pence a day! Over the next few years he worked hard and qualified as an accountant by the age 22. He has now retired after working for 37 years in local government and as a Pensions Officer at Sussex University. He speaks four languages.

Baldev now spends his time using his vast knowledge and experience to undertake charity work and his list of voluntary jobs is extensive to say the least. He was Chair of Governors while the new secondary school in Peacehaven was being built and was also responsible for finance as Treasurer on the Board of Governors of Varndean School, Brighton. As a Board member, Treasurer, Company Secretary and later Chair of Mosaic, a charity in Brighton, he was responsible for raising funds and preparing / implementing financial regulations and policies. He was Secretary of the Sussex Branch of the Royal Institute of Public Administration and acted as Treasurer on the Board of Brighton’s Branch of Marriage Guidance Council – now renamed Relate. Baldev jointly managed the Parosi Group in Brighton to teach English to ethnic women, represented Peacehaven minorities on Meridian Older Peoples Forum and was on the Executive Committee of Sompriti based in Lewes. For many years he was an examiner for the Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountants.

At present, alongside Baldev’s role on the Board of East Sussex Community Voice, he is organiser of events for the Sussex Indian Punjabi Society.

Vanessa Taylor, Non-Executive Director

Vanessa attended University and qualified as a pharmacist. Initially she worked for Boots and left when she had her children (three who are all grown up). Until they were older she worked part time in both hospital and retail.
Vanessa then went back to work for Boots where she progressed through the organisation – ending as Regional Professional Development Manager working across the whole of the South East and liaising closely with head office in Nottingham.

In 2004 the Company was sold to a private equity company (KKR) at this time she was offered the opportunity to take early retirement and redundancy.

Vanessa was very fortunate as there were notmany opportunities for pharmacists and set up as a consultant. She worked as the chief officer for the Local Pharmaceutical Committee, provided consultant services to a number of Pharmaceutical Companies both in the UK and abroad.

Vanessa also worked to provide training on medicines to Care Homes across the South East.
In 2018 she retired from work as a pharmacist and applied for my name to be removed from the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) register.

Vanessa now volunteers for the Foodbank in Eastbourne and also acts as chair of the Digital First IT programme for the East Sussex wide NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

Vanessa joined our Board on In January 2020.

Beth Simmons, Non-Executive Director

Originally a teacher in Newcastle and London, Beth worked in East London where she set up a housing advice service that also provided a mobile debt bus. Later she was Regional Director for three major housing associations based in London and the south East. She was responsible for building new homes, as well as ensuring tenants lived in decent homes within a good community.

She was a local councillor in London for seven years and as well as concentrating on education and the provision of decent housing she very much enjoyed working for people in her constituency in Tottenham.

Since moving to Sussex, she has been chair of Heathfield PPG and then chair of the High Weald Patients’ Group. She has tried to spread good practice around the surgeries in the area to ensure that they respond to patient needs.

She is committed to helping patients have a strong voice in their health service.