Mick Taylor

I'm a partner in mutualadvanatage a consultancy that specialises in helping people to set up and run co-ops and social enterprises in the public sector.

I have done some work supporting the management of the phone co-op including facilitating sessions for the management team, the staff and the board.

My involvement in co-ops has been life long. I worked in two wholefood worker co-ops in the seventies, then set up and managed Leicester CDA, and went on to train other CDA workers and delivered courses for co-op support bodies all over the country. I ended up working for CAG Consultants, another worker co-op, helping local authority staff teams retain services in-house. I'm currently running a project for Co-ops UK and the Department of Health helping older people take control of their own care.

I'm passionate about using management expertise to meet our aims, and in a way that keeps our values intact. I've led over 15 major management development programmes for local authorities, working with everyone from care assistants to heads of departments. I've got a good, practical set of skills in business strategy, financial management, performance management and managing change.

Until recently I was chair of the governing body of a large inner-city primary school in East London. It is a brilliant school; we do poorly in the league tables but have the best added value in the borough.

I don't claim any specialist expertise in telecommunications, but that's not why I'm standing for the board. I'm doing that for two reasons.

Firstly I'm a customer and member, and I want to ensure that members are at the heart of the development of the phone co-op.

Secondly I'm totally committed to organisation that trade ethically. I want to contribute to the development of the phone co-op as an organisation that rewards and empowers its staff and management, that applies it's ethical principles rigorously, that retains democratic accountability at it's core, but is also successful in business terms, and make sufficient profits to ensure it can improve the services it provides to us, its members.