Compass Wellbeing Welcomes Mathew Sheehan as New Chief Executive

A new Chief Executive has been appointed to help lead not-for-profit community interest company, Compass Wellbeing.

Mathew Sheehan has been appointed to the role and will join Compass from Monday, 3rd February 2025.

Mathew brings a wealth of experience to the role, with 25 years of experience of managing organisations in the public and private sector. Most recently, he was the Managing Director of Enabled Living Healthcare, a provider of health and social care services across east London. Prior to this, he worked as a Business Lead Director at Newham Council.

Compass is East London NHS Foundation Trust’s not-for-profit community interest company. It works to bridge the gap between voluntary, community, and social enterprise organisations (VCSEs) and healthcare services. It aims to do this by building capacity in the sector, improving the ability of VCSEs to engage with the NHS, and facilitating partnership working.

It has supported public sector procurement programmes and worked in partnership to award and contract more than £18 million funding to more than 350 groups in just over four years.

Across his career to-date, Mathew has received various awards for his support to communities in east London. In 2021, he helped Enabled Living Healthcare win ‘Newham Business of the Year’ for delivering high quality services and equipping people to lead their lives. Mathew also led the organisation to win the ‘Health and Wellbeing Award’ and the ‘Wellbeing Business Award’ the following year for developing a robust health and wellbeing strategy during the Covid 19 pandemic.

Commenting on his appointment, Mathew said: “I am thrilled to be joining the Compass Wellbeing family as its new Chief Executive. Its dedication to improving quality of life and opportunities for all makes this an exciting challenge. I look forward to getting started and working with the team.”

ELFT’s Chief Executive Lorraine Sunduza OBE added: “Mathew understands the obstacles facing local people and the importance of partnership working to support the communities we serve. His vast experience will be immensely valuable as Compass’ Chief Executive, and I wish him all the best in his new role.”

Eileen Taylor, ELFT’s Chair, said: “I would like to warmly welcome Mathew to his new role at Compass. Mathew is an innovative and experienced leader with a proven track record of empowering diverse communities. This is a brilliant appointment.”

In September 2024, Compass appointed former Trustee of the Health and Social Care Alliance, Shona Sinclair, as its new Chair. She concluded: “I am very much looking forward to working with Mathew to drive forward change and improve population health. His commitment to wellbeing, diversity and inclusion will go hand-in-hand with Compass’ objectives.”

“I would also like to thank our Interim Chief Executive, Simon Hall, for his excellent leadership during the past year.”

Source: East London NHS Foundation Trust; 27 January 2025