Meet the Team

Sunny Crouch, OBE, DBAHon

Sunny is a member of the Governing Body at UEL and the Founding Chair of CEWE. Her long and distinguished career has spanned business, marketing, education, regeneration, tourism and the voluntary sector.

During her 20 years in regeneration, Sunny was responsible for the leadership, planning and successful delivery of transformational initiatives in Portsmouth and the London Docklands. She was the Entrepreneurial Founder Chairman of Great British Cities and Visit East London, and an adviser to the cities of Madrid, Beirut and Shanghai.

Currently, Sunny is the Director responsible for mixed use regeneration projects in East London. She is also a Director of Island Health Trust, Places for People Group and Thurrock Thames Gateway Development Corporation.

Sunny has earned many awards, including the first London Docklands Business Person of the Year Award and the first SHINE Award for ‘being an inspiration to other women’. She was also honoured with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets Civic Award for contributions to Business and the Community. In 2006, she was recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List with an OBE for Business, Regeneration and Tourism.

Contact Sunny at cewe@uel.ac.uk

Selena Bolingbroke

Selena is CEWE’s Executive Leader. As UEL’s Pro Vice-Chancellor for Strategic Planning and External Development, she has a broad range of responsibilities, from equipping students with the skills and experience to succeed in business, to developing partnerships with external organisations and the local community.

Before joining UEL, Selena was Director of Shaping Thurrock, a Local Strategic Partnership in South Essex, working with agencies across the public, private and third sectors. She was also the skills lead on the Thames Gateway Strategic Executive in the then Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (now DCLG), where she was instrumental in forging links to drive skills-led regeneration.

Selena is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and the Royal Society of Arts. Locally she is Chair of the Chafford Hundred Business and Enterprise College Trust Board, a Governor of Barking and Dagenham College, and a board member of Pro Active East London and the Linking London Lifelong Learning Network.

Contact Selena at cewe@uel.ac.uk

Linsey Cole

Linsey Cole image Linsey is the Project Manager for CEWE. She is an experienced Project and Partnership Manager, who has delivered projects to support the social and economic regeneration of East London. She is also Programme Manager for KnowledgeEast, a network of universities and colleges that links local businesses with university expertise.

Before joining UEL, Linsey was Vice-President (Access and Academic Affairs) of Oxford University Student Union. Here, she represented 20,000 students to senior university committees, advocating student welfare and supporting the widening participation agenda.

At CEWE, Linsey is leading an extensive activities programme that includes networking and training events, research and mentoring. She also works closely with CEWE’s partners, in London and further afield, to create new opportunities for collaboration.

Contact Linsey at cewe@uel.ac.uk