Shaw Healthcare is the embodiment of the religious health missions of the 1900s recast for 21st century life. Shaw personifies what the left wing press long for, yet its existence travels unnoticed. It was begot by a man steeped in religiosity, and has emerged to be owned by its staff. It has quietly built a footprint in the care home, dementia, home care, supported living, mental health, reablement, respite, day care, extra care housing facilities management and housing development fields, and is revolutionising care standards monitoring.

Headquartered in a Welsh field, its progress has slipped under the radar because of its self-effacing management.

Jeremy Nixey is the most anonymous figure in over-50s housing in the UK. Yet he is a leviathan in his closed set. A cultured man, tall, white haired and distinctive. He was carved by austerity, self-denial and affirming vows. Years of prayer, contemplation, meditation and religious observance have tempered his thinking, shaped his philosophy and honed his mission. Shaw Healthcare is the manifestation of his life’s progression from theocracy to democracy. And he leaves an enduring, if temporal legacy. Staff owned care home organisations are rare in any country. But he has made the concept work. If it was truly understood by the left wing bigots at the Guardian/Observer, it would destroy much of the public v private health philosophical debate in the UK. Nixey is more a man of his times than any other figure in global healthcare. He has moulded the faith-based care of the past into 21st century egalitarian pragmatism.

It is the perfect environment for governments now committed to austerity management. It is a construct that cannot offend left or right. It is a platform that can be gifted contracts without giving political offence. It is an idea, whose time has come. It is Nixey’s ‘effortless genius.’

Shaw healthcare has grown from its origin as a registered housing association to one of the UK’s leading healthcare providers largely through partnerships with public agencies responsible for both health and social care.

It is 70 per cent owned by its staff and 30 per cent by its former parent company Shaw healthcare (Homes) Ltd.

Shaw has forged successful partnerships with Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and Social Care teams across England and Wales, developing care services and facilities for people with specific needs at the request of care commissioners.

It provides services throughout the care and support spectrum – from highly intensive care within low-secure independent hospitals through to low level support in the community for people with physical or mental health support needs.

Shaw now employs over 4,000 people to provide care to 3,000 individuals in registered care homes, hospitals, supported living arrangements, retirement schemes and domiciliary care settings.

It has links with UK universities to research and develop leading edge care practice and as a learning organisation it is committed to supporting the ongoing training and education of all its staff

Nixey’s life, whilst shaped by cloisters, has not been defined solely by them. He is today a widow. One of his children is a freelance journalist. But he remains a man of deep conscience, and unshakeable beliefs. Shaw Healthcare is unmistakeably his creation. And he remains its guiding beacon. In a Britain busily disassembling its costly and ineffectual health system, leaders are critical. Nixey’s real value will be the years ahead. The path is not yet fully formed. The need for temporal guidance has never been greater. Shaw has its shepherd.

Phil Burgan is one of only a clutch of change merchants in the over-50s housing / healthcare sector in the world. The greatest change artists have been industry interlopers. Men and women who gravitated to the sector because they saw a gap in service standards. Never burdened by industry angst; never hidebound by regulations, nor overwhelmed by the status quo. Pioneers prepared to cut a path through industry thickets, ignore naysayers and the army of well meaning sector advisors and consultants.

It is the richest of traditions, with the fewest members. Paul and Terri Klaassen ‘invented’ the assisted living sector almost 30 years as a riposte to the desultory skilled nursing product in the USA; Thyra Frank has reinvented dementia care from her Danish base; Dr Hans Becker formulated the apartment for life, Mike Parsons has elevated the CCRC to a new plane and Leo Campbell has taken ageism out of over-50s architecture.

It is the smallest of clubs. But their collective influence permeates a sector that resides in every country.

Phil Burgan is one of a handful who turn on taps from which 99 per cent of the population drink.

The care sector is an unforgiving business. It is overregulated, has an army of critics, faces incorrigible union pressure, variable staffing standards, relentless political bullying, unhelpful financiers and a product that resides permanently in ‘your front room.’ The sector is under constant observation from its political and societal enemies on the outside and the ‘fifth column’ in its lounges.

Phil Burgan has dared to walk where angels fear to tread. The British haven’t always been good at this business. But a clutch of UK operators now strut upon the world stage.

They have elevated delivery standards above the ‘mission mentality’ which besets much of the sector worldwide.

His team has nuanced care levels, and given it a breadth and diversity. Burgan came to the care sector later in life. He was a chemist in his early years. He built the 38 pharmacy group Medimart Limited which he sold in 1995. He then did an industry switch-hit. Maria Mallaband Care Group (MMCG) was named after his grandmother. Ten years ago, Burgan operated four care homes. Now it is a £100 million turnover company which runs 144 sites.

Burgan has built his business via a mix of in-house development, industry fund alliances, the takeover of ailing rivals and an appreciation of emerging sub-markets. His biggest quantum leap was consummated in September 2011.

MMCG created a new division to warehouse the management of 35 Southern Cross Care homes. The Countrywide Care Homes entity now trolls for distressed businesses. The Southern Cross deal was fraught with new challenges. The staff culture, absenteeism, decayed buildings, adverse standards reports and disillusioned managements challenged the Maria Mallaband oversight team. It has been akin to wrestling with crocodiles. A war of attrition won slowly over time. No ground was easily won. It tried the patience of angels, and whilst not yet complete, peace is beginning to emerge in pockets. Burgan has made more progress than any other management team that took on the supervision of a Southern Cross orphan. Dr Chai Patel’s HC-One Care Group is still struggling and is affecting the Fitch credit standing of the Titan-Europe debt held by landlord NHP.

Burgan has created alliances with new product creators.

MedicX Healthfund, the UK healthcare property investment fund, has agreed to fund the construction of a new 64 bed elderly care home in Christchurch. MedicX has entered into an agreement with Quantum to develop the property and works have now started on site. At practical completion, a 35 year lease will be granted to Maria Mallaband Care Group, who will operate the property.

MedicX Healthfund is also behind MMCG projects in Bangor (Oakmont Lodge Care Home) and a 50-bed property in Holmes Chapel in Cheshire.

But Burgan also has a deep appreciation of sub markets in the care sector. MMCG is one of the best performers in the autism sector. Autism Care UK is a rapidly growing support organisation for people with autism and complex needs. In the last 12 months the Burgan entity launched a bold inspirational mission statement based on what people with Autistic Spectrum Conditions have said they want for their adult lives.

“A life of happiness, dignity, achievement and inclusion” was selected to represent the work of Autism Care UK and demonstrate how imaginative support services for people with Autism can be life changing for both individuals and their wider families. The statement was also chosen to echo Article 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which speaks of “Respect for inherent dignity, individual autonomy…and full and effective inclusion in society.”

Burgan’s leadership and his team’s committed performance has led to a plethora of awards.

An Entrepreneur of the Year nomination, two awards in the UK over-50s housing sector and a Global Award attest exemplary standards.

But Phil Burgan’s true genius is plotting a path through the unknown. He has now built two empires in a single lifetime. Pharmacy may be a distant past, but his journey in care homes is incomplete. He has set his organisation on a growth strategy that seems oblivious to straightened times. Very rare is the sailor who unfurls his sails in a storm. That requires both courage and judgment.

Whilst Southern Cross Healthcare chose to mimic Icarus, Mike Parsons has always opted for the Daedalus persona. Southern Cross flew too close to the sun, the wax in its wings melted, and it fell into the sea and was drowned. Daedalus had recommended a lower trajectory to benefit from ameliorating sea breezes. Parsons is still in full flight, and Barchester Healthcare remains airborne.

Navigating the second great depression has required all the skills of that ancient Athenian craftsman. Daedalus was a brilliant inventor.

Parsons personifies those skills in a 21st century environment. He has developed and now continuously reshapes a financial model for inconsistent times. The ability to whittle and carve is the new craft.

In a world overgrown by experts and consultants, advisers and hecklers, instant information and zombie mandarins, hobbling rules and contrarian regulation, Parsons has always found enough sun.

It has not always radiated the desired heat but it has always generated enough light for growth.

The depression has introduced hurdles not yet formulated as case studies in MBA courses.

Whitehall wants to legislate commercial failure out of existence; the unions, Guardian and entrenched NHS operatives want to remain appended to the public teat; Britain is the orphan in Europe; its banking section is in disgrace; its credit rating on the cusp and it faces a 20 year financial winter. Parsons faces challenges on a dozen fronts. Markets are in flux, business models under challenge; the labour market under-skilled; financial markets skittish; and a constituency on the cusp of generational change. The core of the Barchester business will be migrated to higher ground. Parsons came to the care home sector as an interloper. He was care hunting for his aunts. And like the Klaassen clan in Mclean, Virginia, created his own communities after a perusal of what was then available.

He innately understands change. It doesn’t faze or stymie. But it’s a much bigger challenge herding an elephant than a sheep.

Parsons has challenges he never contemplated after he vacated his advertising business foray. But he has already moved where angels fear to tread. He marshaled Irish capital, he has put a toe into the USA market, he has developed the finest continuous care retirement community in the world at Wantage, and he has out-muscled Sunrise in providing specialist ‘small numbers’ upscale residential homes.

He has held together and grown an organization in a sector surrounded by baying wolves. The care home sector in the UK is now under permanent siege.

Care home groups across the country have struggled.

Many have fallen. Parsons genius is to have encountered every possible problem, and found every possible solution. He has picked the buying / selling / refinancing cycles; movements within the care home sector and nascent trends in related sub-markets. He is the most complete C.E.O. in the UK. And the most decorated. He is the only current member of both the UK and the Global Healthcare Halls of Fame. Barchester Healthcare has a clutch of acclamations from the over 50s Housing Awards (2009 / 2010 / 2011 / 2012); is the only care provider listed in the Sunday Times Top 25 Big Companies to Work for (2010); has a Health Investor Award (‘Outstanding contribution by an individual’) National Care Award (‘Care Personality of the Year’) and a London Business School Alumni Achievement Award. The award recognises a member of the alumni community “who has been very successful in business, politics, academia or within the community, and is a recognised leader in his/her field”. Following a nomination it is voted on by the Business School’s 30,000 alumni members.

Parsons is perfect for contrarian times. His spirit is indominatable. He has the mien of an Alex Ferguson. A taciturn mask but a ‘Robert the Bruce’ determination. But his early years of scholarship have shaped a better capacity for self-expression than the mumbling Glaswegian football maestro.

Parsons has been adept at switching financial flood tides. He has had Barchester on a 10 year growth spurt using a mix of private equity, bank finance and lease offerings. It is a long way from Moreton Hill, a 17th century farm with views over the Cotswolds, that kick-started his second career in the early 1990s. And Parsons has understood the ramifications of dementia better than his major league peers and set Barchester up on the informational forefront. The Barchester Healthcare website reflects its shareholders close monitoring of research and management practice evolution. The constant updating is ignored by all rivals. But Barchester focuses with an immediacy akin to a news site. The writing is Hemingway minimalism. It has managed to be the news. It is the shrewdish of brand positioning.

Times in the UK are perilous. Business navigation is fraught with new impediments. Barchester is dealing in a product nobody rushes to embrace. It is an orphan sector. The real challenge facing Parsons and the entire over 50s housing sector is to create ‘desirable destinations’. The cruise industry now leads the way. The care sector needs inspirational leadership, visionary thinking and quantum risk takers. It is a commodity in very short supply. It took a world war to present Churchill with his platform. The second great depression and a constituency baying for change is framing up the next once in a generation leadership opportunity.

The audience awaits with trepidation, as to whom may be waiting in the stage wings…