About Us >
The TrusteesThe board of Trustees has discretion as to which charitable uses to apply the funds.
VANESSA ARBUTHNOTT Vanessa Arbuthnott is from Cumbria, having gained a degree in nursing and SRN she became an intensive care nurse. Having married she retrained with a PGCE to become a primary school teacher in London. After having children, she attended art school to study surface print, which led to her starting her own fabric mail order company in 2000. In 2012 she created an artist residency in her house; she and her students take art classes out to vulnerable groups in the community. This work has given her an insight into needs in Gloucestershire. EDWARD GILLESPIE - Chairman of the Trustees Edward Gillespie was educated at Tonbridge School and the University of York where he gained a degree in Politics. He retired in November 2012 from a career of managing racecourses, including Cheltenham for over 30 years. In January 2015 he was awarded an OBE for his services to racing. He continues to work within racing and to chair the Pony Racing Authority. He has served on the Board of The Everyman Theatre, which he chaired for ten years, and was Chair of Gloucester Cathedral Council. He is on the Board of Cheltenham Festivals and is Chair of the Music Festival. He is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Gloucestershire, an Honorary Freeman of the Borough of Cheltenham and was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Gloucestershire in 2018. KATE HICKS BEACH Katrina Hicks Beach lives near Cirencester. She went to Northleach Grammar School and gained a degree in Sanskrit and Religion at Edinburgh University, before going to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music to study singing. For twenty-five years she has worked as a professional singer, teacher and choir leader. Kate was on the board of the Gloucestershire Historic Churches Trust and was a Trustee of Home-Start Cotswolds. She runs a programme of Mindful Singing Groups for the Gloucestershire based charity Mindsong, recruiting, training and supporting volunteers to sing regularly with care home residents living with mid to late stage dementia. She works part time at Farmor’s School in Fairford and runs a 70 strong community choir in Coln St. Aldwyns. JAMES MILLAR James Millar became a trustee in 2010 and lives near Painswick. An experienced commercial lawyer who has practised in Scotland, England and USA, for the past 25 years he has founded and managed entrepreneurial private companies in the commercial and environmental sectors. James has served on the boards of various national organisations including the Lighting Association and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). He currently sits on a variety of business, environment and charity boards including Keep Britain Tidy and Road Safety Trust. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS) and of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce (FRSA). DAVID OWEN David Owen was born and brought up in Gloucestershire, studying at Brockworth School, before gaining a degree in Business Studies from Liverpool John Moores University. He spent ten years in the North West working across the education sector and as MD of a start-up, high-growth, training business. For the last twenty years he has worked in Gloucestershire, first as Director of Enterprise and Innovation at the University of Gloucestershire and now as Chief Executive of GFirst Local Enterprise Partnership. He is currently a director of Gloucestershire Voluntary & Community Sector Alliance and Gloucestershire Enterprise Limited and is a member of the International Advisory Group of the Economic Development Council. He lives in Stroud with his two teenage daughters. ROGER MORTLOCK Roger Mortlock is CEO of the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, the county’s largest environmental charity with 28,000 members and over 60 nature reserves. He joined the Trust in 2013 from the Soil Association where he was Deputy Director and Chair of the Food for Life Partnership. Previously he worked in policy, communications and fundraising roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal College of Nursing and the national volunteer agency, Community Service Volunteers. He is also Chair the Soil Association Land Trust which holds productive land in trust for future generations and a Trustee of the Bat Conservation Trust and Hawkwood College. He is Vice Chair of the Gloucestershire Local Nature Partnership. He has a particular interest in ecological land management, and programmes that connect people and nature, especially in relation to health and wellbeing. |