A social enterprise registered with Companies House (Reg Number: TBA)
There are 5 Board Directors all of whom are volunteers and receive no benefits or remunerations
I am passionate about Marple and an enthusiastic champion for Marple’s unique heritage. I am deeply rooted in Marple, my family having lived and worked in the area for over 250 years.
Throughout my professional career I have run successful marketing, media and communications companies working with blue chip companies and major brands such as Easy Group, Citroen, NHS Executive and Sharp Electronics to name but a few.
As a digital entrepreneur I have pioneered many new and innovative marketing initiatives, one such was the launch of Europe’s first Internet TV channel in the Equestrian sector and a new channel for Public Health Network in Liverpool. I am currently working with Life Sciences SMEs on, Interreg funded, inter European business support programmes. As the Business Advisor I help companies to develop new innovative products for the medical sector, brokering collaborative partnerships with experts and leaders in the sector. I also manage the programme delivery and budget of over 3million Euros.
Locally, I am active and close to the community in Marple and was a Cllr for over 12 years, representing and supporting residents and campaigning to improve Marple’s economic and cultural prosperity. I am currently Trustee of The Brass Bands of Marple and Group Leader on The Marple Neighbourhood Forum.
Skills I bring to the Wharf Project:
Business acumen
Innovative and creative marketing talent
Experience of project managing and delivering ERDF/Interreg public funded programmes
A wide and diverse network of high- level contacts
Strong relationship building and networking skills
Energy drive and enthusiasm. Can -do attitude
I am enthusiastic and highly motivated, in both my professional and personal life.
Married with 3 adult children and a resident of Marple Since 2007.
A Chartered Structural Engineer, retired as a Director of WML Consulting in 2018. Currently retained as a consultant to the Practice.
Key professional skills I bring to The Wharf project:
Over 30 years’ experience in the management and design of building structures
Extensive experience in the management and efficient delivery of high-quality engineering solutions
Significant experience with public funded projects, in the sectors of Community, Leisure and Education
Specialist experience with heritage refurbishment and conservation projects and renovation of historic Grades I and II listed buildings
Personal interests, relevant to The Wharf project
As well as the usual retirement hobbies of golf, gardening and grandchildren, I have a very keen interest in Martial Arts.
I co-run two martial arts and wellbeing clubs in Marple and regularly organise national courses, basing these in Marple. As such, I am a key instigator of the proposed Fitness and Wellbeing centre, at The Wharf.
After graduating in maths, I spent most of my career working in manufacturing industry, latterly on the Management Board of a UK multinational plc for 25 years. I was part of the team that sold the company out of BP ownership to an independent consortium and was on the team that floated the new Company on the UK stock Exchange. Subsequently I was heavily involved in a number of acquisitions and divestments and the due diligence this involved. I also liaised from time to time with investors and analysts. I was responsible for all aspects of HR, with a team spread across 11 countries. For a long spell I was chair of the Trustees of our Pension Fund and I also covered international communications, Health and Safety and Sustainability, for which we won national awards.
I am an employment law specialist and have taken many cases personally both within the Company and externally “pro bono” for individuals and small businesses. I spent a significant time working with the Community where the Company was based.
Amongst other things I chaired the Community Board of an HLF Lottery Project of some £2.7m which restored a number of architecturally important buildings. This was successfully concluded and remains a significant aspect of that particular community drawing in many visitors to the area. The largest part of this project necessitated getting a building into community and commercial use to ensure its survival and maintenance after restoration.
Locally I am on the Board of the Northumberland Arms community Pub, which bought and re-opened the pub, with support of a share offer and community grants and now runs it successfully.
After obtaining a first class honours degree in accountancy, I went into the accountancy profession as a graduate trainee with Coopers and Lybrand (which is now part of PwC). I qualified as a Chartered Accountant whilst at Coopers & Lybrand and completed 4 years with the firm, dealing with a range of clients from owner managed businesses to plc’s.
I decided I wanted to specialise in advising owner managed businesses and entrepreneurs, and so moved work in an independent accountancy practice for 12 months before moving on to Ford Campbell, a Corporate Finance led accountancy practice. Here I specialised in providing corporate finance advisory services to a range of owner managed clients, over a complete cross section of business sectors, and the full spectrum of types of corporate finance transactions.
Having been at Ford Campbell for 9 years and moved through the ranks to Partner, I decided my long term career path was to acquire and run my own accountancy practice. After searching for suitable practices to acquire, I identified and acquired Clarke Nicklin in 2004. Since then, I have been Managing Partner, running the business side of Clarke Nicklin and seeing it more than quadruple in size, as well as continuing to lead corporate finance transactions and advise owner managed businesses on a complete variety of business matters.
Heritage Director and Marple/Mellor Cultural Heritage Champion
I am passionate about presenting our local Cultural Heritage for the public to enjoy and further understand the important place Marple and Mellor have in the historical record.
I have had, what has been described as, a portfolio career.
Joining the Army, at the age of 17, I enjoyed a number of different roles and ending my 10 years’ service running the Army Recruiting Office in Stockport. This was followed running my own construction company for 10 years in Bramhall and Didsbury. In 1983 I was offered the opportunity to study for qualifications in my long standing hobby of Jewellery and Silversmithing. Eventually studying for a teaching qualification and running a course at North Cheshire College. I rapidly moved on from teaching into a management role with responsibilities for 35 support staff and marketing Further Education Courses to Industry. I carried on with this role at North Cheshire College, Salford College and finally East Yorkshire College.
I returned to Mellor in 2000 to set up a new construction partnership finally retiring in 2010.
Throughout my working life I been active in the voluntary sector spending 35 years in the Scout movement as Venture Scout Leader, Scout Leader and District Commissioner. In 2001 I joined the Mellor Society Committee which I now chair. In 2002 I was invited to be a trustee of the Mellor Archaeological Trust (MAT) which I also chair. In 2009 I was invited to be a governor at Mellor Primary School a role I am still active in.
Through my role as chair of Mellor Archaeological Trust I have managed a £2.3M Heritage Lottery funded 3 year project, Revealing Oldknow’s Legacy: Mellor Mill and The Peak Forest Canal in Marple, which completed in the summer of 2018. MAT was also chosen as the UK site for a, 3 year, €7.2M European Commission funded project STORM. With 20 European partners from 7 different countries this project was looking at the effects of Climate Change on Cultural Heritage and how to mitigate them.
I look forward to my role as Heritage Director in The Wharf Marple project