Huw Vaughan Thomas, Chair (Conwy, North Wales)
Huw Vaughan Thomas has been Director of Taro Consultancy Ltd, a North Wales based company specialising in organisational, governance and economic policy work in the public sector, since June 2001. He is currently a consumer representative on the Hearing Aid Council and an independent member of the Parole Board. He recently served as a Member of the Commission on Powers and Electoral Arrangements of the National Assembly for Wales. His earlier career was spent in the civil service and local government. He was formerly Chief Executive of Denbighshire County Council, Chief Executive of Gwynedd County Council, and Director for Wales for the Manpower Services Commission and Department of Employment. In his previous voluntary and public appointments he has been, amongst other things, a member of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, a Council Member of the Prince’s Trust, Cymru, member of the National Trust’s Committee for Wales, a trustee of the RNID and a lay member of the Law Society’s Governing Council.
Graham Benfield OBE, Chief Executive, Wales Council for Voluntary Action (Cowbridge, Cardiff)
WCVA has 2000 members, and 115 staff based throughout Wales, and manages a budget of £30m. It is the national independent agency, which provides research, training, information, policy and funding for volunteering and the voluntary sector.
Since 1989 Mr Benfield has been Chief Executive.
His previous posts include:
Director of Virginia House Settlement, Plymouth; Senior Lecturer in Social Policy & Community Work, Plymouth; Social Development Officer in Skelmersdale New Town; Director of Youth Volunteer Agency, London; Director of West Glamorgan Council for Voluntary Service.
He has an MA (Oxon) in Politics, Philosophy & Economics and an MSc in Social Policy from the University of Wales
He is currently:
- A Trustee of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations
- Member ofObjective 1 monitoring committee and policy group
- Member of CIVICUS - World Alliance for Citizen Participation
- Member of Communities First Support Network Board
- Member ofVoluntary Sector Partnership Council
- MemberCarnegie Commission on Rural Community Development
- FellowRoyal Society of Arts
- ChairUnlimited.
As a volunteer he Chairs the Board of Trustees of St. Donats Arts Centre.
In 2003, he was awarded an OBE for services to the voluntary sector in Wales.
Janet Reed OBE (Bridgend, South Wales)
Janet Reed retired from the post of National Manager for Wales for British Gas in 2005. Janet’s career with British Gas spanned 31 years and involved roles in sales, marketing and general management in both the commercial and domestic markets.
She was instrumental in setting up the National Sales Office in Cardiff, which employed in excess of 2000 staff. She was awarded the OBE in 2004 for services to economic development in Wales.
Janet was a board member of Business in the Community for 12 years and has a particular interest in encouraging business leaders to involve themselves in the communities in which they are based. She is now using this experience in her role as Trustee of the Welsh Scout Council.
Janet was previously a Council member and Chair of CBI Wales. She was a board member of the WDA and was part of the Leadership Group for the Princes Trust in Wales.
Mike Theodoulou (Llanelli, South West Wales)
As Executive Chairman, Mike Theodoulou joined Foothold in 1998, at a time when the organisation existed as a small, Local Enterprise Agency. With a career, which has been equally divided between the commercial and the not-for-profit sectors, Mike’s career began successfully on the London Stock Exchange, before moving to working in Local Government. Over a number of years he developed his career with several Housing Associations in London and subsequently became Chief Executive of one of the largest Housing Associations in the U.K.
In the private sector, he has been Managing Director of a Development and Construction Company and Executive Director of Quality Street Ltd. (properties), where he had responsibility for the overall investment of £1/4 billion for the organisation.
Since his move to Wales, Mike has provided the vision and leadership, which has taken The Foothold Group through a period of growth and diversification, establishing it as one of the leading regeneration companies in the Principality.
Mike had and currently has close involvement with a number of other organisations:
- Founder Chair of the Partnership Board which set-up Finance Wales, the Welsh Development Bank
- Founder Chair and current Director of Chamber Wales
- Chairman of Carmarthenshire Chamber of Commerce (the second largest Chamber in Wales)
- President of Burry Port and Pembrey Chamber of Commerce
- Member of the Committee that oversees Objective One in Wales, being one of the original negotiating team with the Commission.
- Chair of the E.U. Objective One, Monitoring Sub-Committee.
- Committee member on the Board preparing Wales for the next round of E.U. funding, as well as the Wales Rural Development Plan Group.
- Locally, Chair of School Governors.
Barbara Wilding, CBE, QPM, CCMI, (Bridgend, South Wales)
Chief Constable, South Wales Police
Miss Wilding joined the States Police in Jersey as a cadet in 1967 and was attested as a constable in 1970. In 1971 she transferred to the Metropolitan Police where she predominantly served as an operational detective throughout London and on specialist units in New Scotland Yard. She became an Assistant Chief Constable in Kent Constabulary in 1994, with responsibility for Personnel, and in 1997 took command of Crime Operations, Intelligence, and European Liaison.
In 1998 she transferred to the Metropolitan Police as Deputy Assistant Commissioner and served in personnel and Specialist Operations where she commanded the Security and Protection Directorate which included protection of ministers, Royal family, Special Branch, Heathrow Airport, covert intelligence and the specialist firearms unit. Miss Wilding was appointed Chief Constable of South Wales Police on 1st January 2004.
Miss Wilding is a Co-Director for the Police National Assessment Centre. She also oversees a National Mentoring scheme for women Superintendents.
Miss Wilding read criminology at London University, and is a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute. She is also a Member of the Royal Institute for International Affairs and Royal College for Defence Studies. She was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal in the Millennium Awards 2000 for distinguished service to policing. Miss Wilding was honoured in the Queen’s 80th Birthday Awards when was awarded Commander of the British Empire medal for her services to policing.
Miss Wilding is married to a globetrotter with International Cricket and has two daughters at University.
Gareth Newton (Aberdare, South Wales)
Following 11 years of teaching at secondary schools in Barry and Cardiff, Gareth, a married father of two, joined Mid Glamorgan County Council in 1986 as a full time Community Education Officer. He gained a M.Sc. degree from the University of Glamorgan in the management of education services and was appointed by the University of Wales as an external examiner for the B.A degree in Youth and Community work course at the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education, Wrexham.
In 1996, he was appointed by Rhondda Cynon Taff County Borough Council as its Principal Community Education Officer. He subsequently became the Council’s Director of Lifelong Learning in 2000 and held this post until he took early retirement in March 2007.
He is currently a member of the Care Council for Wales’ Registration and Standard Committees and is also a member of the Independent Remuneration Panel for Wales.
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