Big Lottery Fund

The South West team work in partnership with regional stakeholders in areas such as policy development and outreach. One of our primary roles is to effectively communicate BIGs new portfolio of programmes to organisations and communities across the South West. If you would like to talk to somebody at BIG, please call the BIG Advice Line on 0845 4 10 20 30.

Mark Cotton - Head of Region

As Head of Region for the South West Mark Cotton is responsible for leading all aspects of the work of the Big Lottery Fund Regional team. This includes managing external stakeholder relations, ensuring the regional policy context informs the development of England-wide policy and programmes, co-ordinating regional media,communications and public affairs work, providing outreach and development support to applicants and supporting regional public involvement in our work.

Barbara Goody - Administrator

Barbara joined the South West Region in 2003. Her role is to support the regional team and maintain the smooth running of office systems. Barbara is a keen recycler and is a member of Big's 'Green Champions'.

Louise Bowers - Regional Manager - Outreach

Louise leads on regional communications work, implementing communications strategies to ensure stakeholders are kept informed about BIG’s funding programmes and distribution of corporate communications materials in the region. Her role also involves the planning of regional events, marketing the fund’s brand, developing regional distribution strategies, and liaison with grant-funded projects.

Louise has worked in a number of roles within Lottery funding, working as an Awards Officer on Awards for All, Enquiries and Information Officer for Community Fund and England Regional Officer for the New Opportunities Fund.

Hannah Lee - Regional Officer - Outreach

Hannah supports the delivery of regional outreach strategy and public affairs work in the region and delivers work on behalf of the corporate branding, marketing, public affairs, press and new media teams. This involves supporting events, particularly in identified regional cold spots, writing case studies, maintaining regional web and new media pages and providing post award support.

Catherine Stevens - Regional Manager - Development

Catherine joined the team in March 2007.Catherine also works with the rest of the Policy and External Relations team to ensure that the region's unique character and concerns are taken into account in the development of the Fund's programmes and priorities, and also to ensure that potential applicants and other key stakeholders are kept up-to-date with all the Fund's news.

Catherine first worked for the National Lottery Charities Board in August 2002 when she joined the Strategic Grants team working as a Grants Officer on the England-wide national grant making programme. She then moved to take up the role of Programme Manager of the East Midlands' Region in October 2005 , and later also undertook the role of Programme Manager for the Operations Regional Team working on our legacy programmes. Catherine is a qualified solicitor and retains an interest in the advice sector.

Olivia Gore - Regional Manager - Development

Olivia works with the rest of the Policy and Partnerships team to ensure that the region's unique character and concerns are taken into account in the development of the Fund's programmes and priorities, and also to ensure that potential applicants and other key stakeholders are kept up-to-date with all the Fund's news. Olivia joined the regional Awards for All team in 2002, where she worked in both an administrative and a grant assessing role on this small grants programme. She was appointed as one of two Regional Development Officers for the new regional team in November 2005 and moved to the post of Policy and Partnerships Manager in November 2008.

Chris Laing - Regional Officer - Development

Chris was appointed as one of two Regional policy and partnerships officers in November 2005 and helps to develop BIG's policy and development work in the region. He joined the Big Lottery Fund's South West regional team in 2004 as Enquiries & Information Officer. He dealt with phone and postal enquiries from a wide range of regional stakeholders and potential applicants, and helped develop new and effective enquiries monitoring systems.

Lyndsay Peal - Regional Officer - Development

Lyndsay was appointed as one of two Regional policy and partnerships officer in February 2009 and helps to develop BIG's policy and development work in the region. Lyndsay has an in-depth knowledge of the South West region gained from her previous employment with the Regional Development Agency.