ACRE Board of Trustees

ACRE aspires to develop and maintain effective governance through its Board of Trustees, while maintaining strong relationships with member RCCs, which provide input to ACRE’s governance through trustee representation. The organisation is accountable to both its members and other stakeholders through its Corporate Plan, annual performance assessments and the fulfilment of formal external regulatory requirements. Core tasks cover the strategic management of ACRE, as well as corporate responsibilities and accountability. Achievements include:

Annual general meeting
Regular board and sub-committee meetings
ACRE trustee awaydays to discuss strategy.

The ACRE board of trustees consists of a chair, a treasurer and a maximum of eight trustees selected by the Rural Community Action Network. A further six trustees can be co-opted by the board to provide skills appropriate to ACRE’s work focus.

There are two sub-committees of the board which take responsibility for Finance & Resources and Marketing & Communication.

Revd Canon John Brown - Chair
Canon John Brown was appointed Chair of ACRE in 2001. He is also Chairman for the Rural Community Council of Essex, Chairman for the Thames Chase Community Forest Forum, Chairman for Churches Tourism Association, Vice-Chairman for the English Rural Housing Association and Trustee for Volunteering England. Canon John Brown was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Essex in 2007.

Bryan Davis - Vice-chair/Yorkshire & the Humber region trustee
Bryan Davis joined the ACRE board in November 2003 and was appointed as Vice-chair in February 2005. He is currently Chairman of Humber & Wolds Rural Community Council (covering the East Riding of Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire) and has been a trustee on its board since 1997. He is also Chairman of Elloughton-cum-Brough Parish Council.

Leonard Coulthard - Vice-chair/North West region trustee
Leonard Coulthard joined the ACRE board in 2005 and was appointed Vice-chair in February 2005. He is Chair of the board of trustees at Voluntary Action Cumbria. He has an Architects practice based in Appleby and has a personal interest in all development issues.

John Hazelwood –Treasurer
John Hazelwood was elected to the ACRE board in 2001 and appointed as ACRE’s Treasurer at the AGM in November 2007. He is currently Chairman of Gloucestershire Rural Community Council and of the South West ACRE Network (SWAN). John was a director of IiP (UK) Ltd, a governor and chairman of the Audit Committee of the University of the West of England, Deputy Chairman and Chairman of Audit for the Design Council and Deputy Chairman of Business Link Advisory Accreditation Board.

Pearl Anderson - South East region trustee
Pearl Anderson joined the ACRE board in November 2006. Pearl has been a trustee of South East Rural Community Councils (SERCC) and Chair of Action with Communities in Rural Kent since 2004. Until her retirement in 2005, Pearl was Assistant Chief Executive of Church in Society, a charitable company in the Dioceses of Canterbury and Rochester.

Revd Canon Bob Burston - North East region trustee
Canon Bob Burston became an ACRE trustee in November 2003. Bob has lived in one of the most rural areas in north east England for over 30 years and is currently the Rector for 10 ancient churches. In the past Bob was the Chair of Community Action Northumberland and Vice-chair of a Local Development Trust.

David Scudamore - East Midlands region trustee
David Scudamore was elected to the ACRE board in May 2002. He is currently Chair of Northamptonshire ACRE having served on its board since 1992. David was employed by Northamptonshire County Council, as a Community and Environment Officer, up until his retirement in 1998.

David Spreadbury - Eastern region trustee
David Spreadbury has been a member of Cambridgeshire ACRE for fifteen years and was chairman from 1998 to 2006. Over that time he was also a member of the Eastern region RCC Group and sometime chairman. He became the Eastern region representative on the ACRE board in November 2007. His career was in Educational Administration and he was for many years a member of the local Health Authority.

Norman Potter - West Midlands region trustee
Norman joined the ACRE board in November 2006. He is currently a board trustee at the Community Council for Staffordshire and Chair of its Finance Committee. Norman’s other voluntary appointments include being a trustee of South Staffordshire Carers Association and founder member of the Katharine House Hospice.

Jane Grant - South West region trustee
Jane Grant was elected to the ACRE board in November 2007. She is currently Chair of Community First, Wiltshire and a board member of SWAN. Jane has lived in Wiltshire for over forty years and has been a school governor and a parish councillor for over twenty years.

Keith Harrison - Co-opted trustee
Keith Harrison was co-opted to the ACRE board in February 2007. Keith was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Action with Communities in Rural Kent in May 2006. Keith’s previous employment experience includes: Management of the Somerset Levels & Moors LEADER+ Programme and Rural Community Fieldworker for Gloucestershire Rural Community Council.

Pat Holtom - Co-opted trustee
Pat Holtom was co-opted to the ACRE board in 2006. Pat has worked extensively in both the public and private sector in rural areas and was Rural Development Officer for Norfolk County Council for seven years, developing social, environmental, community, training and economic projects in the Norfolk Rural Priority Areas. A former East of England Regional Development Agency Board Member with a special remit for rural issues, she is currently Vice Chair of the East of England Regional Rural Affairs Forum and heads up the Market Towns East Sub Group as well as being Chair of the Norfolk Rural Forum which she set up in 2006. She is now a freelance rural consultant advising on bid writing, evaluation and monitoring mainly for European funding programmes, delivering training and facilitating at workshops etc.

Crispin Moor – Co-opted trustee
Crispin Moor was co-opted to the ACRE board in January 2007. Crispin is currently Director of the Commission for Rural Communities Whitehall office. Previous employment includes, Director of Rural Expertise at CRC and work on local governance and housing within the Countryside Agency.

Richard Quallington - Co-opted trustee
Richard Quallington was co-opted to the ACRE board in May 2006. He is the Chief Executive of Community First in Herefordshire & Worcestershire. Richard’s voluntary appointments include; Chair, Regional Action West Midlands (RAWM) and board member of Hereford & Worcester Chamber of Commerce.

Sue Shaw – Co-opted trustee
Sue Shaw was co-opted to the ACRE board in February 2007. Sue is a self-employed community development facilitator, trainer and researcher. Other voluntary appointments include; Chair of the Community Development Exchange and trustee of Northumberland Community Development Network.