Plunkett Advisers
Plunkett has a UK-wide network of expert advisers.
This enables us to create bespoke business support packages for each community-owned business. The team are industry experts – some have worked for decades in the sector delivering business support, others have direct community business experience having formed or run their local community business; several have both of these attributes.
Their expertise is varied, and include community engagement, governance, business planning, financial planning, marketing, legal structures, and raising finance though to practical on-the-job training on customer service, merchandising, and retailing. Meet our Advisers below.
If you would like to work with a member of the team, please contact:
Adrian Ashton
Adrian Ashton has been involved in community business since before he was born (his bloodline tracks back to Rochdale and the Co-op Pioneers).
He’s used his degrees in business from a university in Cambridge to help several co-ops and community businesses he was employed in to create new partnerships, enter new markets, and become more successful, before finding himself working freelance 20 years ago.
As a specialist associate advisor with Plunkett UK since 2005, Adrian supports groups with a range of issues including governance and succession, business development, understanding and reporting impact, DEI, and raising investment. This is through conversations with individuals, facilitated sessions with Boards, delivery of training, and drafting of advice guides.
Having been feted with a frankly ridiculous number of business awards for the impact of his work with both individual groups, and the wider policy and connect in which they trade and exist, Adrian is also an unpaid carer for 2 of his adult children; known widely for his use of props on screen and prizes awarded at in-person events; and referred to by some as being like a tiger-striped chaise-lounge with flamingo cushions.
Alan Collard
Alan Collard has provided advisory services to community enterprises on behalf of Plunkett UK since 2013. He has worked with more than 100 groups in a variety of sectors, mainly in rural and semi-rural areas.
Alan is Licensed by the Community Shares Unit of Coops UK to award the Community Shares Standard Mark. The enterprises with which he has worked have raised more than £4 million in community share capital alone.
He has direct experience of setting up and managing community businesses in his Essex village, having been a founder member of a new community shop (2002). He also led both the community acquisition of the last pub in the village (2012) and the creation of a community owned brewery (2015).
A banker by background, prior to his retirement Alan worked at a senior level with JP Morgan Chase, where he had run the bank’s African business and latterly its relationships with financial institutions in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Alan is also active in his local community, having been a parish councillor and trustee of a parish charity.
In his limited spare time (he does have grandchildren, after all), Alan enjoys walking (most recently the Dales Highway), watching rugby with his granddaughter and reading (history and crime novels). Oh, and he likes beer.
Ann Hindley
Ann Hindley has a long background in community development and has been self-employed since 1992. Since then, she has specialised in 3 areas of work – rural community development, work with faith-based groups and supporting community building projects. She has qualifications in research and carries out small-scale pieces of research and project evaluations. Development work includes feasibility studies, business plans and funding strategies.
In her spare time, she grows flowers for cutting and sells them from the garden gate as well as walking and ceilidh dancing.
Charlotte Hollins
Charlotte Hollins is the General Manager of the Fordhall Community Land Initiative, a published author, consultant on land-based community ownership, and a key leader in the We’re Right Here Campaign for a Community Power Act.
She manages the Fordhall Community Land Initiative (a charitable community benefit society) which owns Fordhall Organic Farm, North Shropshire, England.
Charlotte grew up at Fordhall and immediately after leaving University (with a Degree in Environmental Management and Mathematics) she led the high-profile campaign working with many volunteers that saved Fordhall Organic Farm from industrial development in 2006. It raised an amazing £800,000 in less than 6 months through the sale of £50 non-profit making community shares. Now England’s first community-owned farm, Fordhall is a national asset and a pioneering example of what can be achieved when people care about the countryside and work collaboratively to safeguard it.
Chris Buckham
Chris Buckham works as an advisor for Plunkett UK helping community businesses develop strategies that support their long-term resilience and success.
The support he offers includes facilitated visits, business plan development, governance and legal structure advice, preparation of share offers and advice on how to engage with and market to the community and measure social impact.
Chris is a passionate believer in the of role community shares and has successfully assisted a diverse range of groups launch share offers to raise capital to support their community businesses. Chris is licensed by the Community Shares Unit to award the Community Shares Standard Mark.
He combines this advisory work with the role of Chair at Bretforton Community Shop, which has successfully traded as a community business since 2014.
Chris has a senior management background in technology product management and marketing to both business and consumers. He served as director of a PLC business in the 1980s and in addition to his marketing experience, he has a deep knowledge of corporate governance, finance and business planning.
Helping bring up two teenage daughters doesn’t leave a lot of time outside of work, but enjoys sport, specifically football (Newcastle United – not always so enjoyable…), international cricket and horse racing. Living near Stratford up Avon, he is also a regular theatre-goer at the RSC.
Chris Tomlinson
Chris Tomlinson has been an active participant in the common ownership movement for over 15 years, setting up a housing co-operative (Gung Ho) and a thriving bicycle repair co-op in 2009/10. He advised and supported a local bakery, Loaf, and a cafe/ art gallery, Artefact, enabling them to transition from private to member ownership. In 2016, he was one of the founders of Stirchley Co-operative Development, a democratically-owned and managed provider of social housing and commercial space in south Birmingham. He spent a year project managing to get the co-operative on site.
Completing the CMI accredited ‘Barefoot co-op development’ programme with culture.coop, Chris has developed the skills he learnt through practice, such as business planning and project management, and added knowledge of different legal structures and governance techniques amongst other things. He is able to guide new groups and businesses looking to set up with or transition into common ownership models.
Chris enjoys reading history and theory, cinema and time at the allotment.
Dave Boyle
Dave Boyle has been working with community businesses for over 20 years, and specialises in all things Community Shares. He helps groups with all aspects of a share issue to kick start community shops and pubs – planning share issue campaigns, writing enticing share offer documents, undertaking Standard Mark assessments. He also provides follow-on support on things like governance and elections, managing the power balance between members, directors and staff, and managing withdrawals, interest setting and raising new share capital.
He’s worked with over 100 community businesses in the last decade, and helped them raise over £21m. He’s also a Director of Co-operatives UK, the top-level representative body for co-ops and community businesses. He lives in Brighton with his wife and teenage daughters, and delights in sampling the amazing creativity in the craft beer world. In a former life, he was a script advisor on all sporting matters for ITV’s ‘Footballer’s Wives’.
Dave Hollings
Dave Hollings has been advising co-operatives and community businesses since 1989. He was a founder member and director of Co-operative and Mutual Solutions in 2002. Besides holding management positions in several co-operatives and credit unions he provides advice and developmental support to co-operative and mutual enterprises. Dave’s professional qualification is in marketing. He is a nationally recognised expert on legal structures and governance for community businesses and community share issues and has worked with clients in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland Wales.
Dave has advised over 40 communities on planning for and raising the finance to buy and re-open their much-loved local pub under community ownership and regularly advises trading community-owned pubs on developing their business. Dave was a member of the More Than A Pub National steering group. Dave has advised several groundbreaking co-operative and community businesses including GlenWyvis Distillery, The Old Crown at Hesket Newmarket and Strontian Community School.
In his spare time Dave is chair of the community-owned Dog Inn at Belthorn and is a qualified football coach, coaching youth football.
David Miskin
David Miskin has been a consultant supporting community businesses for 12 years.
As a Plunkett UK Adviser, he has helped over 100 community businesses, including shops, pubs, market gardens, community centres, lidos, theatres and tourist hubs. Services delivered have included digital development, business plan development, financial management and control, dealing with issues of diversity, inequality and conflict, governance and legal structures, preparation of share offers, funding, and advice on how to engage with the community and measure social impact.
David has also worked with Power to Change (as a ‘Peer Broker’, and delivering support to groups funded by the ‘Powering Up’, ‘Enterprising Communities’ and ‘Bright Ideas’ programmes), Locality and Co-ops UK.
He has first-hand experience of establishing and running a community shop in his home village in South Worcestershire, serving on the management committee for 10 years.
Prior to his work as a consultant for community businesses, David garnered a wealth of experience in a 30-year career working for three of the UK’s largest retail businesses. When not working, David enjoys spending time with his wife and two daughters, running, and cheering on Brighton & Hove Albion.
Dee Lalljee
Dee Lalljee has over two decades of experience in community business, initially working on organic farms and initiating business developments that included establishing veg box schemes and educational programs. More recently, as CEO of The Bookery, an award-winning, not-for-profit independent bookshop, she spearheaded the business’s growth and developed extensive outreach projects to champion literacy and well-being. The Bookery’s accomplishments were recognised at the 2022 British Book Awards, where it secured an unprecedented double win as Independent Bookshop of the Year and Children’s Bookseller of the Year.
Dee has experience managing paid staff and teams of over 50 volunteers and has initiated volunteer-led projects to successfully respond to community needs. She is passionate about the transformative power of community business to facilitate positive change and works as a mentor and adviser for the Booksellers Association, Plunkett UK, and Co-operatives UK.
Donna McArdle
Donna McArdle is a passionate, committed project and people manager, and has worked in the community development and social business sector for the last 20 years. She has a proven track record of partnership/stakeholder building experience, as well as supporting individuals and a wide variety of staff teams within project management roles.
Donna has knowledge of change management, business management and community business and social enterprise consultancy, as well as running a wide range of organisations including the Real Junk Food Project in Edinburgh of which she was founder and co-director for six years. She has an in-depth knowledge of the local business and third sector environment in Scotland.
Donna has successfully managed and consulted across a wide spectrum of industries including business and social enterprise start-ups. Her achievements include designing bespoke volunteer/staff policies and procedures, SQA creation, developing business plans, funding applications, feasibility studies, induction packs, customer care programs, business start-up and urban asset transfer management, taking many projects from pre-opening to successful operation.
Emma Read
Emma Read has spent a whole career working in the food industry – in retail, in restaurants and cafes, and in manufacturing; so she has an extensive knowledge of the industry from different perspectives. This time has been spent in marketing, in business development and in purchasing so she always has the customers’ needs at the centre of any decision making. She is also highly motivated to ensure growth for the organisations I work with, and of course doing so profitably!
Emma has worked extensively in the hospitality and tourism market, and have lectured extensively in Higher Education – so is used to the specific needs of different sectors. She volunteers for an organisation that supports asylum seekers and refugees integrate into the UK, using food and cooking as a vehicle through which to do this.
Alongside this, Sally has worked with a number of rural community projects with Plunkett UK, predominantly food related, so has an understanding of the issues that need to be addressed.
Gareth Nash
Gareth Nash is a co-director of Co-operative and Mutual Solutions (CMS) Limited, founded in 2002. He was worked with a wide range of rural community businesses including community shops, pubs, hydro and wind schemes, community land and farms. He has been active in exploring co-operative and community business approaches to the food system: Food Futures (Lancaster), The Larder (Preston) and has been an active member of Climate Action Preston and the Lancashire Community Climate Action Network. He is supporting Community Energy Preston with their plans for solar.
He is very experienced in the use of community shares having helped communities to raise several million pounds over the last decade. Gareth is an expert financial modeller and business planner and can assemble funding and finance for capital projects. He is currently working with Lancaster Music Co-op to rebuild and refurbish their derelict premises. Gareth was a key partner in bringing Southgen (https://www.oldhospitalhub.co.uk/southgen) to fruition.
Gareth is a regular morning swimmer and walker. He is currently working with other community organisations in Lytham to bring about community ownership of Lytham Institute.
Hannah Nadim
Following a career in further and higher education and then as a bid writer, Hannah Nadim directed her energies into supporting community-owned businesses to start up, grow and thrive.
She brings with her over ten years’ experience as Secretary and then Chair of the Fox and Goose, a community-owned co-operative pub in Hebden Bridge. She started by registering the pub as an asset of community value, led the transition from buying the pub to operating it under the managed business model and led the Board and management team to the point where it is a successful business involving over 350 members.
Alongside another practitioner she set up a consortium co-operative, 241 Co-operators, to work as a co-operative and social enterprise developer. Hannah combines her experience to encourage and support groups to develop and extend their own knowledge and experience such that they, too, can succeed with their community-owned business. She is a Fully Licenced Assessor for the Community Shares Standard Mark and an alumna of the Barefoot co-operative and community business adviser programme. She works with groups directly and via Plunkett UK, Co-operatives UK, Community Shares Scotland and Power to Change.
Hilary Sudbury
Hilary Sudbury has been a Co-operative and Social Enterprise adviser for over 25 years and is based in Bristol. She has various accrediations including Fully Licensed Community Shares practioner and Standard Mark Assessor (2015); Community Led Homes Adviser (2019); SFedi Business support with Social Enterprise Standards (2009, 2010); Co-operative and Social Enteprise Adviser (2004) and has been a specialist adviser for Plunkett UK since 2018. She also works as an adviser for Co-operative Assistance Network (CAN).
In her free time she is a voluntary Director of Stokes Croft Land Trust, which purchased its first building in September 2023 and enjoys tending her garden, dog walking and cycling.
Jaye Martin
Jaye Martin is a co-operative and community business practitioner based in Glasgow. She specialises in providing high quality advice and support to co-operative enterprises in the areas of governance, legal structures, co-operative organisational types, business planning, strategy, collaborative bidding, funding and investment opportunities, and signposting to support networks across Scotland. She is also experienced in providing technical advice and input for briefing papers, webinars, case studies, training materials, etc.
She has a background in corporate law, employee share schemes and equity investment, and draws on this experience to benefit the co-operative and community businesses she supports. She is also a trustee on the Board of Co-operative and Community Finance.
She has two young children and, when she gets a spare minute, she likes to exercise, read and garden. She is a keen hillwalker and loves the Scottish hills.
Jo Elston
Jo Elston has been working in the Co-operative and Community Business sector for around 5 years after starting out as a volunteer with SHRUB Co-op, an Edinburgh based Zero Waste community co-operative that she went on to work for. She is interested in the way that Co-operatives and Community Businesses can provide a different sense of community in a local area compared to other more traditional organisations.
Jo has completed the Barefoot Co-operative Development training and Community Shares Practitioner training, alongside various training on Facilitation, Conflict Resilience and Intersectional Equality.
Jo is particularly interested in looking at the way we bring societal norms and power dynamics into non-traditional business models, and how we can start to discuss and change some of these norms.
Outside of work, Jo enjoys lino printing and photography as creative outlets and enjoys getting up into the hills or out on a bike when the Scottish weather allows it!
Kate Harrison
Kate Harrison lives in Ashton Hayes near Chester. In 2005 she joined a village project, Ashton Hayes Going Carbon Neutral, to make local people aware of how they could lower their carbon footprint. The project became internationally known and led to working with communities across the UK and the world. The success of the project inspired the community to buy their last remaining village shop, in 2010. They approached Plunkett who allocated an Adviser to help through the whole process. Ashton Hayes and Mouldsworth Community Shop was then able to help other communities with mentoring and study visits. Kate is a member of the steering group who are in the process of buying their own local pub, after 11 years of closure.
Kate now mentors other groups who are looking to buy their shop or pub. She is very experienced in the trials and tribulations of ACVs, planning applications and government funding. She has been the Secretary of the community shop for 14 years and is a regular volunteer in the shop. Kate is also a Director of Ashton Hayes Community Energy Company, which manages the village’s solar panels for community benefit.
Kate enjoys reading, music, travel and gardening.
Dr Kathrin Luddecke
Dr Kathrin Luddecke has worked in the public sector as well as social enterprises, with roles in communication and engagement, partnership working, strategy development and governance. She has first-hand experience of starting up and running small enterprises, working with board/committee and other members.
She helped set up a business support organisation, Co-operative Futures, as deputy director. She volunteered as company secretary, director, membership administrator, and volunteer co-ordinator of her local community and farmers’ market co-operative, a community benefit society. She is a board member of the Oxford Printmakers’ Co-operative and involved in community energy.
Kathrin played a key role in negotiating bridging funding for a regeneration pilot in the market town of Lydney, to help employ community agents and develop project proposals. She worked closely with staff at Development Trust Association (now Locality) and local partners on business planning, launching a community-owned partnership with 200 members.
For Plunkett, Kathrin mainly advises pub and shop groups on action planning in the start-up phase. She has also been supporting urban groups or with a slightly different focus, like markets, growing or transport schemes, and project-managed its Being Well Project funded by Power to Change.
Laurie Warren
Laurie Warren has been a business and marketing consultant for 12 years, following a successful career at one of the world’s largest veterinary pharmaceutical companies where she built up experience in sales, marketing, consultancy HR and leadership. Laurie has a background in science and holds a Professional Diploma in Marketing.
Laurie now runs a freelance consultancy, focusing on providing high-level expertise and creative input to small independent businesses. She has lectured and examined on CIM qualifications and currently tutors marketing apprentices. Laurie is passionate about seeing students reach their full potential and develop their confidence and business knowledge across a range of organisations. She runs training workshops, carries out business health diagnostics, and empowers small businesses to look towards a profitable and sustainable future.
Laurie became involved with Plunkett after volunteering in her local community. She is passionate about empowering groups to improve their services and opportunities, and taking ownership to create sustainable, resilient and thriving rural communities. Laurie’s experience in working with a varied range of businesses, including veterinary, pharmaceutical, retail and agricultural sectors; addressing a wide range of challenges and issues; means she is well placed to support teams on their exciting projects with both knowledge and compassion. She is experienced in leadership, marketing, human resources, running business audits and implementing plans for change.
Laurie is an animal lover, and enjoys spending time hiking and mountain biking with her family and dog. Laurie also volunteers at the local school allotment, helping to inspire and teach children how to grow food and manage a sustainable plot.
Mark Golding
Mark Golding has spent his career in the Leisure and Tourism industry, specifically Visitor attractions. He has run his own consultancy business since 1992. Mark came into the community business sphere relatively recently when he lead the purchase of his local pub as Chair of Gunnerside CBS, a position he still holds. Mark is also involved in other local charities at board level.
Mark specialises in all aspects of community pubs; from initial Society formation through to operations advice and business healthchecks and rescues. He has advised over 30 community pubs to date, including several COF applicants. He is very comfortable with all aspects of Community businesses, including financial projections, business planning and refurbishments.
Mark is currently training to be a Community Share Standard Mark advisor. He is based in North Yorkshire and has worked on projects all over the country, including some in Scotland.
Mark McTaggart
Mark McTaggart has been a Plunkett UK adviser for 10 years, but has a background of over 30 years working in the charity and social enterprise sector. This includes time as a grants officer for the National Lottery, a business manager for the Princes’ Trust, and running his own business supporting social enterprises and charities to develop their organisations and grow their income streams.
During his time as an adviser for Plunkett, he has supported numerous community businesses to start up and develop their business plans and share offer documents, and support them with funding applications. He has also enjoyed presenting webinars and training for Plunkett UK programmes.
In his spare time Mark enjoys hiking in the mountains, walking the dog and playing the guitar badly.
Mark Simmonds
Mark Simmonds is an experienced community entrepreneur and advisor, specialising in enterprise working towards social and environmental change. Mark is a fully licensed community shares practitioner and has worked with many community shops and pubs, supporting them with their finance and governance.
Mark is also Secretary of Hepotonstall community Assets, running a community shop and Post Office and a founding Director of the Fox and Goose Pub in West Yorkshire.
Martin Meteyard
Martin Meteyard has been active in co-operative and community enterprise for more than 40 years. His varied experience includes a 15-year stint at Greencity Wholefoods worker co-op in Glasgow; six years as membership and community affairs manager for the Co-operative Group in Scotland; and as a freelance co-operative and community business advisor since 2009 – mainly working with Plunkett, Co-operative Development Scotland, and Community Shares Scotland.
He has worked with many community pubs and shops during that time, and also led a successful bid to the Scottish Land Fund in 2018 to acquire the Storehouse as a community hub in Penicuik, close to where he lives south of Edinburgh.
Martin is also passionate about Fair Trade, having in the past chaired both Cafedirect and the Scottish Fair Trade Forum and been a director of Zaytoun.
In his spare time he is an avid reader of fiction and also enjoys films, music and spending time in his garden.
Marvin Symes
Marvin Symes is based in Peterborough and has worked in the community development sector for over 25 years, He really enjoys his role as a Specialist Adviser for Plunkett UK. Over the years he has worked with hundreds of charitable groups across the UK advising start-ups, securing grant funding, and facilitating community asset transfers. He has helped secure millions of pounds in grant funding for groups over the years, with a particular specialisation in National Lottery grant funding.
Marvin’s experience also covers community pubs and shops, where he has a 90% success rate in assisting groups in obtaining small to medium grants. Since starting with Plunkett UK in 2016, he has felt particularly enjoyed helping groups access grant funding post-takeover of community assets. He really enjoys meeting Plunkett members by web, phonecall or in person, hopefully providing helpful support to them along the way.
Outside his work, he is an Ipswich Town football fan, and enjoys hacking his way round a golf course for his mental health! He also looks forward to an occasional pint with good company and, when he can find the energy, climbs large mountains.
Nathan Brown
Nathan Brown has been providing support to co-operatives and community businesses since 1997 and has been involved in the sector since the early 90s. He has helped start and advise hundreds of enterprises. He has worked with a wide range of co-ops including pubs, woodlands, community food growers, bookshops and groups focused on energy generation and energy efficiency.
Nathan has been a Plunkett Special Advisor since 2015 and is a Licensed Community Shares practitioner. He has been a Director of various co-ops and community businesses using a wide range of legal forms. Through his worker co-op, Co-op Culture, he has trained over 100 practitioners to become community business advisors through the Barefoot training programme.
In his spare time Nathan likes to read, listen to music and is learning Wing Chun kung fu. He is also Treasurer of Transition Town, Southampton.
Phil Harriss
Phil Harriss has been involved with community businesses since 2013, when he launched a campaign to save his village pub in Norfolk. The King’s Arms, Shouldham celebrated its 10th year of community ownership in 2024, during which time it has won many awards and been transformed into a thriving business.
Phil has been a Plunkett adviser since 2016, using the experience he gained both in helping run the King’s Arms campaign and in his work as a food and drink journalist. During his career he has written thousands of reviews of pubs and restaurants and he holds an MA in Food Policy. In his spare time Phil plays guitar and harmonica in a band.
Polly Eason
Polly Eason is a Community Development Worker with the Sussex Community Housing Hub, supporting groups ranging from Parish Councils to hard-to-reach groups. She is experienced and passionate about supporting communities to collaboratively consider and design solutions to local issues.
Polly’s skill-sets and expertise have grown up out of grassroots experience in a broad range of environmental, social justice and social enterprise projects, formalised with training and hands on learning, and she is excited to support others that are looking to deliver locally relevant projects.
Sally Soady
Sally Soady became involved in the community business sector back in 2012 when the fate of both the village pub and Post Office in her village of Bamford in the Peak District became critical issues.
A steering committee was set up to purchase the pub and bid for the Post Office contract, and Sally project-managed the purchase including the fundraising via a Community Share issue.
The Anglers Rest is now a successful business, which combines a pub, café, Post Office and retail area, B&B and flat. Sally was Society Secretary for five years, leading on membership and community engagement and supporting both the finance and governance agendas. She led on capital developments including seeking ways to reduce energy and water consumption.
Sally has undergone training in community shares and supported numerous groups seeking to buy their own pub. During the pandemic she set up a local food delivery service using volunteers and supporting local producers and retailers. She knows first-hand that running a community co-operative is a challenge, but also a great opportunity to re-energise a community and build community spirit.
Sandy Bruton
Having been the co-owner of a multi award winning village shop and Post Office on the Isle of Mull since 2019, Sandy Bruton has been advising community groups and co-ops around Scotland for many years.
Initially through the Community Retailing Network, he has been invited to help numerous groups and in their various stages. From initial testing of ideas to assisting with groups in specific areas, he is experienced in all aspects of running and managing a community business which includes delivering strategy, legal structures, financial planning and governance training.
He has been trained and is experienced in delivering workshops and events using collaborative and participatory methods which ensure all voices can be heard and still reach an agreed way forward. Since selling the shop, he dedicates much of his time to assisting community groups, in their many guises, to survive in these difficult and challenging times.
Sandy has held various board positions at a local and national level, and has been leading Mull and Iona Community Trust, as Convenor, for more than 10 years. He has been a member of the local Coastguard team for over 30 years.
Sarah Mayell
Sarah Mayell has been advising community groups for the past 16 years. She started working with Plunkett on the ‘Making Local Food Work’ programme in 2008, as the Merchandiser for ‘Look for Local’. On completion of that project, Sarah transferred to being a Community Adviser for the West Midlands and South Wales, which involved advising new groups wishing to set up rural social enterprises including shops, pubs, cafes or food related businesses. She continues to undertake support for social enterprises across the country on various funded projects both as an adviser and specialist.
Sarah’s previous experience includes six years in London running 16 Directors Dining Rooms and six years as Regional Enterprise Manager for The National Trust, based in Tewkesbury, where she was a member of the Regional Management Team. Sarah started her own business in 2000 and has worked with the Plunkett UKWales Co-op, Regional Food Agencies, Holme Lacy College, and a range of private businesses starting up and running shops, cafes and farmshops.
Living in a rural farming village in Herefordshire, Sarah understands the issues faced by such a community and the need to integrate all households to support fellow residents. She is aware of the farming calendar and is immensely proud of the diverse range of quality produce grown and raised in Herefordshire.
Sandy has held various board positions at a local and national level, and has been leading Mull and Iona Community Trust, as Convenor, for more than 10 years. He has been a member of the local Coastguard team for over 30 years.
Stephen Kelly
After studying Mechanical Engineering in Glasgow, Stephen Kelly moved south where he spent several years employed by a family business team learning all aspects of running a small business.
Returning north, he was a founding member of Highland Wholefoods Workers Co-operative where he remained for 20 years serving spells in sales, buying and marketing and as finance director there.
In his spare time, he has served as a trustee of a national children’s & young person’s charity, and was a community credit union director & treasurer for 20 years having been a founder member there and having participated in two successful mergers in his time in that position.
After a number of years as a community manager at The Co-operative Group, Stephen is currently helping Energy4All support and grow a network of co-operatives and community benefit societies with a mission to create more local, community-owned, renewable energy across the UK.
He is an active member of a number of different co-operatives and community benefit societies and is based in the Scottish Highlands near Inverness.
Steve Donagain
Steve Donagain is CEO for the award winning environmental social enterprise, Hill Holt Wood. Starting in a role as a ranger teaching forestry to excluded school children he took the reins in June 2016 after 11 years.
His early working years in forestry were spent shivering in Finland, Russia and Canada learning the ropes before returning to the UK. Very experienced in community woodlands and social enterprise after almost 20 years at Hill Holt Wood.
Steve’s a keen member of Nottingham Piscatorial fishing society and a Newcastle United fan for his sins. He is proud father to Emily and husband to Lizzi.
Tim Allen
Tim Allen has been directly involved in the Community Enterprise sector since 2012 including a formative role as a founder member of a group setting up a community shop and cafe which – over 8 years – included being management committee chair and company secretary. As a Plunkett UK Advisor Tim has supported 40+ community enterprises over the past eight years with expertise in problem-solving, business and volunteer management and business viability.
Tim is co-director and co-owner of an international consultancy that specialises in supporting social enterprise and public and voluntary sector organisations that help and foster these enterprises, and the wider voluntary sector and volunteering generally.
His background includes qualifying as a Land Agent (a Chartered Surveyor), being a senior public servant in the UK Treasury and Government Departments responsible for developing and delivering policies and programmes for the rural environment and rural areas, and work with local government and academia in various capacities including teaching about public policy and environmental sustainability.
In his free time, Tim enjoys travel, his dog, engaging in local projects (including action to address local flooding and pollution problems), cooking, music and photography.
Tiziana O’Hara
Tiziana O’Hara has been living in Northern Ireland for the past 30 years and most of her working life has been spent in the local community, voluntary and social economy sector.
Tiziana is one of the founder members of Co-operative Alternatives (www.coopalternatives.coop), the only co-operative development body in the region, and has a passion for all types of co-operatives embracing the seven principles of co-operation and the values of fairness, equality and solidarity. Tiziana has also worked on a variety of community-led projects in farming, housing and energy. Most recent projects include the Carrick Greengrocers, Ethical Weigh and Holywood CoFarm BenCom.
As a Co-operative Development and Community Shares Licensed practitioner, she has been advising, supporting and trained many groups interested in setting up or grow their co-operatives and community benefit societies. She has substantially contributed to the growth of co-operatives in the region and supported more than 14 community shares offer and a couple of loanstock offers. Since 2014, Tiziana helped to connect co-operative development work with the South of Ireland and across the UK.
Tiziana is also a Director in Drumlin Wind Energy Co-operative, the Northern Ireland Community Energy (NICE) Ltd and the Society of Co-operative Studies in Ireland. Tiziana has recently joined the Co-operatives UK Governance Expert Panel.
Tor Justad
Tor Justad has joint Norwegian / British nationality and is based in the Highlands.
He has a varied background of work and since the 1980s has worked within a variety of urban and rural settings as a social economy adviser.
He was one of a group of community business pioneers in Scotland in the community business sector in the 1970s and 80s initially with communty co-ops in the Highlands & Islands and then as Manager of a Community Enterprise Suport Unit in Central Scotland.
In 1986 he formed Tor Justad Associates providing community business and social accounting advice and training in the UK, EU and other countries incuding working with carpet makers in Afghanistan.
His voluntrary work has included anti-nuclear and pro-Palestine campaigning, setting up a coastal rowing club and his main personal interest is in traditional boats and he spends part of each summer on his own Norwegian boat on the west coast of Scotland.
He has had a long involvement with Plunkett incuding attending many rural development conferences and involvement im Plunkett’s takeover of the Scottish Community Retailing Network.
In recent years he has become a Plunkett Adviser providing advice and support to communty pubs and shops in rural Scotland.
Viv Price
Viv Price is a Devonian by birth and has been lucky enough to live there all her life.
After 30 years as a teacher, she first came into contact with Plunkett UK as part of the founding team and the first Chair of Otterton Community Shop in Devon. The problems encountered led to her being asked to become a Plunkett Advisor, a role she has filled for nearly ten years. She had little experience of community enterprises in the early days, but soon became amazed at the range and the benefit of community ownership.
Over the years, Viv has supported over 50 projects, including shops, pubs and health projects, working with several funding schemes. When an enterprise opens the sense of achievement for the group is huge but as an Adviser she feels a great pride that she has helped in even a small way. Thanks to local funding, Devon now has a Community Shops Network and she regularly meets with them to provide advice and support to each other.
Away from supporting community enterprises, Viv loves to walk in the countryside and needs the t-shirt that says, “I would rather be gardening”!
