Our sole employee is a Project Manager, who coordinates the trustees and volunteer groups with specialist expertise in the key areas of marketing, fundraising, logistics, education and farmer liaison.
We have received a grant from a charitable foundation, to cover the wages of the Project Manager for three years.
Introducing the people behind Stump up for Trees
Founder
Keith Powell
Dr Keith Powell is a seventh-generation Black Mountains farmer and a vet.
He studied veterinary medicine at Cambridge University and lives with his family off-grid in the Brecon Beacons. He has planted tens of thousands of trees since childhood and once drove from Wales to Madrid with a car boot full of conkers, which he planted by the roadside (he ran out in Cognac). In 2017, he initiated the project to plant on Bryn Arw common, adjacent to the Powell family farm.
Co-Founder and Project Manager
Robert Penn
Robert Penn, former lawyer, round the world cyclist, journalist, best-selling author and broadcaster, moved to a house beside Bryn Arw, fifteen years ago.
He wrote The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees, about the ash tree and Woods: A Celebration, published by the National Trust. He wrote and presented Tales From the Wildwood, a series for BBC4 about woodland management. He is patron of the Small Woods Association and he set up a local community woodland group.
Woodland Creation Officer
Kate Beavan
Fundraising
Hugh Colvin
Hugh Colvin has planted or overseen the planting of 250,000 trees.
Since 1980, he has been directing, advising or raising funds for a wide range of forestry, environmental, community and arts projects, and looks after his own small woodland in the Brecon Beacons.
Fundraising
Phil Middleton
Phil Middleton worked in event management in Indonesia during the 1990s.
He returned to the UK to work in the conference industry, co-founding The Insurance Network in 2004, which company he stills runs with particular responsibility for sponsorship.
Executive Assistant
Jill Miller
Jill Miller joined us in November 2020 as a freelance Executive Assistant.
Jill helps to keep us organised and ensures the smooth-running of our projects, she brings over 15 years experience as a Board level EA across various organisations in the public and private sectors. Jill is a keen walker, gardener and nature lover who relocated to the Brecon Beacons with her husband and their dogs in 2019.
Finance Officer
Andrew Riddington
Andrew is a finance professional, woodland owner-manager and woodworker. He has spent most of his working life in and around finance.
Gravitating naturally to the ‘commercial’ end of the sector, Andrew holds a number of Finance Director posts with small UK businesses and start-ups. Additionally, he has been appointed to manage the financial, contractual and commercial side of specific major projects. His background is in media and communications and also UK Furniture Designer-makers. More recently, Andrew has brought his experience to Charities and Community interest Companies: he is engaged in supporting a number of social enterprises in southwest England. A ‘youthful’ 58, Andrew lives in the Cotswold household with his wife and two sons.
Our trustees, who are all local to the Brecon Beacons and equipped with diverse skills, play a significant role in supporting the charity. They meet regularly.
James Suter
James Suter runs the multi-award winning Gliffaes Hotel, near Crickhowell in the heart of the Brecon Beacons National Park. The hotel has a remarkable collection of specimen and native trees.
The son of a Dorset farmer, James served in the Coldstream Guards and worked for United Distillers (now Diageo). He has volunteered for the Brecon Mountain Rescue Team and served as a Welsh Assembly Appointee on the Brecon Beacons National Park Committee.
Andrew Erskine
Andrew Erskine worked in the tourism industry for over 30 years, including two decades establishing, managing and selling a successful, family run tour operating business.
He has over seven years’ experience working on community energy projects in rural communities. He was chairman of Crucorney Environmental Group and director of The Green Valleys CIC (developing micro-hydro projects throughout Wales) for six years, with oversight of community interests and development.
Richard Roderick
Richard Roderick has an OND in Agriculture from Aberystwyth University. He is a Farming Connect mentor, an HCC Scholar, an associate of the Royal Agricultural Societies and in 2020-21, president of the Brecon Agricultural Show.
He is also chair of the Beacons Water Group, part the Dwr Cymru Welsh Water’s ‘Brecon Beacons Mega Catchment’. For 35 years, Richard has farmed at Newton Farm in the Usk Valley, a family business producing quality beef and lamb. The farm, part of environmental schemes since 2000 creating streamside corridors, planting hedgerows and trees and preventing riverbank erosion, has won the prestigious FWAG Silver Lapwing Award.
Our Board of Trustees is supported by an Advisory Board.
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