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Our Trustees

  Pam Briggs - Chair (coming soon!)

Brenda Grey - Vice Chair

The opportunities the Trust provided for individuals to participate in heritage, arts and culture volunteering projects attracted Brenda to the Trust and she joined the Board in 2006. She was actively involved in the Ouseburn Volunteer Project to provide volunteering work for unemployed individuals which was extremely successful as it helped them back to work.

Brenda has extensive experience of working with organisation to promote employment and skills development as well as working with small businesses to help them grow. She is currently a member of the Senior Leadership Team for Jobcentre Plus where she has responsibility for employment advisory teams working in the community and the specialist work psychology teams operating throughout the region. She is also a Governor for a school based in Newcastle.

She is particularly interested in the potential for development of the Ouseburn Valley as a place to live, work and place - a current focus of the Trust.

 Hugh Massey (coming soon!)

Sheila Spencer

Sheila became active in the regeneration of the Valley in 1995. As a councillor for the former Sandyford Ward, she was a member of the Ouseburn Partnership Executive, and then joined the Ouseburn Trust and its Board shortly after leaving the Council. She was acting Chair / Chair for the Trust for around 6 years. She uses the Valley frequently as a visitor to the pubs, festivals, venues, and open spaces, and is a keen walker, cyclist, and supporter of the arts.

Ray Bland (coming soon!)

Neil Braithwaite

Neil has been a solicitor with the law firm Dickinson Dees LLP since 1980, from 1998 to 2008 as Managing Partner. He now combines his legal work with a portfolio of other roles, mainly in the voluntary sector. The roles that he currently undertakes include acting as a member of the North East Regional Council of the Prince’s Trust, a member of the Council of Newcastle University, a trustee of Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums Development Trust and a member of Home Group’s Audit Committee.

The Trust’s objectives match his own interests closely. Having spent time dealing with regeneration and heritage property from the point of view of the public sector and private developers he has wanted to be more actively involved in regeneration in a way which achieves both preservation of the local heritage and a benefit for the community. He has spent recent years working close to the Ouseburn area and since joining the Board has been actively involved in seeking to develop and proactively manage the Trust’s properties as well as helping the Trust to develop its future plans on a sustainable basis.

Geoff Kell (coming soon!)

Marie Graham (coming soon!)

Carrie Miller (coming soon!)

Myra Giesen (coming soon!)

Hazel Edwards (coming soon!)

Dave Cross

I’ve been working in the Ouseburn since 1990, with the commercial business Midnight Electronics and the publicly funded music development agency Generator which has since re-located into offices above the Cluny. I have developed a passionate fondness for the area’s green spaces, industrial heritage and cultural renaissance, in addition to the attraction of its pubs and live music.

Having active links with public sector regeneration work and community engagement, I am eager to see the Trust’s objectives for the Ouseburn’s regeneration and heritage being implemented and developed, particularly thanks to its locally-driven management.

I have the benefit of experience of the national networking opportunities created by harnessing the interests of Arts Councils and other agencies, which developed into the UK-wide META network and later evolved into the Music Industries Development Association and following on from which, I became an Executive and Trustee of the National Music Council.

My personal history in the industry began with small scale arts promotions in the late 1960s and regular hands-on work with live and broadcast music, local and national theatre and in event production. Having directly managed small businesses with personal responsibility for staff, IT, accounts and admin I have also been pleased to assist in the planning, budgeting, management and statutory permissions, particularly Licensing, attached to a range of projects, from community festivals to regional flagship attractions and events, in the public and private sectors. I continue to provide audio and licensing services for events and to provide IT and Internet hosting facilities.

I currently serve as Trustee for four Charitable organisations, including the groups responsible for the local Jesmond Festival and Ouseburn Festival. I have been Director of a few Companies, and enjoyed a period on the Management Committee of the now-legendary Newcastle music venue, Riverside; have been a drama advisor to Northern Arts and a music advisor to the Arts Council of England.

My preferred style of work is a cooperative approach to working with colleagues, with Politicians, policymakers, funders and practitioners, and in taking a balanced approach between realism and optimism in budgeting and business planning. I enjoy a balance between a hands-on approach to tasks and a strategic detachment. I also exploit some  experience in specific areas of Law including advocacy in Licensing, acoustics as applied to Noise and Environmental Health, in Railway Law, and in Copyrights.

I’m delighted to be working with the team at the Ouseburn Trust and expect to see the Trust remaining centre stage in the continuing unfolding of the Ouseburn’s exciting tale of development.

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