Trustees and Team
CHAIRMAN
DAVID OWEN
David Owen was born and raised in Gloucestershire before heading to Liverpool to study Business and Economics at university. He spent a decade in the North West, working across the education sector and serving as Managing Director of a high-growth training start-up, before returning to the South West to lead the establishment of an innovation and enterprise centre in Bristol.
For the past twenty years, David has worked in Gloucestershire – first as Director of Enterprise and Innovation at the University of Gloucestershire, then as Chief Executive of GFirst Local Enterprise Partnership, and, since 2022, as Director of Economy and Environment for Gloucestershire County Council.
He lives in Cheltenham with his wife, Laura, and their dog, and they have four grown-up daughters currently scattered around the globe.
TRUSTEE
Vanessa Arbuthnott
Vanessa Arbuthnott grew up in Cumbria. In London, she had gained a degree in nursing and SRN and became an intensive care nurse. Having married, she retrained with a PGCE to become a primary school teacher in London. After having children, she attended Stroud Art School to study surface print, which led to her starting her own fabric mail order company in 2000. In 2012, she created an artist residency in her house; she and her students took art classes out to vulnerable groups in the community. This work has given her an insight into some of the needs in Gloucestershire.
She has a community room next to her shop in Cirencester, which she gives freely to the local community.
TRUSTEE
Katrina Hicks Beach
Katrina Hicks Beach lives near Cirencester. She went to Northleach Grammar School and gained a degree in Sanskrit and Religion at Edinburgh University, before going to the Royal Scottish Academy of Music to study singing. For twenty-five years, she has worked as a professional singer, teacher, and choir leader. Kate was on the board of the Gloucestershire Historic Churches Trust and was a Trustee of Home-Start Cotswolds. She works for the Gloucestershire-based charity Mindsong, as Director of Volunteer-led Services, and runs a programme of singing groups, recruiting, training, and supporting volunteers to sing regularly with care home residents living with mid to late-stage dementia. She runs a 70-strong community choir in Coln St. Aldwyns.
TRUSTEE
Roger Mortlock
Roger Mortlock joined Summerfield’s board of Trustees in May 2019. Roger is CEO at CPRE, the countryside charity, campaigning for a thriving and beautiful countryside for everyone. He joined CPRE in May 2023 after over 15 years in leadership roles for environmental charities, most recently at Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust, the county’s largest environmental charity, where he was CEO for 10 years. Before that, he was Deputy Director at the Soil Association, where he was also Chair of the Food for Life Partnership and the Soil Association Land Trust, which holds productive land in trust for future generations.
TRUSTEE
Antonia Shield
Antonia Shield is Commercial Property Partner of BPE Solicitors in Cheltenham. Antonia has undertaken a wide range of commercial property work throughout her career including development and regeneration projects. Antonia did her first degree in Architectural History and she remains passionate about the built environment both historic and contemporary, enjoys art, antiques and gardening.
ADMINISTRATOR
Lavinia Sidgwick
For the past 36 years, Lavinia has been the administrator of Summerfield Charitable Trust, having been asked by the founding Trustees to help set up a new grant-giving trust that has now distributed over £30m to good causes in Gloucestershire. During much of that time, she was also a consultant to The Trust Partnership.
Originally a Primary School Teacher, Lavinia has also worked as PA to Polar explorer and environmentalist, Robert Swan, with whom she helped international students go to the North and South Poles to learn and experience the environmental problems facing those regions.
Lavinia was a member of the Cheltenham Literature Festival Committee for 18 years and continues her involvement as a Festival Patron. She has acted as a coach for cancer sufferers, co-founded the Carey Dickinson Fund for Breast Cancer Campaign, and as a Trustee of Hosking Houses Trust, a charity providing houses and income for arts fellowships. She is a volunteer singer for Mindsong charity and churchwarden of St Michael’s church in Winson.
Married to a livestock farmer, for whom she managed a home-produced meat business, Lavinia is passionate about her family, contemporary literature and poetry, theatre, film, archaeology, historic buildings and landscapes, and the extraordinary people who commit their energy to deliver the voluntary sector of Gloucestershire.
ADMINISTRATOR
Wendy James
Wendy has worked at The Summerfield Charitable Trust as an Administrator for the past 8 years.
As well as working for the Trust, Wendy is a self-employed bookkeeper with a range of clients in Gloucestershire and one London-based client. She is also an administrator of one other grant-giving trust in Gloucestershire.
Born and raised in Gloucestershire, she has always found joy and had an interest in the countryside. Living in the North Cotswolds with her partner and two daughters, she enjoys long walks with her dog, exploring local attractions, being involved in local community groups, and helping to fundraise for charities locally and nationally. Wendy is passionate about her family life and work and feels it’s important to maintain a good balance, which allows her to thrive in the beautiful county that Gloucestershire is.
Our Independent Advisors
BRENDAN CONBOY
EMMA CRICHTON-MILLER
CARINA GREENWOOD
JULIA HURRELL
KAREN RANDALL
WENDY JAMES
SUE KINDER
NICOLA LAWSON
BARBARA MCNAUGHT
SALLY MACKIE
RICHARD TAYLOR
KATHARINE TETLEY
ALISTAIR WATSON
FRANK MCDERMOTT
CONTACT US NOW
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