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Governance

Management Committee

Women and Manual Trades is governed by a Management Committee which is made up of tradeswomen, people with specific skills (such as finance or human resources), and people interested in supporting women working within non-traditional areas.

The names and biographies of current board members are listed below.

Shelagh Prosser (Chair)

Shelagh joined the Management Committee of WAMT in June 2007 and is currently its Chair.

She is an established equality and diversity practitioner with over 20 years experience. Prior to becoming an independent consultant, she held senior diversity posts in the Civil Service, the BBC and the transport industry and now works with public, private and voluntary sector clients.

Shelagh is passionate about promoting equality and inclusion and has a particular interest in tackling occupational stereotyping and underrepresentation. Much of her work has focused on advancing gender equality.

Shelagh has substantial trustee experience and in addition to her involvement with WAMT she is currently a director of Border Crossings (a cross cultural theatre arts company).

She is a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, and an approved NCVO consultant.

Shelagh is committed to supporting WAMT to be a successful and sustainable organisation and hopes to be elected to continue in her role as Chair.

Enoma Igiehon (Treasurer)

Enoma joined WAMT’s Management Committee in 2010, from a background in Civil Engineering and Project Management services. She has worked in transport infrastructure development, implementing projects with a range of clients, from large public sector organisations – including Network Rail and Transport for London – to small property development contractors. She has recently completed her involvement in the delivery of the London 2012 Olympics / Paralympics and works as a management consultant to large public and private clients.

Enoma hopes to facilitate the continuation of WAMT and provide support to the direction of the organisation over the coming years.

Adam Firbank (Trustee)

Adam is a strategic marketing and communication specialist with over 14 years experience of the construction sector. He is currently Marketing Director for Rockwool, a £1billion global insulation specialist, previously holding positions with Axis Europe Plc, Mears Group Plc, Anglian Building Products, and Moore Furniture Group Ltd.

He is extremely passionate about local employment opportunities, and ensuring that all members of the community have a voice. By becoming a trustee for WAMT he hopes to help women in the trades gain equal representation and opportunities within the construction industry.

Alison Smith (Trustee)

Alison has been a self-employed Painter & Decorator since 2000, and is now NVQ level 3 qualified in her trade. She has worked on a range of domestic, commercial, new build and refurbishment sites, usually on a subcontract basis. She has also spent two years managing the Painting & Decorating department within Cambridge Regional College. Previous to this she worked as a Trainer and Assessor for Cambridge Council. By undertaking the role of trustee she hopes to bring an understanding of what it is to be a tradeswoman in the current

climate, along with enthusiastic advocacy of the construction trades as a viable career choice for women.

Christine Townley (Trustee)

Christine is the Executive Director Construction Youth Trust. After originally joining the Trust in 2004 she was appointed Director in 2007, and has since overseen the significant expansion of the organisation and the development of a number of innovative new programmes, aiming to help disadvantaged individuals and communities gain construction training and employment.

Christine is a chartered civil engineer and has worked on the design and construction of dams, reservoirs and floodwalls for the UK and Middle East. She has been active in the Institution of Civil Engineers at both a national and regional level.

She also has significant adult and community education experience, and was Vice Principal of Thurrock Adult Community College. Whilst at the college she developed lifelong learning for the community, with a key focus on supporting individuals and communities to return to learning and work. She was instrumental in developing innovative approaches to basic skills for community groups and frontline workers (literacy, numeracy and language), many of which became the basis of national programmes.

Christine also held the position of Assistant Director of the Basic Skills Agency where she managed several national projects that focused on the development of adult basic skills.

Ceri Wilmott (Trustee)

Ceri puts her extensive experience of leadership, teams and organizational dynamics to use in all aspects of coaching and consulting work. Originally trained as a social anthropologist and lawyer (Cambridge and LSE), she has over 15 years experience at senior management level, including National Programme Director, Design Council; Managing Director, Liberation Foods CIC (FMCG Fairtrade business) and at Participle as Managing Partner of Life HQ (www.alifewewant.com). She is Co-Founder and Director of Athena Learning Academy, which promotes and supports the development of senior women executives and entrepreneurs.