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Governance

Management Committee

Added: 3 December 2007. Last updated: 24 May 2010.

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

Shelagh Prosser (Chair)

She joined the Management Committee of WAMT in June 2007 and following last years AGM, took on the role of Company Secretary.
She is an established equality and diversity practitioner with over 19 years experience. Prior to becoming an independent consultant, she held senior diversity posts in the Civil Service, the BBC and the transport industry.
In addition to her involvement with WAMT she is currently Chair of the Westminster Equalities Partnership, Vice-Chair of the Institute of Equality and Diversity and trustee and Company Secretary of Border Crossings (a cross cultural arts company). She is also a member of Prowess, the UK association of organisations and individuals who support the growth of women’s business ownership and has received training to be an Assessor for the Prowess Flagship Award (a quality standard for excellence in womens enterprise development) and for WEConnect (a supplier diversity initiative).
She is a chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and an approved NCVO consultant.

Penny Gray

Penny is a decorator with five years experience. She is currently self employed, working as part of new co-operative Ladies With Trades. She has previously been a part of WAMTs Upskill and Building Work for Women projects. As a member of the Management Committee she aims to help form a link between young women and WAMT, promoting the organisation at ground level.

Emily English

Emily is originally from London and has been a self-employed decorator for 22 years. She recently co-founded Ladies with Trades, a cooperative of tradeswomen working together on a range of renovation and maintenance projects. She cites her biggest career challenge as a recent insurance job in North London, where the team refurbished almost an entire house, often using specialist finishes. In her daily work
Emily also employs her skills in plastering, and supervises other tradeswomen
on site. In joining the Management Committee of WAMT, Emily hopes to pass on knowledge she has acquired, through many years experience, to other tradeswomen.


Chris Armstrong (Treasurer)

Chris has over 30 years experience in banking and finance and for the last 10 years has run her own business as a consultant and project manager. In May 2010, she started a new business under the Your Plumber franchise, based at Welwyn, Herts. Chris is also a mentor with the Princes Trust and has coached a number of young people and businesses. By joining the Management Committee, Chris hopes to be able to pass on her business, financial and project management experience as well as helping others entering the industry.

Rajvant Nijjhar (Secretary)

Rajvant recently founded Consortio, a consulting specialising in a complete management approach to all aspects of energy and sustainability from marketing, bid and proposal writing to supplier evaluation, workshop facilitation, project management and delivery.

Her career to date has been within Project Management, Strategy development and the delivery of Corporate Responsibility (CR) strategies, as well as in the delivery of water, low and zero carbon energy projects and the development of sustainability solutions. Her experience spans the building services consulting environment, construction and water engineering fields.

Her education started within Engineering, reading Mechanical Engineering at the University of Surrey. This was complimented with a Masters in Environment Protection. Following a number of years in industry (mainly the waster sector), Rajvant cemented her experience with an MBA from the University of Bath, and then moved into a Group Business Development role and held positions within two main contracting organisations. After completing the inaugural CSR report for one organisation, she then moved into a consultancy environment in the Energy and Sustainability field, where she headed up the Compliance team. Since then, Rajvant has decided to amalgamate her extensive experience by providing consulting advice to clients that encompass all aspects of the delivery of energy and sustainability solutions. Consortio is the Latin for family or partnerships, and Rajvant believes that a collaborative approach works best in all environments.

Niki Luscombe – Chief Executive

Niki has over 20 years managerial and leadership experience. She was appointed Chief Executive of WAMT in July 2008 and has since also become the Chair of Construction Skills London Diversity Forum in Construction and the Built Environment, a member of Summit Skills and of the 2012 Inclusion Group.