Trustees

Rick started volunteering with Waterway Recovery Group in 1998 shortly after university, and following family boating holidays. He has been a member of the Association since 2001 and in that time has been a member of the former IWA Festivals Committee, Finance Committee and was a Deputy National Chairman until early 2022. Rick remains active in the restoration movement and is a member of the WRG board.  He has owned a share in a boat since 2016, was first appointed an IWA trustee in 2016 and commenced a new term in 2022.

Professionally, Rick is a Programme Manager and Chartered Engineer with over 25 years’ experience in the delivery of complex engineering projects and strategic infrastructure programmes across a range of sectors.

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Stuart is a narrowboat owner and has just turned 66.  He is married with two dependants: both furry and of the barking kind.

By mid September 2023 he will have retired as the CEO of a small charity, so if selected as a trustee he will have a little more time on his hands to serve IWA.

His career began in housing and homelessness for a decade and a half, until he got the travel bug.  In 1991 he found himself volunteering as a fundraiser for a hospice project in the tiny kingdom of Swaziland (now called Eswatini) in southern Africa.  Two years later he got the chance to work in South Africa, which has been the focus of several development sector jobs since.  Possibly his favourite job ever was seven years at Comic Relief (2008-15) managing a portfolio of grants to organisations working on poor housing conditions, in 14 different African countries.

He has become very familiar with how boards work in the charity sector, as many of the organisations he has worked with have been of a similar size to IWA.  In particular he has a strong understanding of good governance; he has a good grasp of the respective remits of a staff team and a Board of Trustees; and he is very familiar with budgeting, management accounts, strategy development etc.  As a recent charity CEO he was responsible for programme delivery, financial control, HR, fundraising, communications and all day to day functions of the charity. He would like to think this comprehensive set of responsibilities could be of value to the Board.

Paul was brought up in London and joined the then London Electricity Board where he qualified as an Accountant and led the Financial Accounting function through the electricity privatisation.  He had a varied career, but kept being drawn back to finance, gaining experience across Government Departments, Management of Flood Risk management projects, insurance and risk management

He owned a narrowboat for 10 years, Joining IWA during that period. He started volunteering with the Northampton Branch on their Adopted Arm of the Grand Union, and then stepped up  7 years ago as the Treasurer of the Northampton Branch. Paul still volunteers and leads on the regular work parties.

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Charlie first lived on a wooden Norfolk Broads Cruiser in Thames Ditton in 2008 and has owned two boats since. The latest, a small narrowboat is moored on the River Stort with time happily spent between the sleepy Stort and buzzing Hackney.  After writing to the editor of Waterways magazine to find out how to become more involved, a stint at Cavalcade led to many years volunteering with IWA.  Charlie was appointed an IWA trustee in 2022.

With a political and environmental communications background, Charlie currently works for a charity that uses the law to defend the human rights of LGBT people globally, having previously worked at Friends of the Earth, The European Parliament, and the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

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Hannah has been a liveaboard boater since Autumn 2020, based on the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal in South Wales. Her decision to move onto the waterways was both a way to counteract rising property costs and to complement her passion for the inland waterways lifestyle and heritage. Hannah is chair of IWA South West & South Wales Region and was appointed as an IWA trustee in 2021.

Hannah currently works for Miller Research, a sustainability and social research consultancy that primarily operates in the public sector. She has previously held a trustee position when she was a Sabbatical Officer, an elected position acting as one of Cardiff University Students’ Union’s primary student representatives. Hannah also spent four years as a local authority governor at a Cardiff primary school. As a younger member of the community, Hannah seeks to utilise her experience to inspire the next generation of passionate IWA members.

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Mike Wills has been fascinated by the inland waterways since his teens. Studying economic history helped develop the passion, and early experiences included digging out a disused lock and helping to raise a sunken wooden narrowboat which was subsequently converted into a houseboat. Regular towpath walks and dozens of narrowboat holidays helped him to introduce lots of his family and friends to the waterways. In 2019 he purchased part of a worsted mill and wharf on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal and subsequently has restored it to create a four storey house.

He is a Chartered Accountant and has worked as a senior civil servant, a tax partner in a medium sized practice and has been engaged as a non-executive director or consultant in a number of varied companies ranging from gold refining, electronic product recycling, pet food manufacture and insurance services. Most recent experience has been in setting up, running and subsequently selling a specialised school and as a non-executive director and trustee of a Housing Association.  Mike has also previously spent some years as Chair of Governors of both a primary school and a secondary school.  He was appointed an IWA trustee and a member of Finance Committee in 2022.

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