Coventry Heritage And Arts Trust

Shadow Board Members

The following people have been offered and accepted a place on the new Trust Board:

• Nicholas Booker
  Management Consultant specialising in strategic marketing and business development implementation
• Brian Colquhoun
  Regional Director, Yorkshire Bank
• Marion Doyen
  Business Development Manager, Coventry University, School of Art and Design
• Gary Hall
  Chief Executive, Coventry Transport Museum
• Dr Kathleen Howe
  Association of Independent Museums Board Member
• Maureen Martin
  Principal, Davenport Lodge Pre-preparatory School
• Keith Railton
  Formerly Coventry Building Society Marketing and Communication Controller and currently Artistic Director, Criterion Theatre
• Nicholas Stokes
  Director of Marketing and Communications, Coventry University
• Councillor John Blundell
  Cabinet Member (Children, Learning and Young People), Coventry City Council
• Tony Skipper
  Shadow Cabinet Member (Culture, Leisure and Libraries), Coventry City Council
• Richard Shaw
  Finance Manager, Jaguar & Land Rover
• Paul Breed
  Chief Executive, Coventry Sports Foundation
• Philip Costigan
  Partner - Band Hatton

Nick Booker
Management Consultant specialising in strategic marketing and business development implementation
Nick is a director of the visitor attraction and leisure consultants Attract Marketing Ltd, and also Booker & Hopkins Associates Ltd, who specialise in marketing and business development consultancy. He has extensive business experience and developed his career working for such companies as Dunlop and Imperial Tobacco.

Nick is a trustee of the British Postal Museum & Archive and is Honorary Marketing Advisor to the Staffordshire Regiment Museum. He is a Past Chairman of the Birmingham & Coventry branch of the Chartered Institute of Marketing of which he is a Fellow and is a member of the Tourism Society and Coventry First.

He has a particular interest in the sustainability of museums and heritage sites and consults, writes and speaks on the subject. Nick’s interests include the arts, military history, industrial archaeology and railway history.  He is a member of a number of arts and heritage related organisations including the National Trust, English Heritage and the Bristol Industrial Archaeology Society.

Nick was born in Bristol, is an alumni of Birmingham University and lives with his partner in Kenilworth.

Brian Colquhoun
Regional Director, Yorkshire Bank
Brian started his career at Clydesdale Bank in Prestwick near Glasgow before moving to a number of new positions within the Bank.  He has played an integral part in expanding Clydesdale’s presence in the South East before moving into the Midlands area, working for Yorkshire Bank as Regional Credit Manager and then Regional Business Manager at the Coventry office. 

Brian became a Managing Partner in 2005, launching Yorkshire Bank’s Financial Solution Centre in Coventry, with a team of Business, Private & Specialist Partners.

In March 2006, Brian was appointed Regional Director responsible for all commercial and private banking across the North West and Midlands region.  Brian’s remit includes growing the concept of Integrated Financial Solutions, providing strategic guidance for the individual centres and sharing ideas amongst his 300 strong team.

Brian is married and lives in Rugby. When he has any spare time, he enjoys his busy family life with his two teenage children.

Marion Doyen
Business Development Manager, School of Art & Design, Coventry University
Marion Doyen has been Business Development Manager for the Coventry University School of Art and Design since November 2006. Formerly Chief Executive of Arts+Media Training, Marion's career in the arts spans over 25 years: ranging from independent cinema exhibition to large scale capital projects to arts business management.

Marion has enjoyed a long association with Coventry and the Midlands.  The holder of a BA (History) and an MA (Film Studies) from Warwick University, she was one of the founder members of Coventry's Wedge Co-operative Cafe/Bookshop (1977). Marion later worked as Cinema Programmer at Birmingham Arts Lab, as Cinema Director at Nottingham's Midland Group Arts Centre and as Director of Cornerhouse Cinemas.  She has worked for funders too: as Head of Exhibition at the British Film Institute and subsequently at the Arts Council's Lottery-funded Capital Programme, where her monitoring projects included the Royal Opera House, the Milton Keynes Theatre and Gallery, the Drum in Birmingham - and many brass bands.

Marion has served on numerous committees throughout her working life. She is currently a member of the West Midlands Artists' Learning Consortium and the Advisory Board for Coventry's Talking Birds performance company.  She is also a member of the National Trust.

Gary Hall
CEO – Coventry Transport Museum
Joined Westland Helicopters in 1981 as an Engineering Apprentice. Qualified as an Aircraft Engineer in 1985 then moved to British Aerospace PLC in 1986 as an Aircraft Engineer to work on Airbus aircraft. Promoted to Production Foreman working on military fighter aircraft in 1988 and then joined London Business Aviation as Engineering Manager in 1992.

Returned to British Aerospace in 1993 working for Aviation Services as Airport Manager and then in 1999 joined Alstom to run their International Airports Business. Moved to City Hopper Airports Limited as Managing Director in 2005 to run both Blackpool and Wolverhampton Airports.

Appointed as CEO of Coventry Transport Museum in March 2007.

Kate Howe
Association of Independent Museums Board Member
Kate Howe has fifteen years experience in museum development at Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Bantock House and Park Wolverhampton and the Black Country Living Museum. Here she managed the transfer of the Willenhall Lock Museum from failing trust to its re-launch as the Locksmith's House and headed the team who rescued the Cradley Heath Workers' Institute re-erecting it on the Museum's open air site. In addition to managing capital projects, her particular interests are in re-discovering forgotten histories and in the role of performance art in museums to interpret stories and collections. 

Her commercial awareness and entrepreneurial flair are augmented by a successful academic background. She has an MA in Heritage Management, studied history for her PhD, is an Associate of the Museums Association, an alumni of the University of East Anglia's Museum Leadership Programme and the National Fundraising for the Arts Programme. Kate also has extensive experience across the wider museums community. She is currently a Council Member for the Association of Independent Museums and for the Museums Policy Forum, and has previously served as a board member of Museums, Libraries and Archives West Midlands and Committee Member for the Midlands Federation of Museums and Galleries. 

Maureen Martin
Principal, Davenport Lodge Pre-preparatory School
Formerly a chartered librarian for nine years with the public library service in Coventry and following a family career break, Maureen became Principal and proprietor of Davenport Lodge School in 1986.

Maureen's interest in early years education led her to take a Philosophy of Education honours degree at Warwick University from where she graduated in 1996.  Pursuing this passion further she served on a range of sub-committees of the Early Years and Childcare Partnership in the City from 1999.  Maureen gained qualified teacher status in 2002.

Through membership of the Independent Schools Association, she has become involved as a regional member of their Arts and Festival sub-committee and in this role organised many annual children’s art competitions for nearly 60 schools in the Midland region.

Maureen is an inspector for the Independent Schools Inspectorate specialising in Foundation Stage practice. She studying to gain the new Early Years Professional Status qualification.

Maureen's interests are world travel, reading, comparative religions, golf, swimming and skiing.

Keith Railton
Formerly Coventry Building Society Marketing and Communication Controller and currently Artistic Director, Criterion Theatre
Keith held a number of key marketing and communications positions within Coventry Building Society before his retirement in 2005. He has extensive management experience and was responsible for the introduction of a new corporate social responsibility strategy within the organisation.

He has been a trustee of the Coventry Building Society Charitable Foundation and was a member of the working group that was responsible for the development of the City’s Green Space Strategy. Keith has been involved in the arts scene in Coventry for many years and is currently Artistic Director of the Criterion Theatre – twice winners of the Godiva Award for Best Theatre.

Mr Nick Stokes
Director of Marketing and Communications, Coventry University
Nick Stokes, a graduate of Oxford University, joined Coventry University as Director of Marketing and Communications in May 2005.  Nick has extensive market research, marketing and strategy/business development experience over many years culminating in senior management roles at Boots the Chemist in the 1990s. Before joining Coventry University, he was Marketing Director of Lloyds Pharmacy Ltd, the UK's No 1 retail pharmacy chain, for six years, from 1997 to 2003, based here in Coventry, where he led the re-branding, promotional and store refit programme across 1200 stores, and then spent 18 months as Head of Business Development with Age Concern Enterprises, the commercial arm of the leading old people’s charity, Age Concern.

Nick is responsible for marketing, communications and the web at Coventry and has played a key role in the re-branding and re-positioning of the University.  He also leads the Development Office, which looks after alumni relations and fundraising.

Nick has also been a Non-Executive Director of the University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust since March 2004.  In addition to representing Rugby on the Trust Board, Nick chairs the Development Board, which oversees the recently opened £400m new PFI hospital and all other major capital projects across the Trust., and is a Trustee of the UHCW Charitable Trust.

Councillor John Blundell
Cabinet Member (Children, Learning and Young People), Coventry City Council
John is currently the Cabinet Member for Children, Learning and Young People at Coventry City Council, a position he has had for the past 4 years.

John was educated in Coventry at King Henry VIII School and trained as an Accountant and had a number of senior positions with Coventry and International Companies, before opening his own employment and training agency in Hales Street, Coventry.
John now manages student accommodation on behalf of Coventry University.

John is married and lives in the Cannon park area of Coventry.  He has 2 children and a Granddaughter.  In his spare time John enjoys playing golf and bridge.

Councillor Tony Skipper
Shadow Cabinet Member (Culture, Leisure and Libraries), Coventry City Council
Tony has been an elected member on Coventry City Council for over ten years during which time he has held several senior posts. He is currently the Vice-Chair of the Council Audit Committee.

He has been a director of the Groundwork Trust, the University of Warwick Science Park, also CV One - the Coventry City Centre management company.

Tony has a wealth experience as a trust board member, particularly in the arts and leisure sector. For a number of years he has been on the board of the Belgrade Theatre, where he chairs the audit committee. He is also on the boards of the Coventry Sports Trust and Coventry Transport Museum.

He studied at the University of East Anglia and the University of Warwick. He is now employed as a senior lecturer at Coventry University where he teaches entrepreneurship, business research and has programme manager responsibility of several undergraduate business degrees.

Previous employment experience as an advertising and fine arts photographer has resulted in a continued interest in photography and the cinema.

Richard Shaw
Finance Manager, Jaguar & Land Rover
Richard was educated in Coventry at Bablake School, and is a graduate of Aston University.  He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1994.  He spent a number of years working as a Chartered Accountant in practice, including five years at Grant Thornton in Coventry.  This was followed by a spell as Finance Controller for a motor dealership, then, to date, six years as a Finance Manager at Jaguar Land Rover, firstly specialising in review and implementation of Financial Controls, and then working on Business Planning and Financial Analysis of future model plans.

Richard is 38 years old, married with two children, and lives in Solihull.

Paul Breed
Chief Executive, Coventry Sports Foundation
Paul Breed is 43 years old and married with 3 children. He has lived in Coventry since moving from New Zealand in 1988, initially to pursue his athletics career that saw him represent both New Zealand and Oceania. He competed for New Zealand in the 1990 Commonwealth Games over 800m.

Paul has worked for Coventry Sports Foundation since arriving in Coventry and became the CEO in 1994. The Foundation is a charitable trust that is responsible for the management of community programmes from three leisure facilities across the city – Centre AT7, the Midland Sports Centre and the Alan Higgs Centre.

Paul has an honours degree in Art History and maintains a keen interest in the visual arts through regular visits to exhibitions and galleries at locations around the UK and Europe.

Philip Costigan
Partner - Band Hatton
Philip was educated at King Henry VIII School in Coventry and Bristol University, and joined his present firm Band Hatton in 1975 as a Trainee Solicitor, and became a Partner in 1982. Philip specialises in Commercial Property work, with particular emphasis on purchase and sale, landlord and tenant and project development.

He was President of the Warwickshire Law Society in 2005, and is the current Chair of the Society’s Non-Contentious Business Committee. He is a Board Member of Coventry First, and a Member of the Solicitors European Group.

Philip is married and lives in Coventry, and his interests include sport, travel, photography, gardening and (strictly in moderation) his wine cellar.

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