We have a highly skilled, experienced, and committed Board of Trustees. They are all volunteers. But we are time poor and have identified some gaps in expertise. We need to grow our board of trustees if we are to achieve our ambitions. We plan to recruit new trustees to help with fundraising, campaigning, and influencing others and the health and wellbeing agenda, and to strengthen our geographic cover in the Wyre area and the eastern side of the AONB.
Our current trustees are:
Nick Hunt - Nick is Creative Director of Mid Pennine Arts, the arts and heritage charity based in Burnley and working across the Pennine Lancashire area. Nick has collaborated regularly with the Forest of Bowland team, leading major projects to mark the 50th anniversary of the AONB and most recently developing the Pendle Radicals heritage project for the AONB’s Pendle Hill Landscape Partnership. An East Anglian raised in the Fens, Nick has lived in sight of Pendle Hill for 30 years and has a keen appreciation of the joy of hills. He gets lost north of Clitheroe as often as possible.
Brenda McLoughlin - Brenda was born in Lancashire and still lives here. She’s lived in London and in several foreign countries but was always drawn back to the county. Brenda continues to work in the travel and tourism industry as a cruise director and can often be heard waxing lyrical about the Forest of Bowland AONB to her well-travelled and discerning guests on her small ship cruises. Brenda has been hosting reading groups and leading guided walks in the area for many years. The walks attract new people who enjoy the diverse and stunning scenery and the food and drink of the region.
Mike Pugh, Chair - Mike was educated at Cambridge [Economics] and Nottingham (MBA). After a career in Sales and Marketing with both multi-national corporations and British SMEs, Mike became Business Development Officer at Forest of Bowland AONB in 2006. He developed the Sustainable Tourism Business Network and introduced the Green Tourism Business Scheme to Bowland. In 2009 he established Bowland Experience Limited and set up what later became Champion Bowland. He retired from the AONB in 2014. In 2018 he became a Trustee of Champion Bowland.
Paul Reynolds. Paul studied Biochemistry at Oxford Brookes University and played professional rugby for Harlequins and the Scottish Exiles. Following a bad injury he fell into a career in the Pharmaceutical industry, moving to Yorkshire in 2005. After growing to love the space and beauty of Yorkshire, my wife and I joined my parents in a new venture and bought and opened The Traddock hotel in Austwick in 2007. I have been a Trustee in Champion Bowland since 2015, bringing my tourism and business knowledge to the team.
Margaret Wright - Margaret trained and worked in journalism, then public relations, whilst supporting the running of the family farm in Sabden. She moved from Cardiff to Preston and the former Harris College (now part of UCLAN) in the 1970’s. She is a successful businesswoman, running a farmhouse B&B for over 13 years, where she is a member of the Sustainable Tourism Business Network, and received gold awards from the Green Tourism Business Scheme. She now supports the Forest of Bowland where she can, as a trustee with Champion Bowland, and the Pendle Hill Landscape project, which she has been involved in from its infancy.
Mark Sutcliffe - A former student of the Royal Grammar School. Mark heads Clitheroe-based Salar Media Services. He began his career as a journalist on the Clitheroe Advertiser and the Burnley Express. Mark offers communications advice to the Forest of Bowland AONB. Mark spends much of his spare time walking and cycling in the Forest of Bowland AONB.
