Nine years after being formed, charity Hampshire Cultural Trust has said goodbye to some of its founder trustees and welcomed three new members to its board.
Having served maximum terms as board members, Rachel Bebb, Yinnon Ezra MBE and Mike Southgate all stepped down in September. They were joined at a special thank you event by former leader of Hampshire County Council, Roy Perry, who was instrumental in setting up the trust in 2014 and served on the board until 2021.
Perry declared that he was “delighted” with a drawing of the Westgate Museum that was presented to him to mark the ninth anniversary of the inception of the trust, and commented that setting up Hampshire Cultural Trust was “an important point of co-operation between Winchester City Council and Hampshire County Council which we at Hampshire County Council were pleased to support.”
Alluding to the County Council’s current financial position and the proposed reduction to Hampshire Cultural Trust’s funding, Perry continued: “With local government finance under increasing pressure, even more than in my day, and all sorts of pressures especially for funding social care, it was important to find a way to ensure culture continued to receive the funding it needed and Hampshire Cultural Trust was the solution. Culture is important in its own right, but is also crucial for economic well-being.”
New trustees joining the board are Mark Brett, Karen Chillman and Jim Croxford.
Business and psychology graduate Mark Brett spent his career as a management consultant specialising in the public sector and has provided advice on several major government programmes, including contracts for smart metering, the Dartford Crossing and National Savings and Investments. Mark and his wife are lifelong Hampshire residents and have been regular customers at Aldershot’s West End Centre for many years.
Basingstoke resident Karen Chillman has over 35 years’ experience of working in the voluntary sector. A recognised leader in London’s volunteering community, Chillman spent six years as a trustee of Greater London Volunteering, now London Plus, and co-chairs the London Volunteer Centre Network Group.
Jim Croxford is an experienced IT professional with over 35 years’ consulting and project management experience in the retail, airline and professional services industries. Croxford is currently head of student systems at the University of Southampton and lives in Winchester with his husband Matthew.