{"id":2663,"date":"2023-06-26T12:29:35","date_gmt":"2023-06-26T11:29:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.victoriansociety.org.uk\/?page_id=2663"},"modified":"2025-10-17T17:09:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T16:09:46","slug":"trustees","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.victoriansociety.org.uk\/about-us\/trustees\/","title":{"rendered":"Trustees and Regional Chairs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Society is managed by its Board of Trustees. Who are they, and how are they elected?<\/h2>\n

Trustees are elected by the members of the Society at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) normally for a term of office of 3 years. Trustees are automatically eligible for re-election for one further consecutive term and are eligible for re-election for further consecutive terms of office if the Board of Trustees approves their candidature. The Board of Trustees has the power to co-opt members during the year, but these members must stand for re-election at the next AGM.<\/p>\n

If you are interested in becoming a trustee, please email director@victoriansociety.org.uk to arrange an informal chat with our chair.<\/p>\n

To stand for election at an AGM, you will need a proposer and seconder, who are members of the Society, a paragraph setting out why you should be elected and a signed statement indicating your willingness to serve.<\/p>\n

The trustees are also the directors of the charity for the purposes of the Companies Act.<\/p>\n

Patron: <\/strong>HRH The Duke of Gloucester KG, GCVO<\/p>\n

President: <\/strong>Griff Rhys Jones OBE<\/p>\n

Vice-Presidents:<\/strong>
\nSir David Cannadine FBA FRSL FSA FRHistS
\nSir Simon Jenkins FRSL FSA FLSW<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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James Grierson, Chair of the Victorian Society.<\/p><\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t

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James Grierson, Chair<\/strong><\/p>\n

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James is a Chartered Surveyor with a degree in Land Economy and an MBA. After beginning his career at Knight Frank he moved to Donaldsons, eventually becoming an equity partner and board member responsible for the largest strategic property, development and planning consultancy working across the UK public sector. On the sale of the business to DTZ Plc in 2007 James took responsibility for DTZ\u2019s Corporate Real Estate and Public Sector business. In 2014 James left DTZ to establish his own specialist consultancy advising the Cabinet Office, Savills and various local authority clients.<\/p>\n

With extensive board experience in the NHS, university, central government, museums and commercial sectors, James has served as a non-executive director at the Architects Registration Board and as Chair of the Institute of Conservation (ICON). He concludes his six years as Chair of York Museums Trust as he takes up his appointment with the Victorian Society.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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\n \"Professor\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t
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Professor Neil Jackson RIBA FSA, Events<\/strong><\/p>\n

Neil Jackson is an architect and architectural historian and Professor Emeritus of Architecture at the University of Liverpool. He has previously served as a trustee of both the Twentieth Century Society and the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain, of which he was President in 2017-21. He was a founder member and first Honorary Secretary of the Avon Group of the The Victorian Society in 1978 and subsequently, in 1980-85 served as a member of the Main Committee and the General Purposes Sub-committee. Since 2016 he has sat on the Events Committee, which he chaired until 2024. He has published widely on nineteenth-century architecture, including books on Bath, Saltaire and Japan, and has maintained a long-time interest in G E Street and the use of constructional polychromy. He lives in Westminster.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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\n \"Lynn\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t
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Lynn Pearcy, <\/strong>Finance<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prior to retirement in 2015 Lynn was with a major professional services firm for over 30 years, latterly as an audit partner advising on financial reporting. She has a particular interest in the Arts and Crafts movement.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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\n \"Henry\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t
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Henry Sainty, Legal<\/strong><\/p>\n

Henry has been a solicitor for 25 years, working with clients in the not-for-profit, culture, media and sport sectors. His history degree in the 1980s fostered an abiding interest in historic buildings. He has been an active supporter of The Victorian Society talks, tours and other events for the past ten years, and has a particular interest in the social and historical context of Victorian buildings. He lives in west London with his wife Sophie (a long-standing and active volunteer member of the Society) and two young adult children. Any spare time is spent visiting towns and countryside in England and France with a box of guide books. Henry currently holds the role of the Society\u2019s Legal Trustee.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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\n \"Alan\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t
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Alan Davies, Non-executive<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alan Davies is a practising architect specialising in the conservation and adaptive re-use of historic buildings and the regeneration of historic environments. He is an architect director and heritage lead for a leading international practice of architects, engineers and designers. In that capacity, he has been involved in conserving and adapting a range of historic building types; and has prepared proposals for regenerating areas of historic towns and cities across the UK and abroad.<\/p>\n

Alan\u2019s interest in Victorian architecture and town planning was sparked as a student of architecture in Cardiff and has been sustained by being based for much of his career in Manchester \u2013 both cities owing their character to nineteenth century development, planning and architecture. Alan has a post-graduate qualification in town planning and is an RIBA registered conservation architect. Alan maintains a strong interest in the historic culture and architecture of his native Wales.<\/p>\n

Alan has been a member of the Northern Buildings Committee – which comments on planning applications referred to the Society by planning authorities across the North and Wales – since 2008.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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Iestyn Roberts<\/strong>, <\/strong>Non-executive<\/strong><\/p>\n

After a successful career in retail property, Iestyn is keen to devote time to his real passion \u2013 the historic environment. He has extensive experience of dealing with local campaigners, planning consultants, property developers, architects and historians and politicians. He is a longstanding Friend of the British Museum and of Westminster Abbey, is member of the Council for British Archaeology and the Cambrian Archaeological Association. In his youth he worked on a variety of archaeological digs. Iestyn is very familiar with the challenges of maintaining historic Victorian buildings, having taken charge of the maintenance of the Welsh Chapel at Clapham Junction, in addition to his experience of maintaining his Edwardian home. He also has considerable experience of leadership roles in voluntary organisations, allied to extensive commercial experience relating to aspects of financial stability, corporate governance and Board performance.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

\n \n \n\n \t\t \n
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\n \"Ben\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t
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Ben Sims, Non-executive<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ben is Head of Fundraising at the National Churches Trust. His previous roles include working as a fundraiser for a homelessness charity, The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields, and in heritage at the Arts Council, encouraging donations and offers in lieu of inheritance tax of national treasures to the UK’s galleries, museums, universities, and libraries; he also worked on the export of cultural property, and administered export bans. Ben read English at Christ Church, Oxford, specialising as a medievalist. He volunteers at Emery Walker’s House, an Arts and Crafts house museum in Chiswick, and The Listening Place, a charity that combats suicide.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

\n \n \n\n \t\t \n
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\n \"Kit\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t
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Kit Wedd, Non-executive<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1991 Kit became the The Victorian Society\u2019s first Education Officer, working on campaigns for the restoration of the Albert Memorial and to encourage the conservation of \u2018ordinary\u2019 Victorian and Edwardian houses. She has written and edited many books and articles on nineteenth-century buildings, and is the author of The Victorian Society Book of the Victorian House. After three decades of working for various statutory bodies and in commercial planning consultancies, she founded the historic environment consultancy Spurstone Heritage Ltd in 2017.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n

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Regional Group Chairs<\/h3>\n
    \n
  • Birmingham,\u00a0<\/em>Stephen Hartland<\/li>\n
  • Leicester, <\/em>Peter Ellis<\/li>\n
  • Liverpool, <\/em>Rowena Beighton-Dykes<\/li>\n
  • Manchester, <\/em>Kate Martyn<\/li>\n
  • Wales,<\/em>\u00a0Elaine Davey<\/li>\n
  • South Yorkshire,<\/em>\u00a0Nigel Slack<\/li>\n
  • West Yorkshire,\u00a0<\/em>June Diamond<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3703,"parent":2659,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-with-sidebar.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2663","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTrustees and Regional Chairs - The Victorian Society<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Trustees are elected by the members of the Society at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) normally for a term of office of three years.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.victoriansociety.org.uk\/about-us\/trustees\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trustees and Regional Chairs - 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