Richard Powell OBE (Chair)
Richard Powell is the RSPB’s Regional Director in Eastern England, responsible for the work of the RSPB stretching from the mouth of the Humber in the North, to the Thames in the south.

Richard Powell was a founding board member of the East of England Regional Development Agency serving on the Board for its first five years. With the Agency, Richard set up and chaired a Renewable Energy Company called Renewables East, as well as being the lead for the Market Towns initiative, acting as Chair of the Regional Forum and the National link for RDAs and market towns.

Richard’s other appointments include Chair of the HLF East of England Committee and the East of England Sustainable Development Round Table, served on the Big Lottery Reaching Communities Fund and is a member of the regional Assembly. Richard chaired the East of England Rural Affairs forum for 4 years till March 2007.

Richard is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Manufacturing. He was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2005 for services to the Environment and Sustainable Development.

Michael Allen
Michael Allen spent his working life in adult and continuing education and in University teaching and administration. His last two posts were as Director of Extra-Mural Studies in the University of Cambridge and Bursar and Director of Studies in English at Churchill College Cambridge.

On his retirement in 1999 he became involved in regional matters and is the coordinator for the East of England Environment Forum. He represents the Forum on the East of England Regional Assembly, of which he has been a member since its inception in 1999. He is currently its Deputy Chair and leader of the 30 or so Community Stakeholder members. He also serves on its Executive Committee and on the EERA/EEDA Liaison and is Chair of the Environment & Resources Panel.

He is a member of the Regional Advisory Committee for the Forestry Commission; and was formerly EERA's representative on the Sustainable Development Round Table for the East of England and the East of England Rural Forum, and a member of the National Trust’s East of England Regional Committee.

Currently Chairman of the council of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough Wildlife Trust, he is also Chairman of the Royal Society for Wildlife Trusts – the umbrella organisation for the 47 Wildlife Trusts in the British Isles.

Michael Allen chaired the working parties which produced the Sustainable Development Framework (2001) and the East of England’s Environment Strategy (2003).

Sally Anfiligoff
Sally works as a public sector consultant most often within Health and Social Care and the voluntary sector. She has recently worked with the Cabinet Office on a Leadership and Diversity Project having spent most of 2005 working with them on wider public services reform. Sally has many years of experience within local government in the East of England, having worked in Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Essex.  Her background is in welfare rights and social inclusion and she has worked at Executive Director Level in a District Council with responsibility for Culture, Sport and Leisure.  Here she had wider involvement in regeneration and diversity issues and assisted in a county wide initiative to improve access for people who traditionally did not take part in cultural activities.  She has retained a keen interest in social inclusion, diversity and issues around access to cultural and heritage activities, particularly for children and young people. 

Sally has much experience of working with the voluntary sector and recently took the lead for a District Council on reviewing their Community Strategy.  She is married with a young family and lives in Hertfordshire.

Donna Barker

Donna is deputy managing director of Tribe, one of the East of England’s largest public relations agencies.  Donna heads up the agency’s public sector division and has managed communications campaigns for a range of regional bodies including the Learning and Skills Council, Sport England, the East of England Regional Assembly and the East of England Development Agency.

In recent years, Donna combined her work with studying History at the University of East Anglia, gaining a first class degree specialising in medieval history. 

Prior to joining Tribe, Donna worked for Norwich Union where she was responsible for brand advertising, sponsorship and cause related marketing campaigns including Coastwatch UK, an environment and educational project involving hundreds of schools and community groups across the country, a joint campaign with St John Ambulance which succeeded in training over 13,000 people in essential life-saving skills, and a living history production for schools which toured the region. 

Donna lives in Norfolk with her partner, a journalist for the Eastern Daily Press.

Alison McLean (NHMF Trustee)
Alison McLean is currently an independent consultant specialising in rural policy and regeneration.  Her client list includes local authorities, regional government and local and regional voluntary organisations. Alison was formerly Director of the Rural Regeneration Zone in the West Midlands.  Previously she pursued a career of over 20 years in local government, initially in London and then in the West Midlands and the West of England, with responsibilities for community and economic development and for a variety of regeneration programmes.  Alison is the Vice-Chair of the West Midlands Rural Affairs Forum and a Commissioner with the Commission for Rural Communities.

Anne Mason
Currently, Anne Mason works as a heritage consultant which includes project management; interpretation of historic sites and research projects.

After graduating from the University of Nottingham with a degree in History, she taught for twenty-one years in primary and middle schools in Sussex and Cambridgeshire. A Landscape History and Field Archaeology course at the University of East Anglia led to a career change in 2000. Since then, she has worked with a variety of organisations to promote the history and heritage of East Anglia, including The Forestry Commission, English Heritage, The Brecks Countryside Project, The Breckland Society, The Heritage and Economic Regeneration Trust and various parish and district councils. 

From 2003 to 2006, she was an advisor for The Countryside Agency’s Local Heritage Initiative Grants Scheme, providing guidance to potential applicants, offering management advice and assessing applications for funding awards. Currently, she is employed by The Churches Conservation Trust as a part-time Events Development Officer. She is the researcher for the BBC Radio 4 ‘Land Lines’ landscape archaeology series and has contributed research for BBC television’s history-based programmes. She has written information leaflets and interpretation panels for historic sites and is currently researching a book on Breckland’s history to be published in 2008.

She is a member of East Anglia Forest District Archaeology Panel and chairperson of Friends of Thetford Forest Park.

Anne has extensive experience as a fund-raiser and project manager for many clients and has secured grants from a range of sources including The Heritage Lottery Fund, English Heritage and Objective2 European Funding. She has trained volunteers in heritage skills and managed teams of volunteers in both theoretical and practical tasks. 

She has a wide range of interests which include visiting historic buildings and sites; watching cricket; bird-watching; the theatre; classical music and art. She lives in the Norfolk village of Castle Acre. 

Roy Swanston Hon DSc FRICS FCMI
Roy Swanston, a Chartered Surveyor by qualification, has extensive experience at main board level in the private, public and charity sectors. He is currently Chair of the Shaftesbury Housing Group and was formerly a member of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, Chairman of the East & North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, Chairman of the West Hertfordshire Health Authority, Chairman of the Local Government Residuary Body for England and Chairman for the Joint Contracts Tribunal. He was a Trustee and National Council Member of Barnardos for 16 years, and chaired the Barnardo’s Pension Fund Trustees. He is a past President of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and a Freeman of the City of London. Roy Swanston was awarded the Degree of Doctorate of Science (Honoris Causa) by the University of Salford in 1994.

Roy has worked mainly in the public sector having served as Director of Properties in Care with English Heritage and Director of the Department of Architecture with Cheshire County Council although he has also been employed at Board level in the private sector with Bucknall Austin plc and as a Senior Manager with KPMG. He is vice-Chair of Governors at the Culford Methodist Independent Boarding School, Bury St Edmunds, and chairs their Estates Committee and is Chair of the North of England Civic Trust.

Roy is an active Methodist in the Harpenden (Herts) Circuit and sits on the Church’s Connexional Allowance Committee and the Beds, Essex and Herts District Property Committee. His pastimes include a long interest in historic buildings, fell walking and supporting Sunderland AFC.