Dan Clayton Jones (Deputy Chairman of the NHMF and HLF, NHMF Trustee, Chairman for the Committee of Wales)
Dan Clayton Jones was born in Porth in the Rhondda, Wales. He was educated at Cowbridge Grammar School, Llandovery College, Carmarthenshire, and King's College, London University where he read law, and was a recipient of an E.S.U. Scholarship to study in the U.S.A. He began his career in marketing with Ford of Europe as PA to the Vice-President of Marketing, based in Brussels. Over the following twelve years he held senior marketing appointments with the Wales Tourist Board (Marketing Manager) and the Rank Organisation (Marketing Director Leisure Division).
In the mid 1980's, in partnership with his brother, he founded Crown & Co in South Wales, selling his interest to Royal Insurance Plc in 1990. He is a Director of Cord Investments Ltd and J.J. & F Property Holdings Ltd, both leisure and commercial property companies.
A life-long supporter of the heritage in Wales, he was Secretary of the Historic Houses Association in Wales for 12 years and is a founding Life Member of the Historic Gardens Trust. Dan has been the Vice-Chairman of the National Trust in Wales and was the first Chairman of the National Botanic Garden of Wales, a £44 million Millennium project. In the last three years he has chaired Hendreff Building Preservation Trust, Cowbridge Physic Garden Trust and is the Chancellor and Knight of the Order of St John in Wales. A former High Sheriff of his County, since 1999 he has held the appointment of Hon. Consul for Canada in Wales and was made a Deputy Lieutenant of Mid Glamorgan in 2001. He is Chairman of "Prime Cymru", one of the Prince of Wales Group of Charities.
Jo Coles
Jo has extensive experience of working with communities and volunteers in the natural and built environment throughout Wales.
As Assistant Director for The Prince of Wales’ Committee, she was responsible for a range of grant programmes aimed at conserving, enhancing and regenerating the Welsh environment and worked with the Welsh Development Agency; Wales Tourist Board; and the Welsh Office on a range of initiatives which supported our national heritage.
She was Festival Adviser for Wales during the Millennium Festival, and as Millennium Volunteers Coordinator for Wales, was responsible for a programme that encouraged and supported young people to become involved in a wide range of voluntary activities within their communities. As Development Manager for ContinYou, the UK educational charity, her role included working in the field of out-of-school-hours learning and partnerships between education and the wider community.
Jo is currently Development Officer for The Civic Trust for Wales with specific responsibility for Open Doors, Wales' annual contribution to European Heritage Days. Open Doors encourages free public access to the built heritage and works with volunteers to grow an appreciation of the relationship between history, place and the community. Jo is a non-executive director for VCelindre NHS Trust where she chairs the Equality and Diversity Committee.
Lindsay Cuddy
Lindsay Cuddy leads the Conservation Team within the Strategic Planning Division at Cardiff County Council. The team prepares policy and guidance on the historic built environment and works with others to ensure its protection and enhancement in development or restoration work. Lindsay also works with voluntary groups in raising awareness of the historic built environment: through local initiatives, conservation area appraisal and historic building audits.
Lindsay has worked in Wales for over twenty years, in both the public and private sector. She is a chartered town planner, and has completed post graduate studies in urban design and architectural conservation. She is a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Institute of Historic Building Conservation.
Carol Greenstock
Mrs Carol Greenstock is Grants Manager for the National Trust UK, with special responsibility for Wales. She has worked for the National Trust for 27 years and the experience gained from this has instilled in her an awareness of the heritage, culture and environment of Wales and the need to conserve these for future generations to enjoy. Her work within the National Trust has ensured the viability of many important restoration projects in Wales. Her role has provided her with the opportunity to work with many local community groups in Wales and she believes strongly in empowering local people to help themselves. An example of this is the Objective 1-funded project to restore the corrugated iron built Village Hall at Ganllwyd, near Dolgellau, to preserve the vernacular, improve the environment of the village and provide the community with much needed economic, training and social opportunities.
On behalf of the National Trust, she led the partnership of organisations that delivered the economic impact study, valuing our Environment; a study which has been much valued in Wales and has led to increased awareness of the environment as an economic driver. In the Objective 1 Programme, Mrs Greenstock chaired the Objective 1 Rural Assets Strategy Partnership and was subsequently a member of the Rural Thematic Advisory Group (TAG5), as well as representing rural and environmental matters on the Objective I Programme Monitoring Committee. She is a member of the Agri-Food Partnership and several local economic develop partnerships. Due to her interest and knowledge of rural Wales, she was appointed as a member of the Welsh Assembly Government’s Workstream Group looking at the new Structural fund Programme (2007-2013) and contributed to the Rural Community Regeneration section of the National Strategic Reference Framework. She is also on the Working Group looking at Axes 3 & 4 of the Welsh Assembly Government’s Rural Development Plan and is a member of the Rural Development Plan Programme Monitoring Committee. Mrs Greenstock was recently appointed to the new All Wales Structural Fund Programme Monitoring Committee as one of 10 experts in Wales on this Committee. This appointment reflects her particular interests in the environmental and voluntary sectors, and a strong interest in rural issues.
A qualified teacher, specialising in adult education, Mrs Greenstock has learnt Welsh to A level standard and previously taught Welsh to adults for Lampeter University.
Natasha Hirst
Natasha currently manages the Equal at Work project for the Wales TUC, and comes from a varied background through work and voluntary activities.
Following a personal interest in heritage and architecture, combined with a long history of community involvement, Natasha strongly believes in the importance of inclusive, community ownership for empowering and regenerating local communities. Having been born deaf, Natasha has always been interested in equality and access issues, and began to learn British Sign Language in her early twenties.
Natasha graduated from Cardiff University with a 1st Class Masters in Chemistry, and then went on to complete a Ph.D in Physical Chemistry.
As a volunteer for numerous charities and projects since her early teens, Natasha has worked with individuals and community groups who face disadvantages and barriers within society. She now volunteers as a member of staff for a charity called Treasure Trove, working with young people with and without disabilities to run a fully inclusive residential activity week each summer.
Her career has taken a shift from science into politics, as the President of NUS Wales; to performance audit with the Wales Audit Office; and finally into the field of equality with the Wales TUC. She held a two year appointment as an observer to the Board of the Quality Assurance Agency and currently sits as a member of the Accessible Curriculum Working Group for Cardiff University, retaining her interest in access to education for all groups.
Eifion Pritchard
Eifion Pritchard was educated at Rhyl Grammar School and the HMS Conway Cadet School. After service at sea as a navigating officer with the Cunard Line he joined the Denbighshire Constabulary as a police constable. He progressed quickly through the ranks and became the divisional commander of the Wrexham division and then the Caernarfon division before being appointed Assistant Chief Constable of Dyfed Powys Police, retiring as its Deputy Chief Constable in 1998.
Following retirement he was appointed chair of the newly formed Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust a post held for four years and was then appointed chair of the Welsh Committee of the Consumer Council for Postal Services (Postwatch) a post he still holds. Mr Pritchard is Chair of trustees to Mid and West Wales Relate.
He is a graduate in psychology and a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute. He was awarded the Queens Police Medal (QPM) in the 1997 New Year Honours.
A fluent Welsh speaker, Mr Pritchard is a widower with two adult daughters and two grand daughters.
Dei Tomos
Dei Tomos has spent nearly thirty years as a broadcaster and journalist. Despite the fact that he works freelance, he is a familiar voice and face on Radio Cymru (BBC) and S4C programmes as he has presented diverse programmes. He is currently responsible for the farming news on Radio Cymru every morning (Monday to Friday) as well as the Byd Amaeth programme on Saturday mornings which concerns farming, food production and the countryside. He also has a varied programme on Sunday nights which involves history and traditions, heritage, literature, art, music and the Welsh ‘pethe’.
In the past, he has also presented television programmes about nature and wildlife, countryside and leisure, gardening and food as well as agriculture. Along with his brother Tom, he was responsible for adventure programmes which saw the two brothers on different continents following adventurous activities. For example, they walked across the Grand Canyon in the USA and they have also been climbing in the Andes and the Alps, as well as back home in Snowdonia.
He was brought up in Waunfawr and Nantperis, and he attended Waunfawr school, Caernarfon Grammar school and the Bangor Normal College. He spent twelve years working with Urdd Gobaith Cymru as a county organiser in Montgomeryshire and as the Deputy Head of the Urdd Camp, Glan-llyn.
He has been active in the world of voluntary organisations concerning the Welsh countryside. He was a National Chairman of CPRW, he is now one of the Vice-presidents of the organisation and he is also the Vice-president of the Council for National Parks (CNP).
He was appointed for three terms as a member of the Snowdonia National Park Authority by the Secretary of State for Wales and then he was a member of the Countryside Council for Wales for ten years. This was also an appointment made by the Secretary of State for Wales initially, and subsequently by the Assembly Government.
Locally, he is a member and former Chairman of Governors at Ysgol Dolbadarn, Llanberis, and is a former Community Councillor. For some three years now he has been the Clerk of the Council.
He is married, and he and his wife have two daughters. He counts walking and mountaineering as some of his interests.
Ruth Waycott
Ruth Waycott is a Tourism Consultant and freelance writer. She set up her consultancy service in 1999, which specialises in the tourism, heritage and museum sectors. She has worked on many heritage and tourism projects for clients within the public sector and has written articles for industry publications.
Prior to 1999 Ruth worked for 10 years within Local Authority Tourism departments. She was involved in the development of the award-winning living history museum at Llancaiach Fawr near Nelson, a Grade II Listed semi-fortified 17th-century manor house. She was also involved in numerous project development schemes in the South Wales Valleys including Elliot Colliery Winding House Museum, Drenewydd Museum at Butetown, Ynys Hwyel Countryside Centre, Cwmcarn Forest Drive Visitor Centre and Caerphilly Visitor Centre. She also spent time on a secondment with the Wales Tourist Board’s Research & Corporate Planning Unit.
Ruth has a BSc. Econ. in Geography/ American Studies from University Wales College, Swansea, a MSc. in Tourism Studies from the University of Surrey and a Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
From 1995 - 1997 Ruth was the Secretary of the Association of Wales Tourism Officers and from 1993 - 1998 a Local Authority Director on the Board of Tourism South & West Wales. She has been a Member of The Tourism Society since 1988.