WELCOMING JO COLES

Friends of the Trust will know that Gill Hancock recently retired as our administrator. Gill will be much missed, and we will be publishing a proper appreciation in the July edition of About Wales.

However, we are pleased to announce a new face at the Trust. Jo Coles has joined us as our development officer. Jo (who is so modest we've yet to receive her official portrait) will be well known to many people in the voluntary sector, especially those working in the environment and heritage fields.

Jo was private secretary to Baroness Eirene White, quondam minister of state for Wales, until 1988. She then worked as conference officer for the National Rivers Authority before joining the Prince of Wales' Committee as assistant director in 1991. She managed the Prince of Wales' Awards, co-ordinated the environmental education programme, and ran national and international conferences. She worked briefly for Bridgend council following local government reorganisation and subsequently has fulfilled several key roles. She developed the Millennium Festival in Wales; coordinated the Millennium Volunteers programme for the WCVA; and worked as development officer for a major lifelong learning programme. She is a Wales committee member of the Heritage Lottery Fund and a non-executive director of Velindre NHS Trust.

Her initial role with the Civic Trust will be to take a long hard look at the Open Doors programme and to contribute to the support of the society network.

And we'll make sure she supplies a pic! Meanwhile, there's a nice one here!

1 May 2007