Board of Trustees
The Role:
Your Parks, Bristol & Bath
The Client:
The Client
Love Your Parks, Bristol and Bath (the trading name for Bristol and Bath Parks Foundation) is a charity that seeks to identify new forms of investment and support for green spaces.
The organisation was set up to rethink the ways that parks and green spaces are both used and supported within the Bristol and Bath area.
The aim of Your Park, Bristol and Bath is to encourage community engagement and raise awareness of the positive benefits gained through use of these vital open spaces. Your Park, Bristol and Bath also aims to engage audiences in sharing their stories about parks and hopes for the future.
The Challenge
Moon Executive Search was appointed to recruit high-calibre individuals to form a new Board that will help shape the future of the green spaces of the area. As it was a brand-new project, it was important that the positions were filled by individuals that had experience of being a Trustee, non-executive, or senior manager.
Crucially, they would have strong networks and a willingness to develop relationships to help secure funding from private individuals, Trusts and businesses to help sustain the future of the parks within Bristol and Bath.
After speaking at length with the client, Sandy understood that the candidates should be passionate about Bristol and Bath’s natural environment. It was important to the Board’s success that the candidates were approachable, flexible, and natural team-players.
As this was an entirely new board build, the biggest challenge was the high volume of candidates to be screened and ensuring that the shortlist covered each skillset, whilst remaining diverse and balanced. Having presided over two board builds previously; Sandy and the team were confident of fulfilling the brief and delivering exceptional results for the board.
Our Approach
The skillsets and experience were fantastically wide-ranging due to the number of positions that Sandy was searching for. She first approached potential candidates with commercial business, professional and accountancy services.
The board also required people that had expertise in marketing and legal, education, health, and wellbeing. This Board Build required a treasurer and secretary, along with a diverse board of trustees.
Finally, she looked for people within the third sector, focusing on candidates with backgrounds in fundraising, as well as skills and experience in stakeholder relationships or community engagement.
Using a blended approach to market, the team utilised all avenues to source the high-calibre candidates including applications from advertising, referral, and recommendations from key stakeholders.
Only at this point, with all parties’ content, did we move to an NDA process and subsequent full disclosure meetings. In this way, we cautiously built our shortlist to present to the main Board.
The Solution
There was a strong response from the candidates towards the positions of the Board. Sandy adopted a thorough screening process to enable us to fully assess each candidate’s experience, background, and soft and hard skills against the search criteria.
Recently, Your Park, Bristol and Bath started an initiative co-ordinated innovative partnerships with Hargreaves Lansdown, Bristol Cathedral, Bristol City Council, Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate and the Avon Wildlife Trust to are creating wilder habitats on College Green.
If you would like a closer connection with your local park in the Bristol or Bath area, there are many ways in which you can get involved.
We were delighted to present a shortlist as varied as the brief required and the following candidates accepted roles on the Board:
Laura Salisbury
Laura is a freelance fundraising and events consultant, with experience working with organisations in the third sector for over 15 years as a volunteer, consultant, staff member and a trustee. Her experience across non-profits such as Amnesty International, as well as Bristol Women's Voice and the Marmalade Trust made her a solid fit for the board. Laura joined to help initiatives that support the local community in Bristol.
Lynn Robinson
Lynn is the Director General of the International Institute of Communications (IIC). She is an experienced senior executive having held key senior leadership positions in the technology, built environment, regulation, accreditation, and dental industries. As an experienced Trustee / Non-Executive Director Lynn is Vice Chair at Arnos Vale Cemetery Trust, a unique heritage site in the heart of Bristol.
Karen Gill
Karen is self-employed as an HR and Change consultant, so she is particularly keen to see the Your Park, Bristol and Bath supports the physical and mental health agenda which is so important in today’s working environment. She has lived in Bristol since moving here for University in the 1980’s, using the local countryside and open spaces on a regular basis.
Mark Blackburn
Mark is the Global Director of Marketing Planning & Media Management for Lego and is a resilient, passionate, and agile marketer who has worked world-class brands (Apple, Cunard) in global/regional roles in Asia, Australia, US and Europe.
Derek Perry
Derek is a barrister practising in criminal, regulatory and Public law from Albion Chambers in Bristol and Taunton. Derek loves to be out in the open air, whether it be cycling, walking, playing sport or just playing the park with his two children.
Tim Pemberton
Tim is the Head of BBC Religion & Ethics at the BBC. with thirty years leadership in broadcasting has taken him all over the UK and the world. He was the Managing Editor of BBC Radio Bristol until 2014 and patron to the ambassadors of ‘Bristol Learning City’ in 2015. He is equally keen to encourage and promote engagement with nature and open spaces amongst young people in general and BAME residents.
Patsy Connor
Patsy Connor has experience as both Director of BBC South-West and BBC Head of Development & Events, UK. A life-long lover of gardening, Patsy has is a qualified horticulturalist and has a real passion for the environment which inspired her to become a Trustee for the charity.
Suzie Miles
Suzie is a commercial lawyer at Ashfords LLP and has spent the last 9 years working with a range of businesses in the Bristol, Bath and Weston regions, as well as nationally. Suzie launched the Arabella Group in Bristol in 2018 which celebrates and inspires local businesswomen.
Sandy Hinks, Head of Charity Practice commented:
“Building Boards are the most challenging part of non-profit recruitment, but also my favourite. Each required skillset needs its own search, and I was delighted to present the Board with such a varied and competent shortlist of candidates.
The balance of the appointees created a really effective knowledge base, and the success of the organisation is down to the people that are leading the way for the volunteers to invest in the parks and green spaces around the cities.”
Rob Acton-Campbell,
“We chose Sandy and Moon Executive Search based on recommendations and we were pleased at the fantastic work to source the impressive calibre of Board members that we found. Their diverse skillsets and experience gave the Board the leadership we needed to create real impact and change that we have seen since the appointments were made.
I have been involved with Bristol’s parks in various forms since 2003 and now, more than ever, we are seeing a public drive to utilise the green spaces in the two cities. They have become crucial for communities during the pandemic. We are determined to bring the institutions, businesses and people together to ensure our parks are invested in for the future.”
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