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Trustees

Ultimate responsibility for Cambridgeshire ACRE rests with the Board of Trustees, which is elected by the members of the charity. There are 9 Trustees, all acting in a voluntary, non-executive capacity. They are:

John Yates (Chair)
John is Chair of Cambridgeshire ACRE, a position he assumed in November 2006.

On leaving school in 1962, John embarked on a long career in the NHS and the Department of Health. John's roles included planning and procurement of new hospitals and facilities, disposal of redundant land and buildings, the introduction of private finance into the NHS, advising NHS Trusts on a variety of planning and capital development matters and assisting NHS staff with finding affordable accommodation as an aide to recruitment and retention.

John retired in March 2006 and, as well as his commitment to Cambridgeshire ACRE, he is a City of Ely councillor, a director of Ely Perspective and a Churchwarden at St Peters Church, Ely. He is also Chair of the East of England Rural Forum. In his limited spare time he enjoys playing golf, watching football and touring.

David Spreadbury (Vice-Chair)
David is currently a Vice-Chair of Cambridgeshire ACRE, having stepped down as Chairman in November 2006, a role he held for 9 years. He is now a member of the Board of National ACRE.

His career was in education administration. Subsequently his business links were with the NHS interviewing for senior posts and working with Addenbrookes Hospital as a Convenor for Independent Reviews. David represents the Voluntary & Community Sector on the South Cambridgeshire Local Strategic Partnership and is a Board Member of the Cambridge & Peterborough Learning Trust.

Away from work, David is a Rotarian and enjoys gardening at his home in South Cambridgeshire.

Hazel Williams (Vice-Chair)
A board member since 1994, Hazel is currently a Vice-Chair of Cambridgeshire ACRE. She is an East Cambridgeshire District Councillor, Cambridgeshire County Councillor and Fire Authority member, and has been a parish councillor in Burwell since 1981. Hazel was elected vice-chair of the National Association of Local Councils in 2008. She is also a member of the LGA Rural commission and serves on the East of England Rural Forum.

She chairs the board of Age Concern Cambridgeshire and is also a board member of Burwell Community Print, Burwell Day Centre and the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Association of Local Councils. She has been a governor of Bottisham Village College for 24 years, continuing her interest in education from her years as a teacher.

Hazel and her husband enjoy caravanning although usually now without any of their five children who are all now grown-up.

Mike Hellowell (Treasurer)
Mike joined the Board in 2006. He gained a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Manchester Gallenkamp whilst with British Aerospace in Preston and, later, worked with UNESCO in Paris and Fisons in the UK. He is the Chairman and Founder of Eurotech International Group Ltd in Cambridge, specialising in supplying internationally, scientific instruments, didactic systems and complete technical/medical laboratories to research, industry and high educational establishments. Mike has gained wide experience in project management, particularly in North Africa, the Middle East, South East/West Africa, the Americas and South East Asia.

He is a member of the Institutes of Directors, Marketing and Sales Management, as well as being an active Rotarian. He is IP Chairman of Horningsea Parish Council and former Chairman of the Board of School Governors. He is Vice Chairman of Millennium Charities (Horningsea) and a trustee of Learning for Living. Mike more recently also became an active member of CPRE and was elected in 2009 to CPRE's Cambridgeshire Board Committee.

Brian Hayes
Brian has been a trustee of Cambridgeshire ACRE since 1999 and is Chair of the Resources Committee. He is a member of the East of England Rural Forum, a Deputy on the East of England Rural Assembly, a member of the Cambridgeshire Together Board and a member of the East Cambridgeshire Local Strategic Partnership Board. He also serves on the East Cambridgeshire Community Safety Partnership and the Health and Wellbeing Partnership and is a member of the Standards Committee. Brian is also a Littleport Parish Councillor, Chair of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Association of Local Councils, Chair of the East of England Association of Parish and Town Councils and chairs the local youth steering group. Brian is a member of a number of organisations, including Rotary, Ely 41 Club, National Trust and English Heritage.

Prior to retirement, Brian ran his own consultancy service specialising in infrastructure design and supervision and before that he was Operations Manager at Anglian Water Authority. In his spare time, Brian enjoys looking after his grandchildren, watching sport, visiting stately homes and castles and occasionally going to the theatre and eating out.

Hugh McCurdy
The Venerable Hugh McCurdy, Archdeacon of Huntingdon and Wisbech, joined the Board in 2009. Hugh was born in Guildford, Surrey in 1958 and was educated at George Abbott Secondary School, Guildford. Following an Economics Degree, he undertook theological training at Trinity College Bristol.

Hugh served in the Diocese of Ely as Vicar of Histon from 1991 until 2005. In 1994 he was appointed Rural Dean of Stowe and four years later also became Priest-in-charge of Impington. He was made an Honorary Canon of Ely Cathedral in 2004. Currently, Hugh has responsibility for the care of the clergy and church communities in the north and west of the diocese. He is also occupied in practical and legal matters such as parish boundaries, diocesan finance, clergy housing and reordering of church interiors.

Ian Raine
Ian has owned a catering business and worked throughout the world in the catering industry. He is currently the Chairman of Governors at Millfield Primary School in Littleport and an LEA layman for school admissions. He is also a Parish Councillor in Stretham. Ian's hobbies include rugby, cooking and dogs - he does voluntary work for Labrador Rescue.

Elizabeth Stazicker
Elizabeth (MA (Oxon), Dipl Archive Admin, FRSA) has worked for the last two years as a consultant in archives and heritage management. Elizabeth was educated in Norfolk and read Modern History at Oxford before studying for a Diploma in Archive Administration at University College, London. Her professional career was spent in English local government archives, and she was Head of Heritage and County Archivist for Cambridgeshire County Council, managing archives, arts, archaeology and museums services, for eleven years. Her public offices are chairman of Mepal Parish Council, board member of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Association of Parish Councils, and chairman of the East Cambridgeshire Play Partnership, and she is also a member of the Eastern Regional Committee of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, a trustee of the Stained Glass Museum, and a vice-president of the Cambridgeshire Family History Society. Her The Sheriffs of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, a brief history, commissioned by the then High Sheriff, was published by Cambridgeshire County Council in April 2007, and she continues to read and try to write history for her pleasure. Elizabeth lives in Mepal with her husband.

Geoff Taylor
Geoff has been on the Cambridgeshire ACRE Board since 2002. He is a self-employed solicitor, but also works part-time for the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Service. His main areas of practice are constitutional law, education and employment law. Geoff is also a trustee of his local village hall in Coton and in his spare time enjoys listening to music and going to the gym.