ROUTE SETTING DEVELOPMENT - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Membership Support Officer
Anna is an enthusiastic all-round climber with a special love for indoor lead climbing and watching international competition climbing. She is a committed fair weather outdoors person and can most often be found at the climbing wall café with a coffee and her laptop.
Before joining the ABC, Anna worked in a variety of administrative roles, from producing films, to personal assistance, and social media management.
Damien has been climbing for over twenty years and for much of that time has been closely involved with the indoor climbing industry.
He has experience working as a route setter, coach, instructor and duty-manager at climbing walls.
In his previous role as Climbing Officer for Mountaineering Ireland Damien's work included increasing climbing participation, creating a talent development pathway, organising and delivering climbing events, as well as a range of other activities all aimed at increasing participation and performance in climbing.
David had a successful career as an insurance professional for many years before deciding to work in the climbing industry. A keen climber since a teenager, he has managed to combine his business skills with his passion for climbing to embark on a second career.
He now runs the climbing wall at the University of Hertfordshire and helps represent the interests of smaller walls and individual members.
He has a wealth of experience working with youth groups together with commercial expertise in brand building, strategic partnerships and business acquisition.
Duncan is a relative new comer to the industry, becoming CEO at the Castle Climbing Centre in December 2015, but he has been climbing indoors and out for the past 20 years. As a passionate, if not accomplished climber, Duncan jumped at the chance to run one of the country's biggest and busiest climbing walls.
His background in Social Housing might not appear at first sight like a good grounding for this industry but Duncan believes the leadership and organisational management skills he learnt delivering good quality, low cost housing in one of the world's most overheated housing markets will prove useful in dealing with the unprecedented boom in indoor climbing we are now experiencing. Duncan has also been involved in not-for-profit governance positions, currently chairing a Housing Association in North London. He hopes that this experience will also help the ABC develop to meet the challenges of the sector.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- ABC As a Legal Non - Executive Director
- Employment Lawyer
Emma Perera is an employment lawyer who is passionate about climbing and supporting the ABC with its aim of promoting the professionalism, health and growth of indoor climbing.
Emma joined the ABC as a Legal Non-Executive Director in 2021 to provide support and guidance to the ABC both in relation to its own operations and its work within the climbing community. When she is not climbing at the walls in East London she likes to run away to the hills for long days out hiking.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Founder and Managing Director of the Project Climbing
Freddie is the Founder and Managing Director of The Project Climbing Centre. He is also a Former GB Team Manager and BMC Specialist Committee member.
Freddie has been working in the Climbing Industry in various roles for over a decade and has a particular interest in pushing the boundaries of what the industry can achieve. In 2013 he opened the first commercial t-nut-free centre and has subsequently been delving deep into the world of business development and improvement in order to try to understand where we're going as an industry.
Founder and CEO of The Climbing Hangar, co-founder of the Women's Climbing Symposium, creator of the UK's biggest UV Climbing Competition and party and the first UK Climbing company to introduce private equity into the industry - Ged's industry CV is diverse and only just getting going.
Ged is passionate about protecting what's precious in our climbing culture while it evolves with the times, a flux often seen as conflict but something he believes can benefit both our crags and our sport.
Ian's background is in accountancy, followed by a period teaching maths, and then back into accountancy in business change management, leading finance functions through periods of change or challenge.
He became involved in climbing and comps in particular when his kids took up climbing, holding various positions as comps chairs and is an IFSC accredited judge.
Kath is passionate about sport and its powerful positive impact on the body and mind. She has loved the mountains and climbing since she was a child and is now enjoying introducing her own children to her friendly local wall, NICAS and the outdoors.
Kath is responsible for the development and execution of the ABC's strategy: working with the board and partners to promote the professionalism, health, growth and diversity of indoor climbing.
Job Titles:
- Board Member - Vice Chair
Lee is Managing Director and founder of The Boardroom Climbing.
He has been an instructor for over 20 years, is also a climbing development coach and has competed and is qualified instructor in other sports including canoeing to where he has raced to an international level. As well as being vice chair of the ABC also sits on the NICAS board.
Pete is the Climbing Development Officer for Active Stirling in Scotland, a sports trust for the Stirlingshire area. He focuses on developing climbing in the local community through schools, clubs and organisations.
He has been climbing since a young age and has widely varied experience in the sector, from wall-management to outdoor instructing and summiting 6000m peaks.
Pete holds the Mountain Training Mountaineering Instructor Award and is a Ready to Rock course provider for Mountaineering Scotland.
Rich Emerson is one of the Directors and founders of The Climbing Academy (Bristol and Glasgow). A life long climber, he started his climbing journey on Yorkshire grit when he was a youngster and has since climbed and been ski mountaineering all over the world.