LLANGATTOCK GREEN VALLEYS - Key Persons
GEORGE SMITH (BIG GEORGE)
George has been a director of LGV CIC since December 2019. He has been interested in in environmental issues ever since he can remember. Like most of us his adherence to his principles has wavered at times! After gaining a lot of useful experience in life he eventually became a primary school teacher a career he has dipped in and out of over the years.
He has always had strong practical interests covering a wide range. His current employment is highly varied ranging from house renovation to making cider presses! He does a lot of cycling, particularly mountain biking along with running.
In terms of sustainability he planted 10 acres of woodland 14 years ago, this he says is one of the best things he's ever done (apart from marrying his wife!). His house is heated by a biomass boiler and he has had solar PV and thermal for a good few years now. He feels this experience gives him a good practical understanding of the advantages and practical limitations of trying to live sustainably.
Until recently he was Chair of Governors of Llangattock School, where his children attended. He still has close links with the school which he hopes to use in his role with LGV. Education and engaging the wider community is fundamental to environmental issues.
Jackie is one of the founding members of Llangattock Green Valleys and is a director of LGV CIC, LGV Ventures and MH-2. She has lived in Llangattock since 1989 and her professional background is in equality and diversity consultancy. Jackie has served as a Non-Executive Director of a local health trust and a Non-Officer Member of a local health board. She also spent 10 years as a Welsh Assembly Member of the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority, during which time she developed a keen interest in local community-based social enterprises and community-based environmental entrepreneurship. In 2009, this led her to set up a local woodland group, which is now a thriving concern with a growing membership. Llangattock Community Woodlands is a charity and currently works with local landowners to improve and sustain small local woodlands by involving volunteers and the local community. Jackie's broad experience has given her strong practical and management skills, as well as a thorough understanding of how community-based renewable energy schemes can bring people together to achieve a collective goal and share the benefits. She is committed to the success of the LGV family and to ensuring that it brings benefits to the whole community.
Job Titles:
- Member of Crickhowell Choral Society
Peter joined LGV in 2014 and became a director of LGV CIC and LGV Ventures CIC in July 2016. He grew up in Derbyshire; his mother came from Skenfrith. He studied physics at Leeds and then worked for Philips in Surrey for 20 years, including a period in the States, before moving to Cardiff University in 1990. He was Head of the Physics Department for a period, and after a number of
other senior roles he retired in 2011. Peter is a member of Crickhowell Choral Society and still does some work for the university in an advisory role. One of his retirement projects was to move to a house built to low energy standards in a location which would reduce car-miles to amenities, but finding a plot proved difficult. Instead, a suitable property for refurbishment was found in Llangattock, the completed project achieving certification by the Passive House Institute. He has a knowledge and enthusiasm for low energy building as a means to reduce energy use and CO 2 emissions and as a director of LGV he has been investigating possible new projects LGV could undertake, working with the community, to reduce CO 2 emissions yet further.
Richard is a director of LGV MH-2. He grew up in Bromley and qualified as a tree crop agronomist with a BSc and M Phil from Reading University. He spent 23 years working abroad in Africa, Nepal, Dominica and Latin America. The family returned to the UK at the end of 1992 and settled at Middle Ninfa Farm near Abergavenny in January 1994. Starting a new career with Groundwork and Environment Wales, he worked to support community groups on environmental projects around Wales for ten years. During this time he developed a special interest in reuse and recycling, and co-founded Cylch, the Community Recycling Network for Wales, also Monmouthshire Community Recycling who ran the Black Box kerbside recycling scheme on behalf of MCC and Homemakers furniture re-use and recycling scheme in Abergavenny. He served on the boards of all three community enterprises. Richard moved to the Co-ordinator post with MCC's Adventa community team
in 2004 where he worked until retirement 6 years ago. Since then he has developed
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
Simon is one of the founding members of Llangattock Green Valleys and is currently Chair and a director of LGV CIC and LGV Ventures CIC. He is also a director of LGV MH-2. Simon grew up in Llangattock but moved to London in his late teens to find work. His career has been varied. He started out in engineering, then worked in construction, spent time with a plant hire company, moved into data logistics, then chucked it all in to become a despatch rider. He now runs his own web design and hosting company, with clients ranging from top London photographers to an international leadership development company. He moved back to Llangattock in 2004 and has a keen interest in the practical application of renewable technologies. On the home front, both he and his partner are working steadily to make their home more energy efficient and environmentally friendly, including planting up a two acre field with over 2,300 native broadleaf saplings - the start of a brand new woodland. He hopes that being a director and helping to develop a second renewable energy co-operative in Llangattock will benefit both Members and the community as a whole.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Director of LGV CIC
Steve is a director of LGV CIC and LGV Ventures CIC and is Chair and director of LGV's MH-2 Co-op. Steve grew up in Surrey but has lived in Llangattock with his family since 1990. His career included sales and project management roles for Thames Water, Thorn EMI and Unilever and he founded and managed successful logistics and language services businesses for 20 years. Steve also ran a vineyard in Hay-on-Wye, worked as an export communications and website consultant for UK Trade & Investment for 17 years and has a self-catering business in Llangattock. Steve has been involved with various local community organisations including Crickhowell High School PTA, Crickhowell and Abergavenny tennis clubs, his local Ffawyddog Common group and sings with The Old Recs. He joined LGV in 2011 to further his interest in renewable energy and to put something back into his local community. Steve took on responsibility for developing the organisation's micro hydro projects in 2013 and he is delighted that, after a long period of planning and fund-raising, two schemes are operational and a further three schemes are due to be commissioned in 2017.
Sue is a director of LGV MH-2 joining the board in April 2016. She moved to Crickhowell in 1997 having been a chiropractor in the City of London since qualifying from the McTimoney College of Chiropractic in 1988. Previously she worked in the Somali Section of the BBC World Service, followed by becoming Assistant to the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association - formed to promote public service broadcasting. In 2000 she gained a PGCE from University College of Wales, Newport, and went on to teach Chiropractic Technique at the McTimoney College for eight years, sitting on exam boards, mentoring students and running student clinics. She was also involved in the process of the College acquiring its accreditation, and served as a member of the Investigative Committee of the General Chiropractic Council in 2010. She now practices as a part-time Spinal Therapist in Crickhowell. Involvement with Llangattock Area Community Allotment Society (LACAS) ignited an interest in renewable energy (solar-powered water pumps!) and its potential for local and community use. As yet she is a total beginner in the field of renewables but is enthused by the schemes that are already up and running and is keen to contribute in whatever way she can.