Merlin Centre Cornwall Trustees
Tom Sneddon
Chair of Trustees
Tom moved to Cornwall nearly 25 years ago to take up a European Director role with ECC. Since 2001 Tom has developed a successful consultancy business primarily working with charities throughout the South West. He has also been a non-executive Director of Cornwall NHS for 8 years. In his spare time he enjoys rugby and walking his dogs.
Steve Hicks
Chair of Finance Committee
Steve was born in the South West and started his 40 + year career in Banking in Plymouth, also working in Penzance in the mid 80s before moving to the Southeast. He was diagnosed with MS in 2008, moved back to Cornwall in 2016 and has been a user of the Centre. He remains a non executive director of three financial services businesses and is also the finance volunteer for the MS Society in South & West Cornwall.
Michael James
Operations and Finance Committee
Mike is Chairman of Hewas Water Engineering Ltd , which is the neighbouring business to the charity. He is a local farmer and has a portfolio of residential properties across Cornwall. Mike has been involved with the charity from the beginning and his company was involved in constructing the steel frame of the building. He currently chairs the Merlin Support Group which fundraises and provides other support to the charity. Mike’s partner Amanda has Multiple Sclerosis.
Mike Ward
Finance Committee
Mike worked as a senior police officer in Devon and Cornwall Police until 2014. After retiring from the Police he worked for the British Red Cross as an emergency response manager. He now works as an event safety specialist and had been involved in the delivery of many festivals and some larger events such as the Tour or Britain cycle race, Tall Ships Regatta, Man Engine Tour and Britains first space launch. He is a past president of the Rotary Club of St Austell Bay which is how his involvement with Merlin began.
Dr Emma Campbell
Chair of Operations Committee and Safeguarding Lead
Emma trained at Bristol University before undertaking junior hospital roles across the Southwest, predominately in the Plymouth area. After qualifiy as a GP, she was a partner at St Ives Surgery for ten years before moving to Probus Surgery in 2000. She helped establish the Memory Cafe in Probus Village Hall for people with memory impairment. She retired from practice in 2020.
Rachel Foster
Chair of Income Generations and Marketing Committee
Rachel is a Chartered PR consultant, a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, and a qualified Agile coach.
She’s a director of The Agile Communications Agency, working with clients to deliver communications strategy at board level, as well as supporting communications teams to deliver campaigns and activity across the marketing and PR mix.
As a trainer and coach, she supports communications professionals and business owners to plan their comms activity. She loves to work collaboratively – usually with colourful post it notes to share ideas and find ways forward.
Rachel started her career as a journalist with the West Briton, through which she met Dr Murphy when the Merlin Project was getting started. A family member has MS, her mum is a retired physio and her cousin is an OT, so there are lots of reasons why the valuable work of Merlin is close to her heart.
Tracey Phillips
Finance and Income Generation Committee
Tracey is a client of the Centre and has lived experience of the challenges people with a neurological condition face. She had to medically retired from her management position in commercial banking several years ago. She is currently chair of the South Cornwall branch of the MS Society.
Katie Harland
Operations Committee and HR Lead
Originally from Yorkshire, Katie Harland has lived and worked in Cornwall for the past 20 years, raising a family very close to the Merlin centre. She has a chartered CIPD qualification, is Head of People and Culture at Cornish Mutual and also sits on the Newham BID and Totally Truro Boards. She is passionate about contributing to the local Cornish community.