If you would like to contact a specific member of staff by e-mail, please click on the relevant name or telephone the main Plunkett number on 01993 810730.
Peter Couchman - Chief Executive
Peter is Chief Executive of the Plunkett Foundation, which supports rural communities to take control of the issues that matter to them, such as saving their shop or supporting local food. As part of this role, he is the Director of Making Local Food Work, the BIG Lottery funded programme. He came to the post after spending his career so far in the Co-operative Movement, where he was best known for helping to make Oxford, Swindon & Gloucester Co-op an internationally recognised example for engaging members and marketing its co-operative identity. He also helped to create Local Harvest, Midcounties Co-op's local food sourcing scheme. He serves the Social Enterprise Coalition Council, DEFRA’s Third Sector Advisory Board and the International Co-operative Alliance’s Communications Committee. He is a fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). He writes a regular blog called Plunkett Perspectives (www.plunkettfoundation.blogspot.com) and tweets @PeterCouchman
Denise Ault – Projects Manager
Denise Ault has a life-long interest in food, farming and the countryside, which she has now developed into a career as a consultant, working part-time for the Plunkett Foundation, as well as pursuing independent research projects. After a successful career in publishing, Denise returned to education in 2000 to study for an MBA (Masters in Business Administration) at Oxford Brookes University. She graduated in 2003, having completed a dissertation on "Supply Chain Management in the UK Organic Meat Sector: the SME Producer Perspective". The dissertation was awarded a mark of 88 percent, and won the Business School Prize for the best dissertation of 2002-3. The MBA at Oxford Brookes has a special focus on small and medium-sized businesses, and some modules are based at the Business School's Entrepreneurship Centre, which supports small business development throughout the UK. She joined the Plunkett Foundation in 2004 as a Projects Manager and currently leads the Making Local Food Work programme strand supporting farmers' markets.
Kathryn Morrison – Operations Manager
Kathryn comes from a farming family and has a background in corporate banking. She joined Plunkett in 2002 and is responsible for the day-to-day management of the financial and non-financial operations of the Plunkett Foundation.
She is also the Company Secretary and Assistant to the Chief Executive.
kathryn.morrison@plunkett.co.uk
Mike Perry – Head of Information and Communication
Mike joined the Plunkett Foundation in May 2006. Mike previously worked for Oxford University Press before joining the Plunkett Foundation. He is a graduate in BA (Hons) Business Administration and grew up in a family run farm in Worcestershire.
Jennifer Smith – Head of Programme Management, Making Local Food Work
Jennifer joined Plunkett in September 2004, initially managing Rural Revival, a grant programme providing support to rural social enterprises. Since this time she has worked on a number of grant programmes. Her projects have focused on social inclusion, rural issues, social enterprise, community development, community asset development and local food. In September 2007, Jennifer was promoted to manage the Making Local Food Work programme; this programme focuses on supporting social enterprises that are enabling access to local food in their communities.
Gill Withers – Project Development
Gill was appointed in April 2005 as the new head of community retailing, taking over from Anthony Weldon who assumed the role on a transitional basis following the merger with Plunkett. Gill was one of the driving forces behind the Tackley All-in-One Centre, and has previously worked for BP and as a consultant to GP fundholding practices. Gill's main role is to lead on the development of major projects and services.
Donna Smith – Projects Manager, Community Retailing
Donna joined the Plunkett Foundation in September 2004 as Projects Assistant in the Consultancy and Training Division. She is now taking on the role of assisting Plunkett in its support towards community-owned village shops. Prior to this she worked for 15 years for West Oxfordshire District Council dealing with statistics and subsidies, and then went on to study for an HND at Oxford Brookes University in Business and Finance. Donna's role within the Plunkett Foundation is to manage projects relating to community-owned shops.
Harriet English - Campaigns and Events Officer
Harriet joined the Plunkett Foundation in December 2008 as support to the Rural Community Shops Projects. Having been brought up in Rural West Oxfordshire she has always had a keen interest in the countryside. Harriet graduated from the University of Exeter in 2006 with a BA in Human Geography. Before joining the Plunkett Foundation, Harriet spent 18 months with the Performance Improvement Team with the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust. In May 2010 Harriet became our Campaigns and Events Officer, leading on developing a range of campaigns and events across the Plunkett Foundation and Making Local Food Work.
harriet.english@plunkett.co.uk
James Alcock – Community Retail Manager
James is the Community Retail Manager at the PLunkett Foundation leading on our range of projects and services supporting the development of community-owned village shops. James joined the Plunkett Foundation in August 2007 to project manage Regional support programmes. Among these was Strengthening Rural Communities across the Northwest – a programme which provided grant and specialist enterprise support to rural community owned services – ranging from rural retail, health, leisure and financial services. James has managed a mentoring programme for community owned food enterprises, Skillshare, funded through the Making Local Food Work Programme, and Rural Retail Skills, a programme which aims to up-skill those supporting and working with community owned retail enterprises. Prior to working for the Plunkett Foundation, James worked at Oxfordshire Rural Community Council as a Rural Housing Enabler. James is a BA (Hons) and MSc by Research graduate in Human Geography, both of which focused on rural community issues.
Media and Communications Officer - POSITION VACANT
Peter Stimpson – Programme Management Accountant, Making Local Food Work
Peter joined the Plunkett Foundation in January 2008 as the Management Accountant for the Making Local Food Work project having previously worked in a similar role in the semi-conductor industry. He holds a BSc (Econ) in Accounting and Management and is a CIMA Passed Finalist. Peter is responsible for the effective financial management of the Lottery programme but also gives financial support to the Foundation.
Eileen Keenan – Projects Administrator, Making Local Food Work
Eileen joined in March 2008 as Central Support Administrator within the projects team. She currently supports the Making Local Food Work team. Eileen previously worked for the NFU and now lives in rural Oxfordshire.
Ceinwen Lally – Project Officer – Farmers' Markets, Making Local Food Work
Ceinwen joined the Plunkett Foundation in March 2008 to work on the farmers' market strand of the Making Local Food Work Programme. Ceinwen has previous experience of the local food sector having worked as a business manager for a farmers' market co-operative. She has also worked for a disability charity, 3M UK and as a free-lance marketing consultant. She has an MBA from Warwick Business School. She will be responsible for helping to set up collaborative farmers' markets groups throughout England.
Nicole Hamilton – Project Officer – Local Food and Local Shops, Making Local Food Work
Nicole joined the Plunkett Foundation in May 2009 and leads our work supporting community-run shops to stock and sell more locally produced food, thereby also creating valuable retail outlets for small-scale producers. She is a graduate BA (Hons) in Hospitality Management and prior to joining Plunkett Nicole has spent 14 years working with foods including roles in food procurement for 3663 and Intercontinental Hotels.
nicole.hamilton@plunkett.co.uk
Richard Snow, Enterprise Support, Making Local Food Work
Richard moved to Oxford from Bristol in 2001 to study for an MSc in Forestry. He is very interested in the connection between land and people, especially if there are trees on the land and people working in community-owned businesses, "doing it for themselves". He is co-founder and director of Oxford Wood Recycling, a social firm employing people who are at a disadvantage in finding work. Richard joined Plunkett in September 2008 from Co-operative Futures where he had almost completed 3 years working as a business adviser to co-operative and community enterprises.
richard.snow@plunkett.co.uk