Mark Powell, Chair
A former teacher, social worker, civil servant and obituary writer, Mark has been awarded degrees in Drama, Spanish and Learning Disability Services, and a Cropwood Fellowship in Criminology. He is a veteran social entrepreneur and set up the UK's first post consumer plastics reclamation enterprise in 1989, employing a workforce of adults with learning disabilities. Between 1989 and 2002 reclaim grew into one of the leading Social Firms in the UK and flourished until 2019 before transforming into vibrant and successful ArtWorks. In 1997, Mark became the first chair of The Langsett Foundation (now the Burton Street Foundation) that has become a large and versatile day care provider in Sheffield, and in 2002, he founded Buster’s Coffee Company, staffed as a Social Firm and boasting a successful merchant arm and a string of cafes that operated for 10 years before transferring to new ownership. Mark led the community buy out of The Gardeners Rest in Sheffield in 2016 and promoted a staffing policy of social inclusion. Mark has a degree level qualification (ILM5) in providing social enterprise business support and has been a Director of Social Firms UK, Social Enterprise Coalition (now Social Enterprise UK) and Social Enterprise Yorkshire & Humber. He was the CEO of Yes2Ventures Ltd, for 26 years, managing enterprises and employability projects, and he provides personal support to a wide range of people on the autistic spectrum.
David Ware
David Ware is a company/commercial lawyer working in Sheffield and London. In his personal life, he and his wife have enjoyed welcoming significant numbers of lodgers, many of whom have been vulnerable in various ways.
John Le Corney
Although born and brought up in South London, John has lived in and around Sheffield since 1975. Initially combined a job as a microbiologist in the coking industry with a role as secretary of Heeley Residents and Tenants Association, he became one of the leaders of the successful Stop the Heeley ByPass campaign and the planning of Heeley City Farm. The demise of the coking industry and redundancy led him to become the first employee of Heeley City Farm in 1981, retiring as Chief Executive in 2018. He has been a Trustee/Director of many Sheffield, regional and national organisations and is currently Vice-chair of Social Farms and Gardens (the merger of Care Farming UK and Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens), Chair of Composting in the Community Network, a Trustee of S2 Food Poverty Group, committee member of River Sheaf and Porter Trust and two local community gardens.
Ian Livingstone
Ian was 17 years old when he left school and started his working life as a trainee Civil Engineer with Sir Alfred McAlpine who at the time were one of the largest motorway builders in the country. He went on to work with Tarmac Ltd on major construction projects and ended the first phase of his working career with NE Derbyshire DC. Having gained an OU degree whilst working at NEDC he left to retrain as an FE tutor. During his career in education he specialised in teaching adults. He became Head of Department for Adult and Community Education and a National Advisor in Literacy and Numeracy. In 2000 he left FE to start his Consultancy service working with Government Agencies and Funders. He then set up a Training Brokerage providing learning opportunities for people in employment who had no formal qualifications. Around this time he became a trustee of Turning Lives Around, one of the largest providers of homeless support and accommodation in Leeds and more locally he became a trustee of HARC who at the time were the only provider of support for homeless and disadvantaged people during the Xmas and New Year period. He went on to become Chair of both organisations and was responsible for many changes. He is currently a trustee of Yes2Ventures Ltd.- a charity dedicated to providing employment opportunities for severely disadvantaged clients. Following a heart attack he retired from education and retrained as a Mediator working with a charity in Sheffield whose work includes disputes in the workplace and in the community. It was whilst doing this that he was recruited by Who is Your Neighbour (WiYN). Having worked as a Facilitator for a number of years he is now WiYN’s South Yorkshire Manager.
Tim Fordham
Founder and director of Mayfield Coaching and Consultancy, Tim specialises in executive and career coaching, leadership mentoring, and consultancy support within the small business, not-for-profit and public sectors. Tim has considerable experience of working with individuals at management and executive level. He has also worked with management teams to help them introduce more of a coaching approach to managing staff, and as a mentor on the Government’s GrowthAccelerator and Help to Grow programmes. Tim also works as an associate with The Health Coaching Academy, delivering health coaching training, equipping health professionals to provide coaching to patients. Tim has a successful track record of working at a senior management level, having worked in the supported housing sector for over 20 years, with 8 as a senior manager at South Yorkshire Housing Association. He also led on their customer service strategy, rolling out a customer service excellence programme to a staff team of 400, through coaching and training team leaders. Tim has an ILM Level 7 qualification in Executive Coaching and Leadership Mentoring. He also has a postgraduate teaching qualification, a Post-Graduate Diploma in Housing Policy and Practice and post-graduate certificate in Autism and currently provides study skills tutoring and mentoring support to autistic university students. Tim has been a board adviser for Yes2Ventures for the last 5 years, recently joining as a board member.
