Nick Giles
Nick is Managing Director of Ordnance Survey’s consumer businesses, and the current Chair of the UK Outdoor Industries Association. He joined OS in 2012 to originally turn around the dwindling consumer business taking this from loss making to 7 figure profitability. During his time at OS, Nick founded both the OS Maps application (the UK’s premier outdoor exploration application with over 8m users and 500,000 subscribers) and the GetOutside initiative giving outdoor inspiration to millions of people. He has reinvigorated OS’s publishing business, expanding guidebooks (including the Uk’s first accessible guidebook), books and reinventing the iconic paper maps. Prior to OS Nick’s career has been through marketing agencies and within the financial services sector running business portfolios of over £300m per annum as well as several non-exec positions.
Nick has a passion for helping more people to get outside more often and is committed to enabling more people to enjoy more enjoyable, accessible, and safe outdoor experiences. He has been a frequent visitor and longtime supporter of Plas y Brenin over the years and is an avid hill walker and (a very!) amateur mountain biker, climber, and paddler. He has a love for watersports and can often be found open water swimming or messing about with boats and boards whenever given the opportunity.
In 2022 he was awarded an OBE for improving the health of the nation for his work in encouraging and inspiring millions of people to reap the benefits of activity in the great outdoors.
Stuart Morris
Stuart Morris is Global Operations & Product Director at World Challenge, a leading provider of youth expeditions. With over twenty years’ experience in the outdoor education sector, he has worked extensively with schools, youth groups, and international partners to deliver safe, high-quality, and impactful adventure experiences. He brings significant expertise in operational strategy, safety management, governance, and risk assessment.
A former Vice Chair of the Expedition Providers Association and current Technical Committee member, Stuart is passionate about the power of outdoor adventure to build resilience, confidence, and connection with nature. Based in North Wales, he is committed to supporting Plas y Brenin’s role as the UK’s National Outdoor Centre.
Thomas Parker
As Head of Hospitality, Health & Safety, and Facilities at Plas y Brenin, I’m here to make sure our site is not only welcoming but also safe and efficient for everyone. My role covers everything from managing our hospitality services to keeping up with facilities maintenance and health and safety standards—making sure we’re compliant and creating a great environment for both staff and visitors.
I’ve spent over a decade in the leisure industry as a Duty Manager, gaining a strong foundation in customer service and operational management. I also had the unique experience of a one-year secondment as the Lead Emergency Planning Officer for Gwynedd Council, where I coordinated emergency response plans, worked on business continuity plans and handled major incident responses.
Fun fact, for the last seven years, I’ve served as a retained Firefighter and Crew Manager, which gave me hands-on experience with emergency situations and strengthened my approach to leadership and safety.
I was drawn to Plas y Brenin for the incredible scenery and the chance to make an impact on such a historic site. I was beyond excited to bring my background here and help this place reach its full potential, ensuring it continues to grow and thrive.
Paul Allen
I’m responsible for all aspects of HR at Plas y Brenin and have been also responsible for leading the Customer Services Team during recent months. I relish being part of a devoted and ambitious leadership team that are transforming the organisation. My initial focus has been on HR compliance and ensuring processes and systems are effective, as well helping build, shape and right-size the team.
I joined MTL initially as a contractor in May last year after working for a global packaging manufacturer company as Interim Regional HR Director for UK & Ireland. After three months contracting, I was appointed as permanent HRD to remain part of the exciting future development of the organisation.
All of my prior career has been in commercial industry; Construction, Manufacturing and Engineering. I’ve worked for over 25 years in HR and Training & Development roles and hold Fellow status within the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (FCIPD). Prior to that I worked within commercial functions, operations and quality management and enjoy applying this broad depth of industrial experience in a pragmatic way to contribute to organisational success.
I have always been an avid outdoors and sports lover and feel privileged to work in such a beautiful location, with great people and partners, contributing to the wellbeing of thousands of people
Paul Kennedy
Plas y Brenin’s primary focus is on skills, qualifications, and excellence in instruction whilst attracting more people to the outdoors. As a National Outdoor Centre, we develop the people that develop the outdoor sector. In addition to training the outdoor leaders of tomorrow, Plas y Brenin and the Mountain Training Trust are also driven by a core purpose of encouraging more people to get involved in the outdoors.
As CEO I am responsible for leading, managing, motivating, and inspiring the team that delivers these programmes and ensuring this is conducted in a positive, safe, and engaging manner. Our drive and ambition centres around opening the outdoors for everyone, partnering with organisations that give PYB access to communities across the United Kingdom.
Plas y Brenin is deeply entrenched in a transformation programme that will result in a substantial improvement in the structural economics of the operational, financial, and physical infrastructure performance.
A Business Leader with a successful career spanning some 30 years across several industries and international board level experience in the digital entertainment, high street retail and sports manufacturing sectors. Expertise in managing customer focused multi-disciplined teams to support businesses in delivering profitable growth and transforming organisations undergoing cultural change.
Pete Catterall
Pete became Plas y Brenin’s Head of Instruction in 2022, where his primary role is to lead and support the Instructor team in all course delivery and to oversee and ensure that we deliver a safe and inspiring programme of courses for everyone. He is very fortunate to work with a great team of Instructors, all of whom share a passion for the outdoors, adventure and enthusiasm to pass this on to others.
Whilst Pete’s day to day role is predominantly management focused, he is directly involved with the delivery of many aspects of Plas y Brenin’s work throughout the year.
Pete is a highly qualified and experienced outdoor professional. Pete started kayaking at the age of 9 and since then has never stopped. He loves the exploration side of whitewater and the sea, and the most new and unexplored rivers are his main passion.
Lissie Smith
My association with Plas y Brenin spans over many years. It began in 2000 when I joined as a Centre Assistant. After a brief departure in 2001 to pursue a PGCE in Outdoor Education, I returned to the team in 2002 as their Youth Coordinator. Over time, I progressed within the organisation, eventually assuming the role of Client Bookings Manager in 2017. In early 2022, I left to join the NHS Covid Vaccination team. I rejoined the Plas y Brenin family in October of last year, taking on the position of Governance Officer.
In my role as Governance Officer at Plas y Brenin, my primary responsibility is to uphold the organisation’s compliance with legal and regulatory standards while fostering ethical practices and implementing robust governance procedures. Key areas of focus include policy development, compliance monitoring, risk management, board support, ethical oversight, stakeholder engagement, reporting and disclosure, and continuous improvement initiatives. By fulfilling these duties, I play a pivotal role in enhancing the effectiveness, transparency, and long-term sustainability of Plas y Brenin’s governance framework.
Emily Thompson
Emily has 20 years experience working in the charitable sector and has a strong track record of working with a wide range of partners, creating and sustaining lasting partnerships in both the public and private sector in order to secure additional investment for programmes and build partnership funding opportunities. She has overseen the development and growth of new services into new markets and transformational change across teams.
Emily is also passionate about the outdoors and has worked in the outdoor sector since qualifying as a mountain leader in 2012. Now a Winter ML and working towards completing her International Mountain Leader, Emily also runs her own company which is a provider of Mountain Training Skills courses. Also in her local Mountain Rescue team she is keen to ensure that as more people access the outdoors that they gain the right skills to do so safely and with good decision making skills.
She has sat on the Mountain Training UK and Ireland Board 2017-2023 and the British Mountaineering Council’s Access and Conservation Trust Board 2015-2023 and so has a good understanding of the sector.
As someone who has experienced Plas y Brenin courses in the past Emily is keen to use her experience to help the MTT reach more people and continue to be the centre of excellence in course delivery.
Bill Whatley
Bill is an accountant that qualified in the profession but who quickly moved to industry. He has now accumulated over forty years of finance, IT and business transformation experience, gained in a number of household name businesses and at senior levels.
Bill’s passion for the outdoors dates back to his teens and flourished at university. He has experience of rock climbing to a high standard (for the 80’s) and of alpine mountaineering and remains a regular walker and scrambler across the mountains of the UK.
Soraya Abdel-Hadi
Soraya Abdel-Hadi is an award-winning writer, artist, sustainability professional and founder of All The Elements CIC – a non-profit network for those creating change on diversity in the UK outdoors. She has worked in the outdoor sector for most of her career in roles including equestrian journalism, climbing instruction and expedition planning. All The Elements is centered on the leaders creating positive change on representation and access across all diversity areas, from ethnicity and race, to limited financial means, age, gender identity and sexuality, and more.
