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.
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 (MTUK)
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.
Matt Tennant
Matt’s career to date has been in Education, working in both Higher and Professional Body organisations, alongside various non-executive roles within charities. Matt is currently Chair of the Trustee Board for OutdoorLads, a UK-wide charity running outdoor activities for the LGBTQ community.
Matt’s main interest is around developing, implementing and monitoring strategies to improve diversity and inclusion, while increasing engagement of under-represented groups in outdoor activities.
Matt has a lifelong passion for outdoor activity, and since a young age been involved in hill walking, mountaineering and more recently paddlesports.
Lisa Dickinson
Lisa has nearly 15 years of experience working in the private sector, leading a wide range of people, cultural and IT change and transformation projects and programmes including a focus on strategy definition as well as Diversity and Inclusion.
With a background in Scouting and Guiding, Lisa has always had an interest in spending time in the outdoors. Most recently, she focused her efforts on her whitewater kayaking. She went from hating water and not being able to swim to becoming a qualified whitewater leader in 2021 and has spent the last year helping support other women who want to build their confidence in whitewater as a #ShePaddles Ambassador for British Canoeing. She’s now working towards her whitewater coach award. Outside of paddling, Lisa is also a keen climber and walker and has recently completed her Mountain Leader training.
Lisa has first-hand experience of courses at Plas y Brenin and is excited about the opportunity to use her corporate and outdoor experience to help the MTT further grow their mission of helping people get active in the outdoors.
Mike Rosser
Mike is a qualified teacher, Mountain Instructor and International Mountain Leader with 45 years of personal experience of trekking, climbing and mountaineering worldwide, and has built a career around managing risk in the outdoors and teaching others those skills.
Having spent 25 years as a teacher and lecturer of PE, Sports Science and Outdoor Education, Mike then began working for Mountain Training England, managing the providers of Mountain Training schemes.
For the next 15 years, Mike was Manager and Director of Jagged Globe/Adventureworks and Outlook Expeditions – companies that organised mountaineering and trekking expeditions for adults and school groups worldwide – from Everest to the jungles of Borneo.
Currently, Mike works as an Education Visits Advisor to schools across Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham, an Inspector for various accreditation schemes and consultant providing advice, training and guidance for bodies working in the outdoors. Mike is Chair of Mountain Training Cymru and the Adventure Activities Industry Advisory Committee, and a member of the UK Adventure Industry Group that is currently working with the Health and Safety Executive to develop an industry-led accreditation to replace the Adventurous Activity Licensing Scheme.
Fiona Sanders
Since my appointment in September last year, I have supported the CEO in bringing about financial stability and helped raise the profile with strategic partnerships in the sector to prepare the organisation for growth. I have also focused the Board on developing strategic intent, alongside good governance practise, reinstating committee structures and recruiting new trustees against a new skills matrix.
My concurrent roles comprise BMC – national governing body – Chair of the Partners Assembly which aims to enable membership and representative bodies to achieve more by acting together than they could achieve on their own. Outcomes include Your movement matters survey, agreement on safeguarding recording and the supporting of the mountain safety forum and Adventure Smart. Also, Friends of the Lakes- membership organisation that works to protect and enhance the landscapes of Cumbria. Trustee –sitting on the strategic review group and finance committee.
My business/work experience has always been in developing strategic intent, change management with associated leadership development and executive coaching. This began at the National Grid when it was privatised and led me into running my own company, and in more recent years to senior volunteer roles. My personal expertise was as a transformational organisational development consultant for over 20 years working with both profit and not for profit organisations to help them develop and implement strategies for making step changes in their organisations, dealing with difficult situations or creating new ways of delivering. Having been an employer/manager I understand the dynamics of human resource management, which is supported by a Degree in Business Studies and a Masters in HRM.
I’ve supported organisations such as: Lake District National Park, O2, Ventura, Basildon District Council, Gravesham Borough Council, Newsquest International, Cable & Wireless, Ministry of Defence, Emergency Planning College, Scottish Executive, Honeywell & Orange. I have also been a strong contributor as a consultant for the CIPD & Ashridge.
Since my retirement I have supported the outdoor sector through my work at the BMC which led me to obtain the George Band award for volunteer contribution to mountaineering. My most recent role was Director oversight for delivering the organisational review recommendations, EDI and chairing the partners assembly.
My passion for the outdoors started at a young age when I sailed with my parents, then moved on to caving, undertaking many tricky pot holes in the UK and going on explorative trips, including the then Yugoslavia and bottoming some of France’s deepest pot holes e.g. Gouffre Bourger.
I have been a traditional rock climber for over 25 years, starting much of my climbing in North Wales, many of my climbing partners having been instructors with PyB or more widely in the sector. I am a member of both the Pinnacle Club and The Climbers’ Club. Over the years, I have undertaken extended trips to the USA and Europe. I have also had a number of seasons in the Alps and progressed to climbing/scrambling higher mountains. These experiences taught me two things, it’s tricky to be successful when you are a part of a minority (I was the second only President of the Climbers Club) and training and mentoring is critical to survival and advancement (my club membership provided me with much support).
My work experience showed that bringing out and developing communication; leadership and self-reliance qualities in people, teams and organisations, along with helping plan and implement strategies that actively help achieve organisational goals, can make a marked difference in what can be achieved.
Our national outdoor centre has been part of my community and its outcomes have enabled so many to deliver for the sector and as it is recognised as the go to place for excellence in outdoor development and assessment. I want to ensure that the centre remains a national asset for anyone wanting to get outdoors.
Frances Anderson
Frances Anderson is a co-opted director of MTT. She is a commercial lawyer with decades of experience in advising charities and not-for-profit organisations on governance and legal issues. She has historically advised MTT on substantial contractual matters. She was most recently a partner at VWV LLP, advising charities, universities, local authorities, manufacturing and commercial organisations on intellectual property and technology matters. Frances has served as a trustee/non-executive director of housing associations, arts and media organisations and educational establishments. She is currently a non-executive director of ABRSM and a trustee of the Moseley Society. She has a lifelong interest in mountains and related recreational activities.
