Our Trustees
Meet the people helping to shape and support our charity.
Ruth Marks
Board Trustee / WCVA Sole Member Representative
Ruth joined WCVA as Chief Executive in January 2015. In April 2018, the Wales Council for Voluntary Action became the Sole Member of Cynnal Cymru and Ruth is the primary representative on the Board of Trustees.
Diane McCrea
Chair of the Board
Diane has many years’ experience as a Chair including for Natural Resources Wales, Consumer Council for Water Wales, and Shelter Cymru. She has been a Board member with Transport Focus, Assured Food Standards, and is a Trustee of All Saints Educational Trust.
Ruth Billingham
Trustee
Ruth has 20 years experience in the third sector, mainly working in communications, marketing and campaigns roles. She is currently Head of Campaigns for Living Streets the UK charity for everyday walking. Ruth oversees the organisation’s campaign strategy, their digital presence and is responsible for their supporters, donors and local groups.
Kate Evans
Trustee
Kate is a green energy and construction lawyer, and also a non-executive director for Olsights Limited. Kate is passionate about renewable energy and all things sustainability, and has been a Trustee at Cynnal Cymru for the past four years.
Robert Firth
Trustee
Robert Firth is a qualified business coach, based in Cardiff. He is currently President of the Royal Society of Architects in Wales, and is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Cardiff University.
Nia Wood-Gaiger
Trustee
Nia is the Projects Manager at FOR Cardiff where she works on environmental and public realm projects while supporting businesses in Cardiff City Centre. With over 10 years of experience of digital media, events and project management, Nia has worked for several not-for-profits within the environment sector.
Chris Moreton
Trustee
Chris is a CIMA qualified finance leader working for NHS Wales with over 15 years’ experience spanning several sectors including financial services, technology, charities and the public sector. He has a keen interest in exploring the intersection between finance and sustainable development and actively promotes the role that finance professionals can play in enabling sustainable organisations.
Edward Morgan
Trustee
Fe godwyd Edward ar fferm yn Sir Gar ac mae wedi gweithio yn y sector bwyd am ei holl yrfa.
Edward was raised on a farm in Carmarthenshire and has worked in the food sector all his career.
As Group CSR Manager at Castell Howell Foods, and sitting on other industry groups, he has a broad view on all aspects of supply chain sustainability.
Sam Stensland
Trustee
Sam has experience of place-based grant-making, cross-sector collaboration, and strategic marketing, including in his current role at Business in the Community. Sam is a Trustee of Tylorstown Welfare Hall and a Grants Panellist with WCVA. Sam holds an MSc in Political Ecology, and has delivered training for CIPD & AAT qualifications in the UK & Africa.
Nirushan Sudarsan
Trustee
Nirushan Sudarsan is a Cardiff University Master’s Student in Politics and Public Policy. He works at OFGEM and runs two social enterprises, Ffair Jobs CIC and Grange Pavilion Youth Forum CIC.
Dan Tram
Trustee
Dan grew up in Cardiff and has worked for Arup, a global sustainable development consultancy, for six years. As a senior engineer in Arup’s Water team, he advocates and delivers sustainable solutions to the many challenges that we face, with a particular focus on using nature and sustainable water management to reshape our towns and cities. Dan is passionate about projects that benefit society, considering and maximising opportunities to address environmental and socio-economic issues.
In 2019 Dan was part of the cohort of Wales’ first Future Generations Leadership Academy run by the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales and was subsequently listed as a Future 100 Changemaker. Dan has built on his involvement in the academy to support the principles of the Well-being of Future Generations Act more generally through his projects, speaking at events and making connections at all levels.
Dan is a chartered engineer and member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).
Helen Westhead
Trustee
Helen leads the Environment team at Arup in Cardiff, delivering projects, policy and strategy to drive decarbonisation in response to the climate emergency. She works across discipline boundaries, to align low carbon mobility with energy, and is currently supporting Welsh Government and Transport for Wales to deliver electric vehicle charging.
Nicky Hagendyk
Nicky is currently shadowing our Board of Trustees through Chwarae Teg‘s Step to Non-Exec programme.
Could this be you?
Trustee
If you are interested in a future position on our board, please get in contact.