Tom McCaw LVO
Tom is Chair of the Board of Trustees. He is married to Carol and they have two grown up children: Kirsty is a teacher and Chris a mechanical engineer.

In 1988 he was appointed as Land Steward for the Duchy of Cornwall responsible for the properties in Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset, Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. He was closely involved in setting up the Poundbury development at Dorchester. He retired in 2008.

Tom’s interests have always been particularly related to the countryside, be it encouraging farmers to own or rent their own holdings or providing opportunities for young people: Affordable homes and rural businesses, so they do not have to move into town, together with the school, shop, pub and village hall that are so important  to all communities. 

Tom is a Rotarian, Trustee of the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust (Chair the Reserves Committee), and an active member of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA). He enjoys gardening and the countryside and, when he has the time, a game of golf.

Lesley Andrews
Lesley is the former director of a specialist housing and related social policy consultancy which focussed on work for central and local government. Much of this work was undertaken for rural local authorities across England. As a result of this experience Lesley has a good appreciation of the policy context of much of Community First's work.

Currently Lesley is the managing partner of Community Data Services, and supplies policy support to one of the housing market renewal programmes in the North West. She has a strong interest in supporting arts based small businesses and organises exhibitions to promote the work of newly qualified and more established artists. Her work at Community First is focussed around small business support especially through the Business Loans and Grant Fund panel which she chairs.

Dr Hoshang Bharucha MD FRCPath
Dr Bharucha was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1937 and trained in medicine at the prestigious Christian Medical College in Vellore, S. India.

He and his wife moved to Belfast and because of great job satisfaction and the feeling that there was a need for people from outside N.Ireland to bring a cohesive influence to a very divided society, stayed 32 years.

In Belfast, Dr Bharucha was senior lecturer/consultant pathologist and involved with teaching undergraduates and providing pastoral guidance and career advice to designated students from different ethnic backgrounds. He was involved with administrative affairs at senior level both at Queens’ University and the NHS and gained experience of teaching and working in Zambia, Libya, Malaysia and the USA as an exchange lecturer. He also had a short spell as Assistant Director (Dean) of the medical school.

Dr Bharucha and his family moved to Great Bedwyn when he retired in 2003.

Since moving to Great Bedwyn he has helped in assessments of post-graduates from outside the UK, is Chairman of the combined Bedwyns and Grafton Link Scheme. He is a keen observer of parish council issues and grass roots democracy at work and Chairman of the Great Bedwyn History Society.

Dr Bharucha brings his experience of working and living in a divided social setting and knowledge of cross cultural issues rising from different ethnic backgrounds to Community First.

Piers Dibben
Piers runs a Calne based business which works predominantly with Councils around the UK to deliver amenity services to the local community.  His previous experience has ranged from trading futures on the old futures exchange through to rare breed pig production.   

He has come to Community First from Youth Action Wiltshire, where he was chiefly involved with the fundraising. He is now Chair of the Marketing and Fundraising Committee.

David Evans
David retired in 2001 as Manager of Wiltshire College Calne, which provided a wide range of vocational training (including IT skills) and recreational courses for the local community.

He has been involved in the Calne community in a number of initiatives to raise the quality of life in Calne and the surrounding villages including the Calne and District Community Link Scheme, Calne Credit Union, Calne Area Transport and the Calne Heritage Trust.  He has been involved on the steering group for the Calne Community Area Partnership and in the Wiltshire Council pilot Calne Area Board more recently.

Since moving to Wiltshire with his wife and family in 1978 David has supported community involvement in his village and is a long term trustee of Cherhill Village Hall as Secretary and latterly as Chairperson and as a Parish Councillor.  In 2003 he became an elected member for the Hilmarton ward and joined the Executive of North Wiltshire District Council with the lead role for customer focus, electronic government, community involvement and later for diversity and equality.

David is a trustee of Age Concern Wiltshire and a member of the Wiltshire Local Involvement Network (WIN) core group.

David has been a trustee of Community First since 2001 and enjoys contributing to the development of Wiltshire rural communities and is a member of Community First's Human Resources Committee.

Alan Fox
Alan is retired and takes a keen interest in his local village community. Currently he chairs three local interest groups, namely, Holt Ahead, the Village Appraisal Follow-up group, and Broughton Gifford and Holt Youthwork Project and The Patient Particpation Group at the Health Centre in Bradford on Avon. He was the first chairman of the ASGYPH (Advice and Support Group for the Young People of Holt). He is a trustee of the Holt Village Hall Committee, and a member of the Holt Community Bus Committee where he co-ordinates village excursions to places of interest as far afield as Cornwall, Dorset, Yorkshire and North Wales..

Alan’s personal interests include his family; he has a fifteen year old son, Matthew and his wife, Susan is an archaeologist managing the Collections at the Roman Baths Museum. He enjoys walking, cricket, cycling and issues surrounding the local environment – he is Honorary Life Vice President of the Flat Holm Society, an island nature reserve in the Bristol Channel.

Alan’s background is in education. He set up and ran for 20 years an educational team within a multi-professional psychiatric unit for children and young people. Prior to that post he taught in a rural centre for London children. He is currently chairman of the Peredur Trust – an organic farm and craft centre for people with Aspergers Syndrome, and a trustee of PETT (the Planned Environment Therapy Trust) where he chairs the Friends of Barns House and PETT.

As a trustee of Community First, Alan has kept a watching brief on Community Transport, is a member of the Marketing and Fundraising Committee and the Youth Action Wiltshire Committee.

Jane Grant
Jane was a member of the Wiltshire Rural Initiatives Fund and the last Chairman for the Fund which ceased in 2003. In 2000 she was co-opted by the Board and elected on at the 2002 AGM. Jane is a member of the Wiltshire Association of Local Councils and is involved in many organisations in her home village. These include being a parish councillor, member of Holt Ahead, the Holt Luncheon Club, Advice and Support Group for the Young People of Holt, Holt Community Bus and the Holt Magazine Board.

Jane has experience in business administration and has been a company director, a school governor and clerk, as well as an executor.

Jane’s interests in Community First are in community development, needs assessments and service provision in rural communities, particularly for young people. She is the current Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees.

Alison Irving
Alison has been a Parish Councillor for 18 years and was a District Councillor for 8 years (1995-2003). She is very involved with community planning in the Westbury area and is Secretary of the Westbury & District Community Development Trust.

Alison is involved and in touch with the various organisations in the village of Dilton Marsh, including the Village Hall Committee, and led the Planning For Real exercise in the village in 1999.

Alison is a member of Community First’s Human Resources Committee.

Jane James
Jane is the operational managing director of a Community Care company that provides palliative care in peoples own homes. She also leads a medico/legal team and deals with local authorities and primary care trusts. She has offices at Tytherton and in London.

Jane has been one of Youth Action Wiltshire’s Trustees, and wants to continue to contribute to support of disadvantaged people.

Arthur Laflin
Arthur was co-opted to the Board in May 2004 and is a member of the Human Resources Committee. He has a Diploma of Business and is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management. He has an Honours Degree in Management and is a Director of a Management Consulting company. He brings a wealth of Human Resources knowledge to Community First as Chair of the HR Committee.

He currently is Principal of ABL Human Resources providing business consulting, advice and facilitates profit related learning and development opportunities to small/medium sized companies across a range of industries. He is also a Senior Associate with ADTI/Augusta Consulting.

He has previously held senior posts in companies in Australia, Papua New Guinea and is a former Personnel Director in a major subsidiary of an international rubber company.

Susan Thorpe
Susan is an experienced small business management accountant, specialising in establishing computerised financial management systems and procedures. As a Salisbury District Councillor, Susan was consecutively Chair of Finance, Budget Performance and Review and Partnership Committees. She was the Sallisbury member of the South West Regional Assembly from 1998 to 2001.

Deputy Leader of the Council from 1995 - 1999 she was also one of the founder members of the WIltshire Multi-Agency Anti Poverty Forum and subsequently became a leading member (as Chair of Partnership Committee) of South Wiltshire Action against Poverty and South Wiltshire Economic Partnership, as well as one of the two South Wiltshire members on Wiltshire and Swindon Economic Partnership. In June 2009, Susan was elected to Salisbury City Council and was subsequently elected as Leader of the Council.

Su is the Chair of Community First's Finance and Policy Committee.

Tony Thorpe
Tony works as a freelance training consultant, has been a trustee of Community First for 4 years. After 34 years in the RAF, much of the time working on complex Government-funded projects, he became heavily involved in community and charitable activities.

For the last two years Tony served in the Cabinet of Salisbury District Council, with particular responsibility for Resources.

Apart from a significant involvement with ecumenical Church community-based projects and activities, he was largely responsible for the establishment of the increasingly successful South Wiltshire Credit Union, of which he remains the Treasurer. He has been active in South Wiltshire Action Against Poverty (SWAAP) and has taken a significant role in the launch of the new Community Area Partnership for Salisbury.

Tony is a member of the Marketing and Fundraising Committee. He also chairs the Landfill Tax Grants Committee.

Patron

President