Paul Matthews

Interim Chair of Trustees

As the Interim Chair of Trustees, I work with a group of Trustees who collectively oversee the work of Citizens Advice Plymouth.

Paul has made Plymouth his base for all of his life and wants his city to be the best it can. He is committed to ensuring that his fellow citizens are supported as much as they need in their lives. He believes the work that Citizens Advice does is vital in ensuring all residents, irrespective of their personal circumstances, are presented with information that supports and enhances their lives.

Paul has gained great satisfaction from seeing the growth of Citizens Advice Plymouth through the toughest of times, from the strong and supportive relationships within the Trustee Board and from the knowledge that the charity helps to meet the needs of many clients who are well supported by the service that we provide.

His most recent professional role has been as a Project Director with Babcock in Germany and Italy, utilising his 40+ years’ experience in the MOD Facilities and Construction Management, covering both client and supplier senior leadership roles. He has supported military operations overseas . He is a Chartered Construction Manager, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building and holds a Master of Science degree in Construction Management.

He enjoys playing golf and spending as much time as possible with his family.

Chris Mottram

Treasurer

Chris retired to Dartmouth, Devon, in 2012. His early working career commenced in Chartered Accountancy and then commercial lending with Lloyd’s Bank Group. A career shift to the IT industry in 1980, joining Honeywell a US mainframe manufacturer, took Chris into a Sales role and 5 years later progressed to Regional Director with the worlds 2nd largest super-mini computer manufacturer, Data General. From 1990 with an IT career focus on large-scale application software development, he held successive board level appointments spanning, International Sales Director, International Operations Director and finally International MD/CEO roles for the last 14 years of his career.

In the 7 years prior to retirement, he held multiple simultaneous roles in both Intec Telecom Systems PLC and IOCore Group and was personally responsible for running 18 international companies and 3000+ employees, with over 300 tier 1 and tier 2 telecoms companies as clients, located in 56 countries. He personally led several major company acquisitions for Intec Telecom, doubling worldwide employees and adding $130 mill of revenue.

Chris became a Trustee & Treasurer of South Hams Citizens advice in 2013, a Trustee of Citizens Advice Devon in 2016 and joined us in Plymouth C A as Treasurer in 2018.
The experience of corporate governance, deep M and A skills, accounting and legal knowledge plus commercial acumen, compliment the knowledge Chris has gained from the 10 years of working with Citizens Advice.

Gavin Jones

Gavin is the Managing Director of Elixel, a digital product studio based in Plymouth. Over the last decade, Gavin has overseen the delivery of projects for a wide range of organisations including JP Morgan, WPA and Game. While co-founding Elixel in 2012 Gavin discovered the digital scene in the city was seriously underrepresented on a national scale.

With a vision to raise awareness of the city’s digital prowess whilst driving inter-industry collaboration, Gavin founded Digital Plymouth with business leaders from across the city. Within 18 months the City was listed on a national map of digital clusters and the reputation of the city continues to grow. Gavin’s passion for the city saw him join the trustee board in 2020 with the hope of driving the improvement of services through digital.

Jeremy Wollerton

Jeremy is a Yorkshireman by birth but spent his informative years in Plymouth. Having lived in 7 different cities and worked for 5 different Finance Houses he says it’s great to be back in the south west, “a place I call home”.

Jeremy has worked in the Financial Services sector for nearly 40 years and has been in Senior Management (Board Level) for 27 years. He is a specialist in Operational Excellence and brings a wealth of experience to the Trustees Board.

Jeremy is an ex Rugby player and Cricketer and is now an armchair critic of both sports.

John Gane

John is Finance Director for Babcock Devonport Royal Dockyard. His career in finance has spanned a number of large UK and US manufacturing and engineering multinationals including 10 years abroad in Asia, Europe and the US.

Additionally John has spent a number of years in financial services in banking and mortgage lending.  Apart from current role John has an affiliation with Plymouth having been at university here in the late 1980’s / early 1990’s.

Liz Edwards-Smith

Liz is an experienced senior leader and people and change specialist with over 20 years experience working across the public and private sectors. She has supported organisations and teams to deliver large scale transformation programmes including digital and culture change. 

Following 14 years at Sema Group Plc, Schlumberger, KPMG and Atos Consulting, Liz founded a micro-consultancy focusing on organisational and team development underpinned by evidence based interventions. She is a qualified coach and Master Strengthscope Practitioner. 

An experienced Non-Executive Director and Trustee, she successfully guided transformation of Age UK Plymouth including collaboration with local government and health to establish a Short Term Care Centre providing step-up / step-down care as part of the city’s health and social care system.

Liz is a Fellow of the CMI with a position on the South West Regional Board and a Graduate Chartered Member of the British Psychological Society with a position on the South West Branch Committee.

Living in Plymouth with her husband, two teenage children and a very chilled out Cocker Spaniel, outside of work and volunteering you will find her on a yoga mat, walking the dog (for miles!) or experimenting with Suminagashi art.

Liz is keen to support Citizens Advice Plymouth to continue to grow, to provide much needed services to residents in the city and further afield, and to advocate and campaign on behalf of those whose voices often go unheard.

Gill Saunders

Originally from rural East Devon Gill returned to the south west in 2016 after spending the majority of her working life in London, the North and overseas. She was a late-starter career civil servant, working first in front-line benefits offices and then mainly in Whitehall social security policy, with spells in health, social services and rural development.

Gill retired in 2013 after several years running the Social Security Advisory Committee, an advisory NDPB charged with oversight of the social security system and the scrutiny of proposed legislation. Towards the end of her time in Whitehall she took her first charity trustee/director post with Phoenix Futures, a large drug and alcohol rehab charity. She also volunteered with local environmental and wildlife charities and managed a large allotments and community gardening site, working with refugees and other marginalised communities.

Currently Gill is in my final term as a Director of the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, and she is the Trust’s Honorary Secretary. Her main responsibilities include oversight of the Board’s business programme and the Board/Executive interface, governance and compliance and the recruitment, induction and training of new trustees. She is the designated lead for Safeguarding and HR.

Gill lives in North Cornwall near Launceston, where she does a lot of very muddy wildlife and vegetable gardening – and occasionally miss the big city.

Richard Baker

After moving to the South West in 2013, Richard spent several years working in the world of Adventure Sports. This was followed by time with a national children’s charity as the Head of Facilities.

Since April 2021, Richard has worked for the Plymouth based charity First Light, as the Director of Governance and Compliance.

In his spare time, he enjoys making the most of the beautiful South West and spends time walking, swimming and camping throughout Devon and Cornwall.