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.

Fiona Stephens

Fiona was born into a Naval family and was brought up in Plymouth. After a clutch of good GCSEs from The Royal Hospital School, she started work aged 16 and has owned her own home since age 19. Fiona had a period as a single parent to two young children.

Fiona held a 16-year career with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). During this career she progressed to Executive Officer and whilst with the organisation held a number of challenging roles, managing teams and providing services to our customers. During this period, she also gained qualifications in management and customer service.

A disability has meant a career gap but in 2022 she felt that she was in the fortunate position to be able to volunteer with Citizens Advice as an assessor on the phones. Fiona is excited to be appointed to the Board where she hopes to be able to draw upon her lived experience, bring a down to earth approach and provide a practical viewpoint to inform strategic direction.

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.