Caroline Mitchell

Chair of Trustees

Caroline has lived and worked in Plymouth throughout her adult life. Caroline has enjoyed a long career as a solicitor in Plymouth city and much of that time has been spent working with those who are disadvantaged. Caroline has extensive leadership experience having been a managing partner of a law firm and a member of the board of Plymouth Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Her experience in the advice sector is of significant benefit to Citizens Advice and she enjoys working with a motivated and knowledgeable team.

Caroline is also chair of Buckland Chapel Trust and takes an active role in her local community.

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.

Paul Matthews

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.

As a recent addition to the Trustee Board, he is looking forward to learning more about the detailed support work undertaken and working with everyone at Citizens Advice to continue the excellent work being done across the organisation.
His most recent professional role have 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.