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Our Board of Trustees

Our Board of Trustees

About the Board of Trustees

Our Trustees are:

  • Elected by the members of our network at our AGM, who are individuals or organisations that share our vision and values;
  • Responsible for supporting the Stove Team, which is composed of staff members who work on various projects and events related to creativity, community and place-making;
  • Supportive in delivering both strategic aims and governance of The Stove Network, which means they oversee the direction, performance, quality and accountability of the organisation.

Lynsey Smith | Chair

Lynsey is a creative economy consultant with almost 20 years of experience.  She has gathered expertise from working in high profile roles for the British Council, Nesta, The Lighthouse and Creative Edinburgh.  Lynsey has strong strategic and leadership skills and is bold in her thinking, building an international network and reputation for her pioneering work with creative hubs.  

Lynsey has gained an invaluable international perspective on the global creative economy after leading on the development of over 100 projects and programmes in more than 40 countries across Africa, Europe, South America and Southeast Asia, in order to advocate or support sustainable creative economies. She spearheaded the creation of the Creative Hubs & Communities portfolio, a brand-new global portfolio for the British Council which she led and internationalised.  

Previously, Lynsey was co-Founder and Executive Director of Creative Edinburgh, one of Europe’s largest creative hubs for the creative, cultural and tech sectors of Edinburgh. Lynsey has been responsible for shaping numerous enterprise programme offers for organisations like Nesta, Eden Project, British Council, Creative & Cultural Skills and Creative Spark.  Most recently, she co-designed a brand-new global leadership programme in partnership with Clore Leadership. Lynsey is an RSA Fellow and alumni member of Future Leaders.

Mike Comerford | Vice Chair

Mike is a Chartered Engineer (a designer of ships, boats and other things marine) and a professional Yachtmaster. Mike has worked with UK and Scottish Ministers in policy development in support of shipping, oil and gas, offshore renewables and aquaculture. He has actively supported homelessness, affordable housing and sustainable development work.

He was a volunteer director of a marine sustainable development partnership which developed the management plans for the largest marine special area of conservation in Europe (for bottlenose dolphins) and the first ecosystem-led approach to the integrated management of an inshore fisheries area in the UK.

The Partnership also created a unique collection of fishermen’s jersey (Gansey) patterns and supported the restoration and use of local traditional boats. Mike is a creative person (musician, photographer, aspiring poet and painter) and a strong supporter of the vision of putting creativity and cultural and natural heritage at the heart of restoring and sustaining communities.

Erica Judge | Treasurer

Erica is a Director of Funds at Inspiring Scotland, which provides financial and practical support to over 700 of Scotland’s third sector organisations. She was instrumental in launching Creative Communities and Rural Communities Ideas Into Action, two community-led development programmes.  She brings with her over 20 years’ experience in change management, financial strategy and commercial delivery roles.

A US native from New York City, Erica holds an MBA from the Wharton business school, and began her career as a diplomat with the US Foreign Service. She has subsequently worked with a variety of FTSE 50 companies, most recently in the banking and retail sectors. Passionate about community-led change, equity and improving access to opportunity for all, Erica is motivated by a desire to make the world better by helping people and organisations achieve their objectives.

Erica has lived in the UK for over two decades, with half that time in Scotland. She was previously a Trustee of the Curiosity Collective, a charity working to give children the freedom to explore the world of learning beyond the classroom.  She enjoys reading and exploring the outdoors with her two sons and adopted greyhound.

Jodie Barnacle-Best

Jodie Barnacle-Best is a knitwear practitioner and community arts facilitator based in Glasgow. Whilst completing her masters in fashion and textiles at the Glasgow School of Art in 2021, Jodie joined the Creative Spaces team at The Stove. She took thematic ideas from her knitwear practice, investigating building connections between maker and wearer, into her community arts facilitation work creating and running events for young people within D&G. A passion for community and environment is integral to her creative practice and is also the reason why the work of The Stove is so important to her.

Jodie currently works as a studio assistant at Hilary Jane Keyes, a knitwear design, consultancy and production studio based in Ayrshire. Jodie also takes on a variety of independent textiles projects and commissions. She has been a recipient of the Postgraduate Welcome scholarship from GSA, a Textile Society Student award winner, was selected as a British Council research fellow in 2020 and is pleased to be a member of the Craft Scotland advisory board since January 2021.

Linny Oliphant

An authority in luxury brand development, PR and Marketing, Linny’s 25 year career spans Tourism/Hospitality, Fashion/Textiles, Luxury Automotive and Premium Spirits.

The former Fashion Editor of The Sunday Herald Magazine is a contributor to several lifestyle titles and is regularly quoted in the press. Having held rank as a Director at the University of the Arts, London, Linny is an ambassador for linking industry and education and remains a University External Assessor.

During her 8 year tenure as Brand Manager, Johnstons of Elgin she was credited with revitalising the historic cashmere and fine woollens manufacturer, bringing it to the forefront of the luxury market and founded the renowned collaboration with Scottish fashion designer, Christopher Kane.

Returning to her home region of Dumfries and Galloway in 2014, Linny spearheaded the Annandale Distillery project, including the development of the state of the art Visitor Centre and the delivery of the official opening of the site by HRH The Princess Royal.

Particularly passionate about tourism and creativity, Linny is the Product and Destination Development Manager of the SSDA (South of Scotland Destination Alliance) and a proud to be on The Stove’s Board of Directors. With a love of classic cars, Linny is the founder and owner of ‘The Love Bug D&G’, SW Scotland’s Classic VW Co. based in Lockerbie, which offers chauffeur driven wedding cars, corporate promotions, mobile bars and bespoke tours with door to door service – popular Food & Drink itineraries include the VW Chocolate Tour and the VW Distillery Trail.

Tessa Gordziejko

Tessa is a theatre-maker: creative producer, director, writer, performer; and a consultant specialising in organisational and creative development with arts companies. 

She was a Fellow of the Clore Leadership Programme 2005-7 and has over 20 years’ experience in leadership roles in the cultural sector. These include Creative Programmer for London 2012/ Director of Imove, a £3.2m 2012 Cultural Olympiad programme comprising 32 projects across Yorkshire; Executive Director of Unlimited Theatre; and Chair of Red Ladder Theatre. In 2013 she established Imove Arts as an independent production company which created socially engaged arts projects which connected groups of citizens and communities with a deep set of ideas or themes, framed through collaboration with artists. 

Tessa has a passion for, and a wide experience of, making site-specific performances in unusual, mostly outdoor, settings and is engaged in networks of artists making work about climate and ecological breakdown. She is also a performing poet. Having lived and worked in the North of England for 30 years, she moved to Dumfries & Galloway in 2021 since when she has worked as a producer for several Scottish companies. She is a founder member of The Forest Ridge Project, an arts-led, off-grid co-operative which embraces re-wilding, growing food and creative connections with land, nature, and communities.

Calum Walker

Calum is a freelance musician and composer from Dumfries.  Through his tenure as a guitarist in various bands and ensembles, he has developed a lasting connection to the local music community. 

He has built a portfolio career in community music, supporting the next generation of musicians through music workshops and mentoring (including projects for Paragon, The Stove Network, and the Dumfries Music Conference). 

He is currently studying towards a music degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland specialising in Composition.

Chris Wood-Gee

Chris has a background (and current practical involvement) in farming, but has concentrated for most of his working life in the rural and urban environment.  Initially dealing with urban fringe green space development with a strong community engagement focus Chris spent 16 years working on the northeast of Glasgow developing community woodlands, improving local access networks, improving wildlife habitats and exploring placemaking in partnership with Greenspace Scotland. Many of the projects Chris worked on had elements of arts-based interpretation as integral elements.

After moving to Dumfries & Galloway, Chris managed the Sulwath Connections Landscape Partnership, a £3.9 million programme of projects from riparian habitat improvement to consolidation of historic churches and improvement of visitor facilities at a range of RSPB reserves.

Before retirement, the latter stage of Chris’s career involved sustainability and climate change, setting up and leading the sustainability team for D&G Council, developing its carbon management plan and delivering climate mitigation projects, including a roof top solar power programme. Chris’s work has been through a local authority context but with a strong emphasis on partnership working, project management, contract management, project development and strong community engagement.  

Partnership working has been critical to Chris’s working life whether this is supporting small community groups to deliver their aspirations or as Chair of the Sustainable Scotland Network Steering Group (which leads on public sector climate action and reporting across Scotland). Chris is passionate about the wider environment, our need to tackle the climate crisis, the quality of the wider farmed landscape, maintaining our resource of traditional buildings and the crucial role that the arts and creativity have in improving and maintaining the quality of life for our communities.

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