Our Advisory Network
The trustees of Daring to Dream are sincerely grateful to all those in our Advisory Network who are really helping Daring to Dream move forward, bringing their perspectives, experience and expertise to make a real difference.
Ashley Bale
Digital Inclusion & Innovations Manager for Innovate Trust, Ashley has a passion for bridging the digital divide through assistive technology. He is leading transformative initiatives leveraging IoT solutions to enhance independence for individuals with disabilities. As the driving force behind award-winning projects like the ‘Insight’ app and intelligent personal assistants, my work has been recognised for significantly improving wellbeing and digital accessibility across the UK.
His leadership approach is founded on continuous learning and innovation, currently enhanced through my master’s studies in Leadership in Digital Transformation.
Ashley remains committed to creating inclusive digital ecosystems where technology serves as an equaliser, enabling everyone to thrive in our increasingly connected world.
Jo Griffiths
Jo is an HR Business Partner in the innovative and award-winning company, Admiral plc. She is an HRM specialist and an HR Generalist.
An experienced management development trainer, coach and mentor.
Liz Hayward
Liz is an experienced HR, OD and L&D professional, currently HR Manager at Creo Medical Ltd.
Creo medical operates globally and employing within UK, US, EU and Asia Pacific regions. Creo Medical is a medical device company focused on the emerging field of surgical endoscopy, a recent development in minimally invasive surgery.
Over recent times, the team at Creo has expanded significantly and globally through a combination of organic growth and M&A to introduce additional experience into the design, manufacture, production and commercialisation of electrosurgical medical devices.
Liz has a background experience across a range of sectors, and also of leading her own consultancy.
Richard Houdmont
Richard worked in publishing for over 25 years. He then worked for CIM (The Chartered Institute of Marketing) as Regional Director for Wales, subsequently adding Ireland and the Isle of Man to his portfolio. During that time he was a regular contributor to BBC Radio Wales’s Good Morning Wales programme and has written for a variety of newspapers and magazines.
Richard has extensive experience of committee work having been Chair of Literary Publishers (Wales) Ltd (1999-2006); a member of the Welsh Books Council Marketing Panel (from 1991, Chair 2001-2006) and Board member of Sgript Cymru – Contemporary Drama Wales (2000 – 2007). He was a Board member of Poetry Wales Press (2006 – 2021); a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Library of Wales from 2016 to 2020: and member of The Welsh for Adults Scrutiny Committee (2016 – 2023) which scrutinised the work of the National Centre for Learning Welsh on behalf of the Welsh Government.
He is currently an independent member of Amgueddfa Cymru’s Audit, Risk & Compliance Committee. In his spare time, he plays badminton and tennis and is learning blues piano.
Gaynor Lewis MSC, FloL
An experienced leader with over 20 years in senior leadership team roles. Representation at Board level with:
&endash; The Institute of Leadership – Director of Strategic Partnerships Leadership Trust – Deputy CEO
&endash; City & Guilds/ILM – Operations Director.
She has a passion for enabling people to grow, develop and reach their full potential and a strong belief that coaching is a key ingredient to achieving personal and organisational success. She believes that coaching provides the ‘scaffolding’ to make effective change happen in the workplace, and is critical in embedding new approaches.
Gaynor has extensive experience in coaching individuals at every stage of their career, with an appreciation of the tension and challenges encountered at the strategic level. She has experience of supporting senior team members and CEOs across a range of sectors – providing busy executives with the time to explore their own leadership practice and focusing on the impact they have on others, improving effective decision making and supporting career progression.
Gaynor is also an experienced designer of development programmes with coaching support for a wide range of Third Sector, private and public sector organisations.
She is a Founding Member & Co-Chair All Wales Coaching Alliance (AWCA), established in 2019, working with University of South Wales and coach volunteers to share best practice and enhance coaching capabilities across Wales, with a network of over 120 coaches.
Gaynor is a qualified Executive Coach with an ILM Level 7 Executive Coaching & Mentoring Diploma (2010) and trained Action Learning Facilitator (2012) and a Mentor via the Institute of Leadership’s MyMentoring platform, available to professional members, to support career progression.
Jay Sheppard
Jay has been a fundraising professional for 20+ years. He has served on several Boards, is an experienced mentor and is passionate about helping charities thrive.
He’s been involved in fundraising since the age of 15. He had a rare brain disease, spent 3 months in hospital and at one point had just 10% chance of survival. He had to learn to walk again, and it was during this experience that Jay developed his strongest characteristic, a characteristic which stood him in good stead for a career in fundraising – Resilience!
Jay has a degree in Business Studies, is a certified Member of the Institute of Fundraising and has successfully raised millions of pounds during his career. His early fundraising exploits involved running the London Marathon several times. The reason being that doctors told him during his illness that he’d be unlikely to walk again, and he would certainly never run a marathon, this just served to motivate him further. He has taken on every challenge imaginable and has extensive experience of organising all sorts of events from treks to high-end black-tie dinners. Jay also has extensive knowledge in all areas of fundraising.
