Snowdonia-Active Board and Employee Profiles

Snowdonia-Active is constituted as a non distributive Limited Company with a volunteer board of 4 directors and 2 staff with an office in Brynrefail near Llanberis. Positions on the Board are in a voluntary capacity. The Board meets on a regular basis to shape the direction of the organisation, monitor operations and support the staff.

Mark Lynden – Chair of the board of directors

Mark is a founder member of Snowdonia-Active. He runs a successful graphic design and website development company and has been working in graphic design and communication technology since 1986. He has consistently used cutting edge systems to enhance the communications process in graphic design and has particularly focused on providing specialised support to the outdoor sector. He is a partner in www.adventuredirectory.com – the worldwide internet based adventure search engine.

Mark has been climbing and mountaineering since 1974 and has a Jt Hons degree in Education/Physical Education from Bangor University. As a BHPA Chief Paragliding Instructor he was amongst early pioneers of paragliding in the mid 1980’s having established the first paragliding school in Snowdonia. Mark also has social enterprise and sector cluster development experience and is a founder member and director of Caban Cyf the social enterprise that manages a purpose built creative business centre at the heart of rural Gwynedd.

Simon Higgins – Director, Finance

Simon founded and ran Menter Fachwen, a successful voluntary sector organisation, developing a range projects in community education, business development and programmes for people with disabilities. During his period as CEO of Menter he drew in £4m from European and other funding sources for a variety of capital projects and programmes.
Since 2009, Simon has worked as a consultant. Projects include management and legal compliance for a Gwynedd statutory sector project, management, governance and financial planning for a N Wales Voluntary sector organisation and financial reviews for a local authority project.

Simon has also been working in Cambodia for Kampuchean Action for Primary Education, delivering finance and audit advice for the U.S. Department of Labor. He is currently developing the national strategic plan for the NGO Education Partnership in Phnom Penh, working with international and Cambodian voluntary organisations.

Ray Wood

After graduating from Bangor University he worked as an outdoor pursuits instructor in Pembrokeshire and N.Wales before turning to photography as a career. A Post Graduate Diploma in Photojournalism at the London College of Printing followed soon after and he has since combined this vocation with his passion for the outdoors as a successful business. Ray’s work regularly appears in the outdoor press and he has illustrated several books on Wales.

Ray is an experienced rock climber who at some time or other has enjoyed the wide range of adventure sports the region has to offer. Mountain Biking is flavour of the month.

Andy Newton – Director, Human Resources

Andy moved to Snowdonia in the late seventies to undertake a PGCE at UCNW Bangor after having completed a BSc (Hons) in Applied Biology at Liverpool Polytechnic. It was while at college that he graduated from enthusiastic hillwalker to fully committed climber and mountaineer. Andy holds the highest British level mountaineering qualification; the Mountaineering Instructors Certificate (MIC). Andy taught at the Cheshire Outdoor Education Centre on Anglesey for ten years. Since then he has worked as a freelance instructor/trainer/technical consultant throughout Wales and other areas of the UK.

Andy is a British Mountaineering Council (BMC )approved Technical Legal Expert and a vastly experienced Mountain Leader Award and Single Pitch Award Course Director and Provider. Andy has chaired the (BMC) Committee for Wales and was recently Secretary of Mountain Leader Training Wales. He continues to be an active climber and is deeply involved in the production of climbing guidebooks to the area, having co-authored ‘Snowdonia Winter Climbs’ and ‘Gogarth – a climbers guide’.

Andy’s experience of climbing worldwide has helped to define his attitude to the potential for sustainable adventure activities and tourism at home here in Wales.

Chris Wright – Chief Executive

Chris has strong foundations in the outdoor sector, he grew up working at his parents outdoor centre in north Wales and went on to become a British Canoe Union Level 5 Coach. This allowed him to work internationally, training and assessing kayak coaches and providing private coaching and guiding for a wide range of clients. As a founder member of Snowdonia-Active and now its chief executive, Chris has developed a strong project management skill set over the last 10 years. Chris is used to working closely with key statutory bodies on issues as wide ranging as; Outdoor Sector cluster development, business support, sector specific marketing, infrastructure developments, sector specific information provision, Health & Safety issues, rural regeneration, environmental impact, liability and insurance.
As part of his work with Snowdonia-Active Chris sits on The Environment Agency for Wales; Fisheries, Environment, Recreation, Advisory Committee, (FERAC) and is a founder member and director of the Outdoor Partnership. Chris is also a member of the Visit Wales sponsored Wales Activity Tourism Organisation (WATO).

Dr. Emma-Edwards Jones – Green Tourism Project Manager

Emma has 20 years experience, as project manager, academic and consultant in the environmental sector. Particular areas of interest include stimulating behavioural change towards sustainability in industry and society.

Following graduation in 1991 from Imperial College, London Emma worked for the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, Edinburgh and Scottish Natural Heritage, Edinburgh. In 1992 she joined Scottish Wildlife Trust as a River Valleys Officer. In this post she was responsible for the development of Integrated Environmental Action Plans for The Water of Leith, Edinburgh and the River Almond, West Lothian. Working on these projects required facilitation of stakeholder opinion and actions, public consultation, communication with the media and environmental research. She moved to Heriot Watt University as Lecturer in Environmental Modelling in 1995, where she completed her PhD ‘A participatory approach to integrated catchment planning’.

From 2006-2010 Emma ran the Green Snowdonia Project for the Snowdonia Society to promote sustainable tourism in North Wales involving facilitation of knowledge transfer within the tourism industry and marketing activities promoting sustainable tourism including website development and marketing literature. Through Green Snowdonia Emma has developed close links with the tourism industry of North Wales, in particular she has developed a growing network of ‘sustainability trailblazers’, she has worked with these businesses to disseminate their experiences throughout the industry via workshops, articles and presentations at industry events.