Keith is originally from Anglesey where he gained his love of the sea and the mountains. He joined the Royal Navy from school and qualified as an operational submariner and nuclear engineer.
After his time underwater, Keith specialised in engineering support, major procurement projects, risk management and safety, with a particular focus on the nuclear and high hazard aspects.
Keith is now Technical Director for an Agency of the Ministry of Defence involved in all aspects of support for the UK submarine force.
He is also the Head of the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors and a patron of the Holyhead Maritime Museum.
Keith has a grown-up family and lives in Worcestershire with his wife. He has recently fulfilled an ambition to acquire an American Island Packet, with Bermudan Cutter rig, to continue his passion for sailing.
Mark has specialised in the health and social care sector having developed a model of specialist therapeutic care provision to meet the needs of children and younger adults with learning disabilities, autistic spectrum disorders and those who have experienced trauma and abuse. He runs several residential care homes and supported living services in Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire.
Mark has a real passion for developing teams and provides management consultancy, leadership training and mentoring for aspiring leaders; and he has brought this enthusiasm to SARA at a significant time in our history.
Mark joined the Beachley station in 2008 and has, at one time or another, been an active participant in each of SARA’s disciplines: Lifeboat Coxswain, Land Search, Rope Rescue and Swift Water Technician, Casualty Carer and Search Controller. Mark became the Chief Executive Officer in 2018 having been Deputy since 2012.
Mark is also RYA Advanced Powerboat Instructor and Rescue 3 Rope Rescue instructor.
The rest of Mark’s time is devoted to training for an IronMan Triathlon and his very patient and understanding wife and two children.
Richard has twenty years’ commercial and management experience. He was the SARA Fundraising Officer for 6 years and oversaw a significant improvement of SARA's financial health.
Richard joined SARA in 2015 and is now land search party leader, inland helm, and casualty carer, a qualified instructor for Swiftwater & flood and for rope rescue.
Richard was the Fundraising Officer as well as the Fundraising Manager for the Beachley Station, and led the transitioning our accounting processes away from manual records and stand-alone spreadsheets to a fully integrated accounting system with usefully granular reporting capability.
He also leads the work of our Finance Committee.
Originally from the the Home Counties, Richard lives in the Wye Valley near Monmouth. He is a keen runner, cyclist, triathlete, open water swimmer and orienteer, and is developing two wildflower meadows at his home.
Ian has been a senior HR practitioner for a little over 40 years and in that time has held positions in a wide cross section of organisations ranging from commercial businesses, not-for-profit concerns, and a local authority.
The roles he has undertaken have been as equally varied, from consulting and generalist HR positions through to subject matter expert assignments focussing on HR policy and strategy development, organisational effectiveness and reward programmes.
Ian was born in Gloucestershire and has a strong affiliation to the county. After many years away he has recently settled in Lydney with his partner to be closer to their family and friends.
Now retired from full-time employment Ian busies himself as an impulsive gardener, a thoughtful cook casual motorcyclist and reluctant mechanic.
Judith spent much of her career in marketing, principally in the hotel and tourism sectors.
She held senior marketing positions for a number of well-known hotel chains and was also a director of Tourism South East and of the Tourism Society. Subsequently she set up a successful management and marketing consultancy for the industry, which she operated for 15 years, advising on strategy for major international hotel companies and tourist boards.
After a career break, she worked for Public Health England co-ordinating exercises for the emergency services and NHS in rapid joint response to large scale emergencies such as pandemics, flooding, and terrorism.
Judith has been a sailor for most of her adult life and is a qualified day skipper.
Now enjoying a quiet retirement with her husband, she lives in the Quantock Hills where she is a trustee of the village almshouses, serves on the committee of the gardening club and volunteers in the community shop.
Shaun is a successful businessman who has spent his entire working life within the retail motor industry. His experience has taught him a lot about people and process for which the standout learning has been teamwork. A fervent believer that good teams are more than the sum of their parts he brought that commitment to SARA when he joined nearly five years ago.
Now basking in semi-retirement, Shaun still enjoys involvement with the motor trade by helping to train new staff with a wide number of affiliated organisations.
An Operational Helm based at the Sharpness station he finds himself constantly humbled and delighted in equal measure at the bonds of friendship, support and professionalism that all the members of SARA display and, as the organisation approaches its 50th year of operation, is looking forward to navigating the organisation into the next half century.
Shaun has been happily married for 28 years and firmly believes that, like many members of SARA, he could not achieve anything without the mutual help and support that this brings. He tries to get out on the water in his own boat as often as possible and when that’s not possible he plays golf (badly) and cooks (rather well).
