Our People

Hannah Prowse – CEO

Hannah joined the Trust in April 2021 from English Heritage where she was Head of National Projects. With a career spanning arts, heritage and construction, Hannah is passionate about the power of heritage infrastructure to inspire, connect and nurture communities.

Favourite building: Storehouse 9 – as yet undeveloped it is bursting with potential!

Lois Cheadle – Head of Visitor Experience and Marketing

Lois looks after the marketing and visitor experience of PHQ. She has an MSc in Consumer Behaviour and a background in marketing, partnerships, events and catering. She is passionate about ensuring the way visitors interact with PHQ forges memories, facilitates learning, encourages shareability and is sustainable for future generations to do the same.

Favourite building: The Old Pay Office – a perfect example of building regeneration for the benefit of Portsmouth’s community.

Michelle Roberts – Head of HR

Michelle has over 25 years’ experience in private, public and charity sector HR and is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Personnel & Development. She covers all aspects of HR activity for PHQ and as a member of the Senior Management Team promotes good practice in people management and development; ensuring that PHQ’s biggest investment, our people, are at the heart of strategic and operational decision-making.

Favourite boat: MGB81 – absolutely exhilarating.

Neil Pearce – Finance Director

Neil started with the Trust in 2023. He previously worked in various CFO and Finance director roles in quoted and private construction, commercial and residential development, and maintenance and repairs organisations. He is also Treasurer and Trustee of the Sussex Cancer Fund.

Favourite boat: HSL 102 – his uncle and father were rescued by an HSL as they were adrift in Plymouth Sound!

Patrick Holmes – Deputy Chief Executive

Patrick’s remit includes responsibility for estates, operations, health & safety, security and property maintenance as well as deputising for the CEO to represent us among external stakeholders. After a career in a City of London law firm specialising in property development and construction, since 2011 he has committed himself to broader roles including supporting a number of charities with property projects. He is also a trustee of Modern Art Oxford.

Favourite building: Priddy’s Hard – a regeneration work in progress with plenty more to come.

David Butters

David joined the Board in 2012 and became Chairman in April 2017. He qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 1974 and retired from the London Office of Gerald Eve LLP, Property Consultants, in 2009 after nearly 37 years with the firm. He was Senior Partner for 7½ years and led the Leisure Team for 14 years. Since the late 1970’s David has advised operators and owners on valuation, business rates, acquisitions and disposal of hotels, public houses, breweries, motorway service areas and a wide range of other leisure properties throughout the United Kingdom. He has also prepared and given expert evidence in the High Court and Lands Tribunal.

Paul Bennett

Paul joined the Board in 2023. Paul had a long career in Broadcast television culminating as Managing Director of Resources for ITV Studios. He ran the major studios across the UK including London, Granada (Manchester), Yorkshire TV and a BBC joint venture. Paul was Chairman of 3sixty Media and was on the boards of The UK Screen Association and Tideway Sailabilty. He is an RYA Yachtmaster (Sail) Commercially Endorsed and an Advanced Powerboat Instructor. Paul is a regular skipper of Foxtrot 8 and helps with maintenance in BH4 as a volunteer over the winter months.

Cllr Tom Coles

Cllr Tom Coles, born on the Isle of Sheppey in 1982, moved to Midhurst, West Sussex, after his father’s retirement from the Royal Navy. He attended Midhurst Grammar School and worked in his parents’ pub before joining the Royal Navy as a Medical Assistant. After leaving the Navy in 2007, Tom and his wife Nikki settled in Portsmouth, where they live with their three daughters. Tom works as a Healthcare Support Worker at QA Hospital and has served on Portsmouth City Council since 2018. As Lord Mayor for 2023-24, he and Nikki attended over 500 events, raising nearly £30,000 for charity. An amateur historian, guitarist, and film lover, Tom has also advocated for better ADHD services since his own diagnosis as a teenager.

Rear Admiral Rex Cox

Rex became a trustee in 2022. He is a serving officer in the Royal Navy, a career which has spanned 33 years, 23 of which have been at sea, and has had the privilege of commanding four warships. Staff appointments have included three years as Defence Adviser to HM Treasury during the 2015 Strategic Defence & Security Review, and Head of Capability Plans in the Ministry of Defence during the 2020 Integrated and Spending Reviews. He is currently the CEO of the National Shipbuilding Office. He is a Freeman of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners, an alumnus of the Windsor Leadership Trust, chair of the Coastal Forces Heritage Trust, a Trustee of the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust and extremely fortunate to Skipper the historic Motor Anti-Submarine Boat (MASB) 27. Rex sits on the Trust’s Boat Committee.

Henry Flint

Henry joined the Board in 2023. Henry is an experienced Chartered Accountant with a background in commercial property, construction and civil engineering. He trained in the City with Binder Hamlyn and shortly after qualifying joined Hammerson plc and was appointed UK Finance Director. At Hammerson he had oversight of their large portfolio of UK offices and retail sites. In 1999 Henry joined Dean & Dyball, a large civil engineering, construction and property group based in Ringwood and soon after he became Group Finance Director. Henry oversaw significant growth across the business and in 2008 was closely involved in its sale to Balfour Beatty. Since then, Henry worked with the Dyball family to set up and run a successful private commercial property investment and development company. In 2019 Henry joined Lester Aldridge Solicitors as Finance Director and Compliance Officer. He stepped down from Lester Aldridge in 2022 and joined the Board in 2023.

Ben French

Ben is a social entrepreneur with interests in heritage, resilience and humanitarian response. He is currently the Director of Research and Development at a company creating bespoke digital products for international emergency response. He also sits as a visiting researcher at the University of Portsmouth, is a member of the Force Strategic Advisory Group at Hampshire Constabulary. As well as serving as a trustee of a number of other charitable bodies. In his spare time, Ben is a senior officer in a UK cadet organisation, and contributes to several academic & industry research groups, including the United Nations Simulation and Training Network.

Professor Ginny Gibson

Ginny, Professor Emerita in Corporate Real Estate, had a 30-year career as an academic at the University of Reading. She is an expert in understanding how organisations align their real estate with their corporate strategy to ensure that it adds optimum value. During her time at Reading, she held numerous leadership roles including Facility Director of Teaching and Learning, Head of Real Estate & Planning and latterly, Deputy Dean of Henley Business School. Ginny now has a portfolio career and is a Non-Executive Director/Trustee for a number of organisations. She is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion; a founding member of the CREW UK which champions women in the real estate industry and is lead for the mentorship programme CREW UK Connects.

Helen Green

Appointed to the Board in 2023 Helen is an experienced strategic customer experience and customer vulnerability professional. She has spent 35 years in Financial Services initially qualifying as a marketer at Nationwide Building Society then moving to Lloyds Banking Group to lead the Customer Experience and Customer Journey Strategy across a wide range of financial brands (Halifax, Lloyds, Bank of Scotland) and portfolio of retail and commercial banking customer needs. Helen has a MSc in Mentoring and Coaching and works with a number of individuals on their development and achieving their life goals and career aspirations.

Graham Morrison

Graham joined the Trust in 2024. He is an architect and a founding partner of his practice Allies and Morrison which has won over 50 RIBA awards. He was an elected member of the RIBA Council and has worked on the masterplans for London’s King’s Cross, its 2012 Olympics and the restoration of its Grade 1 listed Royal Festival Hall. Graham has been a Royal Fine Art Commissioner, a commissioner for English Heritage, a member of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment. He has chaired several public authority Design Review Panels and he was awarded an OBE for services to architecture.

Robert Palmer

Robert joined the Trust in January 2018. He qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 1987 and retired from Mayfair Capital Investment Management, a UK real estate investment manager in 2022 where he was the Chief Investment Officer. With over 30 years experience in Commercial Property he was responsible for advising both institutional and private clients on commercial real estate funds with assets across the commercial sectors and throughout the UK. He is also a member of the Investment and Finance & General Purpose Committees of Christ’s Hospital School in Horsham.

Steve Pitt

Steve Pitt joined the board in 2018. He was Deputy Leader and the Cabinet Member for Culture Leisure & Sport at Portsmouth City Council from 2018 to 2021. He has worked extensively for over a decade with partners in the cultural community in the city, including nearly 7 years as Chair of the Culture Partnership. Steve co-authored the city’s Vision for Portsmouth 2008-2018 and the renewed Imagine Portsmouth vision published in 2021. He has been involved in many fundraising and development projects across the city including the Landing Craft Project, the Exploria Attraction and the New Theatre Royal. Steve has 30 years experience as a licensee, has organised major events and activities both locally and regionally and has worked as an agent, promoter and manger in the music industry, including running his own venue for many years. He has directed professional theatre for over 30 years.

Robert Robson

Robert joined the Board in 2024. Having specialised in the development of the Royal Navy in the 18th century during his History degree, he spent 6 years in the Navy before a 20 year career in General Management in Barclays, largely in the City, EU and in the private bank in Geneva. In 2008 he switched direction and became the first CEO of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity, charged with creating a new grant-making charity, focused on the serving, retired and family members of the Naval Service. After ten years he stepped back to focus on trustee roles and running a small charity providing confidential safety reporting in the maritime and aviation areas. He has been a trustee of nine charities over the past 25 years and currently acts at Treasurer of the ADVANCE Charity, which funds a 20 year medical study into the effects of severe battle trauma in Afghanistan. He is also a trustee of the South Downs National Park Trust. In 2019 he completed the Executive Coaching course at Henley Business School and joined the Cranfield Trust’s team of charity consultants. Robert and his wife Amanda, a specialist teacher and English tutor, live on the Downs about ten miles from Portsmouth.

Tarek Teba

Tarek joined the Board in 2023. Tarek is an Associate Professor in Architectural Heritage and the Chair for ICOMOS UK Digital Technology National Committee. Tarek is the Course leader of MA Building and Heritage Conservation and the co-chair of the University of Portsmouth Heritage Hub. Tarek’s research concerns the conservation of tangible and intangible heritage through creating the balance between contemporary and historic, aesthetic and cultural values. Tarek explores methodological approaches to preserve the cultural and contemporary social values embedded in heritage assets and cities, using community engagement, cultural mapping and virtual modelling approaches to deliver adaptation and development strategies.

Simon Verdon

Simon joined the Board in 2023. He qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 1995 and is currently Head of Land and Property at the Landmark Trust, a historic buildings charity created by Sir John Smith using funds from his Manifold Trust – which also largely funded the restoration of HMS Warrior. He manages a varied and diverse portfolio of property including shops, offices, agricultural land and, Crownhill, a Palmerston Fort in Plymouth. Before this he ran the charity’s self-catering holiday business with 200 let properties. During his time at Landmark he has been instrumental in saving some of Britain’s most important historic buildings and giving them a new lease of life. His grandfather served in Coastal Motorboats during WWI.