James (Jim) Spittle, Chair

Jim has over 30 years experience in Retailing, Manufacturing and Supply Chain management.

He has a successful track record in developing and implementing significant change and economic value in the Retail, Manufacturing and the International Supply Chain standards field, he has previously held senior director board positions at   DSGI, Whitbread, Kingfisher and Tesco stores.

Having recently retired from full time corporate life he holds a number of Non-Executive board positions, (below) and carries out consulting and strategic reviews for businesses World wide. He is married with two children and enjoys Golf, Art and avoiding rigorous exercise.

Current Appointments

Chairman of GS1UK www.gs1uk.org,
Chairman of CAN www.can.org.uk ,
Chairman of G-ILS,
Vice President of the CILT www.ciltuk.org,
Advisory board member of Cranfield University Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain Management (CLSCM) www.cranfield.ac.uk/som

Michael Airs, Deputy Chair

Michael has taught in the primary and secondary sector as well as being a Head of Department in Further Education.  He has experience of being a youth worker, County Youth Officer and Principal Education Officer.  For the last 11 years he has been an independent management and training consultant.  In this capacity he has offered facilitation and management advice to projects for the homeless, managed advocacy contracts for looked after young people and offenders in a secure training centre and undertaken research for a family change organisation.

Nationally has been president of his own professional association, chair of the British Youth Council Political Education Group, served on the Executive of the National Youth Agency, represented England at a UNESCO Conference, been an adviser to the Local Government Drugs Forum and served on a working party of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.

Has served two terms on the local Probation Board where he served on the Audit Committee and chaired the Appeals Panel. Currently chairs the local Connexions Partnership Board and is also a non executive director of the Retirement Education Centre (Bedford).  Publications include advice on managing services to young people and guidance to schools on responding to the needs of young people experiencing family change.

Ted Murphy

Ted  is an HR professional with over 30 years experience.  Born in Liverpool he started his career with the NHS, working in Merseyside, Cheshire and West Yorkshire.  In his last post in the health service he led the HR function for a health authority of 6,500 staff.

He then moved to the financial services sector and worked for Abbey National for 23 years.  He held a range of HR Director roles with Abbey at various times having responsibility for HR strategy, policy and operational support across an organisation of 25,000 people.

In the last few years he has worked as an independent HR consultant carrying out assignments for central and local government departments.

He is a family man with grown up children and two granddaughters.

He holds an MA in Human Resource Management and is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD.

Isobel Mann

Isobel is a Solicitor specialising in Private Client work in particular Wills and Probate, Trust, residential care fee issues and disputes, wealth preservation and Power of Attorney and Court of Protection work.  She has been working in this area for around 10 years.  Isobel is a member of the Probate Section of the Law Society and Solicitors for the Elderly.

In her spare time she enjoys watching rugby and is a member of Northants Triathlon Club which feeds her enjoyment of swimming, cycling and running.

Linda Couchman, Treasurer

Linda comes from a background in industry and banking.  She brings a wealth of experience in Accounting, Human Resources and Training.  She is a Chartered member of The Institute of Personnel Development, and hold Diplomas in Psychology and Psychotherapy.  Linda has also acted as a mentor to local schools so she is well aware of the problems that young people often face.

She says “My interest in CAN was sparked by the need to feel that I was doing something to help others in the community.  Being at CAN has opened my eyes to the problems faced by people with addictions.

Her aim is to promote the excellent work of the Charity, and to raise CAN’s profile in the wider community, ensuring the funding the Charity receives is spent wisely and put to the best possible use. She looks forward to her forthcoming role as Treasurer of CAN.

On a personal note Linda has been married for 30 years and has twins aged 26.  Her outside interests are swimming, quizzes, socialising and travel.

Lis Pace

Lis worked as a social worker for two years before joining the Probation Service in 1986 as a Probation Officer. She worked in a number of different services, and enjoyed different roles, including team manager in London, and as a Practice Teacher, where she trained students to become Probation Officers.

In 2000 Lis was promoted to become a senior manager with the Bedfordshire Probation Trust, where she specialised in managing the supervision of high risk offenders and those who were accommodated in Probation managed hostels. It was during this time that Lis became especially interested in further developing partnership working between the voluntary and statutory agencies, who were involved in delivering services to those with drug or alcohol problems. In this capacity, Lis was a member of the Luton DAP (Drug and Alcohol Partnership) and was one of the commissioners of the services provided to the people of Luton.

Lis left the Probation service in 2010, and since then has joined the Registration service in Milton Keynes as a Deputy Registrar, whilst continuing to work as a freelance report writer and complaint investigator for Probation Trusts in the East of England.

Lis joined the Board of CAN in August 2010, hoping to be able to bring some of her previous knowledge and experience of the criminal justice system to the Board.

Monica Dawson

Monica’s working life started in finance collecting personal and corporate debt for a commercial organisation. After a year working in America as an au-pair she progressed through a manufacturing company to be a divisional manager overseeing a variety of operations including marketing, customer ordering and logistics.

A career change began what she believes will be a lifelong passion for corporate governance.

She currently works for a FTSE250 retailer and after seven years internal audit experience she now specialised in corporate risk management.  Her role is about facilitating and influencing senior management to identify, assess and manage risks in line with how the Board want the organisation to be run.

On a personal level her commitment to CAN ably competes with her passion for football (terrace not pitch!), dogs, theatre and completing a part-time degree course.

Norman Clarke

Norman’s working experience is in management consultancy, systems design and implementation and Quality Management Systems in the IT sector, both in the UK and abroad.  He joined CAN after returning permanently to the UK, where he hopes that he can add to the pool of expertise of the other trustees.

He lives in Dunstable and is married with two grown up children.  His other interests are playing the organ and working behind the scenes with the Dunstable Rep Theatre Company.