Alero Agindotan

My name is Alero Agindotan. I’m from London originally and have lived in Somerset for a few years. I moved to the countryside for health reasons and happily discovered that Somerset air has done wonders for my health and well-being.

I would like to put myself forward to be a volunteer co-ordinator and also assist with community events programming.

Currently I am a trustee of the Green Gathering Charity. We hold the Green Gathering every August and one my roles for the Green Gathering is to coordinate areas and establish and organise different crews who volunteer within the recycling team, several of the bars and the Speakers Forum cafe.

I also work as an area coordinator at Medicine, Small World and Glastonbury festivals every year and have done so for the past 15 years. I ran a community art gallery, The Bedford Hill Gallery & Workshops, in London for many years and have always engaged with Community projects and activism wherever I have lived.

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Martin Berkeley

I have been involved in the project to reopen the Amulet under community ownership since 2023 and remain committed to its success.

I am a business owner and employer with event organising and marketing experience. Originally brought up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, I know at first hand the importance of bringing diverse groups together to build social cohesion and civic pride.

I have been involved in the starting of a number of successful community groups and events in Shepton Mallet including the Lantern Parade in 2011, Mendip Hash in 1999, the Uphill to Wells Relay in 2009, the Runaway Train in 2023 and the new Sunday Market in 2024.

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Derek Dodd

I’m originally from Stockton-on-Tees in the North East but have lived in the West Country for most my life. I moved to Somerset almost 4 years ago. 

I worked for Bristol City Council for over 25 years as a community worker. In this role I helped local people to establish and run important local resources – anything from the first afterschool club in South Bristol, an advice centre, a community arts project, a health group to a local advice centre. I have also worked at Glastonbury Festival since 1981 only missing one year in that time. I started as a car park steward and selling programmes before working on Jazz World/West Holts stage. I worked as the Area Coordinator there for a decade from 2008. 

I currently volunteer for Somerset Sight as a befriender in Shepton & Frome. I’m excited about the prospect of helping to establish The Amulet as a vital resource for the local area. 

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Richard Fegen

As a Shareholder in the Amulet I am keen to help build on the project’s extraordinary success to date and I believe there are skills and experience I can contribute, particularly in creative/publicity areas.

I have been a television writer since the early eighties, specialising in Comedy and Children’s. After graduating from Trinity College Dublin I joined an advertising agency and spent ten years on the learning curve to Copy Chief at Saatchi & Saatchi. It was the best thing that could have happened and the skills and disciplines I gathered I have used ever since.

I began writing comedy at night and weekends, and finally a sitcom, Chance in a Million for Channel Four. This made three series and I moved to England and the West Country to write a number of comedies, culminating in The Brittas Empire which ran for seven years and Woof!, nine. Since then I have almost exclusively written children shows, for the UK, US and France. I have been represented by The Agency since 1982.

Since moving to Evercreech I have written and designed campaigns promoting the Evercreech Show, attacking unscrupulous developers – and creating a brand for the highly successful After Party dance, of which I was Committee Chairman.

I would love to work for The Amulet on a creative committee using my advertising and marketing skills (and indeed produce comedy material for the Amulet stage once it’s up and running!).

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Jake Harrison

As a university student I specialise in social media marketing and video production, I have worked on a range of projects big and small, local and national and possess a lot of experience, my skills and effort have already been a huge benefit to the project taking on the Amulet’s social media, website and in much of the construction and pop-up events in 2025.

My motivation to see the Amulet put back to community use for the benefit of our young people, is just what our project and town needs and is why I wish to take on this role.

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Charles Henderson, BA FCA

Charles started his career in 1979 training as a chartered accountant and conducting external audits of UK companies. After specialising in the audits of financial services companies, mainly building societies, fund managers and banks, at Touche Ross & Co, now Deloitte, he spent the last 25 years of his full-time working life in operational roles at the fund managers Perpetual and then Invesco, after it took over Perpetual.

This included spells as a director of Perpetual’s and Invesco’s regulated UK companies. Towards the end of his career at Invesco, he was part of Neil Woodford’s and then Mark Barnett’s UK Equities fund management team. Also, he became a non-executive member to the FRC’s Audit Quality Review Committee (“AQRC”) and contributed to the Quoted Company Alliance’s 2019 edition of their Audit Committee Guide. He retired from Invesco at the end of May 2019.

When the AQRC disbanded at the end of 2020, he became a member of the FRC’s Advisory Panel until the end of May 2024. Advisory Panel work included working with the Corporate Governance and Stewardship team on their assessments of Stewardship Code signatories. In 2021 he became an associate of Falcon Windsor, helping them occasionally with reviewing annual reports. At the beginning of 2022 Charles became a member of the Pre-emption Group representing individual investors in their monitoring of companies’ disapplications of pre-emption rights.

His interest in investing stems from a working lifetime close to fund managers and a keen interest on how UK plc reports to the markets and in governance, company reporting and auditing related matters. His investments include shares in the US listed company Invesco Limited, ISA mutual funds and his defined contribution pension pots. The ISA and pension funds invest in UK equities and he keeps a close eye on their fund managers’ major investments in UK companies. This interest in investing has led him to becoming a director of UKSA in the hope that he may contribute to relevant policy matters, help the way UK companies report to their shareholders and improve the connection between companies and their individual shareholders. He is also an active participant in the Corporate Reporting User Forum (“CRUF”) UK and its CRUF ESG subgroup.

His hobbies and spare time interests are foil fencing (fighting with swords), bridge, films, theatre, fell walking, gaming and reading.

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Bill Lowe

Age 73 Retired Chartered Town Planner
Qualifications: Diploma with Distinction in Town Planning 1976
Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute 1981 – 2016
Experience: 1976 – 1983 Planning Officer, Vale Royal DC [Cheshire], & Stoke on Trent
1983 – 1987 East Area Principal Planning Officer Mendip DC [inc Shepton Mallet], day to day development management, handling planning appeals, acting as expert witness at Inquiries, then resigned to work in private practice.
1987 – 1994 Associate Directorships with Cooper and Tanner, then Nationwide Building Society, dealing with Planning and New Homes [C&T], involved in relocation of Frome Livestock Market, land promotion, option agreements with developers, expert witness work, commercial recoveries [Nationwide BS Surveyors, Bath], Nationwide sold the Surveyors business.
1994 – 2016 set up and ran Bill Lowe Ltd., Planning Consultants, submission of planning applications, appeals, acting as expert witness for private clients and North Wiltshire DC, direct instruction of Counsel at St John’s Chambers Bristol.

Retired, then pursued theatre interests: ran bar occasionally at Merlin Theatre Frome and front of House at Memorial Theatre Frome. Became a Trustee of the Grade 1 listed Blue House Almshouse in Frome, for 7 years involved in minor development work, replacement of an underperforming Manager, transition to Charitable Incorporated status [to protect the personal liabilitiy of Trustees].

2019 – date: active Member of the Frank Matcham Society www.frankmatchamsociety.org.uk attending UK and European Theatre visits with colleagues from West End TheatreManagement, Performance, and Technical Direction.

Interest: My interest at the Amulet would be in Building Management, given my background.

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Jane Nicklin

I have been involved with the project to bring the Amulet centre into community ownership and see it thrive as a community space, from its inception. I consider it vital for the people of Shepton Mallet to have access to the arts of all types and a space where community groups can meet, not least for our health and wellbeing.

I have been a trustee for a variety of small, not for profit organisations and for the national Fire Fighters Charity. These roles  have given me experience in engaging with members, chairing committees, strategic development and managing tight budgets at times!

I am a town councillor with particular responsibility for health and well being and for economic regeneration. I am involved in many local groups and helped found ‘Shepton Walks’.

All my working life has been spent in the NHS as a clinician, researcher, leader and strategist. Latterly I worked as an independent facilitator for charities and networks.

All these experiences mean I can contribute to the project and I have a passionate belief that we can achieve our shared goals.

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Elizabeth Parry

The vision and mission of The Amulet Centre are what attracted me to becoming involved with the organisation. As a resident of Shepton Mallet, I would like to contribute to the success of this exciting venture for the town. 

I have skills, qualifications and experience in housing development, health, social care and compliance, exemplified by senior executive and board roles. 

I believe I can bring the following attributes in contributing to the development of The Amulet Centre.

• I have experience as a trustee of charities and as a board member and understand the requirements to act with probity and fiscal responsibility, whilst ensuring we meet strategic objectives. 

• I have experience of corporate planning and annual business and resource planning. I value staff engagement to inform corporate goals, for example, how to balance the allocation of resources across competing priorities. 

• I have experience in ongoing monitoring of an organisation’s financial performance at board level and as an executive at departmental level. I am not financially qualified but have sufficient understanding to assess financial and management information and to contribute to business and financial planning. It is important keep abreast of policy changes and the wider political scene to inform objectives and assumptions. 

• As a Non-Executive Director of an NHS Primary Care Trust (now Integrated Care Boards), I gained valuable experience in a complex health organisation. As Chair of the Audit and Assurance Committee, I had to navigate the demands of ambitious government policy, medical excellence, financial rigour and an informed public. 

• I can build networks and relationships within and beyond the organisation to gain influence, have impact and progress organisational goals. For example, I was responsible for delivering a strategic delivery plan and investment for single homeless people across eight West Country local authorities with differing priorities and demographics, whilst answerable to the Department of Communities and Local Government. I used my collaborative approach to build and influence those multi -disciplinary networks to achieve successful outcomes. 

I have a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion. I have worked in or been a board member of organisations in urban and rural areas where deprivation and social exclusion exist in communities.  I became interested in how to access ‘hard to reach’ people and how to design services that enable people to access them readily. I would like to contribute to a diversity and inclusion strategy that is deliverable and is geared to making everyone welcome. Various communication routes should be open so that people can feedback in the way most comfortable for them. Having family experience of disability, I have contributed to accessibility issues at various venues.

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Matt Shaw

I am a professional creative with over a decade’s worth of experience working in different fields with a strong commitment to community-centred programming and a broad, diverse knowledge of the arts. With experience across multiple artistic disciplines, and a deep interest in the performing arts and musical traditions, I’m passionate about creating inclusive spaces where artists and audiences from all backgrounds feel represented and engaged.

I’m currently the Senior Animator, Illustrator and Art Director at a UK/ US creative agency where I have a great deal of experience working with and leading creative teams and projects to successful completion. This role requires good listening, delegation and collaborative skills while communicating effectively and having a clear goal established. 

I also have a background working with students in the arts and collaborative practice at Central St. Martins and Falmouth University along-side experience working with and supporting artists with additional needs and autism.

Rooted in collaboration, I’m particularly interested in integrating local creatives and building meaningful connections with Somerset’s diverse communities and neighbouring music venues. I believe in the Arts as a shared cultural language and I’d love to develop programming that reflects and integrates the diversity of the region, while encouraging dialogue, accessibility and growth.

As a board member, I’d aim to support emerging and established artists alike, strengthen local partnerships, and ensure the venue serves as a welcoming hub for creativity, diversity, and the community.

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