Chair

Lucy Robinson

Lucy joined the Ramblers Board as an elected trustee in April 2021.  She became Vice Chair in April 2023 and was elected as Chair in April 2024.  Her priorities for her term as Chair are to ensure that the Ramblers delivers the objectives set out in our refreshed strategy, not just making best use of the resources that we have available, but also seeking out new resources and new partnerships to increase our influence and effectiveness.  

Prior to joining the Ramblers Board, Lucy worked in both central and local government, specialising in environmental and transport policy and delivery.  She retired in 2020.  Alongside her role at the Ramblers she also holds a non-executive position as a member of the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee at the Howard League for Penal Reform. 

Lucy lives in London with her daughter and is a member of North East London Ramblers Group.  She has recently acquired the bug for long distance walking trails, completing the Coast to Coast path in summer 2025, and on a mission to finish the Offa's Dyke Path.

 

HONORARY TREASURER

Kelly Evans

Kelly is a qualified accountant who has worked in the charity sector in senior finance roles for 20 years with a strong technical grounding in charity finance. Kelly has particular experience in ensuring organisations have robust decision making, risk management and controls in place. She has led various aspects of this from the development of policies, ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory requirements to the implementation of assurance frameworks covering clear risk management strategies an assessment of the effectiveness of controls. Kelly is a keen walker both with her dog and with family and friends, and loves nothing more than finding new walks where we can enjoy the British countryside.

 

ORDINARY TRUSTEES

Gavin Baker

Gavin brings in-depth knowledge of digital transformation within large public sector organisations to the Board, with experience of formulating strategy to harness the latest technologies and managing teams driving those strategies forward.  He has also been involved in cultural change, and equality and diversity programmes within policing, local and national government, especially around attracting groups less represented within the IT arena. Gavin is a keen hiker and cyclist and enjoys exploring the outdoors, and is passionate about the positive impact walking has on people’s wellbeing. He is also an active volunteer walk leader for Ramblers Wellbeing Walks.

 

Mark Chung

Mark has worked in a variety of roles both in the UK and overseas, the vast majority of which have been in strategy and business development. As well as leading walks, Mark has had held many volunteer roles including footpath officer, footpath inspector, path maintenance and countryside ranger. Mark believes walking isn’t about having your head down and going as fast as you can, but about enjoying the environment, nature and the history around us, and not just in rural areas, also in urban areas. He is committed to the Ramblers’ goal to reach out to all parts of our community and doing everything we can to ensure as many people as possible can enjoy the outdoors and walking. Mark is passionate about protecting our public rights of way and the local volunteer path maintenance team has completed almost 250 path improvement jobs in the borough of Pendle.

 

Dan Firmager

Dan is a chartered accountant with experience in charity auditing, giving him a deep understanding of the unique financial challenges and opportunities that charities face. He is a strong advocate for sustainability in the corporate world. His passion for wildlife and nature drives a commitment to promoting walking as a means to connect with and protect our environment, and his belief that encouraging more people to walk can lead to greater environmental stewardship.

 

Janet Gee

Now retired, Janet has a background in volunteer leadership, both as a trustee and professionally; including charity chief executive roles at Cornwall Centre for Volunteers and the National Federation of Young Farmers Clubs (England and Wales). She is currently Chair of her Parish Council, which has a key role in ensuring that public footpaths are accessible and well maintained. Janet is a keen walker and advocate for the benefits of walking on physical and mental health, and on being able to get out into the countryside and breathe fresh air.  

 

Chris Hodgson

Chris has a background in charity finance and currently works the Welsh Pony and Cob Society. He is Chair of town twinning between Aberystwyth and Kronberg im Taunus on the outskirts of Frankfurt in Germany, which involves working in an ambassadorial role in Germany, France and Italy as part of twinning exchange visits. Chris has a personal passion for walking and believes that the protection of our Rights of Way and Access should be at the forefront of what the Ramblers does as an organisation. He has led many walks including covering all of the 189 two-thousand-foot mountains in Wales and a large part of the Wales Coast Path. Chris has previously served four years as Chair of the Welsh Council Executive Committee

 

Joerg Kasprowski

In 2021 Joerg took early retirement from Ford Motor Company after 33 years of service, including 20 years at director-level positions. Having made significant contributions in a wide range of positions within the finance area, Joerg brings these leadership and financial skills and experience to the Board. Although an occasional walker all his life, following early retirement, Joerg’s walking activity was turbo-charged when he joined his local group in Essex and volunteered to become a Walk Leader and later Walks Coordinator.  Having grown up in Germany, he knows that Public Rights of Way is something to cherish and should not be taken for granted, and that it takes a lot of work, diligence, and persistence to keep and to re-establish PRoWs where landowners and developers may have other ideas.

 

Mark Lavenstein

Mark has a professional background in engineering and finance, with experience of strategic planning, impact measurement and governance. As a school trustee he has experience in overseeing performance metrics, evaluating impact, and ensuring accountability. Mark is Chair of the West Kent Walking Group, so understands the day-to-day challenges and opportunities that our walking groups face, and the vital role that walk leaders and volunteers play in fostering an inclusive and welcoming community. He is deeply committed to supporting our local campaigning work to protect and enhance public rights of way, working collaboratively and effectively with local authorities and key countryside stakeholders.

 

Gulshun Rehman

Gulshun has over 30 years’ experience of being a trustee/director of charitable organisations in the UK and overseas. Recently retired, her most recent fulltime role was with Save the Children UK,  leading the business development team to secure multi-million-pound commercial tenders from institutional donors. She has experience of supporting creative and innovative partnerships within the public sector, an imperative in the current climate of competitive fundraising. Gulshun has been a keen walker all her life and, in the past fifteen years, has taken up long-distance walking. She brings a long history of promoting inclusion and extending reach which is valuable experience as the Ramblers strives to actively become a more inclusive organisation.

 

Rowan Williams

Rowan is a chartered accountant and recently retired as a senior partner at an international audit, tax and consulting practice. She has held management level roles throughout this time, and was involved hands-on in the process of strategic change, including projects focussing on revenue generation strategies, embedding cultural change and building teams. Although very keen on sports and fitness, Rowan is relatively new to walking which enables her to contribute to the Board from a different perspective, particularly in developing strategies to attract new members to the Ramblers. Since joining her local walking group a few years ago, Rowan appreciates the benefits of walking for both physical and mental health and is keen to promote the organisation much more from this perspective.

 

CO-OPTED TRUSTEE

Tina Lewis

Tina is an experienced executive board director with strong leadership skills, and a track record of developing and mobilising teams to deliver improved performance. She has extensive experience in HR and operations, and is skilled at leading organisation-wide change in large multi-site organisations across the private, public and not for profit sectors. She is currently the Director of People at the National Trust, responsible for the development and delivery of the people strategy and key support teams including volunteering, internal communications and business support and facilities. Tina is a keen walker, walking regularly with a local women’s walking group. She is passionate about promoting access to enable all to enjoy the wellbeing benefits of walking and connecting with nature. 

 

APPOINTED TRUSTEES

Malcolm Dingwall-Smith

Mal is Convener of Ramblers Scotland Strategic Committee and Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees. Mal is the CEO of Bowls Scotland. He previously led government, political and public policy engagement for sportscotland, the national agency for sport in Scotland.  Mal has supported member governments around the Commonwealth to use sport and physical activity as a tool to deliver social outcomes. He is an advocate for getting people walking in the outdoors and recognises the importance of building and maintaining an infrastructure to enable access to our wild environments.

 

Graham Taylor

Graham joined the Ramblers Cymru Steering Group in 2023 and has been Co-Chair (cyd-gadeirydd) since 2024. Graham is a retired local authority chief officer, and Chair of governors of a local primary school and Chair of Powys Schools Forum. He is active in Powys Ramblers as Footpath Secretary and Walk Leader. He chairs the Powys County Council's Local Access Forum and is very active in representing the interests of walkers. Graham uses these roles to highlight poor access to the countryside and is passionate about doing what he can to improve this.