Graham Mabbutt – Chairman

Political Assistant, Northamptonshire County Council; former Councillor Milton Keynes Council (Transport & Planning Portfolio); Retired Recording and Music Industry Executive.

David Fowler – Vice Chairman, C Eng., M.I.C.E

Retired construction project manager, Bedford Tour Guide & local historian.

Ian Clifton

Ian Clifton (Vice President and Founding Chairman)

Councillor Ian Clifton (Vice President and Founding Chairman)
Bedford Borough Councillor, former Deputy Mayor of Bedford and former Cabinet Member (Environment Portfolio); Chairman of Sporting Targets, M&S Contractors, Clifton Farms; Bedford Multiple Sclerosis Centre and Bedford Bereavement Care.

Jane Wolfson, BA Hons Psychology (Vice President)

Co-founder and currently Director, LMD Learning Solutions Ltd.  Former Chair Milton Keynes Community Health Council and Trustee of Health Matters.

Don Allison, A.M.I.E.E. (Financial Director)

Electrical Engineer retired; Trustee of Buckingham Canal Society; Trustee and MD of the former MK International Festival (a Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee), Member of Newport Pagnell Partnership, Parks and Amenities Group; Treasurer of Taverners Boat Club.

Marilyn Leask - Secretary, BA, PGCE, MPhil.,PhD

Dean of the Faculty of Education, Sport & Tourism at the University of Bedfordshire. Formerly Professor of Education at Brunel University and prior to that she worked at the Improvement and Development Agency for local government and managed £multi-million contracts at the government Training and Development Agency for Schools.

John Best

After three decades working for local authorities, latterly as Chief Executive of Milton Keynes Council, John now lives in MK and has an international portfolio of activities relating to place-making and place shaping. He brings experience of developing community-led waterway-based projects having for several years been secretary of the Lee Valley Association in North-East London, and now sees the B&MK Waterway as one of the most ambitious elements of the shaping of this sub-region.

Hilary Goldsmith

Founder and Director of Goldsmith Consulting, supporting business leaders to achieve distinctive performance. Former Non-Executive Director of East of England Excellence, and of the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce, serving a term as President.

Patrick Hall

Patrick has lived in Bedfordshire for almost 50 years. He went to school in Bedford and, amongst other things, was at one time employed as Bedford Town Centre Coordinator. From 1997 until 2010 he served full time as Member of Parliament for Bedford & Kempston. He was active on a number of All Party Parliamentary Groups relating to health, town centre development and rail transport serving Bedford. He also sought to support the Bedford & Milton Keynes Waterway Trust by working to help smooth communication with officials, Ministers and Bedford's former elected Mayor.

Neil Hayes (External Relations Director)

Semi-retired public affairs and media relations consultant, mainly in the energy and healthcare sectors. Former political journalist before moving into the Government Information Service (Civil Service), which included terms in the press office at 10 Downing Street and Head of Information at the former Department of Energy. Former Head of Corporate Media Relations and Head of International Public Affairs at British Gas. Former interim Head of Public Affairs at Vickers. Volunteer for Riding for the Disabled.

Drew Marchant, BSc (Hons) MBA

Drew has lived in Mid and Central Bedfordshire since 1982; he is a business project manager with over 30 years track record in varied industries including engineering, electronic publishing, market research and public consultation. He first became involved in the Waterway in 2007 while at Renaissance Bedford where he led on infrastructure planning to support the homes and jobs growth in Bedford and Marston Vale. Drew was involved in setting up the Consortium and was its first Secretary; he was also Chair of the officer level sub-group, the Bedford and Marston Vale Waterway Parks Steering Group.

Richard Wood

Richard has worked across the independent and statutory sectors at national and local level. In 2004 he joined ODPM as Head of Regional Planning, before moving on to work in the Local Government Strategy Unit. Following 2 years seconded to the B&MK, he has recently returned to CLG to work on Climate Change and Sustainable Development.

Hilary Chipping (Special Advisor)

Consultant in Strategic Infrastructure Planning. Former director of Milton Keynes South Midlands 2008-11, raising the profile of mksm (the largest growth area in the UK), and enabling local authority and regional partners to deliver high quality, sustainable growth with appropriate funding for infrastructure and support services. Developed successful proposal for South East Midlands Local Enterprise Partnership (SEMLEP) in 2010. After graduating with an MA in economics, Hilary joined the Department of the Environment as an economist, before heading up 2 divisions at the Department for Transport and becoming Director of Network Strategy at the Highways Agency.