Trustees
Associate members are invited to serve on our various committees in an advisory capacity because of their expertise in an area relevant to our work.
Our associate members are:
Peter Bounds has had 37 years local government experience, of which 17 were as chief executive, first of Bolton and then of Liverpool. His service in Liverpool covered the period of recovery from the many difficulties of the 1980s, completely reshaping and reenergising the Authority and reestablishing its external relations and credibility. He was particularly involved in a wide range of regeneration initiatives and programmes, and he is currently chair of Renew North Staffordshire, one of the Government's housing market renewal pathfinders. As a consultant, he has specialised in governance, conduct and relationship issues. He is also a Civil Service commissioner, responsible for appointments for senior appointments in the Civil Service, and a patron of the Centre for Tomorrow’s Company, a think-tank and catalyst for a new agenda for business with focus on employees, shareholders and society. Peter is an associate trustee on National Museums Liverpool's Audit Committee.
The Earl of Derby spends the bulk of his time running ‘Knowsley’, a part commercial/part agricultural estate comprising Knowsley Safari Park, home to the largest herd of African elephants in Europe, and Knowsley Hall, a stately home which has become an established venue for private and corporate entertainment .
Appointed a deputy lieutenant of Merseyside in 1999, Lord Derby has increasingly become involved with some 100 organisations predominantly in the North West. He is president of the Liverpool, Knowsley and Sefton Chambers of Commerce and is, additionally, president of the Liverpool Cathedral Centenary Fund, president of the Royal Philharmonic Society and local area patron of the Prince’s Trust among others.
It was his ancestor, 13th Earl of Derby, who lent his name to the original museum in Liverpool, ‘The Derby Museum’ and who bequeathed his natural history collection to the people of Liverpool; it was this collection which, in 1853, was to form the basis of what is now known as World Museum Liverpool’s collection. Lord Derby is an associate trustee on National Museums Liverpool's Finance Committee.
Ruth Gould is a forty-something, mother of three and former performer, who describes herself as proud to be a scouser, and even prouder to be a Disabled person. She discovered ‘the arts’ quite by chance after having her first child. This was in the form of movement, designed at first to get fit, then discovering self-expression and a way of communicating which ignited her soul. She attended the Liverpool Theatre School for two years, gaining grades in dance, mime and speech and drama. After this, she started to perform her own devised physical theatre pieces, became a clown (Augustina Trout) and experimented with British Sign Language in movement and mime. At this time Ruth also had occasional opportunities to work in film and TV or as an extra.
In 1988, together with her husband and two children, she attended the School of Creative Arts in Sydney (Brookvale), gaining a diploma in Performing Arts, thereafter spending the next four years touring and facilitating arts workshops and presenting performances in Australia, New Zealand, USA and Scotland, returning to Liverpool in 1992.
In 1996 Ruth discovered the liberating and revolutionary world of Disability Arts, whish led her to a firm commitment in advocating change through actively raising issues in order to access all manifestations of arts and culture. She is currently creative director for North West Disability Arts Forum, and serves on the Arts Council England: NW, as a council member. Ruth is also an advisory member for the select committee for Arts and Culture for Liverpool City Council, a member of the Liverpool Culture company board and chair of the Creative Communities Sub Group and vice-chair of the Bluecoat Arts Centre. She is studying for an MA in Social Enterprise Management. Ruth is an associate trustee on National Museums Liverpool's Public Services Committee.
Dorothy was born in Liverpool. Over the years she has had a variety of jobs including secretary, nursery nurse, student counsellor and adviser, grants officer, adult education lecturer, local government officer and an equal opportunities development manager. In 1970 she was appointed the first community relations officer in Liverpool and in the early 1980s she developed her own training agency 'Affirmata', who were the first to offer training on all aspects of equal opportunities and management.
Since then she has served on many committees including the Radio Merseyside Board, Racism Awareness Program Unit Trust and the Home Office Working Group on race training for the police. She worked with the YMCA Working Group which produced a report on racism in the YMCA and was also a member of the Broadwater Farm Inquiry. Until recently she was a committee member then patron of the Women of the Year Luncheon which raises money for women’s and children’s projects and was chair of Cardinal Hume’s Working Group on Racism which produced the report 'With you in spirit'.
Dorothy was a founding member of the UK Repatriations Group and a member of the committee that set up the award-winning Transatlantic Slavery Gallery at Merseyside Maritime Museum in 1994. She now classes herself as a professional volunteer and serves on the committee which plans the annual Slavery Remembrance Day celebrations. She is also a member of the Executive Committee of Granby Residents Association, which she helped found.
Her major and passionate interest is the history of Black people in Britain and the history of the development of racism, subjects which she lectures and gives guided talks about. A published writer, she has also done some television and radio work.
Mark McNamee is a self-employed property developer and trades through his own company, Cityheart Ltd, which specializes in sustainable development and champions the environmental agenda . The majority of his work is done in partnership with the public sector in its various guises.
Mark has been involved with National Museums Liverpool for five years, primarily on the Development Trust, but more latterly as an associate trustee on the Capital Projects Committee. He includes amongst his hobbies skiing, golf, contemporary Irish history and meteorology.
Nigel Packer was born 1939 in Southampton and educated in London at Westminster School. He trained as a chartered accountant in both London and Liverpool, qualifying in 1961. Nigel became a partner in a small firm of chartered accountants in 1965, which merged with international firm Pannell Kerr Forster (PKF) in 1978. He acted as a General Practice partner with audit and taxation responsibilities, and was actively involved with the National Museums Liverpool trust accounts and with the organisation's trading company. Nigel was then appointed senior partner of the Liverpool office of PKF and was elected president of the Liverpool Society of Chartered Accountants in 1987. He left PKF in 1993 to form his own firm, specialising in trust and probate work. This firm was acquired by Rathbone Investment Management Ltd in 2001. Nigel was appointed a director of Rathbone Trust Company Ltd. He is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners. Nigel is now largely retired. He is an associate trustee on National Museums Liverpool's Audit Committee.
Professor John Tarn was Roscoe professor of architecture in the University of Liverpool from 1973-1995. He was also sometimes pro and acting vice-chancellor as well.
Professor Tarn has been the chairman of the Art and Architecture Department of the Liturgy Commission of the Archdiocese of Liverpool since 1985, a member of the Historic Churches Committee for the four North West diocese of the Roman Catholic Church since 1994 and chairman of the Fabric Advisory Committee for the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral from 1996.
Professor Tarn is also the chairman of the Riverside Group, president of the Wirral Society, vice-president of the Peak District and South Yorkshire branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England and has recently become vice-president of the Liverpool Civic Society.
Professor Tarn was a trustee of National Museums Liverpool from 1996-2006, serving on the Public Services Committee. He is now an associate trustee on National Museums Liverpool's Capital Programmes Committee.