Our Trustees

Louise Schmitz is a senior manager in National Grid with extensive energy regulation experience and excellent leadership and people management skills. Her career to date includes leadership of organisational change and coaching / mentoring of staff. Louise is Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees and a member of the HR Sub-Committee.

Sharon Walpole is a director at Careermap Limited, a job board for young talent and publisher of Careermag careers publications. She brings exprience with young people and digital/graphics skills from her position as Editor of Careermag. Sharon is Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees and Chair of Operations Sub-Committee.

Stewart Bell, whilst now retired, was the CFO of an international business – BSN Medical. He originally trained with KPMG and is a qualified accountant. He is our Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Sub-Committee. In addition to his financial skills, he brings a wide range of management experience including that of being the Treasurer for a number of years of the South Warwickshire Citizen Advice Bureau.

Paul Taylor is Head of Collections at Shakespeare Birthplace Trust where is responsible for all things related to the museum, library and archive collections. He brings experience of the wider arts, heritage and culture sectors to the work of Escape Arts. In addition to his role as Trustee, Paul is Chair of the HR sub-committee.

Samantha has been a Trustee of Escape Arts since 2022 and has been involved with Escape Arts services since she was eight years old. Samantha says, 'I first got involved with Escape Arts at 8 years of age. I regularly attended workshops during school holidays and continued to attend as a beneficiary for many years. The workshops acted as a form of creative expressive therapy for myself, and helped me to gain confidence and interpersonal skills which I was lacking. I wanted to become a Trustee as I hope to give back to the charity which has been a defining part of my life from a young age.'

A collaborative, strategic client driven board and executive director,  with extensive leadership, commercial, transformational change &  project management and operational  expertise. Kate is passionate about working with organisations where she can make a difference, ultimately enabling accompany to deliver their vision and strategic plan and execute organisational objectives and growth or change & transformation programmes.

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With over 25 years experience of workforce solutions and experience operating as COO, Commercial and Operations Director Kate has worked with organisations including Experis (Manpower Group) , Energy & Utility Skills, Grayce and as an independent consultant  where she has worked with a variety of SME’s through consultancy and NED work. Currently a Business Director at ERM CVS(sustainability business) and a NED at GoEthical, Kate brings a wealth of commercial and executive leadership experience to the trustee position.