Meet the Board

Amanda Cottrell OBE, Patron, Visit Kent

Amanda was educated in this country and in Europe, followed by the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts. Her early career was as an artist, working for Walt Disney briefly in California! She married in 1967 and moved to Challock in Kent. During the next twenty years, as well as working as an artist and farming, she brought up her four children. Amanda was widowed in 1996, and now has ten grandchildren. She was made High Sheriff of Kent in 2006 and was awarded the OBE for services to Kent in 2011. Amanda was a magistrate for 23 years, as well as Chairman of her Parish Council. She holds an Honorary Fellowship of Canterbury Christ Church University and an Honorary Doctorate of Civil Law from the University of Kent. She also served for three years as a Director of VisitEngland.

Patron of Visit Kent, Amanda Cottrell is a Deputy Lieutenant of Kent, a Kent Ambassador as well as a Trustee of Canterbury Cathedral and the Godinton House Preservation Trust. She is Chairman of both the Diocese of Canterbury Communities and Partnerships Framework and the Churches Working Together Partnership. Amanda is Patron of Produced in Kent and the Caldecott Foundation, co-Patron of the Strode Park Foundation and of the Maidstone Museum as well as the Director of a small bus company which serves the rural areas of Kent. She is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers, and a Freeman of the City of London and the City of Canterbury. She is also Patron of the Ellenor Foundation and a Medway Champion.

Amanda has worked closely over many years with the rural and agricultural sector in Kent, and this remains extremely important to her.

Bill Ferris OBE, Chairman

In 1988 Bill became the first Commercial Manager at the Yorkshire Mining Museum (now the National Museum of Coalmining), seeing it through its last phases of development and early years of operation.

He went on to run a series of commercial heritage programmes for Heritage Projects Ltd and later became their Operations Director, and was responsible for seven projects nationally with combined visitor projections in excess of one million a year.

He joined Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust as Chief Executive in December 2000, where he developed a strategy for long-term revenue sustainability. More than £30 million has since been raised to invest in the site and today it accommodates 115 homes, more than 100 businesses and welcomes more than 170,000 visitors a year. The Historic Dockyard’s combined activities generate more than £16m to the local economy.

William Benson, Chief Executive, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council

William has been Chief Executive at Tunbridge Wells Borough Council since 2010. Before that, he held a number of senior roles in local government with a particular emphasis on performance, transformation and customer care. William’s original background is in international development and he worked for the International Development Select Committee in the House of Commons leading on a range of inquiries and reports.

William sits on a number of national boards and committees that shape and influence national policy towards local government and is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.

Colin Carmichael, Chief Executive, Canterbury City Council

Born in London, Colin attended William Ellis School in Highgate before studying modern history at Merton College, Oxford. He gained his key local government experience in London in the late 1980s and 1990s, working for the London Borough of Hackney before becoming Director of Corporate Services for the London Borough of Camden.

Colin became the Chief Executive of Canterbury City Council in 1996. The ethos of accountable and credible local government has shaped his work at Canterbury, ensuring that local residents and businesses are served by a city council that is ambitious on their behalf, and aims for excellence in all its work. Colin’s commitment to the district extends into the community. He is a member of the Governing bodies of the University of Kent and of Canterbury Christ Church University. He currently also chairs the Board of Canterbury Further Education College.

Adam Bryan, Director of Place, Medway Council

David Hughes, Head of Business Engagement & Economic Development at KCC 

David is Head of Business and Enterprise at Kent County Council, and is responsible for the teams within the council that help deliver support to business across the county, including trade development, inward investment services, finance and digital technology. He is a board member of Produced in Kent and a trustee of the Kent Foundation.

John Keefe, Director of Public Affairs, Eurotunnel 

Originally a Geologist by education, John is currently Director of Public Affairs for Eurotunnel spending much of his time working with National and local government to promote the economic importance of the Channel Tunnel and ensuring the resilience of the transport infrastructure connecting it to the rest of the UK, as well as its vital role linking the UK to Europe.

He has worked on the Eurotunnel project since 1993, having been involved since the construction phase and subsequently through the start-up and the critical financial restructuring and, most recently, in developing solutions to protect the vital Tunnel infrastructure from illegal migrant incursions and to reducing the impact of Operation Stack on Kent businesses.

John is originally from our neighbouring county, Essex, but has been working in Kent and on Kent issues since joining Eurotunnel. He is married with one son, two dogs and two horses and, working for Eurotunnel, naturally divides his time between the UK and France.

Deirdre Wells OBE, Chief Executive, Visit Kent

Deirdre Wells OBE was appointed as CEO of Visit Kent in September 2018. Deirdre is also CEO of Go to Places, an organisation created by the company, to deliver services to partners outside,and in partnership with Kent, including setting up the new Destination Management Organisation Visit Hertfordshire, the Big Weekend and a number of national tourism projects under the Government’s Discover England Fund.

Prior to her appointment to Visit Kent, Deirdre was Chief Executive of UKinbound, representing nearly 400 UK inbound tourism businesses. During her tenure at UKinbound, Deirdre was a passionate advocate on behalf of the industry on a broad range of issues including the impact of BREXIT, Visas, Air Passenger Duty and skills.

Deirdre joined UKinbound following 20 years in Government at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport working on a variety of high-profile projects including the Millennium Dome, Liverpool Capital of Culture 2008 and the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Deirdre was awarded an OBE in 2007 in recognition of her work in leading the team behind the national memorial services for the UK victims of the 9/11 attacks, the Bali bombings, the 2004 Asian Tsunami and the London 7/7 attacks.

Appointed the Government’s Head of Tourism in 2010, Deirdre was instrumental in the delivery of the GREAT campaign – an ambitious and far-reaching marketing campaign aimed to help the world discover why Britain is such a great place to visit, study, work, invest, and do business.

David Statham, Managing Director, Southeastern

David spent much of his formative years in passenger-focused roles, culminating in his appointment as Customer Service Strategy Manager at Great Western and management of the ScotRail franchise in 2004.

A key player in First Capital Connect’s successful bid for the Great Northern and Thameslink franchise, he mobilised the franchise to combine the Great Northern and Thameslink businesses in 2006 and later led the first stages of the transformational Thameslink Programme.

Appointed Projects Director and Deputy MD in 2010 he also led on several capacity enhancement schemes on the Great Northern route which increased peak seating capacity by over 24%. In May 2013, as Managing Director of First Capital Connect, David led the development and delivery of a customer-focused strategy, putting passenger priorities at the forefront of its decisions.

In September 2014, David joined Southeastern as Managing Director. Since his appointment he has employed 100 more people, giving new opportunities to apprentices and graduates, and increasing the number of frontline staff at Southeastern stations. David is leading the company to focus on passenger satisfaction and has overseen £4.8 Million investment in major station improvements and maintenance on the majority of the company’s trains.