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  1. About us
  2. Who are we?
  3. Management team

Management team

The Management Team take responsibility for the day to day running of the Trust. 

Shazuli Iqbal: RMLT – Finance Manager: FFA FPMA MBA FFTA

Shazuli trained originally in the early 1990s on Audit and as a Group Accountant with KPMG in the Maldives and Sri Lanka, before moving to the UK and completing an MBA at Reading University in 2000.

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Following 4 years as a Section Manager with Marks & Spencer, he then worked in succession as an Auditor with Ernst & Young in London, as Group Company Accountant for Global Pharmaceuticals Ltd in Surrey, as Head of Financial Services for the Shaw Trust Wiltshire and as Chief Accountant for the Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and Wiltshire Environmental Enterprise Ltd

 In addition to his wealth of commercial and charity finance experience, and his finance and business qualifications, Shazuli is also actively involved as a volunteer in his local community. He joined Ruskin Mill Land Trust as Finance Manager in 2013

Published: 22nd February, 2017

Updated: 24th May, 2017

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Ian Clements: BSc - Company Secretary

After leaving school, Ian completed a 5 year Undergraduate Apprenticeship with Rolls-Royce Aero Engines Ltd which included a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Southampton University and a Diploma in Management Studies.

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Following 3 years working for Rolls-Royce’s Industrial & Marine Division, during which he worked closely with the Royal Navy on warship propulsion systems, including HMS Invincible, Ian embarked on a career change which has seen him spend the past 35 years in a variety of senior management roles in the charity sector. These have included roles with CPRE, Community First in Herefordshire & Worcestershire, the British Red Cross and MIND , before he joined Ruskin Mill Trust in 2008

Within Ruskin Mill Trust, Ian has held a number of posts and is currently Director of Development, responsible for the Trust’s substantial Capital Programme, overseeing new initiatives & diversification and implementing the consolidation of the Ruskin Mill group of organisations.

Published: 22nd February, 2017

Updated: 24th May, 2017

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Aonghus Gordon MEd, FRSA, Executive Chair

Aonghus has a distinguished track record of development and leadership of several ground-breaking charities that provide high quality environments and opportunities for people with disabilities. He is passionate about the need for people to break out of dependency and marginalisation, believing that everyone has the potential to shape their own future.

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Aonghus GordonAonghus has a distinguished track record of development and leadership of several ground-breaking charities that provide high quality environments and opportunities for people with disabilities. He is passionate about the need for people to break out of dependency and marginalisation, believing that everyone has the potential to shape their own future.

After training as a potter, Aonghus started Ruskin Mill Trust in 1981 as a centre for cultural development, a small project linked to a nearby specialist school in Gloucestershire. It is now one of the UK’s leading educational charities working with learning disabilities, with twelve centres across England, Wales and Scotland. Aonghus has pioneered its unique method of Practical Skills Therapeutic Education (PSTE), inspired by Rudolf Steiner, John Ruskin and William Morris’s ideas about social renewal, healthy human development and the importance of art, crafts and land work. Thousands of young people have benefited from this integrative education method.

Aonghus is the founding Trustee of both Ruskin Mill Trust and Ruskin Mill Land Trust, which has an impressive reputation for acquiring and restoring redundant iconic industrial buildings and transforming them into educational and cultural centres, winning many awards and commendations. The Trust has acquired and been gifted over 900 acres of farmland, woods and gardens, all looked after using biodynamic principles, a strong area of interest for Aonghus who has championed biodynamic food ecology for children and students.

In 2013 the Trust’s research centre was launched in a bespoke building whose design was informed by the Trust’s PSTE method, and drawn from the foundation stone mosaic in the Ruskin Mill Gallery, a project that was put together by unemployed youth and students with learning differences in 1982. The Field Centre sponsors extensive research into the benefits of craft, biodynamic agriculture, the outdoor curriculum in education through action research, and the therapeutic approach to specialist education. Aonghus has forged many international partnerships, including the development of a Master’s degree in collaboration with Lillehammer Inland University, Norway and, with American colleagues, the establishment of a college for young people on the autistic spectrum in California, at the Meristem Centre.

Aonghus is a Trustee and Board Member of numerous charities and was awarded Social Entrepreneur of the Year for the South of England by Ernst and Young in 2005. He is a charismatic motivational speaker and is not afraid to challenge his audience, which has led to frequent requests to lecture and run workshops in the USA, Europe, China, Russia and the Middle East. He is a Companion of Ruskin’s Guild of St George and, like Ruskin, has a fascination for meteorology and geology.

Published: 22nd February, 2017

Updated: 8th January, 2020

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Colin George - Property Manager, Dip.Arch. BA Hons (Architectural Studies)

Colin is a registered architect with over 30 year’s experience in the public and private sectors as an architect, project manager and in developing space and estates strategies. He has undertaken work as diverse as the refurbishment of a whole street of Victorian houses, laboratory buildings for the University of Oxford and a computer manufacturing facility.

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Colin has a long-standing interest in the conservation of historic buildings and a sustainable approach to the design of buildings and is interested in how the two things can be brought together to provide buildings suited to current needs.  For 13 years Colin was a Trustee of Pegasus Theatre in East Oxford with specific responsibility for their capital project that transformed tired and dilapidated buildings into a vibrant and dynamic performance venue for the young people of Oxfordshire.

Published: 23rd May, 2018

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Kimberly Downton LLB, Head of Legal Services

Kimberly is a qualified solicitor and has specialised in charity law and practice for the past 7 years. Prior to joining Ruskin Mill Land Trust, she held various positions at top-50 law firms advising a range of charities, social enterprises and private individuals.

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Published: 2nd July, 2018

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This is the sister-charity of Ruskin Mill Trust, which offers independent education to young learners with complex needs.