Trustees
The Anna Plowden Trust's Trustees include members of Anna's family and also specialists from the sector. There is more information about each Trustee below and you can click on the link to go direct to an individual's biography:
Susan Palmer, OBE - Chairman
Francis Plowden - Secretary and Treasurer
Penelope Plowden - Grant making manager
Nell Hoare, MBE
David Leigh
Jane McAusland
Frances Plowden
David Saunders
Susan had a career in senior positions in marketing and communications in financial and professional services, ultimately as Marketing Communications Director of Grant Thornton International, a worldwide accounting organisation. She has had an active involvement in arts and heritage. In addition to chairing the Anna Plowden Trust, she is a Trustee of Chatham Historic Dockyard, the Bowes Museum, the North Music Trust and an Advisory Board member of the National Railway Museum and she chairs the Benevolent Trust of the Orchestra of the Age of Englightenment. She has also been a Trustee of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund. In addition to her arts and heritage commitments, she is also a Governor of St Peter's School in York. Susan was awarded the OBE for services to national heritage in 2004.
Francis Plowden, Secretary and Treasurer
Francis Plowden is a chartered accountant, formerly with PricewaterhouseCoopers with world-wide responsibilities for public and not- for-profit sector work. He now chairs the Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College, and is or has been a Board member of a number of other public, private and voluntary sector bodies, including the Royal Armouries and the Royal Ballet School. He also works as an independent adviser on public policy and management issues and his clients have included DCMS, the MLA, English Heritage and the British Museum.
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Penelope Plowden worked for the Economist Intelligence Unit for many years, at first specialising in Latin America where she lived for a time, and then taking responsibility for political and economic forecasts for countries around the world. She now works as a freelance editorial and economic consultant, specialising in developing countries She also sits on the committees of several local charities in south London where she lives. Penelope manages the Anna Plowden Trust's grant making activities.
Nell was Director in of The Textile Conservation Centre from 1992 to 2009, during which time she oversaw the relocation from Hampton Court Palace to the University of Southampton, then the closure of the TCC in 2009. Nell then worked on a consultancy basis for the TCC Foundation helping to realise, and raise funds for, the new Centre for Textile Conservation and Technical Art History in Glasgow University. Her other freelance work includes management of the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust. Nell is a Fellow of the Museums Association and the International Institute of Conservation.
David has worked in conservation as practitioner, teacher and administrator. His appointments have been at the Universities of Southampton and Cardiff, the Museums & Galleries Commission’s Conservation Unit, the Museum Training Institute, West Dean College - of which he was Principal - the UK Institute for Conservation, and Icon, the Institute of Conservation, to the Board of which he is co-opted. Now retired, his main voluntary role was as Secretary-General of IIC, the International Institute for Conservation. He is a member of the National Trust’s Council and Arts Panel. Holding a B.Sc. in physics, he trained in archaeological conservation and has a PhD in Anglo-Saxon archaeology, specifically jewellery. He holds the Plowden Medal for his contribution to the advancement of the conservation profession.
Jane is a conservator and restorer of art on paper. She has had her own private practice, now based in Suffolk, since 1970. With others, she founded the Institute of Paper Conservation in 1976. In 1977 she was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to do further study in the USA. Over the next two years she worked on the collection of HM the Queen in Windsor Castle, particularly on the Holbein drawings. She is a Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation (IIC) and was a member of the Council. She has worked on private collections internationally and for museums both large and small as well as dealers and advises the London auction houses.
On graduating from Brighton Polytechnic’s 3-Dimensional Design degree course, and after a year’s apprenticeship with a London-based blacksmith, Frances set up a metal workshop in London, with the help of a Prince’s Youth Business Trust grant and a prize awarded by the Livewire Young Business competition. Following several years living and working in Barcelona, with the help of a scholarship from the ‘Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust’, Frances returned to the UK to continue with her business in London. With over 20 years experience working as a self employed blacksmith, furniture designer and welder, plus seven years as a set and prop maker for a European pyroacrobatic circus group, the metal pieces Frances produces reflect the diversity of projects and commissions with which she has been involved.
David Saunders is Keeper of Conservation and Scientific Research at the British Museum. After obtaining a DPhil in Chemistry and period of postdoctoral research, he joined the National Gallery in London before taking up his current post at the British Museum in 2005. His research interests include the deterioration of museum collections and the effect of display and storage environments on objects. He has developed and applied non-invasive analytical techniques for the study of artefacts, principally based on imaging technologies. He is a fellow and council member of IIC was editor of Studies in Conservation and serves on a number of conservation advisory boards.
