These are exciting and challenging times for THM. The Trustees recognised the need to take on additional museum and business skills at the strategic level to ensure we deliver on our ambitious plans to develop hockey’s heritage and bring it to a wider audience. We are therefore delighted to announce that following a competitive recruitment process, Imogen Gibbon (Chief Curator and Deputy Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery), Philip Kimberley (former Chair of England Hockey) and Lucy Newcombe (former England Hockey International and recently retired Wing Commander with the RAF) have now joined the Board of Trustees.
Imogen Gibbon (left) graduated from the University of St Andrews with an MA (Hons) in Art History, subsequently gained an MSc in Archive Administration from Aberystwyth University. From 1997 until 2002 she was Curator of Historic Photographs and Ship Plans at the National Maritime Museum Greenwich before moving on to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2002 to became Senior Curator of the Reference Section. In 2013, she took up her current role of Chief Curator and Deputy Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery where she has been responsible for initiating and delivering many successful exhibitions. Imogen says she is thrilled to have been appointed as one of the new Trustees for The Hockey Museum. She added “the development of THM Collection – both the objects and archives – is pivotal to achieving the objective of placing the Museum at the centre of the heritage of hockey in the UK and internationally. I look forward to bringing my twenty-plus years of professional museum and gallery experience to assisting with the development and exhibition of the Collection which by 2020 will be the world’s leading hockey museum and archive”. She is also very much looking forward to her first ‘back to hockey’ session as part of her role as a THM Trustee.
Philip Kimberley (left) comes to THM with a wealth of experience following a successful business career including twenty years’ senior international leadership (Chair/CE) experience in a ‘blue chip’ multinational company. Chairman of England Hockey from 2002 to 2015, where he led a complete rebuild of the organisation to a position where it is now recognised as one of the best run governing bodies in British sport. Under his stewardship, the organisation set on the road to its highest ever participation figures and was awarded the right to host numerous major events including the 2018 Women’s World Cup. He has also served on other boards, notably UK Sport, Sports Coach UK as well as UK Sport’s anti-doping project board. He has been recognised for his considerable contributions to sport being awarded the Community Sport and Recreation Emeritus Award in 2015 and an OBE in the 2017 Queen’s Birthday Honours. Philip is also a member and Trustee of Gerrards Cross Hockey Club.
After completing an Aerosystems Engineering degree at Salford University, Lucy Newcombe (left) joined the RAF and was commissioned as a junior officer. Rapid promotion provided multiple opportunities in a variety of roles over 17 years. She has been involved with and led and managed teams in many environments including 4 operational tours in the war zones of Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. She also completed an intensive 11-month Masters Course covering strategic management, leadership, international politics and affairs and campaign planning. She also found time to get involved in RAF and Combined Services hockey over a 10-year period, holding posts of Vice Chair, Secretary and Head Coach. Since leaving the RAF, Lucy spent 18 months walking solo around the coast of Great Britain. Lucy is also a former International hockey player playing for England in the mid 1990s. She is now a qualified Level 2 hockey coach and ski instructor but is also actively involved in a variety of other sports including running, swimming, cycling and walking.
Mike Barford, the long-time Treasurer of THM has also joined the Board as a Trustee. Imogen, Philip, Lucy and Mike will join the existing Trustees Dil Bahra, David Balbirnie (FIH nominated), Katie Dodd (Chair and EH appointed) Mike Smith (Curator), David Wareham, and Ian Wilson (EH appointed). Patrick Rowley, one of the original founder Trustees, has now stepped down from his role. THM would like to thank him for efforts in the setting up of the Museum and his service in the following years.
Katie Dodd
Chair of THM Board of Trustees
October 2017
