Presenter Profiles 2011
Please see below information on the presenters that have been secured to date.
Lord Ted Rowlands CBE
President NTfW
Ted is the President for NTfW and has been a Member of Parliament for 33 years, former Parliamentary Secretary for Wales and Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and MP for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney.
Ted was awarded his CBE for his work and contribution to the History of Parliament Trust. The Trust oversees the research and publishing of the lives and political careers of every Member of Parliament from the 14th century to 1832.
Very romantically, Ted’s first job was as a very junior researcher for the History of Parliament Trust when he researched the members of Parliament of Radnorshire and Herefordshire; that was exactly 40 years ago.
In the 1980s, as a Member of Parliament, he was invited to be a trustee and in 1990 he became Chairman. He remained chairman for 10 years and oversaw the publication of the last five volumes of the History of Parliament, the period 1690 – 1715.
He wrote the introduction to these five volumes, which are available in every international library as works of reference.
His chairmanship saw the research funding for the Trust reach over £1million per annum, and saw the transcription of over 13 million words of the history volumes on to CD ROM.
He was awarded the CBE for his contribution to this historical work.
The trustees include a former Speaker of the House of Commons, Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, university professors and sitting members of Parliament of all parties.
He has remained a trustee of the History of Parliament Trust.
Arwyn Watkins
Chair NTfW
Arwyn is Chair of the National Training Federation for Wales (NTfW) and Managing Director of Cambrian Training Company, a training provider that works in partnership with a wide range of businesses delivering high quality flexible vocational skills and support within the workplace throughout rural and urban Wales.
Arwyn has spent all of his working life in the service industry with a very strong focus on people development and maintains the strength of the company is its close working relationship with industry and the wider community as this is critical for a sustainable future where training needs are demand led and not supply driven. He has always promoted and demonstrated the importance in business of establishing a clear vision embracing core values to achieve strategic aims and sustainable success. Arwyn always tries to encourage people to consider embarking on vocational learning as it raises their aspirations, as well as world class standards across industry and business as a whole.
He is a member of the Welsh Culinary Association representing Wales as the Team Coach to the gold medal winning Junior Team.
Jeff Cuthbert AM
Deputy Minister for Skills
Jeff grew up in South Wales and was educated at University College Cardiff. He has a degree in mining engineering and was President of University College Cardiff Students Union from 1974-1975. He is currently an active member of the Unite trade union.
Prior to entering the National Assembly in 2003 Jeff was employed by the Welsh Joint Education Committee as the Head of the Asset to Industry Unit. This unit worked on the development of vocational and industrial qualifications and standards.
Jeff founded and chaired the Cross-Party Built Environment Group, the Cross-Party Healthy Living Group and the Cross Party Group on Diabetes. He co-founded and co-chaired the Cross-Party Beer and Pub Group. In the last Assembly Jeff Chaired the Committee on Standards of Conduct and also sat on the European and External Affairs Committee, the Enterprise and Learning Committee and Public Accounts Committee.
Jeff is involved with a number of local projects in Caerphilly, most notably he is the Chair of the Caerphilly Miners Community Centre Management Committee.
Following re-election to the National Assembly for Wales in May 2011, Jeff Cuthbert was appointed Deputy Minister for Skills.
Dr Barrie Kennard
Director, Leadership & Management Skills in Wales
Barrie is the Director for the Welsh Assembly Government funded Centre of Excellence for Leadership and Management Skills in Wales. His role includes the development of an evaluation framework for leadership and management development programmes. The Centre of Excellence, called Leadership & Management Wales (LMW) is based within Cardiff Business School where Barrie holds an academic post of lecturer
He recently co-authored the HEFCW report on Higher Level Skills Development in Wales. Recently he has delivered several addresses including a key note speech at the University Vocational Awards Council Annual Conference in York and a series of workshops at the National Training Federation Wales Conference in Newport. In 2009 he wrote a Masters and Foundation Degree in Applied Professional Practice for the University of Wales Institute Cardiff. He is the external assessor for an MSC in Leadership Capability at the Scottish Centre of Work based Learning in Glasgow Caledonian University. Barrie has designed and is delivering the current Foundation Programme for Knowledge Transfer Professionals.
He has spoken on workforce development at conferences in the UK, China and Zambia. He has worked in Uganda and Pakistan on British Council capacity building programmes and has delivered management development programmes to staff at Makerere University in Kampala and the Government College of Home Economics in Lahore. He also delivered Lectures on Management Communication at South West Normal University, PR China.
He entered academia in 1998 after a career in Training and Development in the private sector as head of training for the Western Mail & Echo Group and in the voluntary sector with CSV Wales. He was the Lead Trainer on the National Mentoring Pilot Programme for DfES and on the Aim Higher National Mentoring Scheme. His doctoral research was into Modern Apprenticeships and he retains an interest in workbased learning and workforce development. As a late returner to learning, he received his first degree when he was 46 and retains an affinity for those engaged in learning from non traditional demographics. He is also a member of the Institute of Knowledge Transfer.
He is currently the Director of the Senior Management Development Programme delivered by Cardiff Business School for the Senior Management Team of S.A. Brains.
Amanda Protheroe-Thomas
Freelance Presenter
Amanda has had a wide and varied career involving studio and location based presenting.
Sport has played a big part in her life (a qualified football coach)- she was the anchor presenter on a European football programme for 7 years reporting from some of Europe’s most impressive stadium’s as well as in studio, fronted a British football series for 2 years, pitch side reporter for Legend/Celebrity matches and has also worked for a couple of significant Football teams.
Amanda has been a courtside reporter for NBA games hosted in the UK as well as covering British Basketball.
She also worked on the Rugby World Cup in 2007, Boxing championships in 2008 and been a health and fitness expert on a live magazine programme to date.
She has travelled globally as an anchor on various holiday programmes for 6 years and her appetite for adventure led her to host a series on extreme sports that gave Amanda a chance to experience adrenalin fuelled activities such as wing walking, rap jumping, coasteering, parachuting amongst others.
With a love for creatures both great and small the opportunity to present a natural history series was another dream job – studying Grizzly Bears, Great White Sharks, Crocodiles, Koalas,Turtles etc all over the world in their natural habitat. Amanda also had a job as a wild stingray handler in Cayman Islands.
Amanda has a passion for property development and has successfully completed her own renovation projects.
Through hosting a popular property series, Hot Houses, which received a BAFTA award for ‘Best new programme’ in its first year, Amanda has become a well known and respected figure in the construction industry presenting Building awards and conferences. The show covered all aspects of, buying, selling, renovating, investing and interior design, as well as finding homes for viewers.
No challenge too great, Amanda conquered Kilimanjaro and is now training for a bike ride across America
