Board of Trustees

Chris Fyles

Chris is a tax expert who was latterly a partner at KPMG and continues to advise clients such as General Motors, with a particular specialism in VAT and has been a trustee since 2014.

Professor Polina Bayvel CBE FRS, FREng

Professor Polina Bayvel is the Head of the Optical Networks Group in the Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering, UCL.  Her research interests are in optical fibre communications and networks ranging from trans-oceanic links to intra- and inter-data centre communications and routing.

Julie Caplin Grey

Julie is an experienced & effective cultural leader who has operated at Chief Executive & Chair level with a proven track record in leading and managing organisations, teams and projects committed to improving access to culture in Cornwall. A cultural sector advocate with an excellent reputation with artists, stakeholders, politicians and funders including Arts Council, National Lottery Heritage Fund & Creative England.

She is currently the chair of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, and the Advisory Group Chair of Golden Tree. She also Chairs the new Truro Cultural Compact partnership.

Dave Foot

Dave held a number of senior management positions during his career with the Cable & Wireless organisation, many of them overseas, before retiring.  He has been involved with the museum at Porthcurno from its inception and played a key role in ensuring secure funding from Cable & Wireless in the early days. He was Chair of the Boards of Trustees and Directors of what was then known as the Telegraph Museum Porthcurno.

Gordon Johnston CEng MIET

Gordon is a Solutions Architect working in the Telecommunications and IT sector. After graduating from the University of Ulster in 1986 (Electronics & Communications Engineering), his career started with a one-year technical training scheme, based in Porthcurno with Cable & Wireless. He is a STEM Ambassador, mentor, and professional registration advisor for the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).

Andy MacLeod FREng

Adam is now an industry consultant having retired from the Vodafone Group as Regional Technology Director for the Africa, Middle East and Asia-Pacific Region. Prior to that, for ten years, he was Vodafone’s Group Chief Networks Officer and served as the CTO of Verizon Wireless in the US.

Cassie Newland

Cassie is an archaeologist, public historian and academic. She is a Senior Lecturer in Cultural Heritage and Director of the Cultural Heritage Institute at the Royal Agricultural University (RAU) in Swindon. She regularly appears on historical and science broadcast media as a resident expert, including Time Team, Time Crashers, and Coast.

Rab Paramothayan

Rab has an MBA from Henley Management College and a Diploma in UNCLOS from Rhodes Academy. After working for Cable & Wireless in subsea cable investments he’s currently Director of International and member of the Executive Committee at Gibtelecom in Gibraltar, also representing them at the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation.

Professor Gareth Parry FREng

Professor Gareth Parry is a retired emeritus professor of physics at Imperial College with a background in optical communications and now an interest in the history of communications.  He held professorial positions at UCL and Oxford before settling at Imperial. He is chair of the board of PK Porthcurno.

Rick Perry CBE CEng, FIET

Rick is Head of Subsea Partnerships for Vodafone Carrier Services. Previously he was Head of International Network Development at Vodafone. A two-year apprenticeship with Cable & Wireless in 1974, based in Porthcurno, kick-started his career in their foreign-based staff. He was awarded an OBE in 1999 and a CBE 10 years later, both for “Services to the Telecommunications Industry”.

Dr. Shini Somara EngD

Shini is a British mechanical engineer, media broadcaster, producer and author. She has presented TechKnow on Al Jazeera America and reported for various international BBC, Sky and PBS shows.

Deborah Tritton MA

Deborah is the Archive Services Manager at Kresen Kernow, in Redruth, the new home for Cornwall’s archive collections. She has over 20 years of experience as an archivist and was the Project Lead for the Kresen Kernow project.