Ben Derbyshire, Helena Hamerow and Sue Wilkinson Appointed as Historic England Commissioners
Nicky Morgan, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, has appointed three new Commissioners of Historic England.
Ben Derbyshire, Helena Hamerow and Sue Wilkinson have been appointed as Commissioners of Historic England for four years from 1 September 2019 to 31 August 2023.
The Commission is the governing body of Historic England and has overall responsibility for the National Heritage Collection which is managed by the English Heritage Trust on its behalf.
I am delighted that Ben Derbyshire, Helena Hamerow and Sue Wilkinson have become Commissioners. They all bring valuable experience which will be extremely helpful as we continue to protect and champion the vital role that our heritage contributes to our national life. I much look forward to working with them.
The Commissioners were recruited with the aim of bringing additional expertise and insight in relation to architecture, archaeology, and tourism.
Ben Derbyshire
Ben Derbyshire is Chair at HTA Design LLP, a design consultancy to the home building industry specialising in Creative Collaboration between its multidisciplinary team, clients, communities and other professionals.
A member of the practice since 1976 and a partner since 1986, Ben became a main board director when the practice incorporated in 1998 and was appointed Managing Director of HTA Architects Ltd in 2005. Ben became Chair and Managing Partner of HTA Design LLP when it was formed in 2013 until 2016 and now acts as its Chair. He has built up broad-ranging expertise through involvement in much of HTA's work in regeneration, master-planning, housing and mixed use design across all sectors. Ben leads the practice's internal design review processes and heads up its marketing effort.
Other recent posts include: President of RIBA, between September 2017- August 2019, having been elected onto Council in 2014, and becoming President Elect in August 2016. The RIBA is a global professional membership body driving excellence in architecture.
Chair of the Housing Forum between March 2013 – March 2016, having served as a board member from march 2011. The Housing Forum is a cross-sector, industry-wide organisation with 150 member organisations, from both public and private sectors.
Trustee of The London Society between March 2013 – April 2016. The London Society is a membership organisation established to encourage public interest and participation in urban planning and transport as well as to study and celebrate the capital's unique history and character.
Board member of Design for Homes between April 2010 – April 2016. Design for Homes champions the value of good design in the housing industry. It owns the Building for Life quality standard and promotes the highly regarded annual Housing Design Awards.
Helena Hamerow
Helena Hamerow is Professor of Early Medieval Archaeology in the Faculty of History and the School of Archaeology, University of Oxford. She is also a Fellow of St Cross College, where she was Vice-Master from 2005-2008.
She served as Head of the School of Archaeology from 2010 to 2013, during which time she served on the Board of Visitors of the Ashmolean Museum and the Board of Curators of the Bodleian Libraries. She is a former President of the Society for Medieval Archaeology and Vice-President of the Royal Archaeological Institute.
Her research interests lie in the economy, villages and farming practices of rural communities in northwest Europe during the Early Middle Ages.
Helena is on the Board of Directors of Oxford Archaeology, on the Board of Visitors of the Pitt Rivers Museum, and is an elected member of the Council of the University of Oxford.
Sue Wilkinson
Sue Wilkinson was an executive board director at the National Trust until the end of 2016 and was the executive board lead on tourism, representing the Trust on a number of tourism industry fora.
She was responsible for membership, fundraising, volunteering and participation and during her career with the Trust she oversaw the growth of membership to nearly 5m members, led the Trust’s marketing, visitor experience and customer service teams, and ran a number of successful fundraising campaigns. She also delivered several multi-million pound IT projects and led a successful brand review.
Sue is currently a trustee of the Canal & River Trust and chairs the annual Living Waterways Awards. She is also deputy chair of the Churches Conservation Trust, a board director of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) and a trustee of the Medical Research Foundation.
Until 2018 she was a trustee at the Greenwich Foundation with responsibility for the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich and in earlier years she served on the Visit England Board and as a trustee of the Institute of Fundraising.
