VisitEngland Board Members
Chairman – Penelope, Viscountess Cobham
Lady Cobham took up the position of Chair of VisitEngland in March 2009. She previously served on the VisitBritain Board, and latterly as deputy chairman since 2005. Her current role on the VisitBritain Board is in an ex-officio capacity.
She serves as chairman of Art Fund Prize for museums and galleries and is a board member, trustee or consultant to a number of public and private bodies.
Sir Brian Briscoe
Sir Brian Briscoe was Chief Executive of the Local Government Association, from 1996 to 2006, successfully leading the merger of local authority associations to form the LGA in April 1997. He was knighted in 2002 for services to local government.
David Orr
David Orr is a Co-Founder and the Chief Executive of City Inn Ltd. His early career was in business and property redevelopment with particular success in identifying hotel, bar and restaurant sites. Together with Sandy Orr and Donald McDonald, and alongside his existing business, he researched and developed the city-centre hotel development and operating company that became City Inn.
David is a trustee of the Glasgow Science Centre, a trustee of Sparks medical research charity, is an elected Council member of London CBI and a patron of Cheek by Jowl Theatre Company.
Rob Rees MBE
Rob Rees MBE is one of the UK’s leading chefs and consultants dedicated to creating a better food culture for Britain. In 2006 he was awarded an MBE for services to the Food Industry and won the Food from Britain and VisitBritain Award for Marketing Britain.
Nick Varney
Nick Varney is the Chief Executive of Merlin Entertainments Group, the company he and his team founded in 1999 from the management buy-out of Vardon Attractions, where he had been Managing Director from 1995 to 1998. He had previously led marketing operations at Alton Towers and the Tussauds Group between 1990 and 1995.
Chris Webster
Chris Webster is Deputy Executive Chairman of Yorkshire Wildlife Park Ltd, a Senior Consultant with Vision XS Ltd, a consultancy operating in the Leisure sector and Chair of the sub regional tourism partnership Experience Bedfordshire. Chris was previously Chief Executive of Woburn Safari Park and served for six years as a Director of East of England Tourism.
Denis Wormwell
Denis Wormwell is Chief Executive of Shearings Group, a private equity backed tour operator and hotel business. Prior to this he spent six years at National Express Group plc where he held Chief Executive positions at both the Bus and Coach Divisions. He has vast amount of travel, leisure and transport experience having held Director roles at Thomas Cook, Flying Colours Leisure Group and Club 18-30 Holidays, as well as previously sitting on boards for Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT), ABTA and Federation of Tour Operators (FTO).
Nick Cust OBE
Nick Cust OBE is joint Managing Director for Holidaybreak plc and has been a board member for the English Tourism Council and subsequently the England Marketing Advisory Board, since September 2002. He brings senior experience of the short break sector, having joined Superbreak Mini Holidays in 1985, and then moving to the main board of Holidaybreak plc in 1997.
In addition to our Board members VisitEngland has four ex officio members who are the Chairman of Partners for England and the lead RDA for tourism, South West of England RDA and the CEOs of VisitBritain and Visit London.
Suzanne Bond (South West Regional Development Agency – Lead RDA for tourism)
Suzanne joined the South West RDA in 1999 and is Executive Director of People and Skills. Previously she worked with central government on the establishment of Regional Development Agencies and has worked in Brussels both in the European Commission and as Director of the South West Brussels office.
Steve Brown (Partners for England Chairman)
Steve currently has a portfolio of interests which include being Chairman of Bluestone Leisure Limited (a new holiday company), Chairman of the National Trust in the East Midlands and a Director of Anchor Housing Trust – England’s largest not-for-profit provider of housing and domiciliary services to the elderly. He also holds directorships in a number of other holiday and leisure companies which include Forest Holidays LLP (a joint venture between the Forestry Commission and Camping and Caravanning Club) and Grand Leisure Limited.
Steve is a non-executive Director of North Midlands Construction plc based in Mansfield, a non-executive Director at the National Space Centre in Leicester and is a member of the University of Derby Court.
Sally Chatterjee (Visit London Chief Executive)
Sally joined Visit London in April 2007 with overall responsibility for Marketing, Communications and Commercial Partnerships. Having begun her career with Unilever, Sally has held a number of senior positions in telecoms, media and retail. Prior to joining Visit London, she worked as an independent strategy consultant in the telecom and TV industries.
Sandie Dawe MBE (VisiBritain Chief Executive)
Sandie was appointed Chief Executive of VisitBritain in May. She joined VisitBritain in 1991 and as director of Strategy and Communications she led VisitBritain’s support of the London 2012 bid and responsibility for the development of VisitBritain’s strategy to maximise the UK-wide tourism opportunities of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Sandie was awarded an MBE for her services to the tourist industry in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2008.
