Richard Mackay (Chair)
Richard is Chair of Citizens Advice Gosport. He is also a trustee of Citizens Advice Hampshire where he is Treasurer and Chairs the Hampshire Macmillan Citizens Advice Service. Prior to retirement he spent the majority of his career in the IT Industry. He has worked in different sized companies with roles ranging from Northern European treasurer for IBM, European finance director of a Fortune 500 company and directorships of small UK quoted companies both as a non-executive and as an executive director.
He has also worked for smaller companies including as one of a team of three people creating a new start-up company. He has been significantly involved in implementing changes to the structure and operations of businesses to address changing market needs or as a result of mergers as well as working with a public sector organisation undergoing significant change.
Heather Blades
After completing her Social Science degree at Liverpool University, Heather trained as a Social Worker for the London Borough of Havering and worked there for some four years. As her husband was then offered a job in Hampshire, Heather moved down south and their three children were born in the Winchester area. Moving to the Gosport area when the children were young, to be even nearer the sea, and opportunities for sailing, Heather and family have remained here ever since. During her child-caring years, Heather undertook voluntary work within the Adult Literacy Scheme, at the same time establishing a local branch of a National children’s charity. Heather then re-trained as a Higher Education teacher and worked part-time in a variety of
local colleges teaching Sociology and Psychology. Due to a mixture of personal factors, Heather decided to re-train again as a Primary School teacher, a job that she then undertook on a full-time basis for 25 years in several local Gosport schools, eventually retiring as Assistant Headteacher. Since retiring Heather has become involved in the local Neighbourhood Watch scheme and for the last four years she has been a Trustee at Citizens Advice Gosport.
David Bryant
David was born in Bridgemary and lived in Gosport throughout his childhood attending Brockhurst Infant and Junior schools and the [then] Grammar school. On leaving school he worked at H.M.S. Centurion as a civilian and qualified as a management accountant after serving with the M.O.D at Bath and Sevenoaks. His first appointment as a management accountant was at Fleetlands. David left the M.O.D. to work at Gosport Borough Council and moved on promotion to a succession of jobs in local government.
Now retired, David’s focus is on his grandchildren, keeping his allotment tidy and watching football, having been a season ticket holder at Fratton Park for many years and a frequent visitor to Gosport Borough F.C.
Tom Arnold
After spending some years living and working abroad, Tom returned to the UK and undertook training in Mechanical Engineering, leading to the start of his career in the energy industry. His work since then has involved upgrading, maintaining and protecting some of the UK’s critical national infrastructure as well as managing operational teams across the UK. More recently, Tom has been getting involved with Net Zero and environmental management, looking to do his part to help his industry evolve in to a more sustainable enterprise. After having children, Tom took the decision to relocate from London to Hampshire for better access to the great outdoors and to be closer to family. Now that he’s settled here, he looks forward to doing more to help his local community as a Trustee of Citizens Advice Gosport.
Tony Dyer
Tony has over 35 years’ experience of leading finance functions. As Chief Financial Officer he led the finance function of Gattaca plc from 1996 until 2017, with the business growing from 30 staff to over 800, floating the business on AIM in 2006. After leaving Gattaca, he joined a Medical Device start-up that floated 2021 with a market value of over £40m. Tony’s focus is on improving efficiency and financial reporting within organisations.
Tony has served as Hon Treasurer for the League of Friends of QA Hospital for over 30 years.