Reading Chamber Council

The 2010-2011 Council is:

President –

Bill Gornall-King, Partner (Boyes Turner)
Bill.Gurnall-King.JPG Background: Bill is recognised as a leading UK practitioner of IT law. He works across a wide range of commercial, intellectual property and technology projects and cases, advising clients on strategic issues and providing counsel on a variety of topics.
Bill sits on the Law Society’s Intellectual Property Working Party and the Council of the Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce Group, is a past president of the the Reading Chamber Councily and company secretary of the Thames Valley Economic Partnership. He is passionate about the development of Reading as the capital of the Thames Valley and the jewel in the crown of this economically successful UK region.

Rebecca Taylor, Branch Manager (JOBS@Pertemps)
Biography: Rebecca has been working within the commercial recruitment industry for 10 years, all of which has been spent at Pertemps. Rebecca started her career working on the temporary side of the business, account managing a key client with over 200 temps. In 2005 she changed roles to specialise in permanent recruitment, running a small team of 4 and was promoted to branch manager in 2008. Rebecca sits on the board for Byte Night Thames Valley which raises money for Action for Children to help tackle the root causes of youth homelessness and slept under the stars in October 2009 to help raise over £101,000.

Adam Jacobs, Partner (Jacobs)
Background: The 3rd generation of the Jacobs family at Reading’s premier independent retail jeweller, Adam graduated from Bath University with a Business degree. He spent seven years in London, working at Marks & Spencer head office then at Evidently (boutique digital media agency). Returning to Reading in 2004 to progress the jewellers, since then Jacobs has grown its portfolio of luxury brands (Cartier, Bulgari, Fope, Links, Georg Jensen & Longines), expanded its on-site workshop and cemented its leading position in Berkshire. A member of the National Association of Goldsmith’s Education Working Party and Reading Business Improvement District Committee, Adam also chairs Reading’s Retail Promotion Group.

Steve Fawke, Centre Manager (Broad Street Mall)
Background: Steve was apprentice plumber and plumbing foreman for London based Stitson White Services. He them moved into facilities management and worked for IBM in Basingstoke for several years managing the maintenance team.

He then became small works service manager at Boscombe & Porton Down (high security MOD facilities in Wiltshire)

Steve joined Centre Court Shopping Centre, Wimbledon as Building Services Manager in 1996; promoted to Deputy Centre Manager later that year, working for ACR Commercial Property. In total he spent 5 years at Wimbledon.

Joined Princess Square, Bracknell in October 2001 as Centre Manager managing majority of the retail in the town centre (approx’ 550,000sqft) together with approx’ 100,000sqft of commercial office space, working for Donaldsons Property Management. Enrolled on British Council of Shopping Centre’s (BCSC) diploma course in shopping centre management in 2002, a 2 year distance learning course at the College of Estate Management (CEM) based at Reading University and achieved the diploma in 2004.

In January 2005 he took up the post of Centre Manager at Broad Street Mall, Reading working for DTZ, the Broad Street Mall is 2 1/12 acres of retail & commercial property with over 80 shops & restaurants and over 80,000sqft of office space.

Steve has been married to his wife, Jackie, for 33 years and has 4 grown up children and 7 grandchildren.

Robin Barnes, Regional Director, Solent & Thames Valley, Corporate Banking (Royal Bank of Scotland Group, RBS)
Background: Robin has been a banker for 30 years, initially with HSBC and now with RBS. Much of that time has been spent supporting corporates in Thames Valley and the South East. They’ve also benefited from his international banking experience gained working in both the Middle and Far East.
RBS has the largest and most experienced Corporate team in the region with dedicated specialists in Real Estate, Leveraged Finance and the Technology and Telecoms sector.
Robin is also a member of the South East CBI Council. He is married with 2 teenage children and interested in rugby, food and wine.

Derek Ching, Partner (Boyes Turner)
Background: Derek is a property lawyer covering the full range of property work, including residential and commercial development where he acts for developers, funders and landowners. Other areas of expertise include advising commercial landlords and tenants on business lease issues, specifically in the retail, industrial, logistics and IT sectors and assisting property investors and pension funds on selling and purchasing assets and managing their portfolios. He is an active public speaker and has presented seminars on a range of property related topics.

Julian Evans, Director (Littleton Evans)
Background: Julian brings to the Reading Chamber Board over 25 years of broad-based business experience: company formation and start-up through to corporate management team level; private and public sectors; commercial and regulatory; design and project management; marketing and negotiation; significant staffing and budgetary responsibilities; construction, regeneration, development planning and environment sectors; as well as community and political engagement.

As a well qualified and experienced legal and people mediator, facilitator, executive coach and negotiator, he now concentrates on helping businesses resolve disputes, manage tensions, create wellbeing and enhance success, for which he gains a great deal of satisfaction. He sits on a further two boards and is a Committee Member for the local Federation of Small Businesses. He has lived in Reading for 20 years and is married with two children and a greyhound.