Emmaus South Wales has a dedicated and passionate Board of Trustees, all working together to ensure compliance with our objectives, purpose and values.

The purpose of the board is to provide sound governance to the organisation. This includes agreeing strategic direction, approving and reviewing policies and procedures, appointing executive staff and ensuring compliance with the objectives, purposes and values of the organisation, and with its governing document.

Julie Raikes

Julie Raikes

Julie is an Accountant with over 30 years’ experience in Business Finance. In 2008, she set up her own Company supporting small Businesses in managing their finance and growth.

Julie believes that everyone has the ability to achieve their goals with the right support and, when she learned about the Emmaus ethos and how she could be part of helping people change their lives for good, she joined as a Trustee in August 2017. She was elected as Chair of the Board in April 2019.

Originally from Yorkshire, Julie settled near Bridgend more than 40 years ago. She is married to Neil and has one son and four amazing and fun grandchildren. Julie loves the outdoors so if it’s not the Allotment or Greenhouse, she is likely to be walking.

Simon Lloyd

Simon Lloyd

Simon is a Chartered Surveyor with over 30 years’ property experience.  A former Director and Head of Agency for the South Wales office of one of Europe’s largest property advisers, before retiring at the beginning of 2022 Simon spent the last 12 years working within local government.

He first joined Emmaus in November 2021, keen to use his professional knowledge to help others as he made plans to retire from full time employment.   A passionate advocate of the Emmaus social enterprise model, Simon’s support extends beyond being a trustee as he is also a regular volunteer in the Tremains Road superstore, meeting and chatting with customers, and he seems to like nothing more than rummaging around and sorting out boxes of donated books.

Carol Price

Carol Price

Carol is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing with over 30 years’ experience gained whilst working for Housing Associations in South Wales. She is currently working for the Vale of Glamorgan Council as their Housing Strategy lead.

Carol joined Emmaus in 2022, keen to use her experiences and knowledge to help those who find themselves in the unfortunate situation of being without a home to call their own, as she knows this can happen to anyone at any time.

When Carol is not working or doing “family” things with her children and grandchildren she is passionate about recycling and making it possible for people who are down on their luck to find employment, this means promoting social enterprises is important to her. Carol constantly drives her family mad as “nothing can be thrown out if somebody can use it”!

Kate Lowry

Kate Lowry

Kate worked for forty years in museums as a paintings conservator. When she was coming up to retirement some 13 years ago, she decided she would like to get involved in helping people who had been homeless and needed help to get back on their feet again. She heard that Emmaus UK was looking to increase the number of its Communities around the UK and volunteered to set up a group to establish an Emmaus Community in South Wales.

Looking back, she is happy to see how the early faltering footsteps of our local supporter group have led to the establishment of a vibrant Emmaus Community in Bridgend, where Companions are part of a supportive working ‘family’. For Kate, the best thing about being a trustee is the knowledge that together with all the other members of the board, staff and volunteers we are able to make a real and positive difference to the lives of those whom society has previously failed.

Theresa Eades

Theresa Eades

Theresa is a Housing Professional, having worked in the housing movement for over 40 years before retiring in 2020. She worked for her degree in housing after studying for her HNC and diploma in Estate Agency Practice. After passing her exams, she worked in all areas of housing apart from Finance, which she found wasn’t for her, and worked in two Housing Associations throughout her career.

Theresa joined the Board of Emmaus about 3 years ago to keep her brain active and give something back to the movement, after being lucky enough to have had a wonderful career. She loves the ethos and principle of the Emmaus charity and the opportunity it gives people to not only have somewhere comfortable to live, but to regain their self-esteem, develop and move forward successfully.

Emyr-Wyn Francis

Emyr-Wyn Francis

Emyr-Wyn is a Chartered Accountant with 25 years’ experience. He completed his training at Grant Thornton, where he had exposure to a number of different businesses within a number of different industries, however his passion was always to work within manufacturing. Over the years he has worked within steel, printing, FMCG, oil and gas as well as most recently within the IT sector and mainly in a Finance Director capacity.

Emyr-Wyn joined the Emmaus South Wales board in 2020.  He felt that his skills in finance could assist the organisation especially through difficult times, Covid being the obvious one.  He believes in the Emmaus philosophy and finds joy in seeing individuals turn their lives around.  He is also looking forward to rolling the Emmaus model to more towns in South Wales.