The Foundation is made up of the following persons, each of whom bring their own experience and enthusiasm to such a worthwhile cause. We thank them all for their time, dedication and commitment.

Ashley Barnard

Ashley Barnard is an active member of several committees, some as Chairman, organising a diverse range of events from balls, walks, dinners, gaming evenings, clay pigeon shooting competitions to name but a few.  

Some of the charities she has supported over the years include: The Ralph Sutcliffe Fund for Meningitis Research, The British Heart Foundation, Candlelighters, NSPCC, Hope & Homes for Children, Action for Children and The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (formally the Game Conservancy)

Ash is currently the website editor for International Villas Ltd, Dalesport and The Gamekeepers Welfare Trust and is also a partner in the family farm.

Nicola Corp

Nicola Corp runs Mustard Management Ltd, a Yorkshire Dales-based event management and production company creating bespoke events for the private, public and voluntary sectors. Mustard's portfolio ranges from conferences to launches, awards ceremonies to multi-media shows and fundraisers.

Born and bred in Yorkshire, she returned home after 20 years in the media, working variously in national press, TV and radio. Nicola draws on a comprehensive marketing then production career, taking in News Group, Mirror Group Newspapers, Capital Radio, LWT, TalkbackThames and the BBC, amongst others.

Nick Lawson

Nick Lawson is the General Manager of the Hotel du Vin in Harrogate. Nick began his working life playing tennis, having first picked up a racquet at the age of 8. This took him around the world, including spells in Europe, Australia and America where he spent 8 years playing and coaching tennis. Whilst in New York he ‘fell’ into the hotel industry, working as a bell-hop to help fund his travel. From there he rose through the ranks to Assistant Resident Manager before returning to the UK in2003 to pursue his new found career ambitions. In 2004 he became a deputy manager at Malmaison London and then Birmingham prior to taking over as manager of the Hotel du Vin, Harrogate in 2006 where, in 2009, he led the hotel to its most profitable year to date along with being named the Sunday Times Readers UK Boutique Hotel of the Year.

Nick has managed a diverse range of events from hosting President Bush to staging European movie premieres.

Nick supports a number of charity and community initiatives in both a business and personal capacity and has been involved with Yorkshire Young Achievers since he moved to Harrogate. 

Peter McCormick OBE (Chairman)

Peter McCormick OBE is the Senior Partner of McCormicks Solicitors, Harrogate and is regarded as one of the leading media, charity and sports lawyers in the UK.

Peter was awarded the OBE in 2000 for services to charity and was named Yorkshire Lawyer of the Year and General/Niche Practice Lawyer of the Year in the same year. In 2008 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in Business at the Ackrill Media Group Business Awards.

Peter’s other charity and community activities include trustee of the Helen Feather Memorial Trust, trustee of the War Memorials Trust, trustee of the National Media Museum, vice president of the Outward Bound Trust, honorary solicitor to The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme, member of the Royal Horticultural Society Fundraising Support Group and solicitor to the Harrogate International Festival.

Peter is the Chairman of the Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation.

Ron Miller

Ron Miller runs a Barnsley and Bradford based media relations and PR Company, Perception PR & Marketing, and is a regular contributor to local and regional newspapers.

A nationally qualified journalist, he began his career as a reporter with Yorkshire newspapers, including the Huddersfield Examiner and the Yorkshire Evening Post. Prior to returning to Yorkshire, where he spent 15 years as an account director with leading PR consultancies, he worked in the air transport industry for 20 years, eight of those as an international PR manager with British Caledonian.

Ron was a founder member of the Yorkshire Young Achiever Awards committee in 1992 and is the Treasurer of the Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation.

Fiona Movley

Fiona Movley is a Director of Elevate Communications and has spent two decades working in the fields of marketing, sponsorship and events.

Fiona was previously marketing manager at the Yorkshire Agricultural Society where she negotiated a number of high level sponsorships and instigated a number of creative initiatives. Prior to this she was fundraising manager at Saint Michael's Hospice where she raised the profile of the Hospice in the Harrogate District.

Fiona has been involved in community related activities in the Harrogate District for over 20 years. She is a past trustee of Harrogate Theatre, a member of the Institute of Fundraising, a trustee of Harrogate International Festivals and chair of Pedal for Yorkshire.

Paul Napier

Paul Napier is the Editor of the Yorkshire Evening Post, which is one of the country’s biggest regional newspapers, and a director of Yorkshire Post Newspapers. He is also responsible for a number of other newspapers, including Leeds Weekly News, Pudsey Times, Wharfe Valley Times, Yorkshire Sport, City Lite, and about 20 websites, the biggest being www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk. He has been at the Leeds-based Evening Post for four years, having previously been editor of the Hartlepool Mail.

Paul took over at Hartlepool in 2003, moving there from the Scarborough Evening News, where he was editor and a director of Yorkshire Regional Newspapers. He has also worked on newspapers in Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

Paul has supported the Yorkshire Young Achievers Awards for many years and is also a trustee of a hospice in Hartlepool.

Richard Stroud

Richard Stroud is a partner in The Purchasing Agency, a management consultancy based in Otley Yorkshire, which principally advises companies on increasing profits by reduction of their non-core costs. Their clients include 12 FTSE 250 companies as well as some of Yorkshires leading firms. He is also adviser and non-executive director to a number of local companies .

Richard supports a number of charities and has been involved with Yorkshire Young Achievers for 14 years.

Richard is the Vice-Chairman of the Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation.

Christine Talbot

Christine Talbot has anchored ITV’s Calendar News full-time since 2001 but was already a well-known face in the Yorkshire region after hosting the magazine and lifestyle programme Tonight for four years. She came to Yorkshire from the BBC after cutting her journalistic teeth on local papers and was quickly standing in on Calendar with the legendary Richard Whiteley. Christine has fronted many ITV Yorkshire programmes, including the investigative series Xposed, Silent Killer and Christine’s Big Trip which took her to far flung corners of the world. Christine has twice been short-listed for the Royal Television Society Best Presenter Award.

Christine has hosted the annual Yorkshire Young Achievers Awards and launch for many years.

Zoe Ward

Zoe Ward is Assistant Club Secretary at Liverpool Football Club.  A business management graduate, she began her career in football at the Surrey County Football Association prior to taking up an appointment at the Premier League. Zoe became Club Secretary at Fulham Football Club in 2005 at the age of 26 and as part of the Senior Management team she had overall responsibility for football operations including player transfers and registrations. From there Zoe joined McCormicks Solicitors as a Sports Law Specialist.

During her time at McCormicks Zoe joined the Yorkshire Young Achievers Awards Foundation and has played an integral role in the delivery of the Yorkshire Young Achievers Awards ever since. She is an active member of the Harrogate community and is regularly involved in charitable and community activities.

Duncan Wood

Duncan Wood has anchored Calendar since May 2003 after joining ITV Yorkshire from Britain’s most watched breakfast show GMTV where he was North of England correspondent and sofa presenter. His career in journalism spans almost 30 years going from cub reporter on his home town paper to his own current affairs series on ITV 1 “Wood You Believe It”.

Duncan’s reported from around the world but likes nothing more than telling a good, down to earth tale about real people in real life situations. He’s hosted several prestigious events across Yorkshire, and has hosted the Yorkshire Young Achievers Awards for many years.

Press, PR and Administrative Support

Sonia Jones from McCormicks Solicitors, Harrogate provides administrative support to Yorkshire Young Achievers. As Secretary to the charity she assists with regulatory compliance as well as the organisation of events. Sonia has been involved with Yorkshire Young Achievers since she joined McCormicks in 2007. She is an active member of the Harrogate community and is regularly involved in charitable and community activities.

Sara Lamper provides PR support to Yorkshire Young Achievers Foundation. Sara was a journalist for 13 years before spending eight years with public relations agencies. She has worked for a wide range of clients, from manufacturers to professional services, and in sectors ranging from packaging to property and from engineering to the law and has a thorough understanding of the needs of different types of businesses and organisations.

Sara has created and led a wide range of different types of campaign, from new product launches to corporate news.