About us

Mark Tweedie
Managing director

Mark spent his early career as a PE teacher, moving into sports development before achieving his first chief executive role in 2011. He is a specialist in the organisational transformation to increase efficiency and profitability and in-service redesign focusing on the areas of health, education, employability and social services. Mark loves swimming, walking and cycling in the countryside. He has always participated in sports ranging from high-level competition to volunteering as team manager for his son's local football team.

Natalie McGuire
Director of business development

Natalie joins Brimhams Active as director of business development. Spending the majority of her career in the sport and leisure sector, Natalie specialises in commercial optimisation to deliver both outstanding social value and sustainable revenue generation. She has held roles in a number of leisure operators ranging from small leisure trusts, higher education institutions, national operators and more recently the National Governing Body for swimming. Natalie has operated in the Yorkshire region for the past 10 years supporting the growth of physical activity and the tourism economy. She is a passionate swimmer and still enjoys teaching her children to swim regularly.

Stuart Winslow
Operations director

Stuart has worked in the leisure industry for over 30 years, starting as a gym instructor before deciding to go down the leisure centre management path. He has worked for multiple organisations such as Everyone Active, Sandwell Leisure Trust, Warwick District Council and Loughborough University. Stuart has had many years experience of spearheading transformative change at a centre manager level and in senior positions at a strategic level. He is an advocate of the quality management model for the leisure industry known as Quest to drive service improvement. He is deeply passionate about improving health and wellbeing in communities and when time allows he puts his personal training qualification to use by supporting others to reach their fitness goals.

Trevor Watson
Director

Trevor is director of economy, environment and housing with Harrogate Borough Council, a post he has held since joining the council in 2017. Trevor has worked in local government for over 30 years in various locations including a previous period with Harrogate council in the 1990s.

Trevor has been responsible for leisure services in a number of his posts and has overseen the creation of the LACC with a commitment to ensure that enhancement of the health and well-being of our communities sits at its heart.

Steve Laird
Director

Steve brings many years of senior leadership experience in the public, private and third sector as an operator of world-class sports, leisure and cultural facilities. He offers our board a wide range of perspectives based on his experience gained from over 25 years as a leading consultant in the leisure sector, with expertise in transformation, investment and service development - aimed at improving community health and wellbeing.

Richard Webb
Director

Richard is corporate director for health and adult services at North Yorkshire Council and, as such, leads on public health, adult social care and partnerships with the NHS. Prior to local government re-organisation, he worked across the eight previous councils in the county for 18 months to bring together leisure, sport and cultural services. He has a strong commitment to encouraging more people to be physically active and in promoting good mental and physical health and has experience as a director of leisure. He lives in Harrogate and, outside of work, enjoys walking, cycling, running and watching Middlesbrough FC!

Trudy Forster
Director

Trudy Forster is our assistant chief executive for HR and business support at North Yorkshire Council. Trudy has been the assistant director of HR for North Yorkshire County Council for five years, four of which were spent on secondment to the City of York Council as head of HR and organisational development. Prior to that, Trudy worked at Durham University for 12 years as assistant director of HR. She is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development. Trudy keeps fit through Cross Fit, walking and mountain biking.

Paul Foster
Director

Paul has worked in local government for 30 years and was the head of finance at Harrogate Borough Council prior to the creation of the new unitary council, North Yorkshire Council from April 2023. His new role at North Yorkshire Council is assistant director of resources and he is out posted to the community development directorate that includes the delivery of leisure services. Paul was part of the Harrogate Borough Council team that created Brimhams Active and oversaw the investments in leisure facilities in the Harrogate Borough Council area that are now operated by Brimhams Active. Now his footballing days are over, Paul runs to keep fit and enjoys walking in his spare time, be it locally or in the Dales or the Lakes.

Vicki Dixon
Director

Since 1 April 2023, Vicki is the assistant director for resources with responsibility for the environment directorate at the newly formed North Yorkshire Council. Vicki was previously assistant director for strategic resources (business and environmental services and central services) and led on the commercial agenda at North Yorkshire County Council. A qualified Chartered Accountant while working at Deloitte, Vicki has worked in both the private and public sector with 18 years experience in local government having worked for the unitary North Tyneside Council prior to joining the county council in 2018. In her spare time, Vicki enjoys being involved in most sports, particularly biking and walking, and also enjoys travel.

Nicholas Harne
Director

As corporate director for community development at North Yorkshire Council Nic has responsibility for a range of services including planning, housing, economic development, regeneration, tourism and skills. Nic is also responsible for leisure, culture and library services across the Authority. As a member of the health and wellbeing board Nic is passionate about the impact services within the community development directorate can have on improving people's lives. Although more recently his career has focused on planning, regeneration and housing, one of Nic's first roles in local government was in sports development, delivering sports sessions as a way of engaging and bringing together diverse communities. Nic is a qualified tennis coach, a keen runner and loves to give any sport a try!