South West team

The South West team work in partnership with regional stakeholders in areas such as policy development and outreach. One of our primary roles is to effectively communicate BIGs new portfolio of programmes to organisations and communities across the South West. If you would like to talk to somebody at BIG, please call the BIG Advice Line on 0845 4 10 20 30. Mark Cotton - Head of Region

As Head of Region for the South West Mark Cotton is responsible for leading all aspects of the work of the Big Lottery Fund Regional team. This includes managing external stakeholder relations, ensuring the regional policy context informs the development of England-wide policy and programmes, co-ordinating regional media,communications and public affairs work, providing outreach and development support to applicants and supporting regional public involvement in our work.

Barbara Goody - Team assistant

Barbara joined the South West Region in 2003. Her role is to support the regional team and maintain the smooth running of office systems.

Before joining Big Lottery Fund, Barbara worked for 3 years at Exeter City Council in the Home Aid section which provides services and aids for people with disabilities.

Louise Bowers - Regional communications manager

Louise leads on regional communications work, implementing communications strategies to ensure stakeholders are kept informed about BIG’s funding programmes and distribution of corporate communications materials in the region. Her role also involves the planning of regional events, marketing the fund’s brand, developing regional distribution strategies, and liaison with grant-funded projects.

Louise has worked in a number of roles within Lottery funding, working as an Awards Officer on Awards for All, Enquiries and Information Officer for Community Fund and England Regional Officer for the New Opportunities Fund.

Serena Fitzgerald - Regional communications officer (Tuesday -Thursday)

Serena job-shares with Jo as Communication and events officer.  They are responsible for contributing to campaigns and events to raise awareness of the Lottery within the region.  This involves organising events across the region, producing a range of case studies, keeping MPs and key political stakeholders up-to-date, maintaining regional web-pages and e-bulletins, as well as developing the regional contacts database.

Jo Darke - Regional communications officer (Wednesday and Thursday)

Jo job-shares with Serena as Communication and events officer.  They are responsible for contributing to campaigns and events to raise awareness of the Lottery within the region.  This involves organising events across the region, producing a range of case studies, keeping MPs and key political stakeholders up-to-date, maintaining regional web-pages and e-bulletins, as well as developing the regional contacts database.

Jo and Serena both previously worked as Awards officers with Awards for All.

Rachel Ware - Regional policy and partnerships manager

Rachel works with the rest of the Policy and External Relations team to ensure that the region's unique character and concerns are taken into account in the development of the Fund's programmes and priorities, and also to ensure that potential applicants and other key stakeholders are kept up-to-date with all the Fund's news.

Rachel first worked for the National Lottery Charities Board in January 2000, and held a variety of posts as the Board became the Community Fund and then merged with the New Opportunities Fund to become BIG in 2004. She is a board member of the Market and Coastal Towns Association, and a former chair of the Regional Lottery Distributors Joint Development Group.

Catherine Stevens - Regional policy and partnerships manager

Catherine is the most recent recruit to the team, joining the team in March 2007.Catherine also works with the rest of the Policy and External Relations team to ensure that the region's unique character and concerns are taken into account in the development of the Fund's programmes and priorities, and also to ensure that potential applicants and other key stakeholders are kept up-to-date with all the Fund's news.

Catherine first worked for the National Lottery Charities Board in August 2002 when she joined the Strategic Grants team working as a Grants Officer on the England-wide national grant making programme. She then moved to take up the role of Programme Manager of the East Midlands' Region in October 2005 , and later also undertook the role of Programme Manager for the Operations Regional Team working on our legacy programmes. Catherine is a qualified solicitor and retains an interest in the advice sector.

Chris Laing - Regional policy and partnerships officer

Chris was appointed RDO in November 2005 and helps to develop BIG's policy and development work in the region. He joined the Big Lottery Fund's South West regional team in 2004 as Enquiries & Information Officer. He dealt with phone and postal enquiries from a wide range of regional stakeholders and potential applicants, and helped develop new and effective enquiries monitoring systems.

Olivia Gore - Regional policy and partnerships officer

Olivia was appointed as one of two Regional Development Officers for the Big Lottery Fund in November 2005, and is currently helping to develop BIG's policy and development work in the region as part of the Policy and Partnerships Directorate.  Olivia joined the regional Awards for All team in 2002, where she worked in both an administrative and a grant assessing role on this Joint Lottery small grants programme.