Our Team

Jess has thirty years of experience as a local community activist and entrepreneur in Deptford and Hastings, as well as at a national level working with government, funders, corporates and academics. An active social entrepreneur, she has established community enterprises in publishing, heritage, tourism, childcare, financial management, neighbourhood development, workspace and, more recently, homes that are genuinely affordable in perpetuity and leisure for everyone.

Jess’ company Jericho Road is a founder investor in Hastings Commons, alongside Meanwhile Space and HCNV Ltd.

Gini has worked across the Creative Sector in a number of positions, including as a Design Director, Head of Learning & Participation at the Barbican Arts Centre and Artistic Director at Hear Me Out, a music organisation for Asylum Seekers and those in Immigration Detention Centres. She is passionate about the potential of the arts to support social change and to empower people and communities to develop their own solutions to issues which affect them.

At Hastings Commons, Gini is keen to work with creative technologies to inspire and connect people across the town and beyond. She is excited about the Community Land Trust and the possibilities around owning the future together. Otherwise, she enjoys spending time with her family and her cat and travelling. In her 30s, Gini drove from Brixton to India, making a film about arguments along the way.

Bob has worked with Hastings Commons from the very start - first as a funder in 2014 when he was Director of Programmes for the Power to Change Trust, then as a contractor after he co-founded Practical Governance.

Bob now works part-time at Hastings Commons, alongside being a Partner at Practical Governance and Operations Lead & Board Secretary at the Conduit Club. In Bob’s spare time, he is a keen traveller, football fan, a lover of Scottish whisky, a trustee of Camerados (from which our own Common Room has taken inspiration) as well as treasurer of the Bevy, a community-owned pub in Brighton where he spends far too much of his time.

Sean’s caretaking and maintenance experience spans fourteen years working for the University of Brighton prior to joining Hastings Commons.

He is responsible for the maintenance and cleaning of all our buildings, along with providing customer service to our residents and tenants.

Kieron joined us in 2021 to start a new career as a Caretaker. He works closely with Sean and Mark to keep all of our buildings clean and well maintained. Kieron loves helping people and in his spare time he enjoys fishing. He is also a motorbike fanatic!

Alvin brings 10 years of experience of facilities and health & safety management to Hastings Commons. Alvin has worked within a charity organisation for the past 7 years and is keen to stay within the sector.

In his spare time Alvin likes to spend time with his young family enjoying days out.

Bonnie helps with the day to day running of Hastings Commons, ensuring all the administrative tasks are completed. Bonnie's friendly approach and strong interest in the local community shines through when she is talking with new and existing members and tenants. Bonnie aspires to have a positive impact in Hastings.

When Bonnie is not tackling spreadsheets with the finance team she enjoys travelling the world, and exploring different cultures.

Simon shares the Creative Producer role with Katie Dale-Everett. Based in the OBX Creative Technology Hub they work to activate projects across Hastings Commons spaces and beyond.

Alongside his work at Hastings Commons, Simon continues his practice as an artist and designer for performance. His multi-disciplinary practice has spanned VR and interactive non-linear theatre to set, costume, video design for organisations across the UK including the National Theatre, Royal Opera House and Manchester International Festival.

As part of her role at OBX, Katie coordinates projects that support people of all ages and experiences into creative and technology based projects. When not at Hastings Commons, Katie freelancers within the dance industry working across settings including hospitals, youth centres, libraries and schools. Throughout all of her work is a passion for meeting new people.

Alex has been involved with Hastings Commons since early 2022. He initially joined as a Kickstarter, off the back of a 3 year course studying games development. He is now the OBX Digital Assistant and has been able to apply his skills beyond solely making games as he helps the wider OBX team in research and development of projects alongside events and workshops.

Alex is very passionate about making technology easily understandable for all as the current climate in the tech industry is fast moving and people can often feel left behind. Outside of work he plays video games instead of developing them and every now and then plays football to break away from the tech world.

Lois is a seasoned performer with a talent for visual comedy and has written, produced and performed in several of her own shows. She's now channeling her creative energy into organising and hosting transformative online courses.

With over two decades of front of house experience in various arts venues, Lois' role for Hastings Commons involves supporting Gwen with event coordination at the Observer Building.

Outside of work, Lois has a passion for music, dancing with abandon, sitting on the beach, stumbling across friendly cats, learning new things and challenging her perception of reality.

She's blown away by the mission of Hastings Commons and its associated organisations and is genuinely grateful to be a part of the team.

Gwen has worked as a venue and events manager in London and Edinburgh for over 30 years, latterly with the University of Edinburgh producing the Festival. Gwen is a passionate believer in the power of the arts to reflect and elicit change for good. She also has a keen interest in the saving and restoration of historic buildings and is delighted to be playing a part in the redevelopment of the buildings across the Commons.

As Events Manager, Gwen is tasked with hiring out our spaces and delivering a variety of events. As well as providing space for many of Hastings artists and festivals, this work generates income to support the aspirations of Hastings Commons.

Ersin is a professionally qualified youth worker studying at Goldsmith’s University. He has been a youth worker for 40 years, in a range of different settings in London, Malibu and Lanzarote. In his role he hopes to guide, support and develop young people as well as have fun during their transition into adulthood.

Mark is the Caretaker Coordinator who brings 11 years of construction knowledge to Hastings Commons. Previously Mark spent time volunteering with two local charities, Dom's Food Mission and Surviving the Streets, which Mark aims to continue doing alongside his work with Hastings Commons.

In his spare time, Mark likes to watch the rugby and enjoys seafront bicycle rides.

Emily is the founder and Director of the pioneering social enterprise and advisory organisation Meanwhile Space. As the market leader in Meanwhile uses since 2009, Meanwhile Space designs innovative Meanwhile solutions to create better places to live and work, by taking on challenging redundant spaces, and working with local communities to bring them into affordable temporary use that supports community initiatives, social and creative entrepreneurialism.

As a Hastings resident, Emily is committed to supporting the Hastings Commons strategy and ethos to achieve its full potential for community led social action, having been involved since its inception through the purchase of Rock House in 2014. She is now a trustee of the charity Leisure and Learning, a project board member on the Observer Building development, and previously was a grant panellist for the Heritage Action Zone.

Tor has over 15 years’ experience working in communications, advocacy and events for a range of charities.

Tor currently works for the Centre for Homelessness Impact, a charity that aims to improve the lives of people experiencing homelessness through better use of data and evidence across the sector. Here she leads on high-profile events and behavioural change communications campaigns.

Tor is passionate about working with young people, with a particular interest in the value of youth work and youth governance. This stems from a career working for a range of youth charities, including Teenage Cancer Trust, Action for Children and the Roundhouse, as well as sitting on the advisory group for YourStance, an organisation that teaches life-saving skills to young people vulnerable to youth violence. Tor was also involved in the original steering group for the Young Trustees Movement, a campaign to increase the number of young people sitting on boards.

Jenni is a placemaking strategist with a strong track record in long term, urban regeneration and place transformation projects. During the past 10 years Jenni has founded and built a successful placemaking agency that has contributed to many of the most significant regeneration precincts in London. Her experience covers residential (sales and Build to Rent), commercial (office and innovation), retail, meanwhile use and animation in many different settings. Previously she was Director of Marketing at a major public institution - Southbank Centre - during the transformation of Royal Festival Hall into arguably the London’s most successful waterfront destination.

Rebecca is a GP and health policy analyst with an interest in the impact of community and peer support on health and wellbeing.

In the last few years, Rebecca has been part of a research team studying the switch to digital and remote consultations in general practice. She hopes to find transferable learning from this research that is relevant to OBX.

She is looking forward to working with staff and our Commoners on the health and wellbeing impacts of Hastings Commons.

Nick is a passionate champion of the built environment and in particular community-led projects. He has over 20 years’ experience in communications, community engagement, procurement and design in the sector. Originally trained as an architect, he more recently took a Masters in Design Management and Innovation where his research was based around sustainable and ground-up development models.

Having worked for some of the most interesting and high profile architectural practices in London and New York, on some fascinating projects, he moved to Sussex in 2020 and currently works as a freelance consultant in tandem with his role as a Trustee of Hastings Commons.

Kate Adams is an artist, advocate and activist. She is Director & CEO of Project Art Works and has curated many responsive, collaborative projects with neurominorities, families, care services, artists and galleries.

Kate co-founded Project Art Works in 1997 to explore an expanded concept of art that was and continues to be influenced by Paul Colley, her son, who has complex support needs. Their work embraces personalised studio practice, peer support and award-winning films, art actions, installations and exhibitions. Kate’s practice disrupts preconceptions about what people can and can’t do, who they are and how they live, revealing other ways of being in and seeing the world.

Richard has lived in Hastings since 2019 and has a strong family connection.  His grandparents were from Hastings and they were born, lived and died here. He has memories of spending childhood holidays here. He moved here before the pandemic and finds the atmosphere very conducive to his work and lifestyle. Richard takes part in local exhibitions and sources his materials locally, finding inspiration from the area and surrounding countryside.

Richard has many years of experience and feels it would be nice to be able to pass some of that on to others. He has a particular interest in the Neurodivergent community – as he is a part of it – and feels they have talents and perspectives that would benefit everybody.

Steve Peak is a retired journalist and author, although he still continues to write newspaper articles and books, plus runs his own website www.hastingshistory.net. His local books include Fishermen of Hastings (1985, which has sold over 12,000 copies), Mugsborough Revisited (2001), The Hastings Papers (2007), A Pier Without Peer (2016), Hastings Country Park: A History (2019) and The America Ground (2021).

Steve Peak is the longest-serving trustee of the Old Hastings Preservation Society (since 1986). He is also the honorary curator of the Hastings Fishermen’s Museum, which has well over 100,000 visitors a year and is financially self-sufficient. In the late 1980s, he created the Hastings Nets Shops Museum, which he still runs.

Adam Wide is a leisure, tourism and engagement professional, who was founder and chairman of Europe’s largest independent entertainment consultancy. After selling the company he was head-hunted out to Dubai as Creative Director of an $850m theme park, and thence to Guinness World Records as their Global Creative Director. Now retired and living in St. Leonards he lends his hand to anything involving public engagement (whether asked to or not !).