National Executive Committee

Tom Wheatley – PGA President

 Tom Wheatley is the President of the Prison Governors Association. He is a prison / corrections professional with thirty years’ experience in both public and private sector organisations. He has experience of managing large scale (700+) public to private employer TUPE and of leading the mobilisation and transition of critical public services in the policing sector. He has governed five public sector and one private prison.

He has Trustee/ NED experience in the Voluntary and Community Sector and is proud to be a trustee of both Unlock and Life Skills Education.

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Carl Davies – Vice President 

Carl joined the Prison Service in October 1991, completing his initial Prison Officer training at the now closed Prison Service College, Aberford Road, Wakefield. He has worked in a number of establishments, including Leicester, Moorland, Nottingham, Sudbury, Glen Parva,  Foston Hall and HQ, where he has held the fullest range of positions including Deputy Governor.

He is passionate about all that we do, and it is difficult for Carl to single out any particular high or low points of his career. Like most people who consider themselves professionals within the service he is immensely proud of the parts he has played in making prisons more decent and safe for both prisoners and staff. It dismays him when individuals and organisations criticise what we do with little or no insight in to the complexities of our work. 

When Carl looks back over the last 33  years there has not been one period where continuous improvement has not been on the agenda, whether this be in areas of performance, decency or delivery of value for money, at the heart of this has been governor grades.

More recently Carl has played a significant part in ensuring the association remained responsive to the needs of the membership during the COVID crisis, whilst taking on the challenge to remain in his national officer role during the height of the crisis, he did so after requesting to be based full time back in a prison, this gave him a real insight in to the many challenges being faced during COVID

carl.davies@prison-governors-association.org.uk

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Mark Icke  – Vice President 

Bio to follow

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Shaun Williamson – Finance Officer

shaun.williamson@prison-governors-association.org.uk

Shaun joined the Prison Service in 1992 serving as a Prison Officer at HMP Wandsworth, HMP Brixton, and HMP Full Sutton, Senior Officer at HMYOI Deerbolt, and Principal Officer at HMP Full Sutton prior to promotion as an Operational Manager.

Shaun has covered all Functional Head roles, and currently Head of Security and third in charge at Full Sutton, with Deputy Governor accreditation. He gained a Foundation Degree in Offender Management – Leadership and Management of Custodial Services (2010), a First-Class Honours Degree in Business and Management (2011), and in 2016 completed a Masters Degree in Criminology, Penology and Management at the University of Cambridge.

Shaun was elected onto the National Executive Committee in 2007. He has a broad interest in both the trade union and professional services which the association provides and is the longest serving member on the National Executive Committee having a sound insight into the workings of the association. He has been directly involved in national consultation and negotiations with senior leaders and members of Government.

He continues, along with other colleagues on the NEC, to provide support to members whilst dealing with personal cases. He has also become a point of contact in relation to questions relating to HR, pay and pensions, and although not an expert, provides sound advice to members. Shaun has looked after the finances on behalf of the PGA since November 2011 as the third Finance Officer in the history of the Association.

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Diane Lewis – PGA NEC Representative

Diane joined the Prison service in 2006 on the Senior Prison Manager Programme, she was the only external candidate on her programme. Prior to joining the service Diane worked in the Private Healthcare Sector for 16 years in many posts but largely in Operations Management. She has worked in the Yorkshire Prison Group for 14 years, HMP Moorland as Head of Residence, HMP Wetherby as Deputy Governor, HMP Lindholme, Deputy Governor. Diane has been a substantive Prison Governor since 2012 her first posting was to Govern the Yorkshire Prison Groups female cluster, HMP Newhall and HMP Askham Grange. In 2015 she took up the post as Governor of HMP Wealstun and is proud to have lead the team at Wealstun for the last 5 years.

Diane has experience of leading a complex organisation through significant change such as, Fair and Sustainable, Benchmarking, managing a complex environment impacted by Psychoactive substances, The T 10 project and more recently COVID 19.

She was awarded with a MBA (Masters in Business Administration) at Leeds Business School in 2008.

Diane has an interest in employment Law, newly elected onto the NEC, and is looking forward to representing the membership with personal cases.

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Dave Taylor – PGA NEC Representative

Dave has been in the Prison Service for over 39 years having joined as an Officer in 1981 and have served at every rank up to and including Governing Governor and had the privilege to Govern HMP Highpoint, Wandsworth and on two occasions HMP Littlehey.

Dave has experience in twelve prison establishments covering most offender types including female and high security estate. In 2017 he took up post as the Senior Project Lead for the then East Prisons Group and his responsibilities included education, healthcare delivery and development of the rehabilitative culture across the 10 prison establishments in the group and he also covered the Prison Group Director in their absence.

In May 2018 Dave accepted a secondment to the to the then Change, Strategy and Planning Directorate working closely with reform and change teams assisting their engagement with operational senior managers.

Dave took up post on the NEC in August of this year but had previously served on the NEC for a number of years both as a committee member and Vice President.

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James Bryant – PGA Office Manager
James.Bryant@prison-governors-association.org.uk

James is the Office Manager for the Prison Governors’ Association and he has been in this role since 2003.
He deals with the day to day running of the PGA Office, which is based in Clive House, in central London, James manages and works closely with the National Officers and the President of the association.
James is also responsible for the information flow, both in and out of the Office, and he prepares most of the regular information bulletins, it is without doubt that the Association is lucky to have James in place