Anne Holst - President

Anne joined the committee of The Wooden Boat Centre in September 2021 and was elected to the role of President in June 2022.  Anne has worked on enhancing the governance of the organisation and establish a business structure that is sustainable and community focused.  Her passion is for the preservation of traditional wooden boatbuilding skills to grow the community of wooden boat builders and preserve the craft.  Her vision is of Franklin, Tasmania as the capital of Australian wooden boatbuilding.  Anne has worked in politics, natural resource management, vocational education and libraries in management, coordination, project management, teaching and facilitation roles.  She has worked extensively in Western NSW’s arid zone. She is a sheep farmer at heart and has been building up a small holding in the hills west of Franklin for the past 9 years.

Dr Sonia Shimeld – Treasurer

Sonia is an accountant (FCPA) with a PhD in governance in not-for-profits. She retired from a lifetime in academia lecturing in accounting and corporate governance. Sonia strongly values a mission to help others, over profits to improve one’s own wealth, and the sense of community that is activated through volunteering. For the past 20 years Sonia has been actively involved (as Chair or Treasurer) in a diverse range of not-for-profit boards from dancing groups, community legal centres, festival groups and the peak body for volunteering. She became Treasurer of the Wooden Boat Centre when she moved to Franklin (2014), shortly after it was purchased by the community. She returned in 2022 as Treasurer, shop, and volunteer guide after a three-year break with a strong sense of purpose in supporting the financial stability of the organisation and building the local community through sharing the passion that lies within the wooden boat culture.

Scott-Bradley Pearce - Secretary

Scott is a highly experienced digital native with deep experience across all disciplines including, content, technology, marketing and automation, team management and talent development. Over the past twenty five plus years he has worked in and co-owned some of Australia’s leading digital agencies. And he has worked client-side for global content businesses as well as led tenders and re-platforming projects for government and commercial brands. Scott has additionally detailed, hands on, experience with start-ups and start-up validation and commercial implementation and fundraising. 

Tim Blumfield - Board Member

Tim currently is a Senior Research Fellow at an Australian university, who has since 2007 led forestry-based development projects in the Solomon Islands. At other times, he volunteers two days per week at the Wooden Boat Centre to improve the technical skills of students. His background includes working for 11 years as a bench joiner, as workshop manager for a UK based charity which sends refurbished hand tools to developing countries, and five years running a skills workshop in PNG.

Neil Purdom - Board member

Neil has worked for Telstra in Adelaide, initially as an IT Business and Systems Analyst and then as Instructional Designer and Training Operations Manager.  Opportunities in mining and construction led to contract work throughout Australia designing, managing and facilitating training in areas such as Project Management and WH&S as well as continuing instructional design projects covering a wide range of topics and industries.  Neil lives in the beautiful Huon Valley restoring a circa 1885 homestead and volunteers at the Wooden Boat Centre as a tour guide and board member.