Trustees 

Faith Bullivant

Faith Says "With experience as a Translator, HR Manager and having run my own small business, in the 1980s I was leading a team in Walsall MBC working with young people who were not in employment.  I met two young men, aged 17 and 18, who wanted to start a business making and retailing fashion clothing, but no-one would take them seriously. 

I managed to get them a small bank loan to build a portfolio of samples and photographs of the clothes being modelled.  They successfully set up and ran the business.  This set me thinking that there must be other young people in a similar situation who needed training and assistance to set up their own businesses.  After research and obtaining funding, Breathing Space opened its doors in 1987 and I became Chairperson of the Management Committee.

I also spent ten years as a member of the Management Committee of West Midlands Low Pay Unit and I was an early member of Women in Management.

Now having returned to HR management which is my profession, I have worked with companies such as Vodafone and Virgin Media.  Currently I concentrate on interim assignments.

I am a Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and have an MA in Law and Employment Relations."

David Hill

David  went to Queen Mary's Grammar School in Walsall before leaving with the Joseph Leckie Memorial Scholarship for English and a Scholarship to London Imperial where he read Materials Science. After graduating  in 1976 he returned to join the family business in Electrical Contracting and over time became the MD. The business peaked at a 93m turnover and 14 branches nationwide. It was one of the largest companies in it's sector. Our projects included the Bullring, The Gherkin London and the Bank of England rewire. 

In 2008 the business was restructured with the Utility Company SSE purchasing the shares and leaving David free to pursue his other interests.

David is happily married with 2 adult sons. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Management.

He says "I stand for  long term business, building for the future. Business is far, far, more than just a profit stream. It is about delivering success for us all. Our future is based on the belief that in a changeable world sound values, sound finance and integrity will always succeed."

Mike Lee

Mike’s background includes multiple retail sales, management and buying, with over 20 years experience.  He successfully ran his own business in business advice, project management and training for ten years.

He joined Breathing Space in 2003 where he was responsible for business consultancy, advice and guidance, training and general management of Breathing Space.

His qualifications are:- R.J.Dip., TA 101 Transactional Analysis and he is a qualified SFEDI Business Advisor. Mike has recently been invited to join the Royal Society of Arts.

Involved in local education for many years, Mike is currently Chair of Governors of a federation of primary schools in Walsall, Chair of the Walsall Association of Governors and sits on several education committees. Mike is a trustee and director of three other local third sector organisations and also a Prince’s Trust mentor for new businesses.

Mike brings a wide range of skills and practical business experience coupled with a passion to help people into successful and sustainable business enterprises.

Mike is happily married to Teresa and has one grown-up daughter.

Robert Heed

Robert has been self employed since he was 18 years of age. He has recently sold a successful Voice and Data company that he started 13years ago.

Robert started life in the Hairdressing Industry and quickly developed his entrepreneurial skills with a chain of salons and eventually a hairdressing training company that delivered training worldwide. He was elected as The Worthy Master of The Incorporated Guild of Hairdressers and Wigmakers being the youngest master in the 100 year history of the organisation. He was Vice Chairman of the Hairdressing Training Board and had the responsibility for designing the NVQ framework for Hairdressing which was used as a framework for other NVQ qualifications.

Robert then developed an interactive Training company which was very innovative at the time.

He then returned to the University of Derby as a mature student to participate in a full time MBA course before leaving to start the Voice and Data Company.

He has now started a Business Consultancy aimed at the SME market using real life skills; he sums this up by saying ‘I appreciate what it is like sometimes to be sitting at the other side of the desk’

Robert is happily married to Julie and between them they have four children and one grandson.

Robert hopes that his ‘life experiences’ will be helpful and motivational to all participants of the Breathing Space programme

Donato Esposito

Donato has been working within IT development for over 25 years, 15 of which have been Freelance as a Consultant primarily in e-Enablement and is also Founder of Bostin Group.

His consultancy work has included many varied roles including Business Analysis and Project Management for major Blue Chip companies and FTSE100 organisations. Some of his work has been extremely varied including work on a new application for mobile phones with Rory Bremner and the first multi-platform game that could work on the Desktop Internet, WAP (now called mobile web) and text messaging.

He started Bostin Group as a way of communicating an optimism and positivity for our local area and has include products including T-shirts, a Blog, online games and also an online Comic which is now in print. His main experience was in using his skills of Social Media and Crowdsourcing to develop Bostin Group with MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and now Twitter.

One of his projects has included an online campaign in Facebook to have a Black Country version and has so far amassed a membership of  over 30,000.

When Donato was offered the opportunity to be a Trustee for Breathing Space it just made sense as it had the motto of “helping with positive ttitude and self belief” which is what Bostin Group is all about and is Black Country based too. Perfect synergy.

Having come from a working class family and struggled to start his own businesses, Donato wants to be able to help first hand with his experience and knowledge to raise some much needed funds for the charity and help progress the charity with modern technologies.