Our Trustees & Board of Directors

David hails from Plymouth and after graduating from Cardiff University with an Economics degree moved to Taunton in 1987. He has worked at a local firm, BJDixon Walsh since qualification as a chartered accountant in 1992.

He deals with a wide range of clients from different sectors, mainly owner managed businesses and this breadth of experience in the commercial world brings a different perspective to the charity.
David is married with three children and has strong sense of family and community. He has been involved with a number of local charities over the years on a personal level or in a professional capacity. He has been honorary treasurer of Age UK Somerset since January 2014.

Gill Blackshaw

Gill hails from Manchester where she started her nursing career.  Along with her family, she moved to Somerset for a new job.  Gill has been a nurse for over 43 years and has spent most of her career in community nursing and management.

Gill was a Trustee of a hospice for 4 years before getting the role of their Executive Director,  After a short career break to care for an ailing mum she now works in Devon as a nurse manager for a team of specialist nurse assessors.

Gill is married with 3 children and 3 grandchildren, they all live around the Chard area.

Natasha Goswell

Appointed: 21/09/2022

Natasha is originally from Oxfordshire, and has enjoyed coming to Somerset for the last 25 years as she has family in the area and now resides in Minehead, with her husband, two children and dog.

She is a registered nurse working within the health and care sector for more than 23 years, and holds a Masters in Advanced Practice and a Masters in Healthcare Leadership. She is a passionate advocate for ensuring that our older population is able to live their best lives, and is delighted to be part of Age UK Somerset.

Natasha is also a governor at her local college focusing on children with Special Education Needs and is also the Safeguarding lead for her local rugby club.

Simon Jackson

Appointed: 1/03/2023

Simon runs his own consultancy business, helping small businesses and project teams win new business.  He was in the British Army for over 30 years in various leadership and management roles including future equipment planning and procurement; he served in the UK, Germany, Belize, Cyprus and Hongkong.  He then worked in the defence industry for 12 years in programme management and sales before deciding to break out of the corporate world and work for himself.

Simon has lived in Somerset for 15 years and is married with 2 grown-up children.  He is a member of his local village Parsh Council, has been a school governor, and his interests include rugby (Bath!), military technology, countryside walks, (not-too-complicated) DIY and his pick-up truck project.

Jon Samways

Appointed: 21/09/2022

Jon was born and grew up in Yeovil, married in 1988, and moved to Poole in Dorset with his wife, Lyn, to work in IT within the Financial Services industry in 1989. Jon and Lyn raised a family of three children in Poole and over the next 30+ years Jon has worked for a US Investment Bank based in Bournemouth, initially providing IT technical support in various roles until 2003 when Jon moved to a Technology Risk and Controls role facing off to Banking regulators and Audit for Technology risk for the firm. Jon progressed to an Executive Director level in his career assuming international responsibilities managing teams in India, Latin America, the US and UK before eventually moving with his wife in 2014 to work in Sao Paulo Brazil for the firm managing the regions IT and Cyber Technology Risk and controls function facing off to external Audit and Central Bank regulators. In this role Jon subsequently moved from Brazil to live and work in New York for 3 years returning to the UK in 2019.

Jon and Lyn moved from Poole to Moorlinch in Somerset in 2021.

Saeed Shafie-Pour

Appointed: 21/09/2022

Saeed came to England in the mid 1980s to study Maths and Computer science at Bath Technical College.  After managing service stations and going on to own and run several businesses in Somerset, he moved to the US to take over an engineering company before returning to the South West.  His current focus is on property refurbishments.  Saeed currently lives in East Brent with his wife and two sons and hopes he can use his wealth of business and management experience to benefit the charity.  Having seen the challenges that older people face first-hand in his extended family he hopes that by joining the Age UK Somerset team he can help to improve and expand the services offered by the charity.