Chris Funnell - Development Worker/Director
Chris Funnell has been a co-operative development worker for over twenty years. During that time he has played a part in the establishment of over eighty co-operative enterprises currently trading. He has experience of going into diverse sectors and areas of interest to set up partnerships and communications; e.g. regeneration partnerships in urban areas and small market towns, rural enterprise development projects funded by MAFF and international projects. All of these projects call for open mindedness, networking skills, being able to 'learn the language' and an ability to understand and synthesise the special strengths of organisations.
Brian Titley - Development Worker/Director
Brian Titley is a specialist in promotion, marketing and networking. Brian has been working in the co-operative sector since the 1980s. He has been an officer of a credit union, has served on the management committee of a Co-operative Development Agency and serves on the Bristol Area Committee of the recently merged CWS-CRS consumer co-op. He was project manager for the promotional work which resulted in the successful £1million share issue by Industrial Common Ownership Finance Ltd. Brian also managed the Social Economy 2000 Conference for the launch of CDA Dorset. Brian returned to CAN in 1999 after secondment to the University of Southampton where he completed research into management needs in growth SMEs.
Austen Cordasco - Development Worker/Director
Austen Cordasco joined the co-operative movement in the late eighties when he became a member of Bramble Wholefoods - a wholesaling co-operative in Essex, where he introduced computer and bar coding systems and carried out his first stint as Company Secretary. He was a founder member of MillRace Furniture Restoration Co-operative - a co-operative social firm which is still trading after more than ten years - also in Essex. Austen has extensive experience of delivering ESF funded programmes, of project management, work in the charity sector and of tutoring IT skills to vulnerable adults. He is a qualified trainer and NVQ assessor.
CAN also supplements the team with former employees from time to time as associates.