The Board of Commissioners

Chair

Lee Hardy OBE

Lee Hardy was born in Poole and has been based in the area all his life.

He brings a broad perspective and wide-ranging experience gained during a long, operationally focused, career in the Royal Navy.  Latterly he led a UK Overseas Territory, served as a marine and maritime adviser within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and is now closely engaged in the Blue Economy leading projects designed to counter illegality at sea, particularly in relation to fishing or that which is harmful to the oceans.

He is an advocate for technological innovation in the maritime domain, alongside a focus on all aspects of safety.  He is a strong supporter of a responsible approach to environmental matters, balanced against commercial realities and the strategic picture.

Vice-Chair

Martin Pate

Martin Pate is a Solicitor and Managing Director of MJP Law, a solicitors’ practice based in Dorset. Martin started his career with the London Metropolitan Police and then the Department of Transport and Environment in London, working for a number of departments and agencies. Martin is a keen sailor qualified to RYA Offshore Yacht Master and former Commodore of East Dorset Sailing Club in Poole.

Chief Executive

Captain Brian Murphy

Captain Brian Murphy has been in the marine industry for the past 40 years. A Master Mariner, attaining command of a large container vessel on a worldwide trade. His career path diverted closer to home serving 2 years at Condor Ferries before joining Poole Pilots Partnership. He remained there as a Class 1 Pilot for 4 years before joining Poole Harbour Commissioners in 2004, taking on the roles of Pilot, Pilotage Manager, Harbour Control Manager and Assistant Harbour Master. Brian was promoted to Harbour Master in 2008 and in 2018, he took on the additional role of Marine & Port Director, leading both Port Operations and Harbour Master teams.

On 1st July 2023 Brian was appointed CEO of Poole Harbour Commissioners and retains statutory role of Harbour Master until 1st September 2023.

Brian is a Council Member of the British Ports Association, formerly the Vice President of the UK Habour Masters Association, Younger Brethren of Trinity House and Fellow of the Nautical Institute.

Commissioner

Alicia Andrews

Alicia Andrews has extensive experience operating in leadership roles in a commercial, marketing or customer experience context.  She has worked in the media, digital, passenger ferries and rail sectors.

At Southeastern, she is a member of the executive and leads the Commercial team, which is accountable for retail, revenue, digital services, marketing, customer experience and insight.

At ARL, as a member of the executive team, she transformed the infrastructure and facilities functions delivering significant improvements in SQR performance and led the team that successfully introduced the new class 710 trains to the Overground.

She was Commercial Director at Condor Ferries and she led launch of new ships, the digitalisation of ticket sales and marketing activities.

Earlier in her career, Alicia spent eight years working at Yell Group as part of the senior management team for Yell.com. During this time, she was accountable for the Yell.com site.

In 1995 she was a founder member of the team which created FT.com.

She is graduate in History from the University of London and holds the IoD Diploma in Company Direction.

Commissioner

Steve Wisdom

Steve is a Chartered Accountant with over 30 years experience gained across a number of senior finance roles. After qualifying with an audit firm Steve spent thirteen years in financial services, ten of which were with Portman Building Society as Head of Group Finance, before accepting senior commercial finance roles in diverse property and business consultancy groups. Steve joined PHC as Chief Financial Officer in 2015 and enjoys a variety of watersports. Steve is vice-chair of Branksome Chine Surf Lifesaving Club where he is a volunteer beach lifeguard, delivers lifeguard training and coaches the sport aspects of surf lifesaving.

Commissioner

Dr Alice Hall

Dr Alice Hall is a marine biologist who works for Plymouth University. She is involved in various international research projects associated with Poole Harbour, including the cross-channel fish tracking project FISH INTEL. Her main areas of expertise are fish tracking, ecological engineering & biological monitoring. She has been involved in some of the largest intertidal ecological engineering projects in the UK to date and won the CIRIA Big Biodiversity Innovation award in 2019. Alice has been conducting research and consultancy work in the Harbour for the past ten years and is a qualified HSE Scuba Diver with her own personal fish tagging licence. She was previously the secretary for the Poole Harbour Study Group, which involved the organisation of several international conferences, and is currently a council member for the Estuarine and Coastal Shelf Association (ECSA).

Commissioner

Davina Houlton

Davina, a qualified Business & Personal Coach and chartered member of the CIPD, has spent nearly 25 years working in a range of different businesses and industries and today runs her own Coaching & Training Consultancy business.

She has a HR leadership background and has partnered with leaders in all different scenarios, including during the exciting and fast paced times of growth and the equally as fast paced but often more uncertain times of business challenge.

Much of her corporate career has been within FMCG, working for both Associated British Foods and Unilever, but she has also worked for Financial Services, Technology and Consulting businesses of various sizes.

She lives in the area with her husband and dog and loves being outdoors.

Commissioner

Steven Young

Steven Young has spent over 45 years in the maritime industry. Initially at sea as a Master Mariner with P&O/Princess Cruises, he then spent twenty years in senior roles in the ports sector including Harbour Master Southampton and Executive General Manager and Harbour Master Sydney, Australia.

He then returned to the shipping sector and spent nine years with Carnival UK (P&O and Cunard) as Vice President, Port and Shore Operations, before retiring from full time employment.

In addition to Poole Harbour Commissioners, Steven is a Non-executive director for Solent Stevedores Ltd.

Steven has held an RYA Yachtmaster Offshore certificate for 40 years and when not bare boat chartering, he likes to cruise his land yacht (motorhome) around Europe. He has a passion for all things Ports and Maritime.

Commissioner

Tom Russell

Tom Russell is from a family of Poole fishermen and has been on the harbour all of his life. He operates two commercial fishing boats from Poole and is the Chairman of the Poole and District Fisherman’s Association he is also the local representative of the Fisherman’s Mission.

Commissioner

Richard Selby

Richard is the Commercial Director and Head of Training for a global maritime aviation company, prior to which he was the Head of International Development at British Marine & Superyacht UK supporting the national marine and maritime industry in conjunction with UK and overseas governments.

Richard’s working life commenced with the Royal Navy before moving into local authority fire and rescue and was a member of the marine incident response group dealing with incidents on large commercial vessels before moving on to run a busy full service boatyard and then into the superyacht industry.

He has enjoyed voluntary roles with the RNLI at Poole and Salcombe Lifeboat Stations and is also a First Responder with South West Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

Commissioner

Rob Bridewell

As the son of a Poole Docker, Rob started his 33 year Dock career in 1986. For the past 14 year’s he has been a foreman at the Port of Poole and has vast experience in the day to day running of the port operations.

As a training instructor of 22 years, Rob also spends his time training new Stevedores to become Competent Plant Drivers whilst understanding and adhering to strict health and safety requirements.

As a commissioner he looks forward to representing our workforce, facilitating growth to the working Port and securing jobs for future generations whilst maintaining the preservation of the harbour.

Commissioner

Andrew Tate – BSc(Hons), MIAM, CEng, FIMarEST

Andrew is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the IMarEST, he joined the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in November 1999 and has held a number of significant engineering design and technical positions during this time.  He is currently the Head of In-Service Support, responsible for the maintenance and support of the RNLI’s fleet of All Weather and Inshore lifeboats, the launch & recovery equipment and lifeguard equipment across the UK and Ireland.

Andrew has worked abroad on major airport construction projects and undertaken maintenance management research projects resulting in an industry leading publication.  He is passionate about supporting the next generation of engineer and has for the last 6 years sponsored and driven the RNLI’s Women in Engineering programme.  Andrew moved to Poole over 20 years ago and in his spare time is a regular harbour user, racing his dinghy at The Poole Yacht Club.  For 10 years he was the RYA Principal for Youth Section, teaching sailing and managing club events.