EXPERTISE

A diverse career has shaped a wide range of skills. Some of these are specific to archaeology and cultural heritage, many are transferable to a range of disciplines and sectors.


LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT

The past exists in the present. Organisations which help understand and manage cultural heritage need to prosper now, to survive into the future. My experience as chief executive, senior executive and non-executive director has been in organisations ranging from £750k turnover with 16 staff, to £8m+ turnover with over 250 staff. I have a comprehensive understanding of governance and management, particularly in the third sector, and the separation of executive and non-executive roles.

Leading teams through periods of transition has usually involved simultaneously:

  • finding new sources of income and imaginative resourcing
  • maintaining excellence in service/product delivery
  • overcoming institutional inertia and established mindsets

I have an ability to motivate people intellectually and philosophically. I have had direct engagement with complex logistics - ranging from £20,000 office relocation to £20m regeneration projects. Leading from the front.

POLICY AND PRACTICE

Cultural heritage organisations - whether public-, private- or third-sector - operate within frameworks that are not of their own making.

I have a comprehensive knowledge of UK-wide government policy for heritage, environment, planning, archaeology and landscape; and hands-on experience of delivery. My particular areas of policy expertise include: development management, public engagement, health and wellbeing. 

I have a nuanced understanding of the political context of heritage decision-making, especially relationships between government and its agencies (eg. NLHF, ACE), and third-sector heritage and environmental organisations including international NGOs. Particular experience and understanding of Welsh political frameworks and contexts. Excellent understanding of broader international contexts.

CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABILITY

Past human actions may help guide future progress. Achieving this requires innovative ways of understanding, conserving and presenting the past. 

I have extensive professional experience of development-driven archaeology, regeneration and place-making, heritage management and planning. I enjoy negotiating the tensions that arise during these processes - sometimes project-specific, at other times addressing strategic issues in single or multiple organisations, with individual buildings or complex landscapes.

Project experience includes dealing with very large multi-agency area regeneration schemes to small-scale housebuilding works. I particularly enjoy working with public- and third-sector bodies to deliver sustainable development.

PROFESSIONALISM AND ETHICS

I have a long-standing passion for professional development, and in particular strengthening the ethical aspects of archaeology and cultural heritage practice. 

I was an active Member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (CIfA), serving on CIfA Board from 2014-2020, and its predecessor body from 2009-2012. Also active on Validation Committee and International Practice Special Interest Group. Closely involved with establishment of CIfA-Deutschland. During this time I was also the official liaison between CIfA and the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA).

Since 2002 I have been an active member of European Association of Archaeologists. Particular interests include the EAA Community on Professional Associations in Archaeology; I also co-founded the EAA Urban Archaeology Community and have been its Chair since 2017.
 

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT AND PEDAGOGY

Archaeology and cultural heritage can deliver meaningful change to individuals and communities. I have nearly 30 years' experience creating and managing public heritage projects - with museums, local government, state heritage agencies and private developers; funding from NLHF, national and local government, charitable trusts, financial institutions and individual benefactors.

Practice and policy of cultural heritage also requires active contribution to national and international conversations - both professional and academic.

Teaching and learning is a continuous and reflexive process - every day should (and usually does) involve the acquisition of new knowledge or skills, or the understanding of different perspectives.

RESEARCH AND UNDERSTANDING

My diverse range of research interests generally relates to moments of transition in European history. In addition to a wide range of policy-related publications, I also have an extensive record of archaeological excavation and publication. Key themes include:

  • later prehistoric landscapes in the early first millenium
  • post-Roman and early medieval landscapes
  • religion and identity in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
  • late medieval and early modern industrialisation and urbanisation

 

 

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Paul Belford







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