Meet the Team, Patrons and Trustees
MAST Patrons
Professor Michael Mainelli KStJ OMRI FCCA FCSI(Hon) FBCS FRSA
Chairman and founder of Z/Yen Group, the City of London’s leading think-tank, and President of the London Chamber of Commerce & Industry. Educated at Harvard, Trinity College Dublin, and LSE, he has been a senior accountancy partner and Ministry of Defence research director. Michael is a fellow of KCL, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Birkbeck, Goodenough, and Gresham colleges, visiting professor at UCL and City St George’s, Bencher at Middle Temple, active in fourteen livery companies, past Master World Trader, Lord Mayor of London 2023-2024, Sheriff 2019-2021 with charity interests in the environment, education, and care. The Price Of Fish: A New Approach To Wicked Economics And Better Decisions, written with Ian Harris won the Independent Publisher Book Awards Finance, Investment & Economics Gold Prize.
Lord Iliffe, DL
Chairman of the Yattendon Group Plc, a family business involved in regional newspapers, marinas, property and agriculture. High Sheriff of Warwickshire 1983-1984. Chairman of the Council of RASE 1994-1998, Warden of Bradfield College 2001-2006, Commodore of Royal Yacht Squadron 2005-2009 and a Younger Brother of the Corporation of Trinity House from 2005.
MAST CEO
Jessica Berry FSA, FRGS, ACIfA
Jessica Berry is founder and CEO of MAST. She is an author and maritime archaeologist MA (Hons) MA ACIfA. She is a Visiting Fellow of Bournemouth University, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. She is a former journalist with UK broadsheets. After completing her Masters at Flinders University in Australia, she worked internationally as a maritime archaeologist, first in Australia as Assistant Curator at the Western Australian Maritime Museum before working for Wessex Archaeology as a Project Supervisor and then at the Association for the Development of Maritime Archaeological Research (Adramar) in Rennes, France. She was part of the project team excavating the Swash Channel wreck since 2010, a 17th century Dutch armed merchantman off Poole in Dorset. She is the archaeological advisor for the 1685 Coronation wreck in Cornwall. She is an HSE Scuba and HSE SSDE, a PADI Open Water Instructor and an SSI Instructor and holds a commercially endorsed Advanced Powerboat licence.
MAST Chief Operating Officer
Giles Richardson
Giles Richardson MA (Hons) PCIfA joined MAST in 2018 as an Invincible Project diver and is now COO and senior analyst for the Maritime Observatory. Holding qualifications in Ancient History and Archaeology from Durham, Southampton and Oxford, he has worked across Europe and the Mediterranean Region. He was Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Bath's History of Technology Research Unit from 2017-19. His interests include the archaeology of the Victorian Royal Navy. He holds HSE Surface Supply (Offshore Top-Up) and Professional SCUBA qualifications, and is a BSAC Advanced Diver and Open Water Instructor and a PADI Open Water Instructor.
Mast Trustees / Directors
Mark Blondeau, CD MSc
With an academic background in history, Mark has thirty years of service in the Royal Canadian Navy, the last twenty as an Intelligence Officer. Growing up on the coast of British Columbia, he has been a lifelong advocate for both the marine environment and the principles of human security, particularly becoming a passionate champion for the field of Cultural Property Protection (CPP). He has published and briefed on the topic of CPP within the wider human security context, spearheading the adoption of CPP capabilities within the Canadian Armed Forces. As a direct result of these endeavours, he is a member of the executive of the nascent Canadian chapter of Blue Shield, and fully qualified as a CPP Practitioner by the British Army’s Outreach Group as the first Canadian 'Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Officer'. A member of the Nautical Archaeology Society for several years, Mark is a lapsed Advanced PADI Open Water SCUBA diver who now confines himself to enjoying intertidal and foreshore archaeology.
Major General Patrick Cordingley DSO OBE DSc FRGS
Patrick Cordingley was commissioned into the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards in 1965. Later, as a brigadier, he commanded the Desert Rats, (the 7th Armoured Brigade), during the 1991 Gulf War. His huge tank formation led the British and American attack, which breached the Iraqi defences. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. After this he was promoted to major general to command the 2nd UK Division, (50,000 regular and TA soldiers), with its headquarters in York. In July 1996 he was appointed Military Adviser to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos of Oman. Patrick retired from the Army in September 2000 and then completed seven years as chairman of an IT company. He is now Chairman of Defence and Security Forum and the National Memorial Arboretum Appeal. He is a past Master of the Ironmongers Company and past Chairman of the Trustees of Gilbert White's House and the Oates Collection and also a past chairman and vice-chairman of the governors of two schools He spends time being a military commentator, working mainly for the BBC, and a lecturer on decision-making. He was also a visiting scholar at Hull University, where he is a Doctor of Science. In August 1996 he published In the Eye of the Storm, his own account of leading Britain's biggest armoured deployment since D-day in 1944. He is also the co- author of a biography of Captain Oates, who walked willingly to his death on Captain Scott's ill-fated Antarctic expedition in 1912.
Vice Admiral Sir Anthony Dymock KBE CB MNI
Anthony Dymock retired after 40 years in the Royal Navy in 2008 having commanded 3 frigates, a frigate squadron and a Carrier Battle Group in blockade, crisis and combat operations off Beira (’71), Iceland (‘73,’75) the Falklands (’82), the Gulf (’91,’98), Kosovo(’98) and Sierra Leone (’99). Ashore, he directed the Maritime Warfare Centre and served in the naval and central staffs in the policy and capability areas. He headed the British Defence Staff in Washington during the Iraq and Afghan campaigns (’02-‘06) and was the UK’s Military Representative to NATO and the EU in Brussels (’06-’08). As a founding director of Wise Pens International he works with the UK’s Defence Academy and Concepts Centre, UK & US universities, UK & European think tanks, the African Union, the European Defence Agency and other EU institutions on international maritime security policy issues in Europe, the Arctic and Africa. As a supporter of the newly formed National Museum of the Royal Navy he was the appeal chairman for the NMRN’s new £4.75M “HMS” C20th & C21st Gallery in Portsmouth. As a keen yachtsman and former diver with an active interest in all maritime matters he is a member of the Nautical Institute, RYS, RNSA, and MCS.
Peter Goodship
Peter recently retired as Consultant Chief Executive of Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust (PNBPT) having established the charity in the late 1980s, and currently chairs the Boards of the Hampshire Buildings Preservation Trust and the John Pounds Community Trust. The Trust has been responsible for the development of the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard and the regeneration of other historic estates formerly operated by the Ministry of Defence. A specialist in the re-use of historic estate Peter has advised several public and private sector organisations throughout Europe during a 30 year period. In 2012 Peter established a consultancy company which has undertaken projects in Muscat for the Royal Navy of Oman celebrating the maritime history of Oman, overseeing the restoration of the Royal Navy’s first purpose built hospital in Mahon, Menorca and advising the Welsh Government on the interpretation and operation of its built heritage and restructuring of Cadw.
Jean-Marc Jefferson
Jean-Marc heads ACE Advisory Services Ltd. providing advice, coaching and business strategy to both startups and mature businesses. Over 30 years, Jean-Marc held a variety of senior management positions in several leading systems and communications integrators, such as IBM, Dimension Data, Orange Business Services and Accenture. More recently, he focused on driving transformation, change and innovation around sustainability and the Circular Economy with Andrew Gomarsall at N2S, following which Jean-Marc joined Chriss Andrews at KA2 to lead the development of COzPro, the award-winning sustainability application for IT. Jean-Marc is a keen wreck diver and holds the TDI Advanced Trimix qualification as well as the MAST Basic Archaeology Diver (BAD) qualification.
Elisabeth Bussey-Jones
Elisabeth Bussey-Jones has spent the majority her career as a Barrister and part-time Judge in different legal jurisdictions. She currently sits as a full-time First Tier Tribunal Judge and a part-time Recorder in the Crown Court. After commencing her working career in Australia, she was called to the Bar (Inner Temple) in 1997 and thereafter, practiced in criminal and regulatory law in the UK. She has prosecuted and defended all manner of criminal cases, been engaged in numerous operations for the National Crime Agency and was appointed to the panel of Specialist Regulatory Advocates in H&S and Environmental Law. Pursuing a life-long interest in marine matters, she undertook a Masters in Maritime Law (LLM) at the University of Southampton, during which her dissertation involved a case study on HMS Victory 1744 and applicable Underwater Cultural Heritage Law. She is a visiting fellow at The Institute of Maritime Law (University of Southampton) and a visiting fellow at the University of Plymouth Her particular interest for future academic study is in all matters touching upon the conservation and preservation of the marine environment, sustainable fisheries and marine protected areas.
Caroline Tuckett
Caroline Tuckett has spent the majority of her career thus far serving in the Royal Navy as part of the legal cadre. She was called to the Bar in 2011, and completed a Masters by Research in International Law at the University of Exeter in 2020. She left the Royal Navy at the end of 2025 having held a range of legal appointments specialising in international law, the law of the sea, and the law of armed conflict. During a 3 year assignment as the Royal Navy lead for international law, she advised on the legal issues surrounding the protection of sunken military ships. From 2020 to 2024, she represented the United Kingdom on the Group of Experts revising the San Remo Manual on the Law of Armed Conflict at Sea and now serves on the Drafting Committee for its new edition, due for release in 2027. She is an Associate Fellow for the Royal United Services Institute, with a focus on maritime law enforcement. She is also a Visiting Research Fellow with the University of Plymouth, with a focus on sovereign immunity and underwater cultural heritage.
Professor Dominic Tweddle PhD FSA FSA Scot
Dominic's career began at the York Archaeological Trust in 1979, where he was responsible for the research, publication and public engagement programmes and played a major role in developing Jorvik. In 1995 Dominic purchased the Trust's design and multimedia business which in 2000 he merged with another company, which owned and operated visitor attractions. He became CEO of the merged group. By the time Dominic left, the business owned five modern visitor attractions and had developed over 200 cultural heritage projects. He was then, in 2009, appointed as Director General to create a National Museum of the Royal Navy which now, fifteen years later, has seven museum sites and owns eight major warships, including HMS Victory. The museum currently attracts over 700 000 visitors yearly. Dominic retired as Director General of the museum at the end of November 2023. He is also Chair of the Wellington Trust.
Communications Coordinator
Jacquie Shaw
Jacquie has over 30 years experience working in media and communications. She managed the PR for The Mary Rose Trust, including opening its award-winning museum and was part of the senior leadership team for 12 years at heritage destination Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. She joined The National Museum of the Royal Navy in 2015 to manage its PR and media during a period of rapid expansion coordinating national campaigns and corporate communications for its historic fleet and award-winning museums across the UK. An experienced trustee and proven advocate for the protection of underwater cultural heritage she knows the power of great stories to excite, engage and entertain.
Consultant
Caroline Cary
Caroline has over 20 years’ experience as a specialist in charity fundraising projects, building teams and organising related fundraising events. She brings with her an impressive record of success in bringing in sponsorship from corporate entities and well-known individuals, and in building rewarding long-term relationships and professional links. She has worked with a number of charities over these years raising over £2 million for the service charities In 2015 – 17 she worked on the Appeal Committee for the Heroes’ Square project, which was part of the £15.7 million appeal for the new Remembrance Centre at the National Memorial Arboretum, in Staffordshire, where she personally raised £1.2 Million. More recently, she raised £260,000 for The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment memorial, which was unveiled in Halifax, Yorkshire in May 2019.