Paul Bird, Manager

Paul Bird Joined Amber Valley Memorial Park and Crematorium in late 2014. Paul started his career with Amber Valley as the chapel attendant before being promoted to manager in 2016. He is responsible for overseeing the site and general management of the site. Paul started his working Career in the British Army. His last role before joining Amber Valley was working in operating theatres.

Neil Bond, Chapel Attendant/Cremator Operator

Neil started his career with Memoria in 2017 as Head of Grounds Maintenance, bringing many years of gardening and maintenance experience. He has now been promoted to Chapel Attendant and is enjoying the varied roles across the site.

Catherine Widdowson, Administrator

Catherine joined Memoria in 2015 bringing 25 years’ administration experience. She is responsible for the day to day office management and works alongside Paul as the Assistant Manager. Catherine also assists families with choosing memorials within the grounds.

Gareth Hardy, Head of Grounds Maintenance

Gareth is the newest member of the Amber Valley team. He started in March 2019 as the Head of Grounds. Within the role, his job is to keep the grounds looking fresh, clean, tidy, and up to date. He brings 7 years of gardening and landscaping experience from a range of different places, including 5 years at Twycross Zoo. He loves nothing more than striping lawns in the sun and working on new landscaping projects around site, or having a chat with the people that visit.

Howard Hodgson MBIFD (Dip) Ass. RSH - Chief Executive Officer

(b,1950) A fourth generation funeral director, Howard trained with James Summers of Cardiff in 1968. He took over the family business in 1975 and launched an expansion programme that culminated in the flotation of Hodgson Holdings plc in 1986. Through subsequent mergers the company formed the largest funeral/crematorium group in the UK. Howard sold his interests in 1991, having taken the company from one branch to 546 and became 'Entrepreneur of the Year 1987' in the process. He is largely recognised as the individual who transformed the funeral industry in the 1970s, 80s and early 90s.

After a second career in the gift industry as chief executive of Ronson plc and Colibri International he returned to the funeral industry as founder and CEO of Memoria, and has developed it into the third largest and fastest growing crematoria company in the UK today. In 2016 he founded Memoria Low Cost Funeral, the direct cremation arm of Memoria and has taken that company from a standing start to the largest direct cremation company in the UK. He is the author of four books, including a biography of HRH The Prince of Wales.

Michael Hackney MA (Oxon) - Chairman & Finance Director

(b,1950) is a former career banker who has held senior positions with both the ANZ/Grindlays and Abbey National banking groups, including in venture capital, where he was responsible for the flotation of Hodgson Holdings plc, and in debt recovery, which resulted in him directly managing a succession of troubled commercial and financial businesses as principal for the bank, both in the UK and Europe, 1992-2000.

Jamieson Hodgson - Business Development Director and Head of Planning

(b, 1983) Jamieson Hodgson joined Memoria in early 2009. He initially led business development but has since progressed into the role of Head of Planning. During that time, he has helped to grow the business by leading our planning team to securing 10 new planning consents for new crematoria and memorial parks in the last 7 years. Jamieson has overseen 6 planning appeals during this time – leading to 5 consents. This has allowed him to develop knowledge in planning law and policy. He is a demographic expert who has helped to develop GIS technology in order to better understand the way that 'need' and financial viability is measured in crematoria development.

Jamieson also heads up HR and Operational Performance which covers recruitment of staff, market-share performance, ongoing demographic assessment and facility service standards.

He spent the previous 3 years working for Accenture where he led business development for their UK Capital Markets strategy group. This role saw him work on a number of projects for UBS, HSBC, RBS and Citi Group. Prior to joining Accenture, Jamieson completed an honours degree in International Business and Finance and also worked for the VW Group and PwC during this time.

Paul Reed - Managing Director, Memoria LCF

(b 1977) Paul is the Managing Director of Memoria Affordable Funerals and Memoria Low Cost Funeral Ltd, the funeral arm of Memoria Ltd. Memoria Low Cost Funeral Ltd are the largest direct cremation company in the country. Memoria Affordable Funerals are a nationwide provider of outstanding quality, attended funeral services. Paul joined Memoria in late 2013 after a career working in both the public and private sector, a specialist in facilities management and sales and marketing, he has held multiple roles within Memoria before his current position.

Prior to joining Memoria, he graduated from Teesside University after studying Business Management and has enjoyed a successful career in both telecommunications and the utility sales industries where he founded and managed his own direct sales business employing 70 members of staff.

Carl Clamp - Director of Operations, Memoria

Carl Clamp is our Director of Operations. He was previously manager of our Amber Valley Memorial Park and Crematorium. He now oversees operational performance in terms of service standards across the Memoria Group. In particular, he is responsible for practical training for cremation, administration and general crematorium management across all staff members in the Memoria Group. He is also the CEO's assistant in all operational matters.

Richard Todd – Sales & Marketing Director, Memoria

Richard Todd is our Sales & Marketing Director. Richard has over 35 years' experience in the Funeral sector having held a number of senior operational & sales roles across market leading independent, Co-operative and private equity supported Funeral & pre-need businesses. Richard is responsible for Memoria's local community and funeral director relations across all sites in England and Wales.

Frank Meilack - Director of Community Engagement, Memoria

Frank Meilack is our Director of Community Engagement. From 1995 Frank worked in the Outdoor Media industry as part of the Clear Channel / Transport for London partnership transforming the Outdoor Media options across the capital and the UK, with involvement in procurement, development, sales and operational delivery as Regional General Manager.

In 2015 Frank came into the funeral Industry at Kemnal Park in South-East London, a 55-acre site with outline approval for a cemetery. Over a 4 year period, Frank transformed the performance of the park with cremation services rising from circa 150 to over 900 per annum. Burial numbers and prestige burial options also rose dramatically with the introduction and marketing of products for specific community groups such as Muslim, Turkish, Catholic and Italian communities.

Jacqui Peirson - Human Resources Manager

Jacqueline Peirson is our HR Manager, she has many years' experience of dealing with HR matters from the day to day generalist function to being involved with planning for the future. Jacqui reports into Memoria's HR and Operational Performance Director and is responsible for keeping policies and procedures up to date. She is also responsible for the recruitment process at all Memoria sites.

Wendy Smith - Office Manager, Memoria Low Cost Funeral Ltd

Wendy Smith is our Low-Cost Funeral Ltd Office Manager. Wendy joined us in 2016 and is a highly-experienced customer service manager. She has played a pivotal role in the development of Low Cost Funeral Ltd.

Wendy is the first line interacting with potential clients on both At Need and Pre-paid Funeral Plans to ensure that every detail and wish is catered for as specified by clients.

Julie Huggins, Group Finance Manager

Julie Huggins joined Memoria in September 2019. After starting her career in Audit, Julie then moved to a variety of Industry roles in small businesses up to global brands, Julie joins Memoria as Finance Manager for Sites.

She oversees the smooth and efficient running of the Finance function for Memoria Group sites, whilst providing support to the Management team.

In February 2020 she was promoted to Group Finance Manager, with responsibility for the financial functions of the crematoria, the operations of Low Cost Funeral Limited, and of the Memoria Group.

Mark Reath, Assistant Operations & National Relief Manager

Mark is our Assistant National Operations Manager providing support to our Director of Operations. In addition to this, he also provides operational support to Memoria sites throughout the country in his secondary role as National Relief Operative. Mark has over 30 years' experience in global logistics culminating in founding and running his own business before changing career direction after selling the company to focus on the funeral sector. Prior to joining Memoria Ltd, Mark has gained experience in funeral directing and arranging as well as managing the logistics and operations for one of the midlands largest funeral providers.