Author: Rhys Gregory

British Council Wales has announced the appointment of Ruth Cocks as its new Director. Ruth will lead global education and arts programmes and will sustain and grow the British Council’s current network of relationships across Wales. She will support engagement around culture, education, and sporting diplomacy with a network of over 100 international offices, taking the best of Wales to the world and vice versa. Ruth will join the team in Cardiff. moving from Cairo where she has been Deputy Country Director for the past two-and-a-half years. In Egypt, Ruth led the British Council’s work across the Arts, English and…

Following unprecedented demand, legendary music icon Tom Jones has confirmed a third and final date at Cardiff Castle as part of his ‘Ages and Stages’ tour. Today, promoters at DEPOT Live confirmed that the star will take to the stage on Saturday 5th August – which is just a few weeks after his first two sell-out dates in the capital (Friday 21st July & Monday 24th July). Starting at £65, tickets for the newly-announced August date will go on sale Friday 31st March at 10am via Ticketmaster. Sir Tom’s remarkable music career spans more than six decades in the business, and at the age of…

Smokers are to pay nearly £1 more for cigarettes as the UK Government rises tobacco duty tax in the UK. According to the health charity ASH Wales, the rise is likely to price cigarettes out of the reach of young people in Wales. Earlier this month the UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt released the Spring Budget which raised tobacco tax to 2% above inflation (RPI). The rise will mean a packet of 20 cigarettes will increase by 95 pence, taking average prices to more than £14 a packet. The move has been welcomed by the tobacco control charity ASH Wales, who…

ANWYL Homes has made a raft of appointments to strengthen its technical team. Based at Anwyl’s Flintshire headquarters at St David’s Park, Ewloe, Gareth Haslam has been promoted to senior design manager and Luke Bush has stepped up to assistant development engineer. Anwyl has also newly appointed Renata Bochenek as pre-construction manager, Patrick Burke as adoptions manager and Gareth Rogers as utility coordinator. Keen to promote its staff from within, Anwyl is committed to a programme of internal development as well as training new members of the team for a future in management. Senior design manager Gareth, who lives in…

More sixth form pupils at Ysgol Friars have access to online learning and technology thanks to a recent donation of laptops by former pupils. The computers, donated by Mark Watkin Jones and Susan Ashworth, who both attended the school, will help to bridge the digital divide and support equal opportunities for A level students at the Bangor school. This initiative marks a significant step towards ensuring that all students have access to the necessary resources to succeed in their studies. Expressing his gratitude, Headteacher Neil Foden said: “We are delighted to receive this generous donation from Mark and Susan. We…

Welsh food and drink producers will aim to strengthen and build ties with prospective partners and investors as they visit South Korea this week. As part of the Welsh Government’s Food and Drink Wales Trade Development Visit to the region from 25-30 March, five food and drink companies from Wales will be given the opportunity to showcase their products to a host of distributors and retail buyers, all looking to secure new business. The aim of the visit is to leverage networking and collaboration opportunities between the producers, Welsh Government and South Korea as well as strengthening business, trade and…

A real highlight in the Welsh food calendar, the Cowbridge Food and Drink Festival is back for 2023 with South Wales’ leading distillery back on board as festival sponsor. Promising to be a whole weekend of foodie, family-friendly fun the festival will take place over the Spring Bank Holiday Weekend (28-29 May), with Hensol Castle Distillery – South Wales’ first full scale gin distillery, visitor experience, gin school and bottling plant – playing a key role. A team will be on site over the weekend allowing festival goers to sample and buy some of the fabulous products available, including the…

An amazing 29 year-old volunteer from Swansea, Ify Iwobi, who inspires young people from diverse-ethnic backgrounds through music and culture, has been nominated for the prestigious Coronation Champions Awards, being held to celebrate the Coronation of His Majesty The King and Her Majesty The Queen Consort. With the support of Her Majesty The Queen Consort, a passionate advocate of volunteering and President of Royal Voluntary Service, the Coronation Champions awards are set to recognise exceptional volunteers from across the country at this momentous point in history.   Ify who volunteers part time through Race Council Cymru, the African Community Centre, and also previously Swansea YMCA, and is now in the running to become one of a…

RVU,  owner of Confused.com, Uswitch, Tempcover and Money.co.uk, is pleased to announce that Steve Dukes has been appointed CEO of Confused.com. Steve joined Confused.com as the company’s first Chief Operating Officer in 2019, bringing together product, commercial and data operations and signalling a period of significant growth for the business. Before joining Confused.com, Steve served in product leadership and general management roles in high growth companies within the financial services and eCommerce sectors. This included serving as CEO at Commuter Club, where he oversaw a period of key transformation within the company. Steve takes over from Louise O’Shea, who has…

A Gwynedd music business that has provided pianos for musical maestros from song-writing legend Burt Bacharach to slapstick comedian Norman Wisdom is celebrating over 50 years in business. Pianos Cymru, based in Porthmadog, has also set up its instruments for Bryn Terfel, Shirley Bassey and Michael Ball and every year provides up to 20 pianos for the National Eisteddfod. The business that began with a van and two pianos in the early 1970s has now swapped its 4,000 square foot warehouse for a unit on the Penamser trading estate and a 40-foot unit on the nearby new Lock Stock Self…