The Team

Married with a grown up son and daughter and two grandsons. A “Sussex boy” having been brought up in East Grinstead and lived in Horsham since 1976.

A Chartered Town Planner and, having retired as a Director after 21 years, from May 2011 continues as a consultant with DPDS Consulting an independent Town Planning and Architectural practice, running the Crawley office since 1990.

Has enjoyed a long involvement with Cadia, having been a member of the Executive Council on and off since 1991 and a past Chairman. Greatest professional satisfaction is in sorting out planning problems for business clients so that they can get on with what they do best. Has loved climbing hills and mountains all his life – anything from the South Downs to Kilimanjaro - but gave up the ropes and crampons some years ago. Having promoted the idea of a Cadia team to take on ‘The 3 Peaks’ in 2010, is not sure about the wisdom of doing an even tougher challenge in 2011! – but raising a significant amount of money for our charities is a great motivation.

I am beginning to wonder what on earth has possessed me, reading all the other biographies of my incredibly sporty team mates! My wife is putting down to some sort of reaching the milestone of my 40th year crisis!

I am a keen mountain biker and as often as I can am out and about enjoying the peace and quiet of the South Downs. That is of course when not dragging along a reluctant wife and my two kids. Nothing like a family outing!

I recently spent the weekend walking in Snowdonia where I just managed to climb one of the peaks; does that mean one down and only two to go? No, I thought not! It was an amazing experience which has really given me a taste of what is in store. What better than to do something you enjoy and raise money for all the charities we are supporting.

Greenstar Cleaners Ltd is a CarbonZero green cleaning company and as such I guess this is an ideal time for me to ditch the car completely and make the commute to Crawley on bike from Brighton each day in the name of training! We’ll see...

Leo Hardy is a 25 year old, originally hailing from Bedford. Having lived in any number of places, from London to New Orleans, he eventually found his way to Sussex where he set up Helix BD in 2009.

Helix specialise in generating qualified sales leads, feeding back useful market intelligence and using this information to create effective marketing / communication strategies. While his day job keeps him busy managing sales and marketing, delivering client work and helping his clients to refine their sales strategy, he still finds time to get himself mixed up in all sorts of trouble. Having completed the 3 Peaks challenge with Cadia in 2010 and, one year on, running the Brighton marathon, the Welsh 3000 holds a lot of appeal as a tough challenge that’s sure to reward.

Outside of his working life, Leo volunteers at the Brighton & Hove Inclusion Project (www.bhip.org.uk) and produces music (badly!). He hopes that his enthusiasm, determination and general ignorance can see him through the challenge while also helping to raise a lot of money along the way.

Oliver Asha is a Director and the Head of Commercial Property at ACUMEN BUSINESS LAW. Oliver has managed to consistently grow his Commercial Property Department throughout the throes of the recession and ensuing uncertainty by ensuring top-notch client care, fast turnaround on property deals, and a very high completion rate along with the fixed fees and accessible, unpretentious attitude that ACUMEN BUSINESS LAW are known for.

Now a veteran of the CADIA Challenges (having been part of the successful 2010 bid to conquer the 3 Peaks in under 24 hours) he has kept himself in shape by hiking (in the Alps, Corsica and Wales), rugby (Hove), and he recently completed the Brighton Marathon.

Other pro-bono activities include: Honorary Solicitor of the Brighton Youth Centre, Legal Case-Worker for the Environmental Law Foundation and provision of general commercial advice to various charities and social enterprises.

I was lucky enough to be a part of the 10-man team last year completing the 3-peaks challenge. Combining a mentally and physically demanding event provided such huge personal reward as well as raising a sizeable amount of money for all the charities in Cadia.

I had no hesitation in joining the team again this year, with one condition, that the challenge need to be tougher than the first! Although not as well known as the 3-peaks, the Welsh 3000s will certainly be an exciting and difficult event for me and the rest of the team. I hope that the fantastic support we were all shown for the first challenge will continue and grow for the second.

Although I now work in London as a Marketing Manager for a healthcare company, Concordia Health, I still live in the foot of the South Downs and continue to support local businesses and charities wherever possible.”

I worked the length and breadth of Eastern Europe and Russia during the late 80's onwards and am proud to have been able to witness some of the major changes that took place in those years.

In 2000 I set up and ran a small high tech company in Tunbridge Wells where we focused on bringing full credit card chip and pin capability to a range of standard mobile phones, facing markets such as the USA, Saudi Arabia, India and Africa.

Using my extensive overseas trading experience, I now work with UKTI, one of Government’s key bodies, with a focus on helping the SME base in the South East grow its business overseas, hence my connection with CADIA.

The opportunity to join the CADIA team to take on the Snowdonia challenge presented itself as an irresistible opportunity to push myself beyond a comfort zone whilst at the same time raising much needed funding for the charities we are supporting.

I look forward to the event with relish and even more so to the moment we all cross the line!

I have worked for this organisation now for close to 7 great years, taking children, young people and adults out into the beautiful Sussex countryside to learn about and enjoy the delights of the natural world around us. An important part of our message when working with people in the local community is how we need to care for our environment, for the benefit of both people and wildlife in a Living Landscape. At the moment I am running a 3yr Forest Schools and Bushcraft project for GGP.

This is a special year for me as I set myself a target of completing 3 physically testing challenges to help raise funds for and awareness about the work of Sussex Wildlife Trust. I completed the Brighton Half Marathon in February, and was due to complete the full marathon in April but had to withdraw due to injury. However, I am back up to fitness again and relishing the challenge of the Welch 3000.

The other mission I've set myself this year is to find and identify 1,000 species of british wildlife in a bid to improve my knowledge and understanding of natural history, so during the Welch 3000 I hope to distract myself from the intense physical exertion by keeping an eye out for some upland/alpine species not found in the Sussex landscape. I have already reached just over 600 species, but the more I record the harder it gets to find species new to me.

Living in Brighton is useful for training purpose as it is only a short hop into the South Downs National Park which though not as rugged as Snowdonia, still has some good hills to tackle.

Being passionate, bordering on the obsessive, about all things wildlife I am often referred to by my girlfriend and mates as the 'Bird Nerd' or worse 'Twitcher' (I can live with the former but contest the latter) as I am known for disappearing off for hours on end at first light on a weekend day to enjoy the spectacles of Spring migration for example.

Having represented the SxWT as a beneficiary of last year's CADIA challenge I resolved to get more involved this time. Having done the the 3 peaks a few years ago, a few half marathons and the Offa's Dyke trail I thought I'd be up to it. Then Tim explained about something none of us had heard of before called the Welsh 3000...

Since January 2010 I have embarked on my 3rd new career. I’d worked out that I wanted to work in the environmental sector and things came together such that I know have a wonderful job showing Sussex’s business community that they can engage in conservationism without harming their profits. This marriage of green and corporate ideals mirrors my own passions and experience. My role with the Sussex Wildlife Trust gives me meaningful targets.

My other fascination is military history, and for the last few years my focus has been the Norman invasion. My ambition is to see a swathe of land re-wilded to how it would have been in 1065.

Raised in Warwickshire, Jess and I moved to Brighton because, having lived in Sydney, we wanted city life to have an outdoor feel, the sea on our doorstep, the unique Brighton atmosphere and a choice of delicious vegetarian restaurants. We live in a yellow house.

What can I say? I love a challenge! I missed out on the 3 peaks Challenge in 2010 so here I am making up for it. I have a great passion for getting involved with raising money for great causes, my favourite time being when a group of 15 colleagues & I organised a high end fund raiser to enable us to revamp 3 childrens wards in a bomb ridden hospital in Nargona Karabahk, in under 2weeks, in 40 degrees heat! And we did it.

Born in Australia, and brought up partly in Kenya & Uganda I have enjoyed years of climbing Nyero Rocks, Rwenzori Mountains and pretty much any mango tree that’s ever crossed my path and that is as far as my experience goes. I know this challenge will be tough and the preparation is hard, however as the only girl I feel twice as determined to complete this challenge and with this fantastic team ‘behind’ me I am sure I’ll be fine.

Looking after New Business for MCR Print keeps me busy in my days. Helping to grow our client base through strategic networking, events, exhibitions and business development campaigns, I’m always on the look out for new avenues and ideas to explore how best to grow (no height jokes please). We print with the environment in mind. By that I mean we use vegetable based inks, water based presses, chemical free plates, biodegradable laminates, recycled stock and we are also FSC Certified®. So if you would like to see if you can go green with your print get in touch.

By night and on weekends you are most likely to find me wowing the crowds in Brighton & Hove’s finest venues, strutting my stuff for 2 1hour sets with my 8 piece funk & soul band South Coast Soul Revue (That’s where my endurance training comes from!)

Wish me luck!

P.S. Luck is better shown through donations ;) www.twitter.com/rubyegau

Mad on sport and likes a challenge: this is pretty much what drives me in my personal and business life. I like my challenges to have a purpose and supporting charities is top of the agenda. A veteran of numerous London to Brighton bike rides, 3 - 100km nonstop South Downs walks and a number of charity runs. This September is the British Heart Foundation 75 miles London to Brighton Off Road ride and next year the Cadia 3 Peaks.

To fill in the gaps between the charity challenges comes my family, my work and my other sports. The other sports include Rugby for Brighton, Skiing and mountain biking.

2 young daughters is always a challenge, but one I couldn’t do without.

After working for many years in large International companies, I left to set up Hillingar. Hillingar is in the business of saving significant amounts of cash for companies. We do this by better managing their stocks and business controls, through setting up and managing the logistics of their sales forecasts and stock control processes. This then allows companies the time to concentrate on selling their products, rather than worrying over the day to day back office issues.

The challenge is getting in front of the manager/owners of the SME’s to show how the process works. More information at  www.hillingar.com