Ex-Historic England director launches new venture

Catherine Dewar, the organisation’s boss in the region for a decade, has established a consultancy after leaving the heritage organisation at the end of March.

Dewar trailed her departure from Historic England in February, having enjoyed a lengthy stint at the organisation. Having previously worked at Portsmouth and Birmingham city councils, she first joined in 2003, and became regional director for the North West in 2015.

The pitch to the industry is that Catherine Dewar Consulting will “provide strategic and progressive place-based, heritage and culture advice to help you to plan, design and develop amazing places”.

Dewar said that the new business will provide progressive and strategic leadership, advice and expertise based on a foundation of 30 years working across England in the development, heritage and culture sectors, bringing particular expertise in taking a pragmatic approach to managing change to heritage assets, a deep understanding of the valuable role of heritage and culture, and a collaborative approach.

She said that during her career, “I have led teams working on regeneration and development projects and collaborated with developers, consultants, other government agencies, and local and combined authorities.

“I also bring experience in managing the impacts of climate change on historic places, having worked for a year as Historic England’s director of climate change programme.”

Along with starting a new business, Dewar has recently taken up a board position with Oyez Arts, a community benefit society that runs Altrincham’s old town hall.