Our team are always keen to hear from you and can be contacted on by email at or via our contact form
Hannah Bowden, Chief Executive Officer
Hannah has 18 years experience working in strategy, innovation, business development, marketing, and web development in the software
and regeneration sectors.
After graduating from Edinburgh University in the late 90’s Hannah spent 7 years working internationally in the software industry, helping to grow a New York AI company developing text filtering software for the financial services and later in Central Europe with a company which combined database processing with human intelligence for financial information providers.
A small stint in ecommerce for the family textiles company was a stepping stone into the regeneration sector where Hannah spent a number of years at Action for Market Towns. Whilst with AMT, amongst other projects, Hannah was responsible for the design and project management of the Better Welcome, a three year, million pound programme across 28 towns in the West Midlands. Hannah set up AMT’s social enterprise consulting arm, including branding, web development, marketing and sales. She created an online toolkit for partnerships, evaluated and reported upon asset development and other programmes of intervention, researched and wrote reports into local loyalty and town centre revival.
Hannah is currently helping partners Reward Your World, roll out their behaviour change platform to encourage healthy activity in parks across Birmingham, supporting business group members through our Time4Towns journey, tailoring Time4Towns to pioneering places and developing the core Revive and Thrive business.
Hannah can be reached on and by phone on . Please, also follow her on and
Matthew Powell, Chief Operating Officer
Matt is an experienced practitioner in the field of Town Centre Management with over ten years’ experience across a variety of towns and high streets in Bristol, Cornwall and Birmingham all of which he brings to his role as Chief Operating Officer for Revive & Thrive. 
Leaving a successful career in retail in 2004, Matt trained as a Business Advisor working with pre-start and existing businesses across several inner-city locations in Bristol where he went on to manage a team of high street managers. A subsequent move to two towns in the Cornish Heartlands saw Matt ensure that his towns were the only two in Cornwall to show year-on-year footfall increases at a time when Woolworths was going bankrupt and the RDAs were being wound up.
In his time in Cornwall, Matt launched and ran a unique and innovative Loyalty Card scheme and project managed other initiatives such as a Mystery Shopper Campaign for independent businesses. He also brought back regular markets to these historic market towns, became the inspiration for a regional shop local campaign and managed a major marquee at the Royal Cornwall Show.
Matt moved on to Birmingham in 2009 and spent nearly five years working in a number of town centres in the city. He established a successful partnership across two centres which are now working with Revive & Thrive to develop a BID and set up BID Companies following successful BID ballots in other parts of the city.
He chaired a citywide TCM network and came up with the idea for a BIDs Academy for the city which has directly led to 5 new BIDs in Birmingham.
Matt is a champion for town centres and the High Street and is committed to helping traders, BIDs, local authorities and other interested parties make their areas better for residents, visitors and businesses alike.
Matt can be reached on and by phone on . Please, also follow him on and
Mark Barnes, Founder and Director
Mark is recognised and respected across the UK for the development of successful communities, high street loyalty schemes and promoting local businesses. Having spent many years delivering and researching high street loyalty solutions from lo-tech to hi-tech including mobile 
loyalty solutions and contactless technology, he is a well known pioneer of new and effective technology based solutions aimed at delivering real results for businesses and high streets.
Previously a Town Centre Manager, Mark has achieved excellent results for town centres though engaging with residents and retailers. Mark’s specialism of area based loyalty solutions, combined with his knowledge of high streets all around the UK was the catalyst for Revive & Thrive Ltd. Out of this grew the Business Group and Partnership with the success of events like the £191,000 Revive & Thrive Challenge laying the foundations for the rapid growth of Revive & Thrive.
Mark has great ambitions for Revive & Thrive and believes that it offers an alternative model for supporting town and city centres and community regeneration as a whole. With rapid growth in mind, Mark reorganised the management structure of the company late 2014 to accommodate the opportunities lined up for 2015 and the future.
Revive & Thrive will always stay true to Mark’s vision of offering real, honest, impartial and tangible solutions for towns and communities that can create genuine solutions to address local issues. Additionally, Mark plans for Revive & Thrive to grow into a real community where people across the UK can share projects and best practice and where possible without budget being a barrier to success.
Mark can be reached on and by phone on . Please, also follow him on and
Nicole Powell, Social Media Manager
It may not seem an obvious leap from biochemistry to social media manager, but the jump is not, in fact, that great.
Trained as a biomedical scientist and with several years experience working for the National Blood Service, Nicole brings a keen eye for detail 
and process management approach to Revive & Thrive’s social media, coupled with a growing creative flair and ability to deliver a sentence in 140 characters or less!
Nicole also varies from many lab techs in that she has great people skills and loves nothing more than interacting with other people, whether it be via social media, at the school gates, or over a coffee (or cold cider!).
Nicole is the wife of Revive and Thrive’s COO, Matt Powell, and given that they met while working in a high street shop, it is no surprise that she shares his passion for place and commitment to supporting independent retail and local high streets. It also means that she brings a wealth of experience to the organisation have been around place professionals for nearly two decades.
Nicole is currently managing 3 Twitter accounts for Revive & Thrive, along with a Facebook page and Linkedin profile and also manages Twitter feeds on behalf of a number of our Business Group members. Get in touch with her to discuss your own social media needs and how we might be able to bring your company’s profile to a wider audience via our widespread and penetrative social media activity. See more about how we can help your social media by having a read of our own in-house Twitter Service.
Nicole can be reached on and by phone on . Please, also follow her on
Helen Smith, PR and Marketing Manager
Helen is the ‘go to’ person if you want to to take advantage of our own PR Service powered by Gorkana.
Taking Revive & Thrive’s PR and Marketing forward in 2015 Helen is a Marketing & Communications professional with over 15 years experience in industries ranging from top tier banks and insurance brokers to small companies, voluntary organisations, charities and recently as chair of a
community arts festival.
Helen’s career started in the financial services sector, where she worked in PR and marketing for several of the large American insurance brokers, including Aon and Willis. Helen worked within various business units and for the central corporate communication function.
In the last s.even years, Helen has changed focus and now uses her communications skills to help voluntary organisations and charities to develop and implement their marketing and communications strategy. Helen has worked with the NCT, has set up a local Neighbourhood Watch, is co-chair of a Safer Neighbourhood Ward Panel and has been involved with delivering press and lobbying activity for local community issues, including the re-opening of the Streatham Tate Library.
Helen has lived in Streatham for seven years and is deeply committed locally to improving the area and lobbying councils and private enterprise to drive sustainable and community-focused change to the town.
In addition to working with Revive & Thrive, Helen now also works for a number of small organisations helping them to refine their brand and messaging, raise their profile in their particular market place and secure publicity.
Helen can be reached on and by phone on .
Greta Geoghegan, Business Improvement District Development Officer
Since graduating with an English degree from the University of Birmingham in July, Greta has contributed to various publications, such as HEM Life newspaper and DIY Music, whilst also interning as a Communications and Social Marketing Assistant at Kings Heath BID. 
She plays a vital role at Kings Heath BID in areas such as social media and website management, business liaison, and events organisation.
She has transferred her newfound skills and knowledge to her role in developing the Lifford BID by setting up communication with Lifford businesses and discussing Revive and Thrive’s aims with local business owners. Five years in customer service and retail has providedGreta with valuable first-hand experience in what makes a business thrive.
Greta can be reached on and by phone on .
Revive & Thrive is available for your high street and community right now. Take a look at the Revive & Thrive Partnership, as well as Who’s Who, the Revive & Thrive Business Group and how to join the Business Group. Also see our testimonials and our free ‘Ask the Partnership’ service.
See how you can promote and defend your town and city centre by using Time 4 Towns our Town Centre Management Outsourcing Service and our unique PR Service
Want to get the best from social media for your community, town or city? See the results that we achieved on Retweet For Towns Day and how the Revive & Thrive Twitter Service could deliver these outcomes to you today
For further information please contact us direct.
