Board Member Spotlight: David Hughes
28th March 2023Outscape has a wealth of support from our board members. They help to shape the business and guide it through its development as we move from strength to strength. Unfortunately, we can’t hold on to members forever and we have had some old faces leave and four new faces join our board.
Before Christmas longtime member Brian Murphy stepped retired from his role after many years of service. Prior to retirement from the Civil Service, Brian was responsible for natural heritage matters in the Department of the Environment and supported the establishment of Outscape (then the Countryside Access and Activities Network) in 1999. Brian has an extensive background in sport and recreation and is a regular hill-walker both at home and abroad. We wish Brian all the best in his next chapter away from Outdoor Recreation.
We’re going to spotlight out new board members in a series of blogs, first up we have David Hughes.
David is a Chartered Civil Engineer, lately retired as Head of Civil Engineering from Queen’s University Belfast, although he continues to act as a Consultant Engineer, recently working on projects in Uganda and more locally with Amey and Translink on geotechnical assets management on the rail network. He has a long-standing interest in multi-modal transport and was a past Chairman of the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation. As a bit of a globetrotter, David has worked across the world, mainly on road infrastructure projects, in locations such as Africa, Nepal, SE Asia and South America.
He has had a lifelong interest in the outdoors and enjoys mountaineering, cycle touring, sea kayaking and sailing. Recent sea kayaking highlights were trips to Newfoundland to see the icebergs in ‘iceberg alley’ and the migration of the humpback whales, the Baltic (from Finland to Sweden) and the Shetland Islands.
David enjoys walking trips in the Alps and Europe, along the Grand Randonnee (GR) routes, and combining this with staying in the high mountain refuges. This has triggered an interest in developing both walking and cycle routes across Ireland.
As a member of RNLI and Navigator on the All-Weather Lifeboat in Newcastle Co Down, David is training to be full member of the Mourne Mountain Rescue Team.