Co-operative Business Consultants

Martin Meteyarde-mail: martin[at]cbc.coop

Phone: 0131 660 0446 (also fax); 07771 575849 (mobile)

Skype: martin.meteyard

BOARD MEMBERSHIPS

• Equal Exchange Ltd. (Chair)
• Lorna Young Foundation (Chair)
• Scottish Fair Trade Forum (Chair)
• Zaytoun CIC co-operative 

EXPERIENCE

Martin has worked in the co-operative sector for more than 25 years:

• Member of GreenCity Wholefoods worker co-operative 1983-1997, learning all aspects of the business (sales, key account management, marketing, buying, management accounts, logistics) and appointed general manager 1993-97.
• Scottish Secretary of the Co-operative Group (formerly CWS), 1997-2004.
• Business consultant supporting co-operatives and other social enterprises 2004 to date.

Martin was a member of ICOM General Council (now the Worker Co-operative Council of Co-operativesUK) from 1986 to 1997, and also helped to establish the Network of Wholefood Wholesale Worker Co-operatives. He also played a key role in the establishment of Equal Exchange Trading and Highland Wholefoods as worker co-operatives during his time at GreenCity. He was also involved in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the Scottish Wholefood Collective, which provided peer support for worker co-ops in the wholefood sector (including a pilot initiative with DTI funding).

He has several times visited and written about the Mondragon group of worker co-operatives in the Basque country of Spain. He is also a visiting lecturer on co-operatives at University College Cork, and has organised co-operative placements in Scotland for postgraduate diploma students from the Department of Food Economics/Centre for Co-operative Studies at UCC since 1991.

Martin was for many years a Director of Employee Ownership Scotland, and was Chair of the Scottish Co-operative & Mutual Forum and subsequently Co-operation & Mutuality Scotland from 1999 to 2006. He was a founding member of the Advisory Board of Co-operative Development Scotland 2006-09.He was also a founding Director of The Phone Co-op (1997-2002), and a Trustee of Co-operative & Community Finance (ICOF) 2004-05.

Martin also chaired the Board of Cafédirect from 1998 to 2005, playing a key role in Board development as well as overseeing the company’s £5m public share issue in 2004. He is currently company secretary of the Community Retailing Network, a joint initiative between the Co-operative Group and community co-operatives in Scotland. Since February 2009, Martin has been part of the Specialist Advisor Framework of CDS, providing development support and assistance to a variety of new co-operative business initiatives. 

KEY SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

• Business and financial planning and management
• Board development and governance
• Business networking
• Marketing the co-operative advantage
• Strategic development
• International co-operative movement 

LANGUAGES French – good; Spanish - basic.

QUALIFICATIONS  BA Honours (English), Oxford University, 1971