STAFF
Willoughby - Founder and Managing Director (he/him)
Willoughby created SpokesPerson in 2019 after working in bike shops for 12 years. Previously at Brixton Cycles, his move to Cardiff sparked an interest in combining his cycling expertise and social justice goals to create SpokesPerson.
SpokesPerson is a Community Interest Company thst seeks to find creative solutions to systemic inequalities to active travel. SpokesPerson works directly with LGBTQIA+, BAME, and other marginalised people to help get them safely and confidently on their bikes, and create better access to cycling. SpokesPerson holds classes, workshops, events, and runs the Queer Bike Gang among other initiatives to tear down barriers to cycling.
SpokesPerson’s motto is “The Revolution Will Not Be Motorised.” We believe in the power of cycling to counteract city air and noise pollution and mobility and access inequalities that disproportionately affect people of colour, queer people, trans* people, women and those of marginalised genders, low income and unemployed people, young people, and disabled or neurodiverse people. “The revolution will not be motorised” signifies our belief that access to safe cycling is a form of justice for marginalised people in an unequal society, and that environmental sustainability is directly tied to racial, gender, economic, and disability justice.
Beli (JB) - Marketing Director (they/them)
Beli joined SpokesPerson as the Marketing Director in October 2020. They are originally from near Pontypridd, and now live in Cardiff. Having worked in marketing and social media for over 8 years, they came on board because of SpokesPerson’s focus on radical social change that works for the most marginalised of us. As a fat neurodivergent queer person, they have seen how exclusionary and dangerous cycling and cycling circles are for people like us, and with a working class background they know how inaccessible and expensive it is. They bring their own fat politics, trans liberation, and socialist politics to the role. So far, they have set up a Board of Directors to ensure that, as a white-led org, we can work against the white racial bias in Wales and ensure we’re serving local people of colour, and they’re working on upcoming projects to transform who has access to cycling in Cardiff.
Board of Directors
Leila (she/her)
Sylvie (she/they)
Sylvie (she/they)
Leila is a training consultant and policy action researcher within the field of equity diversity inclusion and social justice. Cycling was an early experience, commuting on the back of parents bikes and learning quite soon in the local park. After a hiatus during school years, Leila took up cycling for commuting herself, and has recently
Leila is a training consultant and policy action researcher within the field of equity diversity inclusion and social justice. Cycling was an early experience, commuting on the back of parents bikes and learning quite soon in the local park. After a hiatus during school years, Leila took up cycling for commuting herself, and has recently bought a buddy rider for her dog to join.
Leila joined Spokesperson as she wanted to support an organisation with such clear values and understanding about oppression in a field in which many do not focus on (cycling/cycle maintenance) and was warmed and connected by the direct manner in which Spokesperson sought to challenge and break this down. Leila wanted to contribute her lived and professional experience to Spokesperson to ensure its lasting greatness.
Sylvie (she/they)
Sylvie (she/they)
Sylvie (she/they)
Sylvie lives in South Wales and works in renewable energy. She is passionate about building alternative radical structures and trying to dismantle the bad ones. After rediscovering cycling fifteen years ago she enjoys touring and fixing up second hand bikes. She likes drawing comics, reading sci fi, making things and getting outside.