MEET
THE TEAM

Fisseha Combley (top left) CEng MIET chairs of the board of trustees of Fairfield House Bath CIC effective June 2024. His full time job is as Principal Electrical Engineer at Mott MacDonald. He is a leading member of the Ethiopian community in the UK, organising celebrations and events including the annual Race to Adwa fundraiser. 

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William Heath is a social entrepreneur who helped set up The Bell Inn (Bath) co-op, Open Rights Group and the Big Bath City Bid. He advised the Friends of Fairfield community association, and became one of the founding directors of Fairfield House Bath CIC in 2019. He chaired the board 2019-2024.
 

Blaine Dowdle is a board director of Fairfield House Bath CIC. A Canadian entrepreneur and Rastafari by faith, he is founder of Itopia life, and active in the development of a lawful and responsible global cannabis industry.

 

Pauline Swaby-Wallace (middle left) is a Fairfield House founding trustee. She has been a community worker for over 40 years, and for 30 years manager of the charity BEMSCA which provides day care services at Fairfield House. She is proud to be involved in continuing the legacy of HIM Emperor Selassie to provide a service to older people in Bath.

 

Karen Crawford is Treasurer of Fairfield House Bath CIC. She qualified as an accountant in 1996, worked a decade as audit manager at Richardson Groves in Bath and now has her own practice. She dedicates significant time to voluntary work with various charities and non-profit organisations, and is a member of the Green Economics Institute.

 

Ras Cos is a trustee on the board of Fairfield House Bath CIC. He is a building surveyor and project manager with many years’ experience in the building construction industry, currently with the Salvation Army, a solid knowledge of reactive maintenance, cyclical maintenance and programmed maintenance on buildings. He has also been involved in various community voluntary works at Chairman or Director level over recent years.  

 

Abiy Mengistu has been a Fairfield House Bath CIC board trustee since 2023. He has an MEng in Electronics and Communications Engineering from Bath University and works as a Senior RF and Electronics Engineer at Creo Medical in Bath. He is also a Sustrans volunteer ranger, looking after a local stretch of the National Cycle Network for over 20 years.

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Ras Benji (bottom left) is operations manager at Fairfield House, reporting to the board of trustees. Ras Benji takes a broad range of responsibilities including business development, day to day activities and community relations. On Sundays he volunteers as Fairfield House tour guide. A historian and researcher of the Emperor's life in exile, Ras Benji also has legal education with focus on international minority rights. He is a former international rugby player for Barbados.