Shropshire: Oswestry Qube boss Laurel ready to retire

Laurel Roberts will bring 18 years of service with Qube, in Oswald Road, to a close at the end of March when she will retire to spend more time with her also newly-retired husband.

Laurel, who has served as chief executive for 15 years, says the charity is ready to do more and she feels it will be best served by someone with the energy to take them forward.

“For me, it was the right time to retire as Qube is ready to go to the next stage with someone with new ideas,” she said.

“They need energy to take it to the next stage and I don’t feel I’m the right person for that.

“Plus my husband’s just retired and I want to spend some time with him, so we decided this was the right time for us.

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“It’s been a sizeable part of my life – I was at Qube for three years before I took over, running a volunteering partnership which was a European-funded project.

“Then when Trudy Graham retired in 2008, I took over from her and I’ve been running it ever since.

“There’s been lots of highlights – we’ve had some fantastic projects that have made a difference.

“We’ve expanded quite a lot – when I took over there were 11 staff and now there’s 23, and we’ve been able to broaden what we do.

“There’s been many highlights across the years.”

Laurel added that she was delighted with the state of affairs she is leaving Qube in, and while she is firm in her belief her decision is correct, she admits she will miss it.

Laurel added: “Qube does wear many hats and that is a good thing – we run multiple services holistically i.e a lot of people wouldn’t put transport and arts together, for instance.

“But we run as a whole organisation, and people come to use for one thing and take advantage of us for other services.

“We’re trying to create an ethos of inclusion in the community, for people to take part in whatever aspect that may be and to live their lives to the full, but stay independent for as long as possible.

“I will miss the people because Qube is always so busy and I will miss the cut and thrust of managing it.

“I will miss when we got the money in to start a new project, but I do feel it is the right time go as well.”

Qube is currently advertising for a replacement for Laurel on its website as well as other roles.

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