Phil Collier became involved in the Credit Union some eight years ago having been involved in the Study Group prior to the opening in February 2013.

He left the Board due to business time constraints in May 2016 but continued to be actively involved as an advisor to the Board. Phil stepped back on to the Board in September 2018 and has resumed the Vice Chair role that he vacated in 2016 until taking over as Chair in January 2020. Phil is a local businessman and HR professional, having studied in the early 1980s for membership of what was then the Institute of Personnel Management (now the Chartered Institute of Personal and Development) and built his career in the marine industry.

Having moved from Liverpool to Barrow-in-Furness in 2000, he became Fleet HR Director for one the UK’s leading shipping companies, James Fisher & Sons PLC. Leaving the security of the corporate world in 2009, Phil then set up his own company, TurnstoneHR, building this to a team of eleven staff and consultants before selling the business to his two senior HR Consultants in July 2014. He is now a self-employed Business Consultant with a varied portfolio of clients.

Over recent years, Phil has held roles as Chair of the Furness Branch of the Federation of Small Businesses and Chair of the Steering Group for the Barrow BID Proposal, which was successfully elected in in May 2016. An avid football fan, Phil is a sponsor of Barrow AFC as well as following his boyhood club, Liverpool. He is also a singer-songwriter and in 2013 released a charity album of his own songs to raise money for our two local hospices.