Meet the Team

As co-founder and Managing Director at DigVentures, Lisa has found the perfect place to combine her passion for archaeology with over twenty years of professional experience in communications, finance and journalism. With a Master’s degree in Archaeology from UCL and a prestigious Clore Fellowship under her belt, Lisa now focuses her energy wrangling field archaeologists and harnessing brilliant creative sector innovations for DV’s endeavours. She is an international speaker on crowdfunding for the creative and cultural sectors, and leads on the consultancy aspect of DV’s work. She is responsible for the Americanisms, absurdly strong site coffee and early morning DV dance parties.

Brendon is an award-winning field archaeologist with over 15 years experience directing and managing large, complex sites in advance of major construction projects, such as motorways, pipelines, and railways. With a consistent research and publication record, he has lectured internationally on wetland archaeology, Irish archaeology, and new advances in excavation methodology. His has directed sites as varied as an historic cock-fighting pit, a large Roman building, and a complicated multiphase wetland site at Newrath, Co. Kilkenny, a site dug in such wet and windy winter conditions, he swears it was the moment he started to lose his hair! Brendon is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Leicester, entitled: ‘Digging the Crowd: the future of archaeology in the digital and collaborative economies’.

Having honed her craft in commercial archaeology, Manda joins DV following a five-year stint developing membership engagement for the Chartered Institute of Archaeologists and several years managing the Professional Archaeology programme at the University of Birmingham. Manda’s main focus is delivering DV’s project schedule, developing educational and training programmes, keeping the team on track and making sure we are happy as we work. Since completing her PhD in 2004, Manda is proud to retain the enviable position of being able to distinguish a Shetland soapstone vessel from its Norwegian counterpart, and continues to research these humble Viking artefacts to this day. She loves getting the best out of talented people, far flung Scottish islands, and all things Scandinavian.

Maiya graduated from UCL with an MSc in Skeletal and Dental Bioarchaeology. She’s worked on excavations as far afield as Rwanda, Spain, the Caribbean and Coventry. After a year working in commercial archaeology, Maiya leapt into the City, carving out a niche as a marketing and communications consultant. Having axed her way through a jungle of small print and complex policy conditions to build a culture of customer-friendly communication, Maiya’s back to the field with a trowel in one hand and a twitter feed in the other. Maiya was DV’s first-ever employee and we love her to bits!

Chris is a tech-loving field archaeologist who has supervised academic and commercial excavations for over ten years. He specializes in excavation and recording methodology and digital survey techniques with a particular interest in using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Photogrammetry to create new and immersive digital data visualisations. One of his faves is a digital model of excavations at North Killingholme (comprising over 10,000 contexts) that enables analysts to see the spread of any artefact type across the site at the click of a button. He never really stops working, but when he does, he likes cricket and gardening.

Johanna recently finished her Master’s degree in Sustainable Heritage Management in Denmark. She has been a researcher for a television documentary about Saint Wendelin, has helped produce interactive history events and, after completing an internship with DigVentures, has now joined the team as the Community Archaeologist responsible for the Barrowed Time project. She has a special interest in finds and post-excavation processes, and a passion for lists and organising things.

Emily is not an archaeologist…although after spending six years working on Time Team, she definitely picked up a thing or two! Emily studied graphic Design and Advertising before moving into the television industry, and can definitely tell a few hair-raising stories about her days producing music videos. Her real passion in life is cooking, and she now splits her time between organising people in and out of muddy holes with running one of London’ most popular supper clubs. As expected, she is an insanely good cook.

Fergus is the world’s finest archaeological dog. A natural risk-taker and entrepreneurial spirit, Fergus has displayed a keen interest in digging and a fine nose for interesting buried things since birth. A key member of the DigVentures team, Fergus is responsible for on site security, leisure activities, and finding chips on a Friday night. He does not believe in meetings, panels, working groups, forms, reports or KPIs, and has been known to accept bribes for access to the team.