Contributors: Section 4
Jonathan Edwards MP
Jonathan Edwards is the Plaid Cymru MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr. At Westminster he is also the party’s Treasury spokesperson and sits on the Welsh Affairs Committee. His main areas of interest include the economy, transport, business, social affairs, justice and broadcasting. Mr Edwards was elected to the seat in May 2010.
After completing his academic studies, Jonathan worked as Chief of staff for Rhodri Glyn Thomas AM and Adam Price MP for 7 years, where he led on political matters for both elected members. He has a wide understanding of Parliamentary and National Assembly politics.
He is a former Carmarthen Councillor and was elected to the historical post of town Sheriff.
In 2005 he was given responsibility for strategic matters within the party’s new National Campaigns Directorate. He is considered one of Plaid’s foremost strategic thinkers.
After the 2007 National Assembly, Jonathan moved to work for Citizens Advice Cymru where he led on Public Affairs, Public Relations and Policy matters.
Veronica German AM
Veronica German took up her seat as Assembly Member for South Wales East in 2010. She has a background in science and engineering and as a former teacher she cares passionately about education and young people.
She has lived in the Newport and Cwmbran area for nearly 30 years, and taught Science, Maths and ICT in schools across the Gwent area.
She has served as a councillor on both Newport City and Torfaen County Borough Councils.
Ms German is a Member of the Petitions Committee, the Equal Opportunities Committee, the Health, Wellbeing and Local Government Committee and Legislation Committee No. 3.
Since becoming an Assembly Member, Veronica has made it clear she wants to see better public transport links in the South Wales East area. She believes the Severn bridge tolls are a tax on living and working in Wales and is campaigning for them to be frozen, then axed when the bridges return to public ownership.
Walter May
Walter May was formerly EMEA MD and Worldwide Head of Sales at GXS (formerly UDEX) having spent more than 20 years working for US Software and Technology companies in a range of Technical, Sales / Sales Management and General Management roles. He ran the UK Business of a former GE owned software company, SDRC, leading the company for 5 years and growing the business from $6 million to $30 million turnover. He also worked in a European Sales leadership role at IBM PLM and was European VP for San Jose based technology company, BackWeb Technologies.
Prior to joining GXS, Walter was a founder and VP of Sales at Welsh Electronics Manufacturer, DeepStream Technologies. He has also held Interim Management roles in a number of Welsh based start-ups.
Walter founded the LinkedIn Groups “Welsh Entrepreneurs” and “Mentors for Welsh Entrepreneurs”. He recently completed a project with Cardiff School of Management, researching the support services needs of Welsh high-tech start-ups. Walter holds an M.Sc in Mechanical Engineering from Cranfield University and an MBA from the Open Business School.
