Bluestone National Park, one of the UK's most loved five-star holiday resorts, has appointed two new directors to its board to help drive a period of growth.

Nick Barley and Blanche Sainsbury have joined the Pembrokeshire business from Trinity Mirror and Microsoft.

The two were picked out of more than 300 candidates who applied for the positions.

With their knowledge of marketing, technical systems, business and employment law, Nick Barley and Blanche Sainsbury join the existing board directors, CEO William McNamara, commercial and operations director Pamela McNamara, finance director Neil Evans and director of HR, Debbie Rainbow.

As non-executive directors, Nick and Blanche will assist in specific areas of the business as appropriate to their specialist areas.

Nick’s corporate career has spanned 35 years in IT organisations, including Microsoft.

His executive career included CEO, CMO and COO positions at Microsoft, Oracle, Hewlett Packard and Computer Associates. He is also founder of consulting organisation, outcomes, whose current client list includes organisations in the leisure, technology and financial services sectors plus several European start up’s.

Blanche, a former senior Executive with Trinity Mirror also worked at Northcliffe and Local World before being appointed commercial director of Local World in November 2013. She continued to hold the same role for Trinity Mirror, following the takeover of Local Word in 2015.

Blanche will be replacing Andrew Probert as chairman and Andrew will continue in the position of non-executive director.

CEO William McNamara said: “We are delighted to announce the appointment of two non-executive directors to the Bluestone board of directors.

“Both Blanche and Nick join the business with a depth of experience which we look forward to them applying to Bluestone in order to support our ongoing business development."

Andrew Probert, said: "Blanche and Nick, I am sure, will bring a fresh impetus to the next stage of Bluestone’s development with their complimentary skills and their real enthusiasm for the business. My time as chairman has seen the park flourish, with the completion of the lodge building program and visitor numbers rising to 150,000 per year, all through the hard and dedicated work of the executive management and staff. This has been achieved while establishing a stable and profitable financial base, which will enable even greater things to come.”