Council members

Chair of Country Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland
Oct 2025-28

Stephen joined the Northern Ireland Civil Service as a senior advisor on environmental matters after completing a commission as a pilot in the Royal Navy and having worked for a number of local authorities as an Environmental Health specialist.

He established a new division: ‘Land & Resource Management’ and was elected as the UK president of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management. As Director of Strategy & Innovation for the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, he reformed Regional Operations and produced Northern Ireland’s first State of the Environment report.

Since leaving the Environment Agency he has served as a trustee and Chair of Northern Ireland Environment Link, a Council Member of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts and as a member of the Northern Ireland RSPB Advisory Committee.

He is currently a trustee and Vice Chair of Ulster Wildlife. Stephen is intrigued by the aerial navigation of birds such as the Manx shearwater. On the ground with nature he enjoys a daily ramble with his tireless Vizsla exploring the local woods, beaches and hills.

Treasurer, Chair of Finance Committee
Oct 2025-28

After 30 years as a CFO, Patrick is now a portfolio nonexecutive director and Board advisor. His current appointments are as a NED with Endava plc, Restore plc and Sheffield Forgemasters International Limited (Audit Chair).

His executive career included financial and operational leadership roles in listed, Private Equity backed and public sector organisations, including Group CFO roles at Headlam plc, Capita plc, The Go-Ahead Group, and Network Rail. Patrick's earlier roles were as Finance Director at English, Welsh and Scottish Railways (now DB Schenker), Mapeley Limited, London Underground, and King’s College Hospital.

He has extensive experience working as a management consultant and auditor for Deloitte and is a former member of the British Transport Police Authority. In his spare time, he enjoys cycling and last year rode from Lands’ End to John O’Groats raising money for the RSPB!

Chair of Council, Chair of Nominations & People Committee
Oct 2024-27 

Andrew has been closely involved with international conservation efforts since the 1970s, when he helped negotiate the UN Law of the Sea Convention. He was a civil servant focussing on agriculture, the EU and diplomacy, as well as working at the heart of Whitehall in the Cabinet Office for most of the 1990s. He completed his public service by running the Government department responsible for trade and investment for six years.

He has been a Trustee of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, chair of WWF(UK) and a member of the Global Board of WWF, chair of Birkbeck University, a founding governor of the Institute for Government and a trustee of the Gatsby Charitable Foundation for 26 years. He has also been a non-executive director of various commercial organisations such as Lloyd’s of London.

Oct 2022-27 

Ben is the founding Director of the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group at the University of Oxford Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment. At the University of Oxford, he is the inaugural Lombard Odier Associate Professor of Sustainable Finance, the first ever endowed professorship of sustainable finance, and a Supernumerary Fellow at Oriel College, Oxford.

Ben has spent more than twenty years operating at the nexus of finance, policy, and research, working as part of boards and executive management, and with policymakers, regulators, and civil society on how to interpret and shape the fast-moving agendas of energy, climate, environment, and wider sustainability topics.

He has more than fifteen years of boardroom experience as a non-executive director across listed companies, leading financial institutions, public bodies, and charities. He currently serves on the UK Climate Change Committee’s Adaptation Committee, UK Export Finance’s Export Guarantees Advisory Council, and DBS Bank’s Board Sustainability Committee. He served as a Trustee of the Green Alliance, the UK’s leading independent environmental think tank, from 2010 to 2022.

Chair of Communications & Engagement Advisory Committee 
Oct 2024-27 

Susanna has held several leadership positions in the world of broadcasting, most recently as the Global President of Animal Planet for market-leader media company Warner Brothers Discovery, based in London and New York, where she worked with many organisations in the world of conservation. Reporting directly to the CEO and President, she was a member of the global leadership team. Prior to this, Susanna was MD of Discovery’s business in the UK & Ireland. Before joining Discovery, Susanna spent 10 years with Channel 5, rising to Strategic Planning Director, having begun her career at MTV Networks. 

Since January 2022, Susanna has worked as a media and strategy consultant for RethinkX, is an advisory board member for the LEAD Curriculum – supporting young, less-advantaged people rise to leadership positions – and partners with the Isle of Wight Literary Festival. She has served as chair of COBA (the Commercial On-Demand and Broadcasting Association) and on the board of All3Media Group. 

Her passion for wildlife and conservation is life-long and she supports many charities who are working at a local and global level. She still gets excited when a woodpecker visits her bird feeders! 

Chair of Audit & Risk Committee 
Oct 2024-27 

Catherine is a qualified chartered accountant. From 1988 to 2002, she worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers, latterly as an audit partner based in Johannesburg. 

For over 20 years, Catherine has developed an extensive portfolio career, working across a range of complex public, charity and healthcare organisations. She has a passion for nature and conservation and has worked as a trustee of both Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and WWF UK, and is currently a board member of Natural England, the Government’s adviser on the natural environment. She has worked in the NHS since 2012 across acute and mental health providers and now holds non-executive roles at Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board and Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust. She was formerly vice chair and trustee of Action for Children and Chair of Victim Support, and a board member of Housing 21, a leading not-for-profit provider of retirement living and extra care for older people of modest means. 

Catherine loves spending time outdoors and in nature, whether walking or spending time gardening. She is a keen but amateur bird watcher and is looking forward to visiting many reserves and learning more about bird species and observing wildlife. 

Oct 2022-27 

Jim co-owns and manages the Lowther Estates in Cumbria, a diversified business selling ecosystem services, farming, commercial landscape contracting, operating leisure facilities and visitor attractions - most notably Lowther Castle - and the conservation of historic property. 

The main emphasis is on natural land management, producing food alongside enhancing biodiversity and sequestering carbon. Projects include Penrith2Kendal Arc – a 17,000 ha landscape recovery project alongside 34 other landowners, farmers and land managers (including RSPB); new woods and forests; regenerative dairy farming; various species reintroductions including beavers, water voles, blackcock and grey partridge; restoring upland hay meadows; converting former grouse moors into upland wood pasture and former pheasant shoots into diverse habitats for nature. 

Jim is a keen mountaineer and climber and has explored across the greater ranges in Tibet, Nepal, India and Greenland. 

Chair of Country Advisory Committee for Scotland
Oct 2022-27

John was a senior civil servant in both Whitehall and Scotland for over 25 years. During his time with the Scottish Government, John held a range of policy and delivery senior posts including Private Secretary to the First Minister and the environment/sustainability portfolio during which he delivered the then world leading Scottish Climate Change Act and attended COP15 in Copenhagen. 

He has a wealth of experience in dealing with private, public and voluntary organisations and was widely involved in delivering many Scottish major sporting events including the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles, both in 2014. 

John was awarded the CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in 2015 for public service to Business and Major Events and has held many voluntary board level posts in the environmental, sporting, heritage and arts sectors in Scotland. He has been a member of the RSPB Advisory Committee for Scotland since 2017.

Chair of Country Advisory Committee for England 
Oct 2024-27 

Jane has been a valued member of the England Advisory Committee since she joined in 2022. She is currently a trustee of the Green Alliance and the RBG Kew Foundation and was previously a member of the Finance and Resources Committee at RBG Kew, governor and vice chair of the Legal Aid Foundation, and the University of Lincoln. 

Jane is also a visiting professor at the University of Surrey. She has a background in legal and policy engagement, working as SVP for Thompson Reuters, and Senior Counsel at Taylor Wessing. She brings expertise in legal compliance across sectors, with experience in public policy, global government affairs and networks across corporate and policy makers across the UK and globally.

Oct 2025-28

Deepa is currently Professor of Applied Ecology and the Head of Department, Sustainable Land Management, School of Agriculture, Policy and Development at the University of Reading.

She is a conservation biologist with 20+ years’ experience in environmental change impacts on biodiversity. Her research interests include agro-ecological landscapes, seeking management options such as ecological intensifications that work for both biodiversity and human livelihoods.

Deepa's work focuses on ensuring that scientific evidence informs on-ground conservation. She has led projects in the UK & India and collaborated in multiple Horizon Europe projects to implement ecological principles for habitat management & biodiversity conservation. She is the British Ecological Society’s first mid-career Policy Fellow and worked with Defra's Nature Strategy Team to assess progress towards Biodiversity 2020 climate change targets.

Oct 2023-27 

Bill is Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of Cambridge. Much of his original research was on applying ecological models to answer applied problems but over the last fifteen years he has focussed on improving the effectiveness of conservation practice especially though embedding evidence in policy and practice. 

He was president of the British Ecological Society, is a highly cited researcher, has written over 500 papers, is an author of six books and edited another ten and was recently elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was made a Commander of the British Empire in 2021 ‘for services to evidence-based conservation'. Bill was awarded the COSMOS prize in 2024 and established the YouTube Channel ‘Bill Sutherland’s Conservation Concepts’.

Chair of Country Advisory Committee for Wales
Oct 2025-28

Emyr started working for Eryri National Park in 1987 and was the Chief Executive at Eryri National Park from May 2014 until his retirement in July 2024. He was involved with pioneering proposals with land managers and persuading the then MAFF and successive administrations to migrate both policy and financial support for agricultural practices to support environmental gains.

On a regional level he was involved in the development of LIFE and HLF programmes, including the Celtic Rainforest LIFE programme in partnership with the RSPB. He has been involved at National, UK and European level (through EUROPARC) in land management matters. He has a natural interest in conservation and rural matters with experience in the interface of these with cultural heritage. He has dealt with both local, regional, national and UK politicians to gain support for National Park purposes. He is a Welsh speaker.