Anthony D Thomas OBE - Chairman
Tony has recently retired as Chief Executive and Director of the Field Studies Council.
The list of Tony’s involvement with committees and working groups in the fields of environmental education, education for sustainable development, field studies and assessment of geography is long. He is presently Chair of Council for Environmental Education, EDEXCEL Advanced Level Geography, Geographical Association’s Field Studies Working Group, Forest Education Initiative, Environment Sector WG for the Outdoor Manifesto and the Real World Learning campaign.
He is also a member of a number of environmental and education bodies, as well as a consultant to a number of foreign NGOs and governmental agencies
Dr Andy Brown
Andy began his career as a university lecturer in northern Nigeria. He then joined the Nature Conservancy Council, and later became the chief officer of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and subsequently the chief executive of English Nature. When Natural England was created Andy left and became self-employed.
He splits his time between being a board member of the Environment Agency, working overseas on environmental projects, assisting various NGOs and his research interest in freshwater Chironomidae (Diptera).
Andy has been the chair of the UK Biodiversity Information Group, Chair of the IUCN UK Committee, vice chair of the National Biodiversity Network Trust, member of the Rural Climate Change Forum and a member of the World Heritage Site Review Panel. He is a council member of RSPB, a trustee of CPRE, a council member and fellow of the Linnean Society and a fellow of the Institute of Biology.
Anna Carragher
Anna joined the BBC as a radio studio manager in 1970, before becoming a producer on the Today Programme and later the BBC’s radio news producer in North America. She then moved into television documentary production and became part of the launch team of breakfast television. She went on to produce both Newsnight and Question Time. There followed a return to radio, producing Any Questions and Any Answers, before Anna became Editor of European and Correspondent Programmes. She returned to her native Northern Ireland in the mid 1990’s as Head of Programmes and was Controller, BBC Northern Ireland from 2001 until retirement in 2006.
Anna is a member of the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority, a Commissioner for the Northern Ireland Equality Commission and the Chair of the Grand Opera House Trust, Belfast.
Peter Day
Peter has a BSC (Hons) in Natural History. Most of his career has been spent in the IT industry, including 5 years as Chief Executive of Rolfe & Nolan Plc - a software development company serving the international futures and options industry. More recently he has been a director of a company producing software for financial regulatory authorities.
He has been an active volunteer tour guide at the London Wetland Centre since it opened in 2000 and gives courses to volunteers and the public on wetlands and their plant and animal life. He travels to societies and clubs in the south of England to give presentations about WWT’s conservation work.
He served as a governor of a large comprehensive school in Croydon for several years, is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists and a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London.
Mike Dearden
Mike has a degree in Chemistry and has had a career in industry, working for a number of chemical, oil and minerals companies.
He has held a number of Marketing and General Management roles and spent over 20 years with Burmah Castrol, during which time he travelled extensively to all parts of the world including 3 years in Malaysia running the local company there. He returned to the UK in1995 and shortly afterwards became Chief Executive of Castrol International.
In 2000 he retired and has since been a non-executive director of several industrial companies. He is a trustee of the London Campus of the European School of Management.
Originally from Cheshire, Mike has lived in Gloucestershire since 1972 and takes a keen interest in rural affairs.
Alastair Driver (co-opted April 2010)
Alastair is a naturalist who graduated from Lancaster University with a BSc (Hons) in Ecology. He went on to become the first ever Conservation Officer for the Thames catchment in 1984 and by the time he departed that pioneering role in 2002, conservation staff had increased to 25+ , budgets were measured in millions and improvement projects had been instigated which led to the return of otter and salmon to the rivers.
Since October 2002 he has been National Conservation Policy Manager for the Environment Agency and was instrumental in securing a £60m programme of funding for wetland creation and restoration in England for the period 2008-11.
Alastair is the author of many articles and technical chapters on river and wetland conservation, and regularly contributes to TV and radio programmes on the subject. He co-produced the BBC Natural World documentary, “The Timeless Thames” and regularly speaks at and chairs international conferences. He is a Biodiversity Advisor for the Commonwealth Secretariat and had the honour to be appointed the first Ambassador for the International River Foundation in 2008.
A former first-class rugby player with London Irish, Alastair now manages the Reading Rhinos rugby team, plays league cricket and serves as Chairman of Sonning Cricket Club. He is also a Trustee of the Afan Woodland Trust in Japan, a Fellow of the Linnean Society, creates nature areas for schools and acts as voluntary warden for Ali’s Pond Local Nature Reserve which he established in 1997 in his home village.
Philip Duncan (co-opted May 2010)
Philip has been a bird-watcher since his childhood in Scotland, where he remembers meeting Peter Scott during a lecture tour in the 1950s. He qualified as a production engineer and spent most of his career in the oil industry, initially with Shell in Scotland.
As part of his 26 year career with the Burmah-Castrol Group, Philip has lived and travelled extensively overseas, including a spell as Chief Executive of Castrol in Hong Kong and Singapore.
In 1998 he retired from the oil industry, acquired and ran a fine art publishing company in Cornwall. He is involved with SSAFA Forces Help as divisional secretary in Swindon.
Sir Graham Fry
Graham worked in the British diplomatic service from 1972 until he retired in 2008. He speaks Japanese and spent a total of twelve years in Japan on three different postings, the last as ambassador. His other overseas postings were to France and Malaysia.
Watching birds has been his main recreation since 1973, and when in the UK, he has regularly visited the London Wetland Centre. In Japan he became involved with the Wild Bird Society of Japan (WBSJ) and with BirdLife Asia, and helped with the text of "A Field Guide to The Waterbirds of Asia" published by the WBSJ in 1993 and distributed to Asian conservationists.
He now works as an adviser to companies and a university lecturer, and is a member of the Governing Body of the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London.
Leslie D Jones OBE - Treasurer
Les started his career in local government, and then joined Thames Water where he was General Manager of Rivers Division. In this role he looked after all aspects of the Thames basin, including flood defence, navigation, pollution control, water resources, recreation and conservation.
In 1996 he was awarded the OBE for services to conservation and in the same year became Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Finance of the Worldwide Fund for Nature. He was acting Chief Executive for a year.
Les now works as a Charity Consultant and is a Trustee of several charities.
David Milne QC
David was born in 1945, read law at Jesus College, Oxford, qualified as a chartered accountant in 1969, and was called to the Bar in 1970, since when he has specialised in tax litigation. He has been a QC since 1987, a Crown Court Recorder since 1989, and was Chairman of the Revenue Bar Association 1998-2001. He has a daughter, Bryony, and a son, George. His clubs include the Garrick, the Hurlingham and Walton Heath Golf.
He has been a keen birdwatcher since the age of 3, was Treasurer of the Surrey Bird Club from 1973 to 1988, and has been a keen supporter of the Surrey Wildlife Trust for many years. He lived overlooking Barn Elms Reservoirs from 1980 to 1995, and was instrumental (with WWT's Mike Ounsted and local resident Gyles Brandreth) in first getting the people of Barnes behind the WWT project to create the London Wetland Centre, appearing on radio and television, writing pamphlets and newspaper articles, and speaking at public meetings.
Simon Tonge
Simon is currently the executive director of the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust and of South West Environmental Parks Ltd, a charitable organisation based in the south west of the UK, which owns Paignton and Newquay zoos, the Living Coasts exhibit in Torquay and three nature reserves in Devon.
He graduated in zoology from the University of Bristol in 1980 and his subsequent career included the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, where he was a herpetologist, and the Zoological Society of London. His career also includes two years training as an accountant, which left him sadder but much wiser. He is currently chairman of the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums, chairman of the European Association of Zoos and Aquariums, and sits on the board of two conservation charities in southern Africa.
Simon is a serious birder and interested in all aspects of natural history and conservation.
Our Presidents
Patron
Her Majesty the Queen
President
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales
Vice Presidents
Sir David Attenborough
John Berkeley, TD, JP, DL
Mark Carwardine
Sir Richard Gaskell LLD (Hon), LLM (Hon)
Sir Jack Hayward, OBE
Kate Humble
Hugh Mellor, CBE
Her Grace the Duchess of Norfolk
Chris Packham
Tony Pidgley
Sir George Russell CBE
Dr Dafila Scott
Keith Shackleton, RSMA, SWLA
Professor Sir Robert Worcester KBE, DL