How we are run

Ann was born and educated in West Cornwall. After a degree in history at Oxford University, she moved to London, qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1982. She spent most of her career in the City of London, specializing in investment business. She latterly worked for a succession of financial services regulators, where she was responsible for developing and implementing policy for marketing, conduct of business, financial adequacy and compensation, at both national and European level. Ann and her husband John moved from London in 1998 looking for somewhere nice to live, and found Rutland. Ann ran her own consultancy business for several years and started volunteering at Rutland Water. In 2002 she became a member of Trust Council and Honorary Treasurer, holding this role until standing down in Nov 2021, when she was appointed Chair of LRWT.

Outside of her many and varied Trustee and volunteer activities, Ann was for a number of years Chair of East Midlands Environment Link, a grouping of environmental NGOs monitoring the impact of government policy at a regional level. She was Chair of the Rutland Natural History Society for ten years. Ann has always had an interest in natural history and finds it very satisfying that her business and policy skills can be used in helping protect the natural world. She has travelled extensively, usually looking at wildlife on the way, and has a particular fondness for Northwestern USA, central Europe, Southern Africa, pachyderms (not often found in Rutland), and all small cuddly animals.

Bob moved to Leicestershire in 1984 to take up a job as a Probation Officer with Leicestershire & Rutland Probation Service, with whom he still works, now as an Assistant Chief Executive Officer. He has also been Chair of the Governing Bodies if two different schools. Bob has always been a keen amateur naturalist, a love for which he got from his father. His teenage son is a very keen and knowledgeable naturalist, particularly regarding birds, and many days and weekends are spent by them birdwatching around the country or locally. Whilst not claiming any specialist or professional conservation or environmental knowledge, Bob hopes to bring his knowledge of strategic planning, staff management and budgeting to his role on the Trust Council. In addition, having lived and worked in the city of Leicester for many years, he is particularly keen to broaden the demographic of those engaged in the work of the Trust to those living in urban areas without ready access to the natural world.

Andy is a proud Yorkshire man but moved to Leicestershire in 1986 to come to the University of Loughborough, where he has lived ever since. His degree was in Accounting and Financial Management and then working as an auditor he qualified as a chartered accountant before moving into industry.

He worked at a Nottingham based biopharmaceutical company for over 25 years, latterly as Chief Financial Officer but retired in 2021. Andy likes watching many sports particularly cricket and tennis and was a long-term member of a local amateur theatre group. He is a keen gardener and walker enjoying nature by being in the middle of it and has been a member of LRWT for about 25 years. Since retiring he has become a regular volunteer on the Thursday work parties at Rutland Water Nature Reserve as well as joining council as treasurer, where his financial and management skills have proved very useful.

Andy has been a trustee of three other charities. He was trustee for a development charity working in water provision in Africa that his brother started seeing it grow from start-up to over £2million income in around 8 years and has been treasurer and trustee for his local church and the charity overseeing a grouping of 12 local churches.

Peter lives in Anstey with his wife, Alison and is a father of two girls. Having moved to Anstey in 1979 he worked for Leicestershire County Council in various roles, including as Head of Environmental Management, until his recent retirement. With the County Council he was fortunate to be involved with various environmental programmes including land reclamation in the Leicestershire and South Derbyshire coalfield, National Forest, Country Parks and Rights of Way service, and Climate Change initiatives. Peter is a keen birdwatcher, having formed an interest in Norfolk and Cyprus in the 1960's and is ViceChairman of the Leicestershire and Rutland Ornithological Society (LROS) and is President of the Leicestershire and Rutland Ramblers. Peter is an Ambassador for the National Forest and a Board Member of the National Forest Charitable Trust. He enjoys volunteering at Beacon Hill and Watermead country parks and with LROS.

Andy Abbott is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Leicester where his research focus is on sustainability and recycling particularly in the materials used for renewable energy.

He brings a wealth of experience of managing spin out enterprises, obtaining grant income and leading large international research projects. He is a keen artist, birdwatcher and gardener and is never happier than when he is in the great outdoors.

Andy has a voracious thirst for knowledge and is usually accompanied by a good field guide or a series of podcasts.

John has lived in the East Midlands for 30 years and in rural north Leicestershire since 2000.

He retired in 2022 from a career as a medical consultant and university professor, which included leading the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the University of Nottingham.

He has held leadership roles in various regional, national and international organisations, including as Chair of UK Medical Schools Council. He has also held several Trustee and Non-Executive Director positions and is currently a Non-Executive Director at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust.

John spends most of his leisure time in the great outdoors. He and his wife Carol are keen walkers, and John has broad interests in the natural world, including birds, butterflies and plants, especially wild orchids. He is also a keen vegetable gardener. Over recent years, he has become increasingly concerned about climate change and the threat to natural diversity.

Consequently, he took the lead for environmental sustainability in the University of Nottingham and has taken the non-executive lead for this area in his current role in University Hospitals Birmingham. John hopes to bring to the LRWT his passion for preserving wildlife and protecting the environment together with a broad experience of leadership and a particular expertise in the health and higher education sectors.

Taras was born and grew up in Leicester and has spent a number of years volunteering with the Trust's education team, leading the Rutland Water Wildlife Watch Group from 2019 to 2023. He holds an integrated master's degree in Biology (specialising in ecology and conservation) from the University of Oxford. While at University, he was active in raising awareness and increasing engagement with biodiversity and nature across both staff and students at the University and young people more widely. 

Currently, he works as a Junior Professional- World Heritage for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Cambridge. This primarily involves the evaluation of new natural nominations from countries to the UNESCO World Heritage List. He also volunteers for Conservation Optimism- a movement that works to raise awareness of conservation success stories and amazing work being done all across the world by organisations like LRWT to enable nature recovery. 

This will be his first experience of being a trustee and as a young British Indian in one of the most diverse regions of the UK, he is particularly interested in considering how the Trust can engage those groups and demographics that are currently most under-represented.

Anthony Biddle has been a member of Trust Council for over 30 years. He is a Chartered Biologist and was, until his retirement in 2013, Technical Director of a private vegetable research organisation. As a plant pathologist, he has specialised in crop protection and as a keen naturalist, has an appreciation of the need to integrate wildlife conservation with profitable agricultural production. He is Chairman of the Rutland Group of the LRWT and is very much involved in the organisation of local events for Rutland members.

When I was a child, I fell in love with nature and that love turned into a lifelong passion. One of the many benefits of being Chief Executive of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) with offices in Peterborough and Aberdeen, was the opportunity to move to Rutland. Having studied at Leicester University, I was familiar with some of the surrounding area, but to me Rutland is like an undiscovered gem in the UK landscape, with expansive skies, soaring red kites and the oasis that is Rutland Water. It’s an inspiring place to live and I wish both to be an active part of the community and to give back to the land, water, plant life and wildlife that sustains us all.

I have the privilege of leading JNCC, the UK’s statutory advisor on nature, which has been at the heart of nature conservation and recovery in the UK, our Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies, and around the world for over 30 years. I am also honoured to be appointed by Defra's Secretary of State to the Chilterns Conservation Board.

From 2016 to 2021, I led marine policy in Defra and I received an OBE for services to the marine environment, representing the collective effort of many talented colleagues. During my time at Defra, I founded the Civil Service Network for Nature, whose mission is to connect civil and public servants to celebrate nature. I also supported the UK COVID-19 response as Defra Director for Food Vulnerability, and co-led the team to win the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion award for 'Impact on the Citizen' in 2020.

As Chief Social Scientist for the Defra group (2010-2017), and with over 30 years leading interdisciplinary evidence teams, evidence is in my DNA. In 2020, I was honoured to be elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. I am a Cambridge University Centre for Science and Policy Fellow and member of the International Women's Forum. 

I am committed to being a good ancestor through public service, organisational excellence, advocating evidence, mainstreaming biodiversity, championing inclusion, and diversifying the environmental sector.

Charlie has lived, studied and worked in Leicestershire and Rutland for most of his adult life. With a BSc in Geography, and an MSc and MPhil in Geographic Information Systems, Charlie works at the intersection of data science, cartography, computer science, and ecology as a Digital Ecologist. Charlie’s work experience spans both industrial and academic settings, developing technologies to help ecologists and environmental scientists collect, manage, analyse, share and communicate ecological and geospatial data.

Beyond his professional work, Charlie is passionate about freshwater ecology, ornithology, and paddle sports. He volunteers with the Canal & River Trust as a paddle sport instructor where he supports programmes that encourage engagement of the diverse Leicestershire community in the wellbeing benefits of blue-green spaces. Charlie also volunteers in water quality and bird monitoring programmes at Rutland Water Nature Reserve, and volunteers at his local food bank.

Emily was born and raised in Leicester before moving to Sheffield in 2004. She studied Modern Languages at the University of Sheffield, specialising in French and Russian, and then completed a Masters in International Relations at the University of Kent and Moscow Higher School of Economics. After a year in Moscow, she moved to Brussels to work as an assistant to an MEP in the European Parliament, spending five years there and eventually becoming a senior adviser on health and food safety policy.

Emily has always had a passion for nature and was keen to use her policy and political experience in the environment sector. In 2017, she moved to Belfast to work for the RSPB and then returned to Leicester in 2019, when she began her current role as Policy Advocate on Land Use at the Woodland Trust.

Outside of work, Emily is a mum to two young children and a keen runner. She has previously run a marathon to raise money for Buglife and enjoys taking part in a weekly Parkrun. She hopes to use her knowledge of environmental policy and legislation, and political experience, to support LRWT. Having taught herself almost everything she knows about nature, she is passionate about improving knowledge of and access to nature for children and young people and making urban spaces a little bit wilder.

Andrew is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, having originally qualified as a rural practice surveyor, he is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society of Arts.  In addition he is a Chartered Environmentalist and Chartered Geographer and Certified Facility Manager. Andrew has spent his career as a civil servant working for the Ministry of Defence in a senior management position. He has a MA from Kings College, London having earlier studied at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester and at the Joint Services Command and Staff College. Andrew’s main skills and interests are in strategic real estate management, operational planning, sustainable development and conservation. He is a life member of Falklands Conservation, the National Trust, the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and the Royal Agricultural Society of England and an annual member of numerous organisations including the Farmers’ Club, Country Landowners Association,South Georgia Association and various other sporting and special interest societies. As well as being a trustee of LRWT he is a local committee member (and former Chair) for the CLA, Honorary Secretary of the Shackleton Scholarship Fund and a Trustee of the United Kingdom Falkland Islands Trust.

Helen grew up in Hertfordshire and then studied Biology at University in York and a PhD in Animal Behaviour at Reading University. She moved to Leicestershire in 1988 to work for Mars (then Pedigree Petfoods) initially as an animal behaviourists studying wild bird feeding and developing a range of toys for dogs and cats. Her career at Mars moved to market research and then marketing and in 2008 she moved into the charity sector as a Director for the Woodland Trust. Helen now runs her own consultancy business supporting organisations that do good with strategy, audience insight, marketing and fundraising. She has worked with a number of environmental and conservation charities including The Wildlife Trusts, Earthwatch and the Soil Association, as well as a range of smaller regional charities from London to Sheffield. Helen’s love of wildlife was kindled by long walks with her Gran who was a mine of folklore and plant names. She is heritage warden for her village, a trustee for its community park and desperately tries to encourage her daughters to recognise plants. She’s keen to inspire more people to appreciate wildlife and to value it as part of their daily lives.

Abigail was born and raised in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, where she developed a love for nature and wildlife from a young age. Growing up she was home-schooled, which meant a unique opportunity to experience more outdoor learning. 

In 2024 she graduated with a BSc in Environmental Science with The Open University, and she would like a career in the environmental sector.

Abigail’s passion for wildlife and environmental sustainability shines through in her voluntary experience, which includes Youth Speaker for Greenpeace, Residential Volunteer at the Scottish Dolphin Centre, and Young Ambassador for Warwickshire Wildlife Trust. 

This is Abigail’s first experience of being a trustee, and she has been a member of council since 2021

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