RAINFOREST TRUST UK

Adela is ‘half Yorkshire and half Swedish’, and from an early age her maternal grandmother would take her for nature walks in the deep Scandinavian forests, which gave her a deep love of nature. She has an MA in Interactive Design, and has worked for the BBC, BAA and WSPA (now World Animal Protection). Adela makes short films and animations....more

Adela is ‘half Yorkshire and half Swedish’, and from an early age her maternal grandmother would take her for nature walks in the deep Scandinavian forests, which gave her a deep love of nature. She has an MA in Interactive Design, and has worked for the BBC, BAA and WSPA (now World Animal Protection). Adela makes short films and animations with an environmental message, which have been shown at national and international festivals and climate events, including the COP15 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Adela has been an active campaigner on a variety of environmental issues – particularly fracking, which threatens her native Yorkshire – and is deeply concerned about the impact of climate change on ecosystems and wildlife. She helped to establish Rainforest Trust UK in 2016 with her husband, Chris, and is interested in taking the conservation message to the younger generation and developing links with schools, colleges and universities in the UK. Adela and Chris live in Catford, south-east London, and they enjoy watching the wildlife in their local parks as much as the amazing creatures that live in the world’s rainforests.

Chris grew up in Wolverhampton, in the West Midlands. After obtaining a degree in Chemistry at Birmingham University he spent much of his youth travelling the world seeking out new experiences. He was an English language teacher, teacher trainer and author for many years and has visited over 40 countries. Chris has been an active environmental....more

Chris grew up in Wolverhampton, in the West Midlands. After obtaining a degree in Chemistry at Birmingham University he spent much of his youth travelling the world seeking out new experiences. He was an English language teacher, teacher trainer and author for many years and has visited over 40 countries. Chris has been an active environmental campaigner and donor since the mid-1980s, when a trip to the Daintree Rainforest in Australia opened his eyes to the environmental destruction that was taking place around the world. Over the years he has supported a variety of ground-breaking conservation initiatives, such as training environmental lawyers in the Congo, establishing tree nurseries in Cameroon, setting up community mapping projects in Africa, developing real-time mobile technology to prevent illegal logging in Peru, and purchasing land to create wildlife corridors in threatened areas. Chris and his wife, Adela, helped to establish Rainforest Trust UK in 2016 and now dedicate their time to spreading the message of rainforest conservation across Britain. He is a keen nature photographer and enjoys feeding the birds, squirrels and foxes that visit their overgrown suburban garden.

James came to Rainforest Trust from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation where, as Director of Wildlife and Biodiversity, he oversaw the Great Elephant Census, worked with IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) and CITES (Convention on Trade in Endangered Species) to close ivory markets and save sharks, and launched programs to....more

James came to Rainforest Trust from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation where, as Director of Wildlife and Biodiversity, he oversaw the Great Elephant Census, worked with IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) and CITES (Convention on Trade in Endangered Species) to close ivory markets and save sharks, and launched programs to support the Convention on Biological Diversity, to dismantle wildlife trafficking networks, and to save coral reefs. Previously, He was Africa Director and then Vice President for Conservation Strategy at the Wildlife Conservation Society where he helped design and implement the Congo Basin Forest Partnership and launched new programs in Nigeria, Mozambique, and South Sudan. He also helped launch the Tropical Biology Association, taught secondary school in Kenya, and was founding chair of the boards of Aidspan and Community Markets for Conservation. For six years he was CEO of the UK’s national fundraiser for HIV/AIDS, Crusaid, helping make life-saving treatments available in the UK and Africa. A New Yorker, James was educated at Harvard (A.B. Philosophy) and Cambridge (M.Phil. Biological Anthropology and Ph.D. Zoology) and lectured in ecology and conservation biology at Imperial College and the University of East Anglia. His research career included fieldwork on Uganda Kob antelope and Malawi cichlid fishes with papers in Nature, Evolution, and other journals and books.

James lives outside Edinburgh with his family and a growing number of grandchildren. An audit and accounting specialist, James led Deloitte in Scotland and Northern Ireland before becoming Managing Partner of Audit & Risk Advisory and Chief Operating Officer of its business in Switzerland. He has worked with global companies across a number of....more

James lives outside Edinburgh with his family and a growing number of grandchildren. An audit and accounting specialist, James led Deloitte in Scotland and Northern Ireland before becoming Managing Partner of Audit & Risk Advisory and Chief Operating Officer of its business in Switzerland. He has worked with global companies across a number of industry sectors, advising them on their corporate reporting, financial assurance and risk management strategies. He therefore has direct experience of how companies manage the impact of their businesses on the communities and environments in which they operate, as well as how they are adapting their business models to address their environmental, social and corporate governance responsibilities. An honorary professor at Adam Smith Business School in Glasgow and a part-time PhD student, James is Chair of the Audit Committee at Macfarlane Group PLC, and a Trustee of RS Macdonald Charitable Trust. He is also a member of the Research Panel of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and has participated in a number of working groups focused on the future of corporate reporting, including areas of sustainability and environmental impact. When not working, James is a keen reader, traveller and (very amateur) guitar-player.

James has been an avid nature enthusiast since he could remember and is now dedicating his life to helping the natural world through a pragmatic social enterprise and his work with Rainforest Trust UK. After studying at the University of Leeds, James went to work in London within one of the big 5 business consultancy groups before moving into....more

James has been an avid nature enthusiast since he could remember and is now dedicating his life to helping the natural world through a pragmatic social enterprise and his work with Rainforest Trust UK. After studying at the University of Leeds, James went to work in London within one of the big 5 business consultancy groups before moving into finance as a global commodities portfolio manager. In 2015, having witnessed the devastating effects of deforestation in Madagascar on the country’s biodiversity and returning with a desire for a more meaningful life, James quit the rat race to start up a UK-based sustainable construction supply company called EnviroBuild. As well as reducing the environmental impact of the construction industry, the company donates 10% of its profits every year to environmental charities, including Rainforest Trust UK. EnviroBuild is also a President’s Level member of Rainforest Trust’s Conservation Circle. In his spare time James loves to scuba dive, sail, kite surf and go mountain biking. He became a Trustee of Rainforest Trust UK in February 2019.

Jonathan was raised in London and started his career as a copywriter, producing campaigns for organisations such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace. He went on to become a journalist and has written on a wide range of subjects including agriculture, the environment and ethical business for a wide range of British newspapers and magazines....more

Jonathan was raised in London and started his career as a copywriter, producing campaigns for organisations such as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace. He went on to become a journalist and has written on a wide range of subjects including agriculture, the environment and ethical business for a wide range of British newspapers and magazines including Country Life, Daily Mail, The Times, Telegraph and Vanity Fair. He has farmed in Australia and Ireland, and has founded several small businesses. His most recent book is Good Money: How to be an ethical entrepreneur. Over the years he has worked on a voluntary basis for a wide range of not-for-profits including the World Land Trust and Room to Read. Jonathan is a keen walker and dog lover.