Council members

Chair of Country Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland.
Oct 2020-25

Judith has provided consultancy services on countryside access, recreation and tourism development and management for the past 27 years following an early career in outdoor recreation provision and policy. She is based in the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland.

She has chaired two ministerial committees, the Northern Ireland Biodiversity Group, and the Irish Deer Management Forum, setting strategic directions with Government and stakeholders and coordinating programmes of action.

Within the RSPB Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland and as chair of the Search and Rescue Dogs Association Ireland North she has had a close involvement in the voluntary sector and understands the financial challenges and the need to stay relevant and prepared for change. She holds an MBA and has research interests in environmental economics.

Judith is a keen participant in walking, climbing, sailing and kayaking in the outdoors and in observing wildlife. She has long been an advocate for sustainable agriculture, effective landscape partnerships and the retention of vibrant rural communities

Oct 2022-24

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 and Senior Research Fellow of Sustainable Finance, the first ever endowed professorship of sustainable finance, and a Supernumerary Fellow at Oriel College, Oxford.

Ben is also the founding Director and Principal Investigator of the UK Centre for Greening Finance & Investment (CGFI), established by UK Research and Innovation in 2021 as the national centre to accelerate the adoption and use of climate and environmental data and analytics by financial institutions internationally.

He serves on the UK Climate Change Committee’s Adaptation Committee, UK Export Finance’s Export Guarantees Advisory Council, DBS Bank’s Board Sustainability Committee, and is a Co-Director for the Leverhulme Centre for Nature Recovery where he leads its work on finance.

Chair of Council
Oct 2017-22 and Oct  2022-24 2nd term  

Kevin served on RSPB Council from 2011-2016 and was appointed Chair of Council in 2017, now extended to 2024. He was actively involved in magazine publishing and was Chairman and Chief Executive of Origin Publishing, a company he founded in 1996 and subsequently sold to BBC Magazines. His interest in international conservation led to his involvement with the World Land Trust where he is a Council member and Chair of its trading company. He is a former Chair of Devon Birds and a member of the BTO, WWT and Devon Wildlife Trust amongst other conservation organisations. He lives in Devon on the edge of Dartmoor where he and his wife manage 150 acres of woodland and meadows as a nature reserve.

Treasurer; Chair, Finance Committee
Oct 2018-23, 2nd term Oct 2023-25

Robert was a Partner in Ernst & Young (EY) for 25 years, initially as an Audit Partner specialising in financial services, and latterly as the Global lead advisor to one of the largest banking organisations in the world. He held various leadership roles within EY, including responsibility for Banking on the EMEIA and UK leadership teams. He has strong financial, risk, governance, advisory and strategic experience. He is Chairman of Mohara, a technology provider, and provides executive coaching. A keen birder all his life, he is determined to visit many of the Reserves across the UK that he does not know.

Chair of Country Advisory Committee for Wales
Oct 2023-26

Keith is the National Specialist on Climate Change for the National Trust, and the founder and Director of four successful community energy companies in Wales delivering social, nature and climate benefit at scale. He is an Honorary Lecturer on sustainability and business risk at numerous universities including the University of Wales and New York University, and founder of the Fit for The Future Network which brings together over 100 organisations including Governments, NGOs, and PLCs across the UK to share learnings on sustainability.

Through his consultancy he has helped national and international organisations including Europa Nostra and ICOMOS navigate their sustainability journey, and for over 20 years he has been a specialist contributor on BBC Radio Cymru producing pieces on the natural environment and sustainability. His impact has been recognised through the Ashden Gold Award, The Guardian Sustainable Business Award, the Community Energy England/Wales award for Outstanding Partnership Development and he is also a former Institute of Welsh Affairs Environmentalist of the Year.

Keith is proud of his Welsh roots, is a fluent Welsh speaker, presenter, writer and was part of the Welsh delegation to Washington in 2009 to celebrate Welsh culture on the Mall in front of the Capital Building which was attended by 2 million visitors (hosted by Welsh Government and the Smithsonian Institute).

Chair of Conservation Committee
Oct 2018-25

Kerry is an independent consultant, advising governments, companies and civil society organisations on how best to integrate the natural environment into economic decisionmaking. She is a non-executive board member of Natural England and was on the Natural Capital Committee from 2012- 2015. Kerry is a member of the Aldersgate Group, Conservation Fellow at the Zoological Society of London and a member of IUCN’s Commission on Ecosystems Management.

Formerly a barrister, Kerry served on the Secretariat of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 (the 'Rio Earth Summit'). She was policy adviser at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Director of Investor Responsibility at asset manager Insight Investment. She founded and directed the international Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme (BBOP) at Forest Trends, in which 100 organisations worked over fifteen years towards ‘Biodiversity Net Gain’.

Oct 2022-24

Jim co-owns and manages the Lowther Estates in Cumbria, which have been in his family since an original grant by Edward I in 1283. Jim’s work at Lowther has focused on diversifying the estates’ businesses away from the production of commodities (such as timber, minerals and agricultural products) to the provision of ecosystem services; commercial landscape project management; the operation of leisure facilities and visitor attractions; and the conservation of historic property.

As a mountaineer, Jim has explored and climbed in the world’s greater ranges – including Greenland, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Tibet and the Alps – and has made many first ascents of unclimbed peaks. During these expeditions he discovered a love of wild-ness. Witnessing how other cultures have treated their landscapes has influenced Jim’s thinking about how the Lowther Estates could be repaired. Combined with his passion for keeping 500 colonies of honeybees, Jim’s strategy is to place nature recovery at the heart of his philosophy of estate management.

Chair, Audit & Risk Committee
Oct 2021-25

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.

John 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 and currently is a Trustee of the Scottish Civic Trust and Chair of the Linlithgow Burgh Trust.

Chair of Country Advisory Committee for Scotland
Oct 2019-24

Vicki has worked in senior management roles in the public sector in Scotland for 30 years, including local government Chief Executive posts, water regulation and as Director for Scotland of the UK communications regulator, Ofcom.

She also has non-executive experience in the health service and performing arts organisations and has been a member of the RSPB Committee for Scotland since 2017. Vicki is a member of the Scottish Government's Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board, supporting policy reform in the future of farm payments.

She is a member of the Scottish Wildlife Trust, the British Trust for Ornithology, a volunteer at RSPB Loch Lomond and Argaty Red Kite Centre. Vicki is also a JP in the Sheriffdom of Tayside, Central and Fife.

Oct 2019-24

Veronica was born in Kenya and moved to England in the late 60’s. She was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant for Nottinghamshire in 2013 and as an Honorary Air Commodore for 504 (Nottingham) Squadron.in 2018.For more than 25 years Veronica worked with children and families from multi-cultural communities in London as a social worker, a children's guardian and as an international child protection consultant with the UN and other NGOs, working mostly in Africa.

She now negotiates for the needs of diverse communities on behalf of multinational and global companies, advising them on corporate social responsibility programmes, networking and community links, and diversity and integration.

For the past eight years Veronica has worked as an executive coach and mentor with individuals, universities and companies in the UK. She supports several Nottinghamshire charities and organisations and has for many years been a strong supporter of wildlife conservation and access to the arts.

Oct 2020-25

John’s first love has always been wildlife. Birdwatching from his very earliest days. He has been a member of the RSPB for over 55 years and remains a keen birder today. He was a Member of Parliament from 1997 until he stood down in 2015. In Parliament, John put forward the Marine Wildlife Conservation Bill, together with the RSPB. This ultimately led to the Marine and Coastal Access Act of 2009. He was asked to become Theresa May’s Special Adviser on the environment in 2017 and had to stand down from RSPB Council owing to potential conflicts of interest.

Now in the House of Lords John is an advocate for wildlife and conservation. He is a Trustee of the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum as well as a Vice–President of Fauna and Flora International, and Vice Chair of Trustees of the Human Trafficking Foundation. Prior to entering Parliament, he worked in the family retail business and was also a bird tour leader.

Chair,  Commercial & Partnerships Committee
Oct 2022-24

Jim has over 30 years’ experience in management consultancy. He was a partner at Deloitte for almost 20 years as well as being Vice Chairman and holding a variety of senior international management roles within the firm.

Since retiring, Jim has provided advice and support to a number of NGOs. He is also a trustee of the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, a trustee of the John Muir Trust, sits as a co-opted member of a committee at WaterAid and a director of Shujaaz, a youth platform in Kenya. He also chairs a technology company that tracks the use of raw materials in the production of batteries.

Oct 2023-26

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 has just been 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’.