The Trust is governed by a Council, whose members are elected by the general membership at the Annual General Meeting to serve as Trustees for a three-year term. They have overall responsibility for the Strategic direction of the Trust and are all volunteers.
Meet our trustees...
Roger Thomas - Chairman
I have worked throughout my career in environmental management, becoming Director of Environment Agency Wales and then CEO of CCW in 2002 until my recent retirement. I chair two woodland charities and am a trustee of the Ponds Conservation Trust (soon to be renamed the Freshwater Habitats Trust). I am not a trained ecologist, but am convinced that we must increase public understanding of the importance of nature to people if we are to reverse the loss of biodiversity. Wildlife Trusts, being close to people, have a central role to play in engaging with them - and I want to apply my skills, experience and enthusiasm to help with this challenge.
Ian Dunsire - Treasurer and Company Secretary
I became Treasurer in 2014 having answered a plea for help published in the first copy of Natur received after moving to North Wales from the Isle of Wight. My business background is mainly in banking and IT but I have worked for many organisations as an interim executive covering merger, acquisition and turnaround scenarios - hopefully all three of these can be avoided at NWWT! The aim is to use my entrepreneurial background to help keep the Trust succeeding in increasingly difficult times. My nature credentials are entirely amateur but my wife, Barbara, and I have thrown ourselves in at the deep end with a project to rewild our 9 acre smallholding above Penrhyndeudraeth, with welcome advice being received from the Trust. Now just over two years into the restoration, the meadows, copses and ponds are attracting a notable diversity of wildlife and we hope that the trend will continue.
Gillian Coates - Trustee
With regard to my lifelong interest in nature and the environment, I would regard myself as a generalist rather than a specialist. I have a BSc in Pharmaceutics and MSc in Mammalian Reproduction, but spent my working life mainly as an advisor in Citizens Advice Bureaux firstly, as a volunteer and later as a Manager. My late husband was an academic who specialised in underwater acoustics. On retirement, using his expertise, we ran 5-day courses for people working in the military, seismic industry or environmental disciplines to instruct them on the basics of underwater acoustics and the impact of anthropogenic noise on the marine environment. These took place over a period of 15 years both in the UK and around the world. For some years, I have been a member of our local Marine Advisory Group and have a particular interest on the environmental impact of marine developments that may take place off Anglesey and the coast of North Wales.
Simon Mills - Trustee
I was born in Essex, but have lived in Rossett near Wrexham for the last twenty seven years. My wife and I started our interest in wildlife with birdwatching, but the arrival of children severely limited that, so our interest turned to things more immediately accessible with young children - such as butterflies, and plants and wildflowers as their food sources. It was in Essex that we first joined up as we really related to the Wildlife Trusts’ values, and we’ve been members ever since.
I have no formal ecological training, but hope that I can bring alternative experiences to help the Trust as it moves forward.
Frankie Hobro - Trustee
Frankie Hobro has a background in island biodiversity and hands-on endangered species monitoring, conservation, research and education. She worked internationally for over 10 years on island nature reserves and in remote field camps overseeing projects for NGOs, the private sector, as an independent consultant and for the World Bank, carrying out in situ species management and monitoring, ringing, tagging and tracking a vast variety of endangered creatures - marine, terrestrial and winged! Recently Frankie has focused more specifically upon marine conservation and education since moving back to North Wales in 2007 as she is now joint owner and Director of the Anglesey Sea Zoo with her husband Dylan. When not occupied by the business and family life Frankie takes every opportunity to spend active time outdoors, and particularly enjoys volunteering for hands-on wildlife activities such as bird ringing, the more scrambling, hiking and abseiling involved the better!
Howard Davies - Trustee
Howard has worked for twenty four years in the environmental sector; first for the BTCV before moving to the Clwydian Range AONB, later working in CCW’s Protected Landscapes team. He studied agriculture and biology. Howard was seconded to Wildlife Trusts Wales before taking on his current post as CEO of the National Association for AONBs, representing the interests of the AONB Family across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. These roles have given Howard insight into ecology, landscape, management and corporate planning processes, and sustainable development. Howard lives in the Ceiriog Valley and outside of work he is active in his local community. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Geoff Radford - Trustee
Geoff Radford has been a member of NWWT since the 1970s and most active as a volunteer following retirement in 1997. He became Hon Sec in 1999 and after 6 years was elected Chair. Previously, he worked for several ecological research and conservation organisations, primarily focussing on environmental information management. Recent freelance work has included botanical survey, GIS applications and software development. Geoff’s motivation stems from wishing to see spatial and temporal environmental information put to good use in the interests of wildlife.
Les Starling - Trustee
I worked for the Forestry Commission in South West England, South Wales and North Wales for nearly 43 years before I retired 12 years ago.
I am on several committees including NWWT Trustee and Chair of Conservation east. I Chair Sustainable Denbighshire, committee member of Royal Forestry Society North Wales, North Wales Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (Secretary), North East Wales Biodiversity Network (Vice Chair), Denbighshire Voluntary Services Council (Trustee). Cofnod – North Wales Local Record Centre - Board Member, on advisory panel Clwydian Range AONB, member of Rhuddlan Local Nature Reserve Advisory Group. I also Chair the group that is working on the Living Landscape project in the Alyn/Chwiler Valley – this is an exciting NWWT led project and is at quite an early stage. I represent the Voluntary sector on the 3rd Sector Liaison group with Denbighshire County Council.
I usually have a camera with me and have been a Camera Club member wherever I have been posted since about 1968. In addition I am keen on gardening, mainly organic and wildlife friendly, and have opened our garden by appointment under the National Garden Scheme.