Our people

North Wales Wildlife Trust employs over 30 staff

North Wales Wildlife Trust employs over 30 staff

ABOUT US

Our people

Bringing the wild back to life. Together.

We are a grassroots movement of people working together for wildlife.

The Wildlife Trusts cover the UK to improve places for wildlife and influence governments to ensure a future for wildlife. Our members are our lifeblood - with your support we can direct funds to tackle the challenges faced by wildlife.

Join today

Our volunteers

Join a network of over 350 like-minded people helping to protect North Wales's wildlife and countryside.

Volunteer with us

Our local groups

Wherever you live in North Wales, there is a local Wildlife Trust Branch near you.

These are run by volunteers who help to raise the profile of the Wildlife Trust in their local communities.  They organise lots of wildlife-themed events and activities all throughout the year including guided walks, family fun days and talks by local experts.  Why not go along to one of their meetings and get more involved?  You’ll connect with local people who share a common interest in wildlife.  Whether you’re a walk-leader, face-painter or a cake-baker, you may be just what your local Branch is looking for. 

Volunteer with your local group

Our staff

Our staff are based at our head office in Bangor and our office at Aberduna Nature Reserve, near Mold. Our nature reserve staff are knowledgeable about the wildlife of their local patches, and our education and community engagement staff are keen to pass on their infectious enthusiasm for local wildlife. Our support staff, based in Bangor, are happy to help with membership, finance, fundraising, communications and general enquiries.

Contact us

How we're run

Our Trustees are a group of volunteers who hold the financial and legal responsibility for everything the Trust does.

Our Trustees bring a wide range of knowledge, expertise and experience to the charity and are responsible for approving our strategic plans, annual budget and Annual Report & Accounts. 

Trustees are appointed from our membership base at the Annual General Meeting of the Trust each November.

Our mission

Dafydd Elis-Thomas (President)

Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas represented Meirionnydd later Nant Conwy then Dwyfor Meirionnydd as Member of Parliament (MP) then Senedd Member (SM) including membership of legislative and scrutiny committees specialising in environmental, educational and constitutional policy. He was chair of the first statutory Welsh Language Board and Presiding Officer of the Senedd before joining Welsh Government as a Minister for Culture Sport and Tourism. A graduate, postgraduate and lecturer at Bangor he served as President and Chancellor of the University. As Chair of Screen Wales he also served as a board member of the British Film Institute. He was made a life peer in 1992. He has always lived in and around Eryri Snowdonia.

Geoff Radford (Vice-President)

Geoff first joined the Trust in the 1970s, and when he retired from the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology in 1997 his voluntary contributions to the Trust notched up a level.  His influence has been pivotal to the Trust’s development, which grew from his initial active involvement in the Trust’s Anglesey Branch, then through advisory committees (Conservation, Finance, Property and Estates) and to the Trust’s Council. He served as Vice-Chairman in 2005, swiftly followed by election to Chair which he held until 2010.  As Chair, he was highly respected and central in the Trust’s co-operation on collective and strategic work, through the UK Wildlife Trust movement and Wildlife Trusts Wales.  Geoff was Chairman of the Anglesey Branch for over 20 years, and today still supports the staff reporting process to funders, and our digital mapping.  He is an active practical nature reserve volunteer and most weeks will be seen grafting to conserve wildflower grassland through scrub and bracken clearance, plant trees, and carry out beach cleans.   

Goronwy Wynne (Vice-President)

Born and bred in Flintshire, Goronwy graduated from Bangor University in Agriculture and Botany, taught Biology at his old school in Holywell and then became Principal Lecturer in Biology at the North East Wales Institute, Wrexham. He is a Fellow of Bangor University and of the Linnean Society of London; and was the Botanical Society of the British Isles recorder for Flintshire for 40 years. This is where he has contributed so fully to the work of NWWT. In 1993 he published his major work Flora of Flintshire for which he was awarded a PhD His interest in natural history and ecology remains as strong as ever.

Pippa Bonner MBE (Vice-President)

As well as maintaining a strong interest in wildlife Pippa was an ardent fundraiser for NWWT for 20 years until 2015. In this time, due to her leadership, the Trust was one of few environmental charities running dedicated sales outlets based exclusively on voluntary effort, and none derived such a high proportion of its unrestricted income from a trading subsidiary.  In the time she was active, Pippa and the sales team raised over £250,000 for the Trust.

Pippa’s forthright and supportive character with commitment to the tasks she undertook, gave a quality and level of service of the highest order.   She was a Trustee for 7 years, from 1995 a Director of NWWT Trading for 20 years, and was also a long-standing member of the Trust’s Anglesey Branch Committee.  Her outstanding contribution to voluntary service rewarded her with a national honour as a Member of the British Empire (MBE) in 2012.

Pippa continues as a supporter of the Trust, now living close to her family in Gloucestershire.

Howard Davies (Chairperson and Trustee)

I have a passion for the environment and have championed the North Wales Wildlife Trust (NWWT) for over thirty years.  I have governance experience gained through roles in charity management and as a board member of Natural Resources Wales (NRW).  I am an experienced chairman, Company Secretary, and an accredited mediator and coach.  I have been the Chief Executive of an environmental charity for ten years.  I have a degree in biology, a passionate interest in people and place, and actively promote collaboration.   I am a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s World Commission on Protected Areas, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society for arts, manufactures and commerce (RSA), and an Honorary Vice President of the NWWT.

Ian Dunsire (Treasurer and Trustee)

As soon as I moved to North Wales from the Isle of Wight I responded to a plea for help in Natur.  I use my business background in banking, IT and as an interim executive covering merger, acquisition and turnaround to support the Trust.  With my wife, Barbara, we have thrown ourselves in at the deep end with a project to re-wild our 9 acre smallholding above Penrhyndeudraeth, with welcome advice 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.
 

Daniel Bos (Trustee)

Daniel Bos, Trustee

Daniel Bos, Trustee

As an academic geographer, I have over a decade of teaching and research experience exploring the interconnections between landscapes, people, and natural environments. My research, teaching and personal interests seek to empower people to promote environmental justice. I am particularly interested in issues around accessibility and inclusivity to nature and the role digital technologies can have in connecting the public to environmental issues.

Gillian Coates (Trustee)

I have a lifelong interest in nature and the environment, with a broad range of experience which I use to support the Trust.    I have academic experience in pharmaceuticals and mammal biology, and spent my working life mainly as an advisor in Citizens Advice Bureau.   With my late husband, an academic specialising in underwater acoustics we ran training for people (working in the military, oil & gas and environment) in underwater acoustics and the impact of industrial noise on the marine environment. I am especially keen to ensure marine developments that may take place off the North Wales coast are not detrimental to wildlife. 

Alasdair Forman (Trustee)

Alasdair Forman, Trustee

Alasdair Forman, Trustee

I am a North Walian with a lifetime passion for nature conservation and am proud to serve as a NWWT Trustee.

With over 25 years of corporate and charity experience, I have developed skills in many areas including strategic planning, financial management, fundraising, marketing, monitoring & evaluation, partnership development and project management.

As a current Trustee for CPRE Lancashire, Liverpool City Region and Greater Manchester, with the same legal structure and similar role descriptions as NWWT, I understand the responsibilities and expectations involved.

I have extensive experience, particularly through my work with WWF, in both strategic planning and in developing effective plans to track outputs, outcomes and impacts for both conservation and operational topics.

Frankie Hobro (Trustee)

My background is in island biodiversity and hands-on endangered species monitoring, conservation, research and education. I worked internationally for over 10 years on island nature reserves and in remote field camps overseeing projects as an independent consultant and for the World Bank. Now I am more focused on marine conservation as owner and director of the Anglesey Sea Zoo.  As a trustee I can use my experience to support the Trust, particularly in its work to protect the seas round North Wales, and enable others to share my passion for spending active time outdoors, especially in hands-on wildlife activities such as bird ringing.

Alex Lord (Trustee)

I am passionate about the natural world and conservation, with a background in Zoology and conservation work in Belize. My financial skills and experience - from commercial and strategic work to compliance, governance and best practice with over seven years’ Board experience in an executive role - I believe make me well suited to this role and helping to drive the charity forward whilst preserving its ethos and acting as custodians for its future. I strongly believe that engaging communities at local levels can preserve a diverse range of habitats and offer the greatest return on investment.

Gina Mills (Trustee)

In 2018, I retired from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology at Bangor where, as a Group Leader, I was part of the Science Management Team. I am a specialist in the effects of air pollution and climate change on vegetation, and have worked at the science-policy interface from national to global scales, including for the United Nations Air Pollution Convention. Since 2019, I have contributed to NWWT by chairing the Marine Advisory Group. As well as providing a direct input to Council on marine activities, as a Trustee, I would also provide expertise in environmental science, management and policy development.

Ffion Mitchell-Langford (Trustee)

Ffion Mitchell-Langford, Trustee

Ffion Mitchell-Langford, Trustee

I am a qualified marine scientist and bilingual North Wales Volunteer and Community Engagement Manager with over four years experience in the charity sector – including two and a half years in policy research, project management and community engagement at the Marine Conservation Society, and over 1 year’s experience as a Trustee at Wales Environment Link. A passionate supporter of North Wales Wildlife Trust and its commitment to bringing people closer to nature, I hope to further contribute to safeguarding the Trust’s future through providing fresh insight and perspective as a young person with a sound understanding of good governance, the Welsh conservation landscape and the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

David Wynn Davies (Trustee)

I am a Welsh Speaker born in Dyserth having lived in Tremeirchion for the past 22 years looking across the Vale to the Trust’s Graig Nature Reserve. I retired in 2017 as Denbighshire County Council’s Community Engagement Manager with responsibility for the Council’s relationship with the Third Sector.  I have long been a local magistrate, am a school governor, a member of Sustainable Denbighshire, and a trustee of Denbigh Museum.  I have a love of the countryside and its species and a deep concern that as an interested individual we all have a role to play in protecting our natural habitat.  

How to become a Trustee

Do you have skills and knowledge which could help us run North Wales Wildlife Trust?  Please consider joining our friendly team of Trustees, who are from a range of backgrounds, all bringing their unique contributions to help us manage our charity. Our Trustee Recruitment Pack gives you more information about the role and how to apply.

Download pack here

Any member of North Wales Wildlife Trust may become a Trustee, provided they are eligible to stand for election under both company law and charity law. No fixed qualifications are needed, but a wide range of skills and experience are required in order for our Board of Trustees to be effective. Trustees are elected at our Annual General Meeting, held each November.