Honorary President: Sir Simon Alexander Bowes Lyon, KCVO
Honorary Vice-Presidents: Colonel Peter Echlin Gerahty, Robert Wilson (2008-2013, elected 13 September 2008), Richard Ball, (elected 17 October 2009)
For the purposes of the Companies Act 1985, the Council of Management is regarded as the Board of Directors of the Company.
The following serve as Charity Trustees on the Council of Management:
Michael Master (Chairman), Dr. Veronica Edmonds-Brown (Vice Chairman), John Bristow (Treasurer), Tim Bell, Dr. Agneta Burton, Clive Hinds, Paul Knutson, Douglas Smallwood, Andrew Woods
Company Secretary: Brenda Barrett
Mike Master - Chairman
Mike Master retired in 2003 from a career in the construction supply industry, as Director and General Manager of RMC Aggregates (Greater London) Ltd. and now runs his own mineral development consultancy. Somewhat naturally he has a keen interest in the potential of the quarry industry to foster conservation initiatives.
In addition to his role at HMWT, he is a director to Hertfordshire Groundwork Trust, Groundwork (UK) and Chairman of Groundwork East of England. He is also a Trustee of the Hertfordshire Community Foundation, a director of QPA Restoration Guarantee Fund and life member of the National Trust.
Dr Veronica Edmonds-Brown – Vice Chairman
Ronni Edmonds-Brown is an aquatic ecologists working for the University of Hertfordshire. Current projects include a breeding programme for the native white clawed crayfish.
Ronni sits on the HNHS Management committee and is Chair of the Hertfordshire Biological Recorders. In addition she is the Secretary of the Aquatic Ecology Group of the British Ecological Society and also a member of one of the Environment Agencies regional strategic committees.
In addition to her academic duties she is also responsible for the ecological management of the Bayfordbury field centre.
Ronni and her husband moved from Surrey to Barnet in 1981 and have a son and daughter. Interests include reading, music, messing about in water and conservation.
John Bristow – Treasurer
Originally from North London, John has resided in Hertfordshire since the early 1970s, currently in Harpenden. Educated in Finchley, he followed his father’s footsteps and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1971. After qualifying, John left the accountancy profession for corporate life and held a number of financial posts, mainly in retail, before establishing his own consultancy practice in the early 1990s finally retiring in 2005. He is now actively involved in a number of charities helping with financial input and advice.
John’s interest in wildlife started from an early age, birdwatching in Norfolk on visits to grandparents and has remained a passion. An active member of local birdwatching groups, other interests include walking (especially long distance paths), local history and watching football at Luton Town. A member of HMWT since the early 1980s, John has enjoyed making an active contribution to wildlife conservation since becoming a trustee in 2004.
Brenda Barrett – Company Secretary
Brenda Barrett is an emeritus professor at Middlesex University.She is a lawyer and her academic specialism is occupational health and safety which straddles employment and personal injury law.She is still actively involved with the University and has worked on two research projects this year.She is Company Secretary of both HMWT and HMWC and also serves on the Trust’s health and safety working group.
Tim Bell
Tim is a Chartered Surveyor with over 30 years experience in commercial property, most of which has been in advising pension funds on UK and international property investment. He took early retirement from F&C Asset Management in 2008, fortunately just prior to the collapse of the investment markets.
Tim is currently a Board Member of COIF, who operate a range of investment funds for Charities and a Trustee of the Hertfordshire Building Preservation Trust.
Tim is married to Sue and has two children, one at University studying landscape architecture and the other, recently graduated and looking for a job. He plays tennis and badminton and loves walking long distance trails.
Dr Agneta Burton
Dr Agneta Burton is a botanist who has lectured in environmental sciences at the University of Hertfordshire since 1991 after working on biological monitoring of the environment in Canada and at King’s College London. She has always had an interest in natural history generally but particularly in mosses and liverworts, enjoying bryological excursions, when time allows, in different parts of the country – especially in wetter mountainous areas.
At present she is actively involved in a project to encourage local communities in the East of England to take part in observing and recording biodiversity and hoping to persuade them to gain enthusiasm for looking at and learning to identify bryophytes (and lichens) in orchards. As a new Trustee she is looking forward to getting to know more of the reserves owned and managed by the Trust.
Clive Hinds
Clive Hinds is currently a partner with PriceWaterhouseCoopers now based in St Albans, having spent much of his career in London. Clive has acted as auditor to many businesses and charities over the years, and was for a while the auditor of the RSPB.
Clive is passionate about wildlife in general and has been a member of the HMWT and the RSPB for many years. A few years ago Clive was a Trustee and also Treasurer of HMWT but the pressures of the day job meant that he had to step down but now Clive is approaching retirement he is rejoining as a Trustee. Clive is also an active member of a local group trying to save Aldenham Country Park following the decision of Hertfordshire County Council to close the facility in the near future.
Paul Knutson
Paul grew up in Maryland, USA, worked his way to Europe after university, travelled, met a woman in London, and has lived in Northwood since 1972.
His career started in IT, in manufacturing, then project management, and then his own consultancy from1986 (to help people manage change successfully). Past achievements include 24 successful projects, Director at Thomson Holidays, Amersham International and AMED, Chair of Hillingdon CAB, main contributor to The Effective Director, (2001), Chris Pierce (ed.)
His wife Linda, 3 children, 6 grandchildren, gardening, tennis, walking, and so much of London fill Paul’s time, along with learning more about wildlife.
Douglas Smallwood
Douglas lives in Hertford. He is a regular visitor to Amwell which he describes as a beautiful place which has inspired him to want to make a contribution to the work of the Trust. He brings the experience of having been CEO of the national medical charity Diabetes UK 2004 to 2010. Amongst his other interests , Douglas is a non Executive director of the East and North Herts NHS Trust and Secretary of the South East Herts branch of the RSPB.
Andrew Woods
Andrew Woods is the finance director of a headhunting and coaching business based in Central London. After graduating with a degree in Biology at Birmingham University he trained as an accountant with Deloitte. He then held various finance and management roles before taking a career break in 2008. Having always had a passion for wildlife and conservation he used some of the break to work for a month as a volunteer on a wildlife reserve deep in the Amazonian rainforest. In 2009 he studied full-time at Capel Manor College for a BTEC qualification in Habitat Management as well as doing volunteer work for the HMWT Green Team and in Grebe House.
Andrew is delighted to join the board of Trustees and to be a member of the board of the trading and consultancy company. He is keen to make a valuable contribution at this challenging but exciting time for the Trust and for conservation generally.
Andrew is married to Jill and lives in Harpenden with their three children. He loves sailing, rock climbing, visits to the theatre and is currently training for his first scuba diving qualification.
Principal Staff: Jane Durney (Chief Executive), Dr Tom Day (Head of Living Landscapes), Tim Hill (Conservation Manager), Stephen Bound (Reserves Manager), Danielle Porteous (Marketing and Fundraising Manager), Chrissie Russell (Finance & Administration Manager)
The Trust publishes its annual review and accounts annually. Download our 2009/10 Annual Review.
