Who we are

Julie Hill has had a career in environmental policy and politics, working primarily in the UK.  She is presently an inaugural Non-executive Board Member of England and Northern Ireland’s Office for Environmental Protection (OEP); Chair of the Institution of Environmental Sciences (IES) and Chair of the Advisory Committee for Social Science (ACSS) for the Food Standards Agency (FSA).  Former roles include Chair of the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), board member of the Eden Project, the Environment Agency (EA) and the Consumer Council for Water (CCW). She has written and presented widely, including a popular science book ‘The Secret Life of Stuff’. 

Malcolm Beatty is a Chartered Forester and Chartered Public Finance Accountant, and worked for many years in the Northern Ireland Civil Service, retiring from DAERA in 2018.   Amongst other posts in the agricultural sector Malcolm was Chief Executive and Accounting Officer of the Northern Ireland Forest Service, and the NI Chief Plant Health Officer.  In 2019 he was awarded an OBE for services to the environment in Northern Ireland.

Malcolm is a Trustee, Company Director and Honorary Treasurer of the Field Studies Council (FSC), a UK environmental and educational charity. He is a Trustee and Company Director of Centre Ministries, a faith charity operating in England and NI. Malcolm is also a school governor for St. Colman’s High School and Sixth Form College.
 

Professor Richard Macrory is currently an emeritus professor of environmental law at University College, London, where he set up and was first director of the Centre for Law and the Environment.

He has also practised as a barrister at Brick Court Chambers London. Professor Macrory served as a board member of the Environment Agency England and Wales between 1999 and 2004, and was a long-standing member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. He was the founding editor of the Journal of Environmental Law and was chairman of Merchant Ivory Film Productions between 1988 and 2004.

In 2006, Professor Macrory led the Cabinet Office Review on Regulatory Sanctions and his recommendations were reflected in Part 3 Regulatory Enforcement and Sanctions Act 2008.

Professor Macrory was the first chair of UK Environmental Law Association, and in 2016-2018 was co-chair of UKELA’s Brexit Task Force.
 

Professor Dan Laffoley is a scientist, communicator, explorer and marine biologist, with over three decades of experience in the UK, Europe and around the world.  He is a UK and international expert on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and conservation.

He is currently Marine Vice Chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s World Commission on Protected Areas responsible for global targets and guidance on ocean protection.

Prior to that he led the development and scale-up of the marine conservation work of Natural England and English Nature. He has been responsible for the creation of many global, European and UK public and private sector partnerships, alliances and frameworks that underpin modern-day marine conservation.

This work includes creating the concept behind Blue Carbon, scaling up knowledge and action on ocean warming, acidification and deoxygenation, scaling-up work on marine World Heritage and conservation of the High Seas, and various global guidance on implementing MPAs and marine spatial planning.