Background

Seconded from BirdLife International, I am supporting the development of an arts, science, and conservation programme for CCI.  After initially studying law, my early career included time as a research assistant on the Serengeti Lion Project, and as Africa Programme Officer for the International Council for Bird Preservation, which later became BirdLife International. From 1989, I was a member of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford, and completed a doctorate on coastal forest bird communities in Kenya. Since then I have worked on development programmes, and as Head of Policy and Advocacy for BirdLife, and currently lead a cross-cutting initiative on birds, culture and society.

With Terry Stevenson, I am co-author of a Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa, and have collaborated with Mark Cocker to edit and publish the diaries of JA Baker, celebrated author of The Peregrine and Hill of Summer. I have an MA in Art and Environment from University College Falmouth and, along with Mark Cocker, Jeremy Mynott, and Tim Birkhead, I am a founder member of New Networks for Nature.