Meet our team
The trust currently employs a team of more than 70 staff, who collectively have a diverse breadth of experience and high-level expertise. It is in the wealth of knowledge and experience of the trust staff where our real strength lies.Leadership Team
Laurence specialises in the ecosystems approach. He is passionate about joining up delivery to achieve integrated catchment management, where what society needs from our land is holistically considered.
Bruce has spent many years restoring the rivers of the Westcountry. He works to make our rivers a better place for fish to live in, and for people to enjoy, while supporting the charity in its operational activity.
Kasia manages the trust’s HR and is involved in recruitment and staff support. This includes policies, data, interviews, inductions and the ongoing delivery of the HR system and functions.
Sarah is responsible for managing all financial aspects of the Trust. Her expertise helps drive efficient resource allocation, ensuring the financial sustainability and transparency of the charity.
Support Team
Victoria is responsible for maintaining, collating and submitting project claims, reviewing budgets, processing expenses, salary reconciliations and supporting the Director of Finance. She also oversees general office management.
Kerensa maintains project finances, EU-funded claims, and trust assets. She is fluent in German and Russian with an understanding of French and Spanish.
Steve oversees H&S queries and concerns, co-ordinating training, volunteer safety and accident reporting. He enjoys surfing, paddleboarding, cycling, and travelling.
Georgia works as part of the finance team. Working alongside Victoria and Kerensa to process project specific claims and expenses.
Charlotte is a member of the Finance team, maintaining and providing support for the Trust’s timesheet software. She also helps to maintain, collate and process project funding claims.
Emily oversees our reception and day-to-day office admin and supports the finance and asset teams. She is an amateur beekeeper, enjoys cycling and paddle boarding.
Liz works alongside the Head of Resources to aid with staff support within the Trust. She manages recruitment, onboarding and induction of new employees, as well as maintaining the Trust’s HR platform.
Suzy is our Finance Manager, supporting our Head of Finance she helps to ensure all financial deadlines are met, manages project budgets, and processes the payroll.
Comms & Marketing team
Josie leads the C&M team and is responsible for devising and implementing the trust’s C&M strategies and plans. With a background in photography and journalism, she oversees visual and written communications, press activity and fundraising opportunities.
Ella has experience in environment-related comms and marketing and supports project campaigns and social media. Alongside trust-wide comms, Ella works to deliver communications for a wide array of WRT projects.
Fisheries & Rivers Team
Olivia joined the Trust in 2011 to conduct fisheries habitat walkover surveys on the River Teign, in which over 100km of the river catchment was surveyed. Since then, Olivia has managed several river restoration projects, fish pass projects and monitoring across South Devon and Dorset, including a large Catchment Restoration Fund project, DTRIP.
Adrian is primarily involved in managing fish pass installations. He has a keen interest in all river-ologies and the technical delivery of long-term sustainable improvements to rivers and catchments.
Ben is the River Operations Team manager, using his background in environmental science and arboriculture to deliver a wide range of river habitat works across river catchments.
Sam is involved in both the fisheries and operations team, working on a wide array of projects including habitat works, weir removals and studies such as electrofishing and trapping. He is particularly interested in migratory species and the challenges they face.
Craig assists with river and habitat surveys, semi and fully quantitative electrofishing surveys and SNIFFER surveys of weirs. He helps with data analysis, produces GIS maps and creates reports for projects. He works closely with the River Ops team on riparian and river habitat restoration and improvments.
Layla has worked with the Trust since 2011, managing and delivering river restoration projects across Devon and Cornwall. Her background and interest lies in conservation biology and ecology; this supports her role conducting ecological impact assessments and delivering fish passage improvements across the Fowey and Camel catchments for the Water For Growth project.
James is responsible for delivering the Fish Pass app as part of the Water For Growth project. He grew up fishing in Westcountry rivers and reservoirs, spending much of his time at his grandparents’ trout fishery. This fostered his interest in ecosystems and habitat management.
Mia has worked with the Trust since 2018 and she has interests in wild fisheries management and public education. In her role, she primarily assists and leads in a variety of fishery focused surveys. Mia also works to identify, assist and manage river habitat and fisheries improvement projects.
Tom joined the Trust in 2023, taking on the role of SEW project officer. Tom’s role is primarily focussed within the River Exe catchment, working to improve fish migration and passage both upstream and downstream for species such as salmon and trout.
Polly is an aquatic consultant with extensive experience of both marine and freshwater ecological surveys, specialising in fisheries and the ecology of the European Eel (Anguilla angilla). She is also a Research Fellow at Exeter University, working towards developing a non-lethal method to sex adult eels for the managent of the fishery.
Henry is the Programme Supervisor for the Operations Team. Drawing on his experience in land management, he supports the Team Manager in delivering and coordinating river habitat work, including natural flood management across a wide range of projects.
Nick is the Trust’s Woodland Officer. His primary role is to support landowners and managers in woodland creation projects. He has a keen interest in botany, recently achieving a FISC level 4 qualification.
David works as a River Woodland Officer and has a background in aquatic conservation and land management. He brings this knowledge with him into his role delivering a variety of river enhancement projects.
Katy comes from a background in wildlife ecology and conservation science, with previous experience as a scuba divemaster, ecological surveying and habitat management. Katy’s role at WRT encompasses collecting and reporting data, report writing and assisting in ecological surveying; helping to improve and protect the rivers and wildlife to thrive.
George leads the Operations Team in the delivery and implementation of a wide range of habitat works. After training as an arborist and completing an apprenticeship in arboriculture, George has further developed his knowledge by recently completing a Level 4 Qualification in Forestry & Arboriculture.
Fergus works with the River Ops team as an Arboricultural Apprentice. He has a background in conservation biology and he brings this with him into his work on restoring river habitats and surveys.
Freddie works as part of the River Ops team as an Arboricultural Apprentice, undertaking works such as riparian tree works, habitat creation and surveying. Alongside his day to day work, as an apprentice, Freddie is undertaking a qualification in Forestry and Arboriculture.
Alex is one of WRT’s Arboriculture Apprentices. He works as part of the River Ops team supporting their works delivering tree work, in-river habitat works and tree planting. He has a background in working with volunteers in York to restore habitats in the city.
Hannah works within the River and Fisheries team assisting in ecological surveys and data analysis , whilst studying for the IFM diploma in fisheries management. She comes from a background in Environmental Science and uses this knowledge to help improve and protect rivers through her work.
Eva is a recent graduate in Ecology, Conservation and Environment with a keen interest in sustainable fisheries management. As well as undertaking a diploma with the Institute of Fisheries Management (IFM), she will be shadowing and supporting WRT teams to deliver all manner of Fisheries based outputs including surveys and habitat management/restoration.
Evidence & Engagement Team
Nicola has a background in environmental chemistry and microbiology. Her main interests lie in water quality and freshwater toxicology. She is an experienced strategic project manager focused on delivering evidence-based environmental improvements and outcomes.
Doug is a Senior Project Manager in the Evidence & Engagement Team and has an environmental background. Prior to joining the charity, Doug worked as a Countryside Manager for the National Trust. Doug is helping to oversee several projects, such as Rapid Response Catchments.
Ian is an organic/analytical chemist. He joined the Trust in 2019 after a long career in the water industry where he specialised in the monitoring of trace organic micro-pollutants and provided background chemical expertise. His role at the Trust helps to deliver monitoring data needed to support a range of projects.
Holly specialises in water quality monitoring and environmental data analysis. She assists the team both in reporting on the effectiveness of interventions and targeting areas of improvement.
Sarah’s background is across the environmental and social sciences and urban water engineering. She/they works on projects connected to water resilient communities, as well as on cross-cutting themes such as Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity.
Sarah specialises in the use of GIS to analyse and display spatial datasets (e.g. fish populations, habitat types and water quality) in order to monitor the health of river systems and identify areas of improvement.
Jenny’s background is in ecological consultancy and green infrastucture. Within the trust, she is Project Officer for the Plymouth River Keepers (PRK) project based in north-west Plymouth, in the Tamar Management Catchment.
Frank specialises in spatial analysis and mapping using GIS and in environmental data analysis and visualisation using the statistical programming software R.
Freya’s background is in environmental consultancy and interpretation planning. She is the Project manager for Water Net Gain. This project researches new ways to support farmers to bolster drought affected water supplies and ease associated river health pressures.
Emily’s background is in wildlife conservation. At the trust, Emily works on a variety of projects including biodiversity analysis for the Upstream Thinking project. Emily is also involved with collating and presenting data for evidence reviews and undertaking opportunity mapping.
Helen has a background is in Marine Science and Education, with 16 years’ experience as a Secondary Science Teacher. Helen’s work focuses predominantly on stakeholder and community engagement for the Rapid Response Catchments project and on educational delivery.
Anna helps to facilitate the local stakeholder partnerships as well as working to engage the public with the work the Trust does. She also assists with the delivery of educational projects.
Land Management Team
Giles focuses on delivering ecosystem service programmes by utilising experience in catchment scale water quality and fisheries enhancements. Giles seeks to raise awareness and increase investment in advice and interventions such as nature based solutions to improve our rivers for all.
Annabel is the Senior Project Manager for Upstream Thinking. She previously worked on the project as a farm advisor. Her role focuses on reducing pollution, improving soil health, and increasing biodiversity, while supporting working relationships with the region’s farming communities.
Ross has worked for the trust as a Farm Advisor since 2002 and specialises in delivering cost-beneficial solutions to watercourse protection and best-practice advice on farms across the Westcountry.
Martin has worked in the Rivers Trust movement for over 20 years, in all aspects of catchment management. He has a wide experience of farming, forestry, fisheries and natural flood management.
Yog has considerable experience in engaging and delivering advice to farmers through one-to-one visits, developing whole farm plans, running farming workshops and presentations to wider stakeholders including private companies, community interest groups and students
Simon started working as a senior farm advisor in 2022, taking the lead in the Tamar catchment where he gives advice to landowners and farmer on how UST3 can help their business. Having lived and worked within the agricultural industry of the Tamar Valley all his life, Simon has an affinity with the area and the people who earn a living from the land.
Originally from a beef and sheep farm in Stoke Climsland, James has 19 years’ experience of farm management of arable, grassland and college farms, including a significant amount of practical experience.
John is a Senior Natural Capital Advisor specialising in farm advice to deliver nature-based solutions. With a background in agricultural research, he has interests in soil health, manure and slurry management, and integrated farm management. He also has expertise in nutrient management planning and crop protection.
James is involved in the Channel Payments for Ecosystem Services programme, working with land managers to improve water quality, with win-win outcomes for farmers, businesses, the environment and society.
Wendy works on the Dart and Otter catchments and has a background in agri-environment advice alongside a variety of practical farming experience. She is passionate about facilitating nature-based solutions through collaborations with local farmers.
Rafael oversees the delivery of the Upstream Thinking Project for the Tavy, Upper Lyd, Lew and Dart catchments. His background is in environmental biology, community-based forestry and agroforestry. Rafael is currently conducting a PhD in Ecology and Agri-environmental research within the University of Reading.
Karen joined WRT in 2023 as a Farm Advisor in the Tamar, Tavy & Dart catchments. She has an interest in helping farmers improve their farm’s resilience by advising them on how to access grants, support and information that can benefit the farm business and lead to increasing environmental benefits.
Emily is a Natural Capital Project Manager. Building on her experience managing interdisciplinary scientific research projects such as environmental economics, social science and ecosystem services, Emily is keen to use her knowledge and experience in an applied setting. She is responsible for coordinating the TransformAR project, and establishing local nutrient neutrality projects in the Axe and Camel catchments.
Zoë support both the land and rivers teams in delivering nature-based solutions across different catchments. Her background is in landscape architecture, environmental management and arboriculture. She believes the work of the Trust should help our landscapes to become healthier and even more multifunctional.
Mel is the project administrator for Upstream Thinking 3 and the Green Recovery Project for the Tavy Catchment. She has a varied background including scientific research in earth sciences and environmental change, council and project administration and strong family links with farming.
Jay started working as a Junior Natural Capital Advisor in 2022 after completing her studies at Cardiff University in Environmental Geoscience. Her role involves supporting the UST 3 team with impact project monitoring; including water quality testing, soil sampling and mapping.
Rachel supports the UST 3 team to provide interventions across the catchment, including nature-based solutions and infrastructural improvements, with the aim of improving water quality and biodiversity outcomes. Rachel has a background is in Wildlife Conservation and Ecology with an MSc in Environmental Economics and Environmental Management.
George supports the land and rivers teams on various projects and is currently working on nature-based solutions. He has knowledge and experience of farming and environmental practices that he brings with him in this role.
Hear from some of our team, past and present, in this short 2019 film.