People

Steve is a world-renowned adventurer, naturalist, writer and television presenter. You may have seen him on BBC TV shows such as Big Blue Live, Deadly 60, and Lost Land of the Volcano. In 2010 he became President of BBOWT because of his passion for local wildlife, and enthusiasm for more children to be intrigued and inspired by nature. 

Watch Steve introduce you to BBOWT.

George Levvy was appointed Chair of the Board of Trustees at BBOWT in 2021. He brings experience of senior management and governance, both as a practitioner and consultant, and is the Chair of the Board at Rewilding Britain. George started his career as a junior hospital doctor and has held several senior roles including at the British Red Cross and Chief Executive at the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

George is married with two adult children. He is passionate about rewilding and in his spare time enjoys playing tennis, singing, walking and painting.

Estelle joined BBOWT as Chief Executive in January 2014. She has worked for The Wildlife Trusts movement for over 25 years. Working closely with the Board of Trustees and Directors, Estelle is responsible for the strategic leadership and direction of the Trust to deliver a wilder Berks, Bucks & Oxon that both restores nature at a significant scale and reconnects people to nature. Estelle believes that a healthy, wildlife-rich natural world is valuable in its own right and is also the foundation of our wellbeing and prosperity; we depend on it and it depends on us.

Estelle is a keen ornithologist, with a lifelong passion for wildlife. She is a keen gardener, has an allotment and enjoys taking on restoration projects of various description!

To contact Estelle, please email info@bbowt.org.uk.

Prue Addison started in April 2019 as Conversation Strategy Director. Her work on the research and implementation of conservation solutions has taken her from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, to the wonderful floodplain meadows in Oxfordshire. Prue is really proud of leading the design of BBOWT’s first habitat bank. Over four years the team has developed the skills and expertise needed to be one of the first Wildlife Trust habitat bank providers in the UK.

In her spare time, Prue likes to keep active walking in the countryside – especially through floodplain meadows at their peak in summer. She also enjoys doing yoga and swimming, as well as learning Portuguese.

Matthew Stanton is the Conservation Strategy Director as maternity cover for Prue Addison, having been Head of Planning, Policy & Advocacy since January 2019. After working as a solicitor in London for nearly 10 years, Matthew joined WWF-UK to lead their legal advocacy work, focusing on pressing for new environmental legislation in Westminster. During that time, he was also chair of the Wildlife & Countryside Link Legal Strategy Group. He loves being part of a team that protects our local nature and connects people with wildlife on their own doorstep.

Matthew enjoys long distance running, playing football with his two sons and watching the badgers in his garden.

Helen joined BBOWT in July 2023. She has over 23 years experience of working in finance; in accountancy practice, manufacturing, and Head of Finance for a group of Prep Schools. She loves getting organisations working collaboratively.

In her spare time, Helen loves birdwatching and enjoys nothing more than going for a walk with her binoculars to see what she can find. She also enjoys cooking, running and cycling. A favourite destination on her bike is the Netherlands, cycling around the tulip fields.

Becky Hall started working at BBOWT in September 2019 as People Director. She is passionate about both people and nature so this was the dream job to bring the two together. This is Becky’s first role in the charity sector; her previous 20 years’ experience has been in operations and HR within retail and hospitality. Her proudest moment so far has been transforming the culture within BBOWT to becoming a truly great place to work.

Becky loves being outside in nature, preferably in the sunshine and most of her time outside of work is spent with her two young energetic boys and husband either on the football pitch side lines, exploring nature trails and socialising with friends and family. She is also a keen cook and foodie and loves to grow veggies in her garden.

Karen Hartshorn started in January 2021 as Fundraising, Communications & Marketing Director after 10+ years in similar roles in educational charities. Karen joined BBOWT as she wanted to be part of an organisation with nature at its heart, working to connect everyone with wildlife on their doorsteps. She likes to use her skills in charity leadership, science communications and strategy to make our goal of ‘more nature everywhere, for everyone’ a reality.

Karen loves being outside, particularly walking sections of long-distance pathways – both coastal and inland. She also sings in Reading Phoenix Choir, enjoys food and cooking, anything to do with rowing, and spending time with her teenage son.

Steve Proud has been the Director of Land Management & Ecology since June 2021. He brings 20 years’ experience in practical conservation land management and farming to BBOWT’s land holding. Steve has been lucky enough to have some amazing opportunities in his career so far. Starting with being a National Trust Ranger on Exmoor then moving to Surrey Wildlife Trust to manage a rewilding project, reintroducing Red Deer to 2000 acres of MOD owned lowland heathland.

Steve loves seeing large mammals in the wild and enjoys cricket and fly fishing in his spare time. He currently lives in Surrey with his wife and two daughters.

Liz Shearer has worked with BBOWT since June 2015 and has had several different roles. She became Director of Community Engagement in January 2021. Liz is really interested in the impact of nature on people and how it improves so many facets of our wellbeing. She has worked in the public sector and charities for over twenty years, working with a variety of audiences, including those living in rural counties and London’s East End.

Liz grew up in a farming family, so was always outdoors from being very young, which probably sparked her interest in nature. Her favourite wildlife spectacle is a starling murmuration. Liz loves to spend as much time outdoors as possible, either walking or just reading in the garden.

Andrew Inkley started at BBOWT in October 2019 as Lead Facilities Manager and was promoted to Head of Commercial Estate in February 2023. Having worked in the outdoor trade for 30 years, Andrew wanted a new challenge and somewhere he could make a difference and BBOWT with its amazing nature reserves was the perfect fit. Previously he has worked for an independent outdoor specialist, managing one of the stores and ended up running the business.

Andrew is currently a Group Scout Leader with the Scout Association and loves being outside. He is married with three sons and a grandchild and in his spare time works as a volunteer within scouting.

Rachel Levis joined BBOWT in January 2022 as the Head of Membership & Events. Prior to BBOWT she worked for the British Heart Foundation and at a marketing agency, which solely had charity clients. Having grown up in Oxford, Rachel has known about BBOWT for a long time and always had thoughts of wanting to work here in the future. Nature is in crisis and so this decade felt like the right time for her to join.

Outside of work, her two young daughters, rescue cat and puppy keep her very busy. However, when she does find some time to herself she enjoys running and walking and has a fascination with beavers and would love to see them reintroduced to our region.

Debbie Lewis started working at BBOWT in 2002. She has held several roles between then and now and was promoted to Head of Ecology in November 2020. Debbie has had many highlights during her time at BBOWT including establishing the Trust’s monitoring programme and helping other organisations to do the same, radio tracking adders, working with some amazing dedicated volunteers and seeing a myriad of different species, from monkey orchids to southern damselflies, curlews and dormice.

Debbie is proud to be helping improve the fortunes for wildlife across our nature reserves, collecting data to help inform national datasets for perpetuity. She enjoys eating cake, cycling and knitting in between wildlife spotting.

Charlotte Newberry joined BBOWT in March 2022 as Head of Landscape Recovery. She wanted to be part of an organisation not only advocating but enacting change, to enable nature recovery in the local area. Charlotte has over 13 years’ experience in the environmental sector starting in marine consultancy and more recently working for local government, leading on development plans for country parks, balancing nature and recreation pressure.

Charlotte enjoys countryside walks and exploring new places, as well as heading to music gigs and festivals. Her nature highlight is watching kingfishers darting into rivers.

Laura Pepper started at BBOWT in June 2016 as Head of Fundraising and moved to Head of Philanthropy in March 2021. She has over 22 years’ experience of working in conservation fundraising at a senior level. Over Laura’s career, she has helped raise over £15 million for conservation causes; helping save several historic houses, five miles of the White Cliffs of Dover, several nature reserves and helping BBOWT secure its biggest ever conservation grant of £2 million pounds.

In her spare time, Laura writes climate fiction for children and is about to publish her second novel.

Rachel Powell has been Head of Finance at BBOWT since 2008. She previously worked at WWF-UK for ten years and used to wish they did more work in the UK that she could relate to, so working for  BBOWT fulfilled that wish.

Rachel is obsessed with birdwatching, staring into her garden ponds, spending time in her large messy wildlife garden and with her two lovely cats. She won’t go anywhere without her binoculars and loves trying to remember the Latin names for birds.

Laura started her journey with BBOWT in April 2024 as Head of Volunteering and has worked for over 20 years across the golf industry including at England Golf as Head of Training & Education. One of her proudest achievements was being invited to the Club Managers World Conference, to showcase the amazing impact volunteers were having in changing the culture within golf.

More recently whilst bringing up a family, Laura changed careers to become a Forest School Leader, working with schools and nurseries to deliver nature connection programmes. Laura loves spending time with her family going on adventures in the great outdoors, from minibeast hunting to canoeing on the river.

Kate has worked in the Communications team at the Trust since 2014, becoming Head of Communications and Media in 2024. She began her career working on lifestyle magazines but after a year out to study for a Masters in wildlife conservation moved into the environmental sector. She loves sharing all the amazing work that BBOWT does with our supporters and using our communications to help raise funds, encourage people to take action for nature locally and show how restoring nature can play a role in tackling the climate crisis.

Outside work, Kate enjoys countryside walks, swimming and exploring new areas. She tries to fit in some local practical conservation volunteering and is also Tower Captain for a band of bellringers.

Andree joined BBOWT in 2019 as Learning Manager (West) and has over ten years of experience in environmental education. She currently oversees learning provision across centres in Oxfordshire and West Berkshire. She has worked for national and local conservation charities, always in an environmental education capacity.

Andree grew up in Canada where she was lucky to visit some fantastic wild spaces. She passionately believes that ready access to nature should be a universal right for everybody. Her positive childhood experiences continue to motivate her to share the joy of nature with those around her in hopes of encouraging everyone to help protect local wildlife. She lives with her husband and daughter near Thame and enjoys walking, lake swimming and practising the (rapidly disappearing) French she spoke as a child.

Kathryn joined BBOWT as Trusts and Grants Manager in November 2023. She has 20+ years of experience in finance roles, supporting organisations to improve cost recovery and manage efficiency.

Wanting to work in the world of wildlife conservation for a long time, Kathryn was keen to bring her experience and enthusiasm to the Trust. With a love of the outdoors, she likes to garden and has an affection for bees, wildflower meadows and trees.

Nicola Harvey joined BBOWT in July 2014 as People Business Partner. She has over 20 years’ experience within HR, and has worked across a range of national and local government organisations, and educational settings. With children of her own, Nicola wanted to be part of creating nature-based memories for the next generation. She is very proud of launching BBOWT’s Equality, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion plan, as part of our journey to become a more diverse organisation.

Nicola is very active and sporty with her family and will always try to combine a sporting venue with a walk or a catch-up with friends and family.

Tom Hayward has been Senior Land Manager for Berkshire since June 2019. He started his career working as a conservation volunteer, and has worked within the Wildlife Trust movement for over 10 years. Tom has experience restoring and managing a range of lowland habitats, including working on common land. He is a Floodplain Meadows Ambassador, and sits on the Council of Partners for the North Wessex Downs AONB. Despite being dyslexic, Tom is proud of his vocational and academic achievements to date.

Outside of work, Tom spends most of his free time with his wife and two small children, exploring the North Wessex Downs. Having played drums for many years he also loves listening to and playing loud music, playing board games and also painting goblins.

Lynn Hughes started at BBOWT in September 2011 as Learning Manager (East) and has 25 years’ experience in teaching and outdoor education. BBOWT is one of the only conservation organisations in our area that delivers excellent, onsite education provision and Lynn has had the opportunity to set up three of BBOWT’s five made-for-purpose education centres, enabling her to include her ethos and ideas from the start, a dream for an environmental educator.

Lynn was born in Wrexham (Cymru am byth!) and her family are all originally from Liverpool so she’s a massive fan of both football teams. She lived in Malawi for two years and is hugely passionate about that country, its people and wildlife.

Lou, who joined BBOWT in 2013, is a Business Partner within the People Team.

Originally from New Zealand, Lou lives near Newbury with her husband and two children. During her leisure time, she finds joy in gardening, puzzles, reading and dog walking.   

With a love of the outdoors, Lou can usually be found exploring the outdoors through hiking and immersing herself in nature.

Roger first volunteered for BBOWT during his Wildlife Management and Conservation MSc back in 2003 and a year later was a full-time BBOWT volunteer. In 2005, he secured his first paid conservation role at Warburg Nature Reserve. Since then, almost his entire career has been at BBOWT. He is very proud to have had roles working in all three counties; first in Oxfordshire at Warburg, then to Bucks as Reserves Officer. From 2010-2017 Roger was Project Officer on the West Berkshire Living Landscape scheme and following that Land Manager in West Berkshire. In 2024 he came full circle back to Oxfordshire as Senior Land Manager.

During that time he has built up experience managing a wide range of habitats including woodland, heathland, reedbed, fen and species-rich grassland. He’s been a keen moth surveyor for 13 years and also enjoys a spot of bird watching in his spare time.

Mark has been with the Trust since 2005 as a Reserves Officer and has progressed through the organisation to his current role as Senior Land Manager (Bucks). Having come from a farming family and growing up on a farm in Twyford in North Bucks, Mark has always been interested in nature and the natural world around him.

Mark originally spent a year as a trainee reserves officer for BBOWT 20 years ago, which inspired him to choose to pursue a career in nature conservation. Mark particularly enjoys being involved in the acquisition of great nature reserves such as Yoesden Bank and overseeing projects around the Upper Ray Meadows and Dancersend. He is a keen gardener and vegetable grower and enjoys outdoor walking and cycling.