Who's Who
President
Andrew Marr is a journalist, broadcaster and political commentator. He began his career at the Scotsman in 1981 and until 2005 was Political Editor at BBC News. These days he is found hosting Sunday AM on BBC One and BBC Radio 4's Start the Week each Monday. Andrew is also remembered as Charles Darwin's champion in the BBC series of programmes that aimed to select the Greatest Briton.
Trustees
Richard Robinson (Chairman) is a lawyer who has been involved in numerous conservation organisations, in particular with the Wildlife Trusts. Richard was one of the founders of the London Wildlife Trust, and is interested in the development of eco-tourism in other parts of the world, learning from the experience of Galapagos.
Gill Green (Vice-Chair) works for the Audit Commission, mainly carrying out research. She has visited Galapagos twice. She was honorary treasurer of the London Wildlife Trust for 12 years and is especially interested in solutions which fit the needs of local people and wildlife. She is a trustee of the Norlands Foundation, which distributes funds from landfill tax credits.
Rebecca Bower (Honorary Treasurer) trained with Touche Ross & Co and is a qualified Chartered Accountant. She spent four years working in the head office of Bowater Industries before joining the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in 1987, where she is now Head of Finance.
Matthew Simkins (Honorary Company Secretary) first degree was in cell & molecular biology, and he has had a life-long interest in evolution and genetics. He first travelled to the Galapagos in 1996 and has been a member of GCT ever since. Matthew is an accountant, and practises as an Interim Turnaround Professional specialising in the Charity and SME sectors. He is a visiting lecturer on the faculty of the CASS business school in London, where he lectures on their charity courses.
Sally Benthall was a director of an international manufacturing company before joining WWF-UK, where she became Head of Publishing in the Education & Development Department. With a longstanding interest in botany and eco-tourism, she has visited Galapagos several times and has worked with GCT since its foundation.
Mark Collins is Director of the Commonwealth Foundation, an intergovernmental organisation supporting NGOs in the developing world. Earlier posts include UNEP Nairobi, and the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge. A biologist with a PhD in tropical ecology, Mark has edited or written 11 books and published more than 120 papers. He has served on Boards and/or committees of the Total Foundation, RGS, FFI, Wildscreen and the Darwin Initiative Advisory Committee and was awarded the RGS Busk Medal in 2000.
Terry Dawson is a Professor in the School of Geography, University of Southampton. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, his earlier career included academic positions at the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh. His research activities are in conservation and ecology, with a specific interest in island biogeography and climate change. He has been involved in both marine and terrestrial research projects in the Galapagos islands since his first visit in 1992 and has published over 120 scientific papers in books, journals, reports and proceedings.
Svetlana Kirov has worked as a fundraiser for over 13 years, within organisations such as Save the Children, Scope and The Prince's Trust. Svetlana is interested in building on the success of current fundraising activities at GCT and working with the team to achieve significant growth.
Sven Lorenz is CEO of ARBB AG, a publicly listed financial services firm in Switzerland. Additionally, he is a major co-owner of one of the leading independent asset management firms in Germany. Sven privately raised the funds to start and operate the Culinary School in Puerto Ayora, a vocational training facility aimed at providing job training for young residents of the Galapagos. Sven frequently travels to Galapagos and he serves as a bridge between European donors and the islands. He joined GCT to help develop new fundraising ideas during these crucial years for Galapagos.
Robert Silbermann spent 25 years in the private sector, with roles in strategy, finance and general management. For the past 11 years he has been working with not-for profit organisations as an interim director, as well as undertaking projects of a strategic nature. He has been a friend of the GCT since visiting the Galapagos.
Edmund Truell is currently the CEO and founder of Pension Corporation (PC). PC provides pension insurance, or sells bulk annuities to UK defined benefit pension schemes. PC is also the corporate sponsor of schemes totalling nearly £5bn of assets. Edmund has 22 years experience in private equity and debt market. He led the 1998 buyout and formation of Duke Street Capital. In 2000 he created Duke Street Capital Debt Management, one of Europe's largest and most successful CDO managers, which was sold to Babson Capital in 2004. Edmund was Chairman of the British Venture Capital Association 2001-2002.
Anne Weyman OBE was a senior manager in the not-for-profit sector for over thirty years. Currently, she is a member of the General Medical Council, a Non-Executive Director of a Primary Care Trust and a Trustee of the Family and Parenting Institute. She has degrees in Physics and Sociology and is a Chartered Accountant. She visited the Galapagos in January 2009. Being completely enthralled by their magic, she joined GCT.
Ambassadors
Janet Barber works as an Environmental Management Consultant. She is a Trustee of Forum for the Future and has been a council member of English Nature. She worked for WWF-UK for many years, where she was Director of Programmes, and was a founder member of the government's Darwin Initiative Committee.
Sir James Barlow, Bt. is a graduate engineer from Manchester University, and is now working for Bell Canada. He is a keen ornithologist and conservationist, following in the footsteps of his late father, Sir Thomas Barlow, who was a leading light in the Charles Darwin Foundation, and was also a Vice President of GCT. Sir James is a great great grandson of Charles Darwin.
Angela Darwin is a great great granddaughter of Charles Darwin's friend and supporter, Thomas Henry Huxley, while her late husband George was a great grandson of Charles Darwin. For almost 20 years she has been a Magistrate in London sitting in both the Adult and Family Courts. She is currently working on the correspondence between T. H. Huxley and his wife, which is to be published by the University of Chicago Press.
Sarah Darwin PhD is an artist and botanist who first visited Galapagos in 1995 to prepare illustrations for a field guide to the Islands. More recently she has undertaken a scientific research project on the endemic and introduced Galapagos tomatoes. Sarah is a great great grandchild of Charles Darwin and lives in London, where she is based at the Natural History Museum and University College, London.
Julian Fitter lived in Galapagos from 1964 to 1979. A committed conservationist, he was one of the founders and first Chairman of GCT in 1995. He is also a founder Trustee of Falklands Conservation and has recently established Friends of Galapagos New Zealand. He is the author of the Collins Traveller Guide to the 'Wildlife of Galapagos'. His son Daniel is a photographer and lives in Galapagos where he leads tours around the Islands as well as in mainland Ecuador.
Randal Keynes is Charles Darwin's great-great-grandson and a member of the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos. He is the author of the much praised "Darwin, His Daughter and Human Evolution", an exploration of family life in the Darwin household, the effect on Darwin of the death of his ten-year-old daughter Annie, and his thinking about the origins of human nature. Randal found Annie's writing case when he was sorting through family documents. In it were Darwin's daily notes on her illness which show in haunting detail how he cared for her in the months before she died. Randal is also a great nephew of the economist John Maynard Keynes.
Professor Richard Keynes CBE, Sc.D., FRS, is a great grandson of Charles Darwin. He is an Emeritus Professor of Physiology in Cambridge University. He has edited or written the following books about Darwin: The Beagle Record (Cambridge University Press, 1979); Charles Darwin's Beagle Diary (Cambridge University Press, 1988); Charles Darwin's Zoology Notes & Specimen Lists from H.M.S. Beagle (Cambridge University Press, 2000); Fossils, Finches and Fuegians. Charles Darwin's Adventures and Discoveries on the Beagle, 1832-1836. (Harper Collins, 2002).
Dorothy Latsis has lived in Geneva since 1979. She is President of the Fondation Philanthropique Orthodoxe and has established charities to support conservation of the library of St Catherine's Monastery, Sinai. She is a board member of the International School of Geneva.
Godfrey Merlen is British and has lived in Galapagos for more than 25 years. He has worked as a naturalist guide, as a facilitator for visiting scientists, as a delivery skipper of boats for the Charles Darwin Research Station, and much else besides. He is a skilled artist, and has illustrated a field guide to the fishes of the islands. In 1999 the Charles Darwin Foundation published his account of the decline and recovery of the Galapagos giant tortoises.
Henry Nicholls is a freelance science journalist specialising in evolutionary biology, the environment, conservation and history of science. Henry's first book Lonesome George: The Life and Loves of a Conservation Icon was published by Macmillan Science in April 2006, was longlisted for the 2006 Guardian First Book Award and shortlisted for the Royal Society's prestigious General Book Prize. Henry is editor of GCT's Galapagos News
Nigel Sitwell was Chairman of GCT from 1997 - 2006. He was editor and publisher of the magazine Wildlife for 17 years and worked for WWF-UK as Director of Information. He has served on the Council of the Zoological Society of London and was a long-time Trustee of Survival International. He was awarded the Order of the Golden Ark for services to nature conservation.
Jennifer Stone has a background in journalism, public relations, and environmental work. She has lived in France since 1973. She was a founder trustee of the Galapagos Conservation Trust, is a board member of the Swiss Friends of Galapagos, the Friends of the International School of Geneva and of the St Catherine's Foundation, and is a member of the General Assembly of the Charles Darwin Foundation.
Professor Ian Swingland OBE, PhD DSc is Emeritus Professor of Conservation Biology at Kent University and Founder of The Durrell Institute (DICE). He is variously Chair, Member or Trustee of national and international bodies, and a leading authority on biodiversity conservation, commercialising biodiversity assets and sustainable land use. He has created and funded eight academic, not-for-profit or commercial institutions which have significant revenues. He worked on population ecology, frequency dependent selection and environmental sex determination in the Aldabra giant tortoise from 1974 -79 after managing the Kafue National Park Zambia and a former GCT Trustee and visited Galapagos many times.
Honorary Galapagos Ambassadors
(this page is currently being updated)
Staff
Chief Executive
Toni Darton
toni@gct.org
Please contact Toni if you have any questions, queries or comments about the GCT's current activities and plans for the future. Also, for queries on projects supported.
Events and Fundraising Manager
Abigail Rowley
abigail@gct.org
Please contact Abigail for any questions or comments about events, fundraising or corporate membership.
Membership Manager
Kate Green
kate@gct.org
Please contact Kate for any questions or comments about membership, junior membership or volunteering opportunities in the GCT office.
Office Administrator (& PA to the Chief Executive)
Wendy Turner
wendy@gct.org
Please contact Wendy regarding any GCT office management or administrative matters.
Acting Press and Information Manager
Jonathan Rush
jonathan@gct.org or 07798 812253
Please contact Jonathan for press enquiries and with any questions or comments about the GCT website or monthly email newsletters.