About Us

Our Trustees & Advisors

We are led by an enthusiastic and experienced Board of Trustees who are committed to helping EFN increase our impact at this critical time for people and the planet. We are also supported by two groups of passionate and dedicated advisors, who help us with our work to grow environmental philanthropy and our work in Scotland.

Board of Trustees

Chair of Trustees

Catherine Bryan

Catherine is Chair of the Environmental Funders Network and Co-Chair of Synchronicity Earth. She embraced her growing interest in the environment in 2014, moving from the finance sector into the environmental charity sector and continues to use her experience of strategy development and managing organisational growth in her trustee roles. She has a particular interest in shifting decision making in the finance sector to fully incorporate environmental impacts and inspired by her immersion in biodiversity conservation at Synchronicity Earth, and from many books and people she has met, she and her husband are rewilding a 1,500 acre upland farm.

Chair of the Finance and General Purposes Committee

Nick Addington

Nick is CEO of the William Grant Foundation, a grant-maker connected to one of Scotland’s leading family-owned businesses. Previously, he spent 11 years with Scotland’s community foundation, Foundation Scotland. He is an active member of funder networks in Scotland and the UK and is particularly interested in optimising the role of independent funding in enabling social and environmental change.

Richard Elliott

Richard is a co-founder of The Pickwell Foundation – a two-family charitable Foundation that is a longstanding member of EFN. The Foundation is linked to the founders’ group of businesses and social enterprise that are focused on addressing the climate emergency and supporting the resettlement of displaced people. Richard has a particular interest in grant funding to support policy, advocacy and legal strategies to raise UK ambition on addressing the climate emergency. He is currently completing an MSc in Climate Justice in which he has an emerging focus on the interface between climate change and human movement. Richard is a self-confessed politics geek and loves live music, books and pub quizzes.

Ashley Erdman

Ashley joins EFN with a background in social and environmental justice campaigning. She brings experience on a range of issues including challenging corporate power, food systems, right to water, international debt, gender, and climate justice. She is currently the Grants Manager at Farming the Future, a UK fund dedicated to supporting the movement for an agroecological approach to food and farming here in the UK. She is particularly interested in taking a holistic and systemic approach to creating change, understanding that everything connects and we are far more effective when we work together.

Fiona Napier

Fiona is a Senior Adviser with NatureFinance which seeks to align finance and economic systems with nature and equitable livelihoods. She is based in Nairobi. Fiona’s previous experience includes Nature Lead for the UN Climate Champions Team in Africa, International Advocacy Director with the Open Society Foundations, Associate Campaigns Director on Environmental Governance at Global Witness and Save the Children. Fiona is a trustee of the UK based Environmental Funders Network and the Lamu Environment Foundation in Kenya.

Hugh Mehta

Hugh is Director of Partnerships at the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), where he focuses on scaling philanthropy for climate change solutions. Over his career Hugh has guided partnerships for international conservation, health, and child rights organisations. He started at UNICEF-UK, before progressing to WWF-UK where he led corporate partnerships to raise funds, reach new audiences and reduce company impact on the environment. Prior to CIFF he managed a secretariat team, which brought together donors, countries, pharmaceuticals and NGOs to tackle neglected tropical diseases. Hugh lives in Brighton, where he is often found at the beach or on a boat.

Eva Rehse

Eva is Network and Ecosystems Director at WINGS, a global network of grantmaker associations and philanthropic support organisations. Throughout her career to date, Eva has worked in environmental and climate justice and human rights, including as inaugural Executive Director of Global Greengrants Fund UK, but her very first serious job was with the Scottish Biodiversity Forum, where she was part of creating Scotland’s first biodiversity strategy. Eva has an M.A. from Bonn University in Political Science and Sociology. She is a member of the Board of EDGE Funders Alliance, and the Alliance Magazine Editorial Advisory Board.

Co-founders & strategic advisors

Ben Goldsmith

Ben co-founded EFN in 2003 and founded and chairs the Conservation Collective. He is a trustee of the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation and chief executive of London-listed, green-focused investment trust Menhaden Resource Efficiency Plc. He chairs the UK Conservative Environment Network and was a non-executive director of the UK Government’s Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2018 to 2022.

Jon Cracknell

Jon has worked in social change philanthropy since the mid 1990s. He co-founded the Environmental Funders Network and ran the network for its first seven years, before serving for six years on the Management Board of the U.S. Environmental Grantmakers Association. He is currently a Board member of the Ariadne network of social change and human rights funders, and a steering group member for the European Environmental Funders Group. He is the Founder of The Hour Is Late.

Growing Environmental Philanthropy Advisors

Dahlia Dana

Dahlia is a finance professional, a trustee of the Design Museum, and co-founder of the museum’s Entrepreneurs Hub. Dahlia began her career as an investment manager at James Capel, which became part of HSBC Investment Management. She is passionate about design, its role in creating a sustainable future, and the importance of the creative economy to society.

Cindy Forde

Cindy is an author, activist and communications professional. She is the former CEO of the Cambridge Science Centre, and former Managing Director of the Blue Marine Foundation. Cindy founded Plantari in 2018, an education platform which aims to empower children with the knowledge and skills to be the innovators, entrepreneurs and global citizens who protect the planet.

Anna Guyer

Anna is the founder of Greenhouse PR, an award-winning communications agency entirely focused on accelerating the transition to a sustainable and green economy.Previously, Anna was a Board Director at Hill & Knowlton and Trustee of Transition Towns.

Rachel Harrington

Rachel has worked in the non-profit sector for over a decade and is a Director and specialist adviser at Coutts, the private bank. Rachel began her career in fundraising and now advises wealthy families on their strategies for philanthropy and wealth succession. She is also a trustee of Breaking Barriers and of the Coutts Foundation.

Becky Holmes

Becky is a philanthropist and conservationist. She is Trustee of her family’s grant-making foundation, The Helvellyn Foundation, which funds biodiversity-focused charities. She is also Deputy Head of Analysis at Langland Conservation, a charity that provides cutting-edge intelligence support to conservation organisations.

Nick Marple

Nick is the co-founder of Gower St and has been funding education projects and climate change work in the UK and Ghana for 15 years. Nick is a long-standing Impact Investor looking to invest in start-ups that can reduce our global carbon footprint and have a positive social impact.

Edward Mallinckrodt

Edward is an investment and business specialist, and a Partner at Coln Capital. He is co-founder of Oyster Partners, a digital media agency, and has held senior positions at companies including Mettoni, Root Capital Fund LP, and KnowledgePool Group. He is a trustee of the Mallinckrodt Foundation.

Arizona Muse

Arizona is one of the fashion sectors most highly regarded champions for sustainability. She has been a model for the past 13 years, engaging with brands such as Prada, YSL and Chanel. She launched her charity DIRT in 2021 and runs it herself. DIRT’s mission is to turn fashion into a climate solution by regenerating the soil in which our clothes are grown.

Bianca Pitt

Bianca Pitt is an advisor to the environmental charity sector, an activist and campaigner, and an environmental funder and founder. She is the Founder of the Women of the Environment Network and Co-Founder at SHE Changes Climate. She also serves on a number of boards and advisory committees which include ClientEarth, The Environmental Funders Network, The Sustainable Angle, Action for Conservation and the South Downs National Park Trust. She and her husband endowed the first Chair for Environmental Sustainability at INSEAD, one of the leading business schools. She is a Fellow of the RSA, author and speaker (TEDx, Women‘s Forum, FT Climate and Capital, ChangeNOW, BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour, France 24 etc). Bianca lives on a farm in West Sussex, which she and her family are turning into a regenerative venture together with some community farmers and where she enjoys spending as much time in nature as possible.

Jessica Sweidan

Jessica has been an active philanthropist for the last 20 years and co-founded Synchronicity Earth in 2009 with her husband Adam Sweidan. Jessica plays an active role at Synchronicity Earth, developing its profile, networks and events. Jessica is also an IUCN Patron of Nature, and an Honorary Conservation Fellow at the Zoological Society of London.

Hugh Raven

Hugh is an experienced grant-maker, having spent time as a trustee and Chair of the John Ellerman Foundation as well as Environment Advisor to the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. Hugh is Managing Director of his family’s business, Ardtornish. Hugh was previously on the board of Crown Estate Scotland and chair of the Marine Conservation Society. Currently, he chairs the Open Seas Trust and the Highlands and Islands Environment Foundation.

Scotland Advisors

Nick Addington

Rory Gordon

Following the publication of the Where the Green Grants Went Report, Rory and several others started the marine and freshwater group at the William Grant Foundation (WGF), with the focus to improve the health of Scotland's aquatic ecosystems. Rory has been a trustee with the WGF for seven years, during which time he also chaired the Natural and Built Environment group. Rory is passionate about connecting communities with their local natural environment.

Julie Hutchinson

Julie’s interest in the environment, philanthropy and grant-making is reflected in her range of cross sector activities. She is a former board member of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and currently the Technical Director for Philanthropy and Charities at LGT. Julie is a Visiting Professor in Governance and Innovation at Edinburgh Napier University.

Tom Murray

Tom is the Founder of Charityflow which advises philanthropists on maximising the impact of their giving. He is also Deacon of the Incorporation of Goldsmiths and the Purse Bearer to the Lord High Commissioner at Holyroodhouse. A Trustee of St Andrews Botanical Gardens and a director of Reasort Estates in the Outer Hebrides. Previously a solicitor specialising in Charity, Community and Trust law.

Hugh Raven

Celia Tennant

Celia is the Chief Executive at Inspiring Scotland. Celia is passionate about building a better Scotland. Inspiring Scotland is one of the largest Venture Philanthropy organisations in the world. Celia has a range of Non-Exec roles, including as Director of Entrepreneurial Scotland Foundation, a Trustee of Winning Scotland Foundation, she sits on The Child Poverty Programme Board, and the Governance Board of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit and the Environmental Funders Network Advisory Group.

Jobs & Opportunities

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