EFN Staff

Florence Miller, Director

Florence is Director of EFN, where she has been working since moving to the UK from the United States in 2012. Previously she worked for the National Audubon Society in the US, running a national grants programme focused on innovative conservation. Prior to that she was director of educational programmes at a not-for-profit called Center for Whole Communities in Vermont, bringing together leaders from the environmental and social justice sectors to find common ground and shared values. Early in her career she worked for World Wildlife Fund in Washington, D.C. She lives and works from a village in Buckinghamshire.

Olly Armstrong, Environment Sector Programme Lead
(maternity cover, job share)

Olly Armstrong has worked at the intersection of community, class, faith and climate for over two decades. He often focuses on supporting a range of climate, social and housing justice orgs, connecting with working class communities through community organising, projects and workshops across the UK. Olly is passionate about putting power in the hands of the people most in need, and acting together for change.

Olly is covering Natasha’s maternity leave along with Sophia Cooke.

Jane Cabutti, Growing Philanthropy Director

Jane leads the organisation’s work to increase philanthropic support for environmental issues. She has over twenty years’ experience in fundraising, supporting organisations such as Space for Giants, the Earth Trust, NSPCC, Oxfam and the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire (where she led the early fundraising for the Great Fen Project). She has two sons who are now significantly taller than her, and spends far too much time having to watch football.

Julie Christie, Scotland Coordinator

We recruited Julie to the EFN team in March 2020 to help grow the overall amount of funding for Scotland’s environment. She brings significant experience of supporting (mostly social) charities to access vital funding through her many paid and volunteer roles, including with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Parkhead Citizens Advice Bureau, Foundation Scotland, and the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland.

Originally from Edinburgh, Julie now lives on the Isle of Bute in the Firth of Clyde. Outside of work, she’s happiest exploring her new surroundings, climbing hills, attempting yoga, and cooking spicy food.

Emma Clyde, Operations Manager

Emma is responsible for administration at EFN. Previously she was the PA to the HR Director at Barclays as well as to the Principal of St Anne’s College, Oxford. She works from home in Thame, Oxfordshire, and enjoys muddy dog walks with her two young boys.

Tara Cooper, Communications Manager

Tara is deeply committed to amplifying diverse and traditionally underrepresented individuals, organisations and ideas. She brings her keen eye for storytelling, strategy and content creation to her role as Communications Manager at EFN. She is also Head of Communications for TEDxLondon, a non-profit organisation that brings the spirit of TED to London with the mission of ideas worth spreading and freelances as a Communications Consultant for short-term projects. Previous clients include the Pilgrim Trust, Longleigh Foundation, Breadwinners, UPFRONT, Landscape Finance Lab and X Equals. She started her career managing events at the Shakespeare’s Globe and the Royal Over-Seas League In her spare time, you’ll find Tara reading the latest feminist, fantasy and queer voices or listening to yet another podcast with her cat, Moomin, in tow.

Sophia Cooke, Environment Sector Programme Lead
(maternity cover, job share)

Sophia (who is covering Natasha’s maternity leave) is working to support NGOs in their work on conservation and climate change action and facilitate connection between them. Prior to this position she worked as a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge, supporting the Galápagos Islands to progress towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. As part of this she co-launched an initiative to support community-led projects in conservation and sustainability. She completed her Ph.D at Cambridge in 2020, researching the impacts of traffic on birds in Britain, and has also led and contributed to many other research projects. As well as this, she enjoys science communication and is a keen wildlife photographer and hiker.

Sophia is covering Natasha’s maternity leave along with Olly Armstrong.

Patricia Cremona, Programme and Research Coordinator

Patricia joined EFN in 2020 and coordinates the organisation’s programming and research to support its membership and the wider environment sector. She has worked in the environment sector for over a decade, primarily focusing on international policy relating to biodiversity conservation. Most recently she worked for IUCN’s Global Species Programme and previously for the UN Environment Programme – World Conservation Monitoring Centre, and spent several years in Latin America working for various international conservation NGOs. She currently lives in Cambridge.

Aliyah Green, Communications Coordinator

Aliyah supports EFN’s communications and the coordination of the Rapid Response Fund. Previously she has worked with Groundwork London on a refugee integration initiative and before that, as a prison officer at HMP Brixton. She has an interest in intersectional environmentalism and environmental justice. Aliyah works at home from London, but when not at work likes to play netball and spend time with family.

Helen Mian, Finance and Governance Manager

Helen looks after the finances of EFN.  She is a chartered accountant, and has worked in the charity sector for over 20 years, as Chief Accountant at Shelter (the housing and homelessness charity) in London, before moving to Norfolk, and working for a number of locally based charities including the RSPCA, Banana Link, and the Norfolk & Norwich Festival.  She also holds the ICAEW Diploma in Charity Accounting, DChA.  She still lives in Norfolk, and loves walking (and even running) along its coastline.

Natasha Ratter, Environment Sector Programme Lead
(currently on maternity leave)

Natasha co-ordinates EFN’s work to strengthen the effectiveness of the environmental charity sector and facilitates the Green Fundraiser’s Forum. She joined EFN from the Natural History Museum where she raised funds for projects that re-connect people to nature, particularly in urban areas. She is currently a Trustee of Sydenham Garden, a wellbeing centre using its gardens and nature reserve to help people in recovery from mental and physical ill-health. Natasha is half Ugandan and half British – she spent her childhood in Kampala, Uganda and then moved to the UK to do her degree in zoology.

Board of Trustees

Catherine Bryan, Chair

Catherine is Chair of the Environmental Funders Network. Catherine embraced her growing interest in the environment in 2014, taking on pro-bono work at Synchronicity Earth. She became a trustee of Synchronicity Earth in 2015 and took on the role of CEO in 2017. Having worked with the team to deliver significant growth in grant funding across a range of biodiversity programmes she stepped down in December 2019 to revert to her trustee role.  She 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 risks into decision making. Catherine worked at J.P Morgan until 1998. As Managing Director and Head of Equity Derivative Trading, she was also a member of the J.P. Morgan Risk Committee. She then took a career break and returned to the financial markets to undertake project work in 2012. She has a degree in Chemistry from Oxford University.

Nick Addington

Nick is CEO of the William Grant Foundation, a grant-maker connected to one of Scotland’s leading family-owned businesses. He joined as its first CEO in 2014 and has overseen the development of its funding strategies across a range of charitable causes including the natural and built environment. Previously, he spent 11 years with Scotland’s community foundation, Foundation Scotland, where as Head of Philanthropy Services he managed teams delivering philanthropy advice, grant-making strategy and donor education as well as high volume grants programmes. 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.

Sian Ferguson

Sian Ferguson is the Trust Executive for the Aurora Trust, JJ Charitable Trust and Mark Leonard Trust and is a member of the trusts’ Impact Investment Committee. She also manages the Climate Change Collaboration—a group of four Trusts formed in 2011 to support pilot and research projects to find ways of reducing CO2 emissions quickly. Sian has worked with other trusts and partners in the US and Europe to establish Europeans for Divest Invest. Sian has a background in Natural Science and 25 years’ experience working in environmental sectors. She is chair of the Yorkshire and Humber Forestry and Woodland Advisory Committee and sits on the advisory board of Centre for Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity.

Liz Gadd

Liz is a trustee of the Environmental Funders Network. She is experienced in supporting charities and funders to improve, specialising in the areas of strategy, impact, organisational development, and change management. She currently works as a principle consultant with NPC and has previously worked with organisations including the British Red Cross and Voluntary Service Overseas. Liz is passionate about improving collaboration between social and environmental issue focussed charities and funders. She is the proud mum of two young girls, and they spend a lot of time together pottering in forests and spotting butterflies and bees.

Hugh Mehta

For over 15 years, Hugh has raised funds and guided partnerships for international conservation, health, and child rights organisations. Currently he is with the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, where he focuses on scaling up philanthropy for climate change solutions.

Hugh started at UNICEF-UK, before progressing to WWF-UK where he led corporate partnerships to raise vital funds, reach new audiences and reduce company impact on the environment.  More recently he managed a secretariat team, which brought together donors, countries, pharmaceuticals and NGOs to tackle neglected tropical diseases. 

Hugh is a school governor in Brighton, where he is often found at the beach or on a boat. 

Fiona Napier

Fiona is the Africa Nature Lead in the team which supports the UN High Level Champions on Climate Action. She is based in Nairobi and has a portfolio of work which hannels her interest in young people’s futures, promoting accountable governance and protecting the natural world. She is Chair of the Lamu Environment Foundation.

Previous experience includes International Advocacy Director with the Open Society Foundations, Associate Campaigns Director on Environmental Governance at Global Witness in London, and Save the Children.  Fiona was a founder board member of the Ethical Trade Initiative, and co-founded the Publish What You Pay campaign which led to the establishment of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.

Champa Patel

Champa is the Senior Director, Governments and Policy at The Climate Group. Formerly, she was Director of Innovation for the International Crisis Group, and Director of the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House managing policy research on the region. Before joining Chatham House she held several roles at Amnesty International including as the Regional Director for South Asia and SouthEast Asia and Pacific Offices and Global Director Campaigns overseeing human rights research, advocacy and campaigns. Prior to Amnesty she worked in public health for almost a decade, focused on children at-risk, refugees, asylum seekers and internal trafficking. She is soon to be the Chair of Women for Women International UK and on the Editorial Board of Human Rights Quarterly and The International Journal of Climate Change: Impacts and Responses.

Eva Rehse

Eva has been working with Global Greengrants Fund since 2015, initially as UK Executive Director and since 2022 as Director of Strategy and Global Collaboration. Previously, Eva worked for Amnesty International, the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, CIVICUS, and 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 co-chair of the Board of EDGE Funders Alliance, and a member of the Alliance Magazine Editorial Advisory Board.

Advisory Group

Cindy Forde is an author, activist and communications professional. Throughout her career, Cindy has worked internationally with organisations endeavouring to make positive change, across sectors. 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 and ensure the wellbeing of all its inhabitants. She serves in a number of board and advisory roles in sustainability and education sectors. 

Ben Goldsmith co-founded EFN in 2003. Ben chairs the Goldsmith family’s philanthropic foundation, the JMG Foundation, which has a focus on the environment. Ben is also a Trustee of one of the UK’s largest philanthropic foundations, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF). Ben is CEO of Menhaden Capital Management LLP which manages investment trust Menhaden Capital plc which invests in business opportunities arising from the efficient use of energy and resources. Sectors of focus include industrial process and material efficiency, energy efficiency and storage, power generation and waste and water. Ben was appointed non-executive board member of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in 2018.

Anna Guyer is the founder of Greenhouse PR, an award-winning communications agency entirely focused on accelerating the transition to a sustainable and green economy. Their mission is to create social and environmental change, to campaign on the big issues we face, and to promote pioneering brands developing a sustainable lifestyle and economy. Previously, Anna was a Board Director at Hill & Knowlton and Trustee of Transition Towns.

Rachel Harrington has worked in the non-profit sector for over a decade and is a Director and specialist adviser at Coutts, the private bank. Rachel begun her career in fundraising, focusing on international development, she now advises wealthy families on their strategies for philanthropy and wealth succession. She is also a trustee of the charity Breaking Barriers, which supports refugees to find meaningful employment that makes use of their skills, experience and qualifications, and a trustee of the Coutts Foundation.

Becky Holmes 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 Conservation Officer at Langland Conservation, a charity that provides cutting-edge intelligence support to conservation organisations. She holds degrees in Ecology and Wildlife Conservation and Graphic and Communication Design and previously spent five years in the creative industry, both running her own agency and working in various start-ups.

Nick Marple 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. He has been visiting Ghana regularly for 20 years and has a strong connection to the people and the country. 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  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.

Bianca Pitt practised Law in Austria after studying at the University of Vienna. Subsequently her professional experience has spanned general management and corporate finance roles in the packaging, publishing and media industries. She has a deep interest in sustainability and is a Development Board member for Client Earth, as well as advisor to numerous environmental organisations.

Hugh Raven 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 (www.ardtornish.co.uk) in the Scottish Highlands and divides his working life between Scotland and England and the private, third and public sectors. Hugh was previously on the board of Crown Estate Scotland, leading on land management, and chair of the Marine Conservation Society. He chairs the Open Seas Trust, and the Highlands and Islands Environment Foundation, which he was instrumental in founding in 2019 with the Conservation Collective.

Jessica Sweidan has been an active philanthropist for the last 20 years and co-founded Synchronicity Earth in 2009 with her husband Adam Sweidan after exploring how to have a greater impact within the conservation realm. 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 in March 2015.