New directors bring depth and diversity to The Rivers Trust

Jayne Mann

17/08/20

We are delighted to announce that we have appointed two new directors in the last month, bringing more depth and diversity to our senior management team. This is another step forward for the Rivers Trust movement, aligned to supporting the Green Recovery and urgent implementation in the decade of Climate Action. Amina Aboobakar joins as the new Commercial Director and Christine Colvin as the new Director for Partnerships and Communications. Amina Abookabar is seconded from United Utilities where she spent the last few years developing their catchment systems strategy. Amina has been involved with the water sector for the last nine years, developing key strategies and building her expertise in integrated catchment management, natural capital and the development of green markets, working with a wide range of stakeholders and partners. Amina said: “As we face unprecedented pressures on our water environment, added to in the current public health and climate crises, there is an opportunity to innovate, to bring different sectors together to develop new ways of working, to improve nature and communities and build a sustainable economic recovery. I am excited to be joining The Rivers Trust at this time: they are best placed to address some of these issues and drive the best possible deal for people and nature.” Christine Colvin has experience in mobilizing partnerships for collective action, primarily in the South African water sector. She led the Freshwater team at WWF-South Africa, led an integrated hydroscience team at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and most recently engaged with corporate clients on sustainability strategies and climate risk and resilience at Emperor. Christine said: “The task ahead of the UK to restore and rebuild our natural infrastructure is huge. We know that the vast majority of our rivers are already in a degraded state and the Climate Crisis is going to put them under even more pressure. The Rivers Trust has some of the most relevant experience in tackling these challenges, and I’m really looking forward to building strong partnerships that can create green jobs in the water sector and restore a natural heritage that we can be proud of.” Mark Lloyd, Chief Executive Officer of The Rivers Trust, said: “It’s remarkable what the Rivers Trust network of organisations has achieved over the past two decades, but if we are to step up to the challenges of threatened water supplies, nature depletion, and climate change, then we need to grow rapidly our capacity to deliver improvements to rivers and their catchments at a much larger scale. By appointing these two senior, highly-experienced new members of the team, our aim is to develop many more partnerships between business, the public sector, and communities. We have to move urgently to implement nature-based solutions at the scale we need throughout the country over the next 5 years.”
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