President: Jonathan White OBE

Trustees:

Graham Thomas (Chair)

Graham has over thirty years of experience in the finance sector, and is currently the Managing Partner of Stage Capital, a secondary private equity firm. He also Chairs the Investment Committee of Menhaden Resource Efficiency PLC and is a member of the investment committee of Apis Partners. In addition to being Chair of the Rivers Trust he is a trustee of African Mountain Research Foundation. Graham holds South African and British citizenship, and has degrees from Cape Town University and from Brasenose College, Oxford. He is a keen, and occasionally successful, fly fisherman.

Bella Davies (Vice Chair)

Bella joined the Rivers Trust movement in 2009 as the first employee of the Wandle Trust. Bella became Trust Director of the Wandle Trust in 2011 and oversaw the Trust’s evolution into the South East Rivers Trust (SERT), which now covers 13 river catchments across the South East of England. She is now Co-CEO of SERT. Prior to working in the rivers trust movement, Bella was Catchment Biodiversity Manager at the Freshwater Habitats Trust and she has also held research and visiting lectureship positions at several universities.

Sandy Muirhead (Chair BARC)

Sandy read Chemistry at St John’s College, Oxford before qualifying as a Chartered Accountant. After 16 years in investment banking, Sandy moved into private equity and in 2001 co-founded Phoenix Equity Partners, a leading UK mid-market private equity business. Sandy retired from Phoenix in 2021 but remains involved with two of its portfolio companies, Redington and Mobius, both of which service the pensions industry. In addition to being a trustee of the Rivers Trust, where he chairs the Business, Audit and Risk Committee, Sandy is Chairman of Premier Christian Media Trust, whose mission is to spread the Christian Gospel through a variety of media including several radio stations, magazine publishing and digital and social media channels. Sandy is a keen hill walker, fly fisherman and gardener, and is a Vice-President of the Royal Horticultural Society.

Jo Harrison

Jo is Director of Environment, Planning, and Innovation at United Utilities. She has over 20 years of experience in the water industry and at UU since 1998. She is accountable for leading the approach to environmental and long-term planning for the next 25 years; developing and strengthening UU’s approach to all aspects of the environment, climate change and carbon. Jo has a BSc in Geography and Ecology from the University of Sheffield and an MSc in Pollution and Environmental Control from Manchester University. She is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Managers and a Chartered Environmentalist. She is also a trustee of the Greater Manchester Environment Fund and a non-executive director for JLEN Environmental Assets.

Jack Spees

Jack is the CEO of Ribble Rivers Trust, which he joined in April 2008, to spearhead a more science and evidence-based approach to the work of the Trust. Over the last 15 years Jack has overseen the growth and development of the Trust from a team of 2 focused on fish passage and riparian habitat, to a team of 28 working across the entire 750 square mile catchment. Ribble RT has particular emphasis on expanding the people and community focus of their holistic conservation work from source to sea. Jack has a particular interest in the multi-benefit Ecosystem Approach, ecological economics and Natural Capital.

Elizabeth Passey

Elizabeth is a Trustee (past-Chairman) of the Wye & Usk Foundation, Chairman of The Rural Payments Agency, a Member of the Board of the National Lottery Community Fund, Non-Executive Director of VPC Specialty Lending Investments PLC, Chairman (Convener) of The University of Glasgow, Chairman of the Committee of Scottish University Chairs, and executive committee member of The Committee of University Chairs.

Bart Schoonbaert

Bart has spent 15 years of his professional career working in the regulated energy and water industries. Most recently, he was Director for Environment, Public Value & Governance at Ofwat, part of the leadership team with strategic oversight and management responsibilities. Bart is a social scientist by academic background and by instinct, with postgraduate degrees in organisational psychology and water resource management. This means he tends to look at issues from a people-centric, systems-oriented, and multi-disciplinary perspective. He has a passion for the environment and believes in the need for strong collaboration to address the major challenges we face. He joined Arup in April 2022 as Water Advisory Lead with a national and international focus.

Bernie O’ Hanrahan

Based in Ireland, Bernie has over 38 years’ experience in water management. Her career, initially with Monaghan CountyCouncil, involved work with water and wastewater, licensing and regulation, pollution monitoring and control and source protection. In more recent years, she was Regional Coordinator with the Local Authorities Waters Programme (LAWPRO) which is part of Ireland’s approach to the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. Bernie has degrees from UCD and University of Ulster and has contributed to a number of national and regional advisory, steering and working groups, including a number of cross-border environmental projects. Since retirement Bernie continues to take an interest in environmental matters and enjoys volunteering and the outdoors.

Jodie Mills

Jodie Mills, CEO of West Cumbria Rivers Trust, joined the trust in November 2014 following a four-year conservation adventure on St Helena in the South Atlantic. Jodie has nearly 30 years’ experience in the environmental sector and has worked in many parts of the UK and abroad, and for a number of conservation organisations, including BTCV, the Wildlife Trust, the National Trust, a number of small charities, and local authorities. Jodie helps the trust to deliver all of its objectives and overcome the many challenges and hurdles along the way. Her particular passion is engaging communities and schools with their local blue and green spaces and all the benefits this can bring for people and nature.

Fayza Benlamkadem

Fayza Benlamkadem is Head of the NFU’s Food, Farming and Environment Department, where she works alongside national officeholders and sector commodity boards to develop policy on issues that have the most immediate impact on farm business operations. Fayza joined the NFU in 2022 and has a background in developing regulatory strategy and policy in government and the private sector, having held roles at Ofwat, the Ministry of Justice and within sustainability consulting. Fayza is a qualified barrister (currently non-practising) and was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 2003. She was in independent practice between 2003 and 2015, specialising in criminal and regulatory law.

Michael Fedosiuk

Michael Fedosiuk is a Director at Five Arrows Principal Investments, the alternative assets arm of Rothschild & Co. Michael is focused on investing in healthcare, education, and software businesses. He is involved with the Boards of RLDatix, Everway and Alpina - for the latter chairing their audit and risk committee. Prior to joining Five Arrows in 2021 he worked for GIC, the Singaporean Sovereign Wealth Fund, for c.4 years within their private equity division following a career at Credit Suisse. Michael graduated with a 1:1 in Engineering from the University of Oxford including specialisation within Environmental Engineering. He lives in Battersea with his wife Elli and their springer spaniel, all of whom enjoy long walks together in the Lake District.

Mike Turley

Mike Turley is a former Deloitte Global Leader of Government & Public Services, Board Advisor and Digital Transformation Specialist, expert in navigating the complex mix of technology, people and regulations to optimise service delivery. His value proposition includes: leveraging deep experience in leading successful Government & Public Services businesses at scale to refine and develop networks and market approaches; guiding technology-driven transformation journeys and investments to deliver compliant digital services in the modern world; coaching and motivating diverse, global, cross-functional teams, acting as a juncture between business, technology and cultures; and understanding and nurturing complex stakeholder relationships at all levels to build sustainable relationships aligned to a common goal.