Meet the trustees
Prof. Roger Crofts
ChairmanRoger Crofts has spent his career in the academic world, the Scottish Office, and was founder Chief Executive of Scottish Natural Heritage. In retirement from fulltime paid employment, he advises anybody who will listen in Scotland, Iceland and around Europe on environmental strategy and policy. Through writing and lecturing he hopes to help people understand the Earth’s heritage and environment. He is co-author of a number of books on Scotland’s environment and earth history and is currently writing a book on soil conservation in Iceland. He is leading the Sibthorp Trust’s work on stimulating informed debate on climate change.
Roger Chairs the Sibthorp Trust, the Galloway Biosphere Partnership Board, the Dalry Bird Town Initiative and is on the board of Fieldfare International Ecological Development and the Crichton Carbon Centre, and is Patron of the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers. He was chairman of Plantlife, and on the Board of the Scottish Agricultural College and the National Trust for Scotland, He is a Visiting Professor in Geography & Environment, University of Aberdeen and Honorary Professor in the School of GeoSciences at Edinburgh University.
Prof. Edward Maltby
SecretaryEdward Maltby joined the founding trustees in 1995, became the Trust’s first secretary and organised the first Sibthorp Seminar. He is Emeritus Professor of Wetland Science, Water and Ecosystem Management, University of Liverpool where he was formally Director of the Institute for Sustainable Water, Integrated Management and Ecosystem Research (SWIMMER).
He has over 40 years of experience in scientific research and environmental management, providing both technical and policy advice for supragovernment, government and non-government bodies. Publications include major texts on wetlands, peat and ecosystem management together with many papers in scientific journals. Notable research includes peatlands of the Falkland Islands, Exmoor and the North York Moors and globally important wetlands including Iraq, Everglades, Louisiana and the Mekong Delta.
As Chair of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management key played a key role in the definition and further elaboration of the Ecosystem Approach under the CBD. Edward has recently served as advisor to the UK Secretary of State for Environment on the UK National Ecosystem Assessment, is visiting Professor at the University of Melbourne and the 2011-12 John P. Laborde Endowed Chair for Research Innovation at LSU. He is Chair of the Devon Maritime Forum and Trustee of the Tees Rivers Trust.
Tricia Henton
Tricia Henton was until the end of 2010 Director of Environment and Business at the Environment Agency with responsibility for water resources and quality, environmental legislation, conservation and climate change. She is a geologist and geographer by background and early in her career worked for river purification boards. Tricia then spent eleven years in environmental management consultancy where she worked on a wide range of issues including waste management and verification of corporate environmental reports.
In 1995 she joined the Scottish Environment Protection Agency as Director of Environmental Strategy, becoming Chief Executive in 2000. After this she went to the Environment Agency as Director of Environment Protection. She has been a Council member of the RSPB and having left full time employment, Tricia still contributes to organisations with a strong environmental theme. This includes being a Trustee of the British Trust for Ornithology and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh as well as as Board member of the Coal Authority. She has recently been elected to the Council of the Geological Society of London and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
David Richards
David Richards trained as an economic geologist and worked for 17 years in mining operations in Cornwall, Saudi Arabia and Portugal. After taking a postgraduate degree in environmental geochemistry he has worked since 1992 in corporate environmental policy and audit functions for Rio Tinto, including a two-year posting in environmental management in Indonesia. His main areas of responsibility and work have been biodiversity strategy, acid rock drainage strategy, sustainable development and external engagement. He is married with two young children and lives in Monmouth. His interests are woodland management, nature conservation and landscape history.