How we are run

Both John’s professional and private lives revolve around his love of the countryside. John was 'born to farm' on a traditional mixed family farm although, with the onset of intensification it was converted to a dairy farm and later extensified to an organic deer farm.  He graduated from Cambridge with a degree in Land Economy before studying Advanced Farm Management at the RAU Cirencester.  He also has an MBA in Real Estate from Reading University.  His career in farming and rural estate management in Northern Ireland spans over forty years, managing and advising farms and estates with a combined area of over ten thousand acres. He has a great interest in conservation and is a former Chairman of The Conservation Volunteers and President of the Ulster Beekeepers Association. He was a member of the Northern Ireland Biodiversity Group for six years, followed by the Council of Conservation and the Countryside for three years. John has been a member of the Board of Governors of Kilcooley School since 1982 and is currently Chairman. He is a Deputy Lieutenant for Co Down, a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and an Associate of the Royal Agricultural Societies.

Stephen joined the Northern Ireland Civil Service as a senior advisor on environmental matters after completing a commission as a pilot in the Royal Navy and having worked for a number of local authorities as an Environmental Health specialist. He was appointed to establish and lead Land & Resource Management in the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) and was subsequently elected as the national president of the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management. He was also nominated as a trustee of CLAIRE - Contaminated Land in Real Environments. He acted as an independent auditor on the DVLA Audit Committee from 2009 – 2015 and was the Director of Strategy & Innovation for the NIEA from 2011- 2015, where he led the review and reform of Regional Operations and produced Northern Ireland’s first State of the Environment report. He is now a Director on the Board of Northern Ireland Environment Link.

David retired as Head of the NI Civil Service in 2020, a post he held since 2017. Prior to this he was Permanent Secretary, Department of Finance (2014 – 2017). David was Permanent Secretary in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) (2009 – 2014) where he was responsible for policy on economic and business development, tourism, telecommunications, energy, business regulation, geological survey, trading standards and the Insolvency Service. Previously David was responsible for strategy and policy on economic and business development, tourism, telecommunications and energy at DETI and also worked at the Department of Regional Development (DRD) and in the Central Finance Group of the Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP) where he was part of a team responsible for the oversight and approval of expenditure of the Northern Ireland departments during the first period of devolution.

David was educated at RBAI and Ulster University and his interests are golf, cycling, walking and the environment.  He is a member of Ulster Wildlife, the National Trust and RSPB. David was awarded a Knighthood in the 2020 Birthday Honours.

David is a CIMA member and has worked in finance for over 38 years. He was initially in the shipbuilding sector moving to aerospace in 1988. His last role was leading the finance team in Bombardier Aerospace and Engineering Services which has sites in Montreal, Belfast , Mexico and Morocco. He has served previously on a number of boards most recently Short Brothers plc.

Kate Thompson has been Director for The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award – Northern Ireland for almost ten years.  A Gold Duke of Edinburgh’s Award holder, she has strategically developed the DofE in Northern Ireland to be more inclusive through the Joint Award Initiative with Gaisce – The President’s Award and The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award.  

Kate has considerable high-level leadership and senior management experience in the Not-for-Profit, public, voluntary and private sectors.  She has extensive experience in business development, relationship management, stakeholder engagement, managing and developing teams of staff, communications, media, marketing, event management and fundraising. 

She is a former private sector Board Director responsible for managing strategic relations with Veolia Water UK, Thames Water, M&S, Phoenix Gas, Calor Gas, Toyota, BMW and other blue-chip companies. 

In her spare time, Kate is a very keen photographer achieving her Licentiate with both the Royal Photographic Society and the Irish Photographic Federation.  She enjoys travelling, canoeing and hill walking.

Seamus McKee is a journalist and broadcaster. He has presented programmes on radio and television across a number of areas including current affairs, the arts, education and religion. He's possibly best known for having presented Good Morning Ulster and, more recently, Evening Extra on BBC Radio Ulster. He has also hosted Spotlight and Hearts and Minds on television as well as providing commentary on major events such as the televised commemorations of the Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme, both in 2016. He has interviewed leading politicians and public figures over many years and has covered the twists and turns of our recent history, including the tragedies that have marked so many years of conflict. He has twice won the IMRO Irish Radio Award for News Broadcaster of the Year.                                                                         

Bob is a marine biologist with an interest in birds, as well as many other aspects of wildlife, and has been involved with research and wildlife conservation for nearly 50 years.  He has worked with the National Trust on Strangford Lough, and as Director of RSPB's Northern Ireland operations.  He previously chaired the Northern Ireland Biodiversity Group (NIBG) and was a member of the Council for Nature Conservation and the Countryside from 2000 to 2009.  For six years he was a member of the Northern Ireland Committee of Heritage Lottery Fund.  Bob was also a member of the Biodiversity Working Group of the European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Council on behalf of CNCC.  From 2009 – 17 he was an independent member of the UK's Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and chaired their Marine Protected Areas sub-group for most of that time, notably during a period of intense MPA designation work in the UK.  Bob has previously served terms on Ulster Wildlife’s Council and is currently a co-opted member of its Environment Committee.  When not working on conservation issues at home, Bob gives lectures and wildlife excursions from expedition ships in the Arctic and Antarctic.  In 2004 he was awarded an OBE for services to nature conservation.

Richard is a former civil servant with a career in various Whitehall departments in London, Belfast and elsewhere, including a two year attachment to the Australian government, and some years with the Hong Kong government prior to the handover to China.   Roles have ranged across many departments including some of the UK’s more interesting foreign policy areas, serious crime, HR and administration, and work in Northern Ireland over much of his civil service time.   The roles he most enjoyed were those looking at the more strategic picture, and politics whether local or international.     

He became involved with local charity Leukaemia and Lymphoma NI (LLNI) some years ago, after the loss of his teenage daughter Catherine to leukaemia and has been chair since 2016.   During this time, the charity has modernised, grown and raised significantly more money locally to fund blood cancer research, mainly in Belfast at Queen's University. Richard has a degree in Mechanical Engineering and has in recent years done a number of Open University units on climate change and earth science.  He is passionate about the need to encourage governments to do more to tackle climate change, along with the associated issues such as more environmentally friendly farming, greener power generation, effective recycling and sustainable transport, all to preserve our environment for future generations.    He is a keen walker in the Mournes and elsewhere, and dedicated fan of all of our local wildlife.

Chloe has an academic background in animal science with a BSc (Hons) in Veterinary Biosciences from the University of Glasgow and an MSc in Animal Behaviour and Welfare from Queens University Belfast. During her master’s she completed a work placement with Ulster Wildlife running hedgehog surveys in volunteer gardens, assisting with other species surveys such as barn owl, red squirrel, and pine marten, and helping with educational outreach across the country. She currently works as a Consultant Ecologist in Belfast, regularly carrying out field work and report writing for protected and priority species such as bat roost potential and activity, badger, otter, raptor, breeding bird, over wintering bird, common lizard, and smooth newt. She also carries out Biodiversity checklists, Preliminary Ecological Appraisals (PEA), Phase 1 Habitat Surveys, Ecological Impact Assessments (EcIA), Habitats Regulations Assessments (HRA), Ecological Clerk of Works (ECoW), and habitat management and mitigation. As an ecologist she works to safeguard protected species, habitats, and sensitive sites (Natura 2000; SAC, SPA, ASSI etc.) through any development proposals which could impact them, avoiding, mitigating, and compensating for risk where appropriate. Chloe holds Qualifying Membership with the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) and is working toward achieving Associate within the next year. She regularly seeks opportunities to volunteer such as working with ARGUK on their Dragons in the Hills project, routinely attending conferences such as “The Future of Nature Conservation” hosted by The Mammal Society and an invertebrate conservation workshop with CIEEM at Lagan Meadows.

Ciarán is currently working as a Support Provider at Ulster University. In his volunteering work he is a Deputy Director of Delegations with the Young European Leadership, an EU organisation. Ciarán is Chair of the Youth Climate Commission (formerly the Belfast Climate Commission's Youth Working Group), Ambassador of the One Young World program recently representing Ireland in Belfast. He is alumni of the 30 Under 30 Climate Change-makers programme at Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, and as a result started his own social enterprise called Vacan. He is also a representative of many other environmental organisations, such as the Climate Action Group at QUBSU which he helped get accepted into the Climate Coalition NI. His work with Ulster Wildlife's Youth Forum started during the lockdown where he would participate in a number of activities relating to the charity. Ciaran's education includes a BSc in Chemistry, a MSc in Leadership for Sustainable Development.  

Professor Nigel Scollan is Director of The Institute for Global Food Security and Professor of Agriculture & Sustainability at Queens University, Belfast. The Institute addresses key challenges around (1) Farms of the Future: developing paradigm shifts in agricultural practices to enhance profitability and sustainability without compromising biodiversity and ecological function; (2) Global Food Integrity: use of state-of-the-art approaches (analytical, molecular, computational) to improve the safety of global food supply chains and prevent fraud and (3) Nutritional challenges of the twenty-first century: better understanding of how human diet impacts a range of health outcomes and development of intervention strategies to maximise wellbeing.

Professor Scollan conducted his PhD at The University of Edinburgh, followed by a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada before joining Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, Aberystwyth in 1993 and subsequently Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) Aberystwyth University in 2008. He held a numbers of posts at IBERS including Waitrose Professor of Sustainable Agriculture and Professor of Public Engagement with Science at Aberystwyth University, group leader Animal Systems and Director of Enterprise. Professor Scollan’s research is primarily related to designing improved systems for ruminant livestock, through the use of improved nutrition and genetics to enhance the sustainability and efficiency of the production systems. Improving nutritional quality is an important aspect of the research. Professor Scollan works closely with producers and other key stakeholders across value chains.

Nigel is a Past President of the British Society of Animal Science and a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society in the UK and a past Director of the Oxford Farming Conference (2017-2020).

Gillian McKee, Managing Director, GIRAFFE Associates Ltd, is a sustainability and ESG consultant, working with businesses on strategy development, training, engagement and reporting.

She has worked in the responsible business and sustainability space for most of her career – spending 22 years with membership organisation Business in the Community NI before leaving in 2019 to establish her own business.

With clients across the agri-food, construction, manufacturing, tech and public sectors, she has a wealth of experience in guiding organisations through the big picture thinking needed to understand sustainability and embed it across their operations. She also offers training in sustainability, carbon literacy and a range of other topics designed to support companies in engaging employees on their sustainability journey.

Gillian is an external assessor for BITC’s CORE Standard for Responsible Business, the independent auditor for Diversity Mark’s Gold Award and a B Leader, trained to support companies seeking to become certified B Corporations.

In 2024 she won the Women in Business Best Green (Small) Business Award.

Gillian is passionate about nature and wildlife and has been privileged to support peatland restoration and barn owl conservation projects through Ulster Wildlife in recent years.

Niall has over 25 years’ experience in IT and management consulting at Accenture, Liberty Insurance and Google. During his 14 years at Google he led large global and EMEA teams in strategy and operations for digital advertising and cloud services. His most recent role at Google was to build an Artificial Intelligence (AI) exchange with the goal of getting 12,000 employees confident in using AI in their everyday roles. 

In the local community, Niall led the digitisation of Share Discovery Village in Fermanagh and the Ulster Gliding Centre. He’s passionate about the environment as a committed member of Ulster Wildlife, National Trust, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the Woodland Trust. He’s incredibly excited to join the board of Ulster Wildlife.

Niall was educated at Queen’s University and qualified as a chemical engineer. In his spare time he likes to glide, golf, run and go on family walks.

Karen Hall is the Head of Northern Ireland for the Mental Health Foundation. Karen has led the establishment of the Foundation’s presence in Northern Ireland and works across research, policy, and programmes.

Karen has over 20 years of experience working in social justice, disability and human rights in Northern Ireland. Karen’s background includes communications, policy, co-design, public affairs, innovation management, governance and leadership.

Outside of work, Karen took up triathlon a couple of years ago, so she spends a lot of time swimming, biking and running.  Karen is a keen open-water swimmer and can be found in the sea around Ireland at any time of the year.

Orla Rafferty has been a director of Orla Rafferty Consultancy Ltd for 11 years and has over 27 years’ experience in the field of Human Resources, Learning and Development, holding Fellow Membership of CIPD. Previously employed as HR Manager and Group HR (engineering and construction) within the Private sector; with overall strategic responsibility for HR, Group wide with offices in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Warsaw and North Carolina.

She has experience of coaching and mentoring those who hold senior executive and management leadership positions and provides outsourced HR support services to private clients. Her specialisms include employee relations, cross border working, HR & business strategy, leadership, workplace conflict, employee investigations and mediation. Orla now works across all sectors such as health, education, engineering, construction, manufacturing, facilities, professional services, food, entertainment.

Orla loves the outdoor life, and her time is taken up with walking the energy out of her springer spaniel, Ringo and trekking around the picturesque Clogher Valley and Monaghan areas, where her and her family set out to discovering new paths and routes. She loves watching sunrises and spotting red squirrels which roam the area.

She has spent a lot her summers from a very young age in Donegal and with that has grown a love for the ocean, our coastal areas and an understanding of the need to respect it. 

Joe Furphy was the first local person to work in nature conservation in Northern Ireland in 1965, and spent 32 years in what is now NIEA. Since retirement, he has been involved in several voluntary organisations and was awarded both an OBE and the Christopher Cadbury medal for his efforts. He is a founder member of Ulster Wildlife and past chairman. He also served on the Council of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts for four years. For relaxation, he participates in choral singing, plays the organ, bird watches and is keen on Irish railway history. Joe was appointed Ulster Wildlife’s first president at the 2015 AGM.