Who we are

Julian joined the Trust in September 2021. His career in nature conservation has taken him around Britain. After an early career based in the Midlands, he was Chief Executive of Gwent Wildlife Trust from 2001 to 2009. For the next decade he lived on Orkney, first on Mainland, then on Papa Westray.

He then worked briefly for Cornwall Wildlife Trust in West Penwith, until the lure of a conservation leadership role on another wildlife-rich archipelago took him to Scilly. Julian is a passionate naturalist, who is loving everything that makes up the special character of our islands.

Helen has joined the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust from a position with the firefighters at St Mary’s Airport. Prior to this she has worked across a number of fields in science as well as running her own manufacturing business and a community cinema. She has a PhD on the molecular biology of rare cancer. Her passion for nature and the outdoors has led her to working as our new Operations Manager. 

Olivia joined the team in August 2024. Originally from Hertfordshire, Olivia moved to Durham to get her MA in Museum and Artefacts where she fell in love with fundraising. After working for Durham Cathedral, The National Railway Museum, and Ushaw Historic House, Chapel’s and Gardens, she stepped away from heritage and culture fundraising and moved to the Isles of Scilly to become full time Fundraising and Comms Manager for the Trust, pursuing her passion for wildlife.

Rob has lived on the islands for over 20 years. After studying Countryside Management in Nottinghamshire, he came to Scilly for a three month placement as a Volunteer Warden for the Trust. He stayed on working for the Royal Mail and at the airport.

He rejoined the Trust as a Ranger in 2014, and is also a retained Firefighter. He’s now the Head Ranger, leading all our land management work, across the huge area of land we look after across the isles.

Darren is our longest serving member of staff. He has worked as both a Ranger and delivering education, giving him an all round knowledge of our wildlife, conservation efforts and how to inspire people.

Darren first qualified as a veterinary nurse, but soon changed career path, studying Zoology at Leeds University and then volunteering for the Cornwall Wildlife Trust. He worked in Scotland before returning to the South West in 2008 to start with The Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust. He has been with the Trust ever since. 

Rhianna originally joined us on a 12-month placement in 2014. She returned to us early in 2017 to become a full-time Ranger.

Rhianna first arrived on the islands in 2014, completing a one year volunteer work placement for the Trust as part of her degree in Wildlife Conservation from Nottingham Trent University. After graduating, she took on a traineeship at the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, building her practical skills before coming back to work for the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust.

Scott joined us in September 2024 as Ranger to assist in the efforts of the new expansive Countryside Stewardship Agreement.

Following from his HNC in Environmental Management, Scott gained work experience with organizations such as The Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park and the RSPB which significantly enhanced his skill set relevant to his desired vocation of Wildlife Conservation.

Simon joined the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust as our Community Ranger in January 2023. The Community Ranger post involves working with local communities and the NHS Social Prescriber. This supports green prescribing and aims to improve health and well-being through a community volunteering programme, recruiting and supporting community members to carry out habitat management to protect the wildlife on Scilly with the current ranger team. 

Before moving to the Isles of Scilly in 2022 Simon was a visitor to the islands, camping on the off islands, enjoying the nature and the tranquillity. He has had a lifetime interest in wildlife and nature and in the past volunteered on a loggerhead turtle project in Greece. He was also a volunteer for the Kent Wildlife Trust prior to his move to the islands. He has worked in mental health for 30 years, mostly as a qualified mental health nurse, and strongly believes the power of nature and interacting with green spaces can improve mood, maintain good mental health, reduce loneliness and encourage community participation. 

Born and raised on St Mary’s, Liam joined the trust in June of 2022 as a trainee and soon after an apprentice. Being a life-long Scillonian, Liam's love for the islands extends to the nature that call Scilly home. Armed with brush cutter and wellies, you’ll find Liam out and about with the ranger team, carrying out practical conservation across Scilly.

Vickie joined the team in April 2018 as Seabird Ecologist to study the islands' internationally important seabirds. Vickie works part time for part of the year, in the spring and summer when the majority of our seabirds are here.

Vickie has a PhD on seabird ecology and has been involved in counting them on Scilly since the nationwide Survey of Seabirds in 2000. She made the move full time to the islands in 2004.

She has an annual summer contract to track the fortunes of our internationally important seabirds, to see where and how many eggs they lay and how many chicks they fledge from them. 

She has worked for a number of partnerships and was involved from the start in the Seabird Recovery Project to remove invasive rats from St Agnes and Gugh. She's also a well-known artist and printmaker - you can see her work in Phoenix Craft Studios on St Mary's. She regularly travels in the winter to locations like Antarctica, where she's involved in seabird monitoring aboard cruise ships. 

Megan joined the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust in 2023. Her role as Islands Officer involves working in partnership with local communities and organisations including the RSPB and Natural England to explore the feasibility of island restoration and our seabirds through rat removal from the islands of Bryher, Tresco and St Martin’s.

Megan originally came to the islands to conduct her master's dissertation research In partnership with the Isles of Scilly Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority in 2021. After graduating her master's degree in marine Conservation from Plymouth University, she stayed in the islands to persue volunteer opportunities working with the IFCA and wildlife trust while working in hospitality. 

Hester arrived on Scilly to work as an assistant on the 2023 Seabird Survey and, seduced by Scilly’s coastlines, wildlife and distance from many modern comforts and conveniences, contrived to wrangle her way back in to work on the St Helen’s Restoration Project. Prior to coming to Scilly, she studied Biology at university and worked in practical conservation roles around Devon.

Marine Biology graduate Sarita joined the Trust from a volunteering role on the St Helen’s Project with the aim to gain some fieldwork experience to help kick start a career. She’s spent several summer working on Scilly and is excited to get involved in conservation work on the Isles of Scilly. 

Since graduating in Geography with Applied GIS from the University of Exeter, Jacob looked to gain some conservation experience by joining as a volunteer on the St Helen’s project. Since arriving he’s taken lead on the mapping for the St Helen's Restoration Project, by making static maps in QGIS and dynamic web apps in ArcGIS Online.

Originally from the mainland in Cornwall, Eve first came to the Isles of Scilly in 1998 as a Seasonal worker and fell in love with the Islands and its unique nature.

Leaving the Islands in 2003 to pursue a career in Accounts and Office Management, Eve returned in 2023 and is very excited to have joined the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust as the Office Administrator from July 2024.

Jay is our part-time comms officer managing media, the website, and social media while working remotely. Previously they worked towards the summer Seabird Survey on Scilly and also worked on the St Helen’s project for a few months in winter 2023. 

Andrew was co-opted to the Board in March 2019. He has worked in nature conservation for over 20 years, and is currently Countries Manager at Buglife.  He is passionate about conserving our most threatened species and habitats and working to restore wildlife-filled lands and seas. Born and bred in Cornwall, Andrew has deep roots in the far South West, and currently lives in Plymouth. 

Barry has been a trustee of the Wildlife Trust since 2014, and serves as the Trust’s Treasurer. He’s a qualified accountant, who was responsible for the financial management of the Council of the Isles of Scilly until his retirement from the local authority. He and his wife run a guest house on St Mary’s.

David was elected to the Board by Members at our 2017 AGM. He was appointed Vice-Chair in October 2019. David currently works across the country for Natural England as the Manager leading their Species Recovery and Reintroduction Teams and the Nature Recovery Team, delivering long-term improvements in our environment.

He has worked in nature conservation for 21 years; since he graduated from Writtle College with a BSc in Rural Resource Management. David was Lead Advisor on landscape scale delivery and partnerships with specific responsibility for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly for a number of years and knows the Islands and the Trust itself very well.

He lives with his family near Exeter and has been a Trustee of the Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust since 2010, being actively involved in strategic planning and financial and risk management of the charity.

Izzy was co-opted to the Board in April 2021. Izzy started working the summer season for Scilly Seal Snorkelling in 2016 and moved to St Martin’s permanently in 2019 where she runs a dive charter business. She began diving at the age of 12 and has a degree in Geography from the University of Exeter.  

Lou first visited the islands in the early 1990s with husband Chris and three children. She moved to St Agnes in 2004 to become the island’s teacher; she loved teaching the island’s children for their whole primary schooling. Some of her first island pupils are now parents themselves. As a tiny school, they were involved from the very first steps towards becoming rat-free with the Seabird Recovery Project.

Since retiring, she has become a potter and has a beautiful studio in St Agnes Island Hall where, as well as pots, she makes baskets using recovered ghost rope and paints inspired by the beauty of Scilly. She is keen to inspire future generations to be passionate about protecting and conserving Scilly’s unique environment.

Neil joined the Board of Trustees in February 2019 and soon took on the role of Chair of the Trust. Neil has been a regular visitor to Scilly for more than twenty years. He splits his time between St Mary’s and the Mainland.

Most of Neil’s career was spent in senior positions in the charity sector, including time spent on a number of voluntary sector bodies working closely with different government departments. Latterly, his roles included 10 years as Chief Executive of Make-A-Wish Foundation UK. He also has many years of experience of serving as a charity trustee.

Rebecca was co-opted to the Board in March 2019. She is an intellectual property lawyer and lives with her family in Oxford.  She enjoys visiting new places, and has been to over 70 countries. She has stayed on all of the inhabited islands since her first visit 15 years ago.

Rosemary was elected to the Board by Members in 2015. She lives in East Cornwall, where she is also a member of the Cornwall Wildlife Trust. She has been a regular visitor to Scilly since 1974, and has stayed on all the islands over the years. She has worked in the area of conservation management for over 35 years, 24 of those in Cornwall. She has worked for Avon Wildlife Trust. 

Her specialism is working with farmers to advise on their management of land for wildlife, and she worked for the Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG) for many years. She holds a Masters Degree in Nature Conservation (London UCL), and has also taught environmental issues in schools and at degree level.

She also worked for the Tamar Valley AONB for six years as Project Manager. In that role she assisted in the devising and drafting of the Management Plan and helped with the community consultation and post-plan delivery, especially in the areas of land management and landscape monitoring.

She has two grown up daughters and lives on an unruly smallholding where she enjoys trying to grow vegetables, she also enjoys wild swimming and riding.

Ruth was co-opted to the Board in April 2021. She moved to Hillside Farm on Bryher in 2015 with her family. Ruth works alongside her husband, Graham, running Hillside Farm, paints watercolours inspired by the coast and sea around Bryher, enjoys wild swimming and is keen to explore the link between helping wildlife, successful farming and sustainability and agricultural policies.

Trustee: Emma Eberlein

Richard is a qualified chartered accountant with broad UK and international business experience at Finance Director and CFO level.  He was co-opted on to the Board in June 2024.   Richard's relationship with the Isles of Scilly goes back over 50 years when he visited annually as a young child.  More recently Richard has introduced his own family to the Islands and will be moving permanently to Tresco to live and work in 2024.  Richard looks forward to assisting  the Trust to manage its resources effectively to deliver on its objectives.

Bryony grew up in Scilly and moved back during 2020 to run the family guesthouse. Bryony has always had a passion for conservation and a keen interest in the complex socio-ecological systems islands maintain. She is now an Energy and Sustainability Advisor working for the Isles of Scilly Community Venture Organisation and a student at the Open University studying Environmental Science.