Mamta Patel – Chair
Mamta Patel has reported on environmental and social issues for nearly 30 years with a career covering a range of mainstream and specialist publications. Starting professional life with a degree in chemistry and a passion for informed journalism, she became Corporate Editor for the UK’s best known environmental journal for professionals, The ENDS Report, for 14 years and helped launch its sister publication ENDS Europe.
She co-founded Chemical Watch in 2007 – a high growth digital B2B publication providing an international business audience with essential intelligence on regulatory compliance and broader chemicals risk management issues. Upon the successful sale of this business in 2020, she is now serving on a select number of boards working with businesses and charities on membership development, diversity and inclusion, social mobility and sustainability issues.
Justin Wilkes – Vice Chair
Justin Wilkes is Executive Director of ECOS – Environmental Coalition on Standards – a position he has held since 2019. As Executive Director Justin has focused on the leadership, strategic development, impact, and growth of the organisation. Prior to that Justin was Deputy Director of ECOS.
Justin has 25 years of professional experience impacting national, European and global policies, having worked on key environment, climate, energy and trade policy developments during this time. During his career Justin has held numerous positions for a European industry association promoting renewable energy, WWF where he worked on the agreement and implementation of the REACH regulation, and for a member of the European Parliament. He has a Master’s degree in International Studies (Diplomacy), and is a joint Irish/UK national.
Leslie Jones, OBE – Treasurer
Leslie Jones is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance, a Fellow of the Institute of Certified Accountants and a Member of the Institute of Water and Environment Managers. He had a long career in the water industry, including the National Rivers Authority before joining WWF-UK as Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Finance.
Les now provides consultancy to many charities and is Honorary Treasurer to several, including the Thames River Trust and the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. He is also on the Board of the North and West Reading Clinical Commissioning Group.
Colin Church
Colin is the Chief Executive of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, the global network for the materials cycle. Previously, Colin spent 21 years in the UK Civil Service in a range of roles, including leading negotiation of the EU chemicals regime REACH up to its substantive agreement in the UK Presidency in 2005. That year he led the EU delegation in international negotiations at the Stockholm and Rotterdam Convention Conferences of the Parties and the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM) preparatory discussions.
He has spent time in the Secretariat of the EU Council of Ministers in Brussels, the UK Cabinet Office and on a range of economic and environmental policy areas.
Dorothée Irving
Dorothée Irving’s career as a senior Grantmaker spans twenty years, during which she has worked for a range of UK and international funders, including Rothschild Foundation Hanadiv Europe and Paul Hamlyn Foundation, on a range of programmes such as culture and heritage, education and social justice. As Head of Grants at John Ellerman Foundation she managed all of the Trust’s grant making programmes across three funding streams – arts, environment and social action.
Dorothée has always had a strong personal connection with the natural environment, starting with a volunteering role for Greenpeace in Belgium as a student. Through her work as a Grantmaker and seeing first-hand the impact of environmental NGOs in the UK and globally, this interest has taken on a more professional focus. She is a Board member of the Conservative Environment Network, an independent forum for conservatives in the UK and around the world who support net zero, nature restoration and resource security.
Ariadna Rodrigo
Ariadna Rodrigo is a senior campaigner at Greenpeace’s EU Unit in Brussels, where she has worked on a variety of campaigns. Before that, Ariadna worked on waste and resources policy for over a decade, for NGOs and UK government agencies. She has over 10 years of experience in advocacy, campaign and policy development at the EU level, where she has worked on campaigns ranging from plastics to sustainable finance for NGOs and a political party. Ariadna has published book reviews and articles in political magazines, such as Mediterranean Politics.
