Sharon Darcy – Chair
Sharon is a Non-Executive Director of Portsmouth Water and Chair of the Linear Infrastructure Planning Panel. Until 2022, she was CEO of the think tank and charity Sustainability First, which works in the energy and water sectors on social and environmental issues. A qualified accountant with over 20 years of Board experience, Sharon has extensive experience in regulation and consumer policy development and was a previous Council member of Which?
Geoff Lane
Geoff retired from his role as a Partner with PwC in June 2019 after 35 years advising UK and international businesses, governments and NGOs on environmental and sustainable development issues. He worked at Board and Executive level on a wide range of projects including strategy and policy, operations and supply chain management, governance, risk and compliance, transaction support, and impact measurement.
Geoff has worked in over 45 countries globally and represented PwC in a number of industry bodies including Business in the Community, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and Accounting for Sustainability. Prior to working with PwC, Geoff was Head of Environmental Policy at the Confederation of British Industry.
Geoff is currently a trustee with Crossroads Care Richmond & Kingston and CoachBright, and was Trustee and Vice Chair with Earthwatch Europe from 2015 to 2024. He has a BSc in Biology and an MSc in Environmental Technology.
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.
Lisa Sharples
Lisa is Associate Director of People & Transformation at the Woodland Trust. Following an early career as a business consultant, Lisa became Knowledge Manager at the Environment Agency. She worked on the establishment of a national customer contact centre as well as the introduction of agricultural waste management regulations with Defra and the National Farmers’ Union.
A member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development with almost a decade of charity Board experience, Lisa has run her own consultancy business in organisational development and held senior HR roles across the public sector.
Gareth Simkins
Gareth is Senior Communications Adviser for the trade association Solar Energy UK, acting as spokesperson and media liaison for the solar energy and battery energy storage sectors.
He began his career as an environmental consultant, joining ENDS in 2005 and spending 16 years there, founding ENDS Waste & Bioenergy in 2012 and ending as senior writer and legal editor of The ENDS Report in 2022. His specialities included industrial regulation, air quality, industrial decarbonisation and chemicals management, which led him to investigate the UK’s Furniture Regulations. He was so shocked by what he found that it led him to engineer a parliamentary inquiry to force reform, and continues to campaign on the use of toxic flame retardants in furniture.
Jo Walton
Jo has worked in environmental communications for 30 years. Since 2005 she has played a key role in the development and growth of UK-based climate solutions charity, Ashden.
As Ashden’s Director of Communications and People, Jo has designed and delivered 18 annual awards ceremonies in London, Nairobi, and COP26 in Glasgow, celebrating hundreds of winners from across the UK and Global South. She heads up a communications team expert in storytelling and promoting climate solutions to targeted audiences.
An established member of the Executive Management Team, Jo has played a key role in managing the development and growth of Ashden, including the successful expansion of the team to more than double in size in 2023.
With 30 years’ experience working with charity boards as an executive, since 2017 Jo has served as a trustee for UK environmental charity, Bioregional, bringing extensive experience of charity governance.
Catherine Weller
Catherine is currently Director of the Policy team at Fauna & Flora, an international conservation charity. Her role includes supporting colleagues advocating in national and international policy spaces to put nature at the heart of decision-making. At the start of her career Catherine practised law at an international law firm, advising numerous clients on the (then very new) REACH Regulation.
Subsequently, Catherine became a Head of Programme at the environmental law NGO ClientEarth, where she led a high-achieving multi-jurisdictional team focused on advocacy to policymakers around protected areas, species management, sustainable fisheries, plastics, and chemicals regulation.
Andrew Wright
Andrew is the Director of Lund Trust, a grant making funder that aims to green people’s lives in the UK. He was previously Chief Operating Officer of Arcadia, Lund Trust’s sister charity that helps people worldwide to record cultural heritage, to conserve and restore nature, and to promote open access to knowledge.
Andrew has 15 years’ experience in the charity sector, including roles with Cripplegate Foundation and Islington Giving, which provide funding to address poverty and inequality in Islington, and with The Passage, a homelessness charity in Westminster. He was also previously a trustee, with five years as Chair, of SLOW, a charity that supports bereaved parents and siblings. Andrew has an MSc in Philanthropy, Grant Making, and Social Investment.
Rachel Yoxen
Rachel is the Chief Financial Officer for TM Forum. A qualified accountant, Rachel has over 25 years’ experience of working in industry and the not-for-profit sector, operating on both a national and international level.
Mike Walker
Mike has been a strategy consultant to environmental NGOs, coalitions, and philanthropy for over ten years. He is a big fan of robust strategies and the corresponding strategies to see them succeed. He has over 25 years of experience working with and for civil society, globally, and at the European level. He has learnt that there is always a win to be described and secured, and that success is defined by the people involved.
Saskia van Bergen
Saskia is a Free Range Chemist at H2L Consulting in the Netherlands, where she works to advance the adoption of green chemistry and safer alternatives. Previously, Saskia worked as the Safer Chemist Lead at the Washington State Department of Ecology where her focus was to strategically build a strong and vibrant safer chemistry program in the state. In this capacity, she worked with regional and national partners to develop, support and sustain green chemistry, safer alternative and toxic chemical reduction efforts.
Saskia has experience in alternatives assessment, chemical policy, curriculum development, training, and analytical chemistry. She holds a BA in Chemistry from Vassar College, an MS in Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry from the University of California, Davis, and a certificate in green chemistry from UC Berkeley Extension.
