Our speakers

Martin has more than two decades’ experience in conceptualising and leading carbon credit, carbon finance and other environmental investments in the private and public sectors. Martin was appointed Chief Executive Officer on 1 May 2023, having served as Chief Investment Officer for the Nature Based Carbon Strategy since the firm’s inception. Before joining Climate Asset Management, Martin was a Partner at Pollination and part of the team finalising the joint venture partnership with HSBC. Martin’s previous experience includes leadership roles on climate and environmental investment products at the European Investment Bank and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. In his early career, Martin worked for the OECD and UNFCCC. Martin holds an M.A. from the University of Bonn and an MPA from Columbia University.

Teresa Dent has been the Chief Executive Officer of the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust since 2001, a charity whose remit is wildlife conservation with a special interest in game species. She is also a board member of the Marlborough Downs Nature Enhancement Partnership and a director of the Game and Wildlife Scottish Demonstration Farm.

Teresa is a fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. Previously in her career she was a partner with Strutt and Parker, working as a farming and business management consultant.

Group Procurement Director for the Morgan Sindall Group managing a supply chain of 5000+ businesses across all sectors, external spend profile of £3.0 billion. Sustainability Director responsible for both the strategy and implementation to ensure Morgan Sindall is a responsible business in all aspects of sustainability.

John is the Chief Commercial Officer at Kana, a market directory for nature-based carbon projects in the UK. John is an experienced financial trader and now land owner with a diversified regenerative agri-business.

James is Managing Agent at Cholmondeley Estate, looking after a portfolio of agricultural, residential, commercial and tourism interests.  He is a Board Member of the Environment Group chaired by Dieter Helm and is on the Business and Rural Economy Committee of the Country Land and Business Association.

William is a land manager and chartered surveyor specialising in natural capital. He’s involved in the design and delivery of landscape scale NbS projects through Revere, a partnership between the UK National Parks and Palladium, catalysing private investment into nature at scale. Before joining the National Park Partnership, he set up and led the natural capital service line at a national firm of rural property consultants.

William is based in Scotland, where alongside his work with Revere, he advises environmentally led private and institutional landowners on the restoration of their farms and estates through engagement with natural capital markets.

William’s work is closely aligned to Scotland’s Land Reform agenda, which has brought into sharp focus the need to make sure decisions over land use that impact local communities and economies are properly consulted on, and that the benefits generated through natural capital are distributed fairly. The lessons learnt can be applied across the UK.

Sarah Hendry is responsible for the strategic direction, organisation and smooth running of the CLA.

Before joining the CLA in 2018, she spent nearly 30 years as a UK government official working across national, EU and international policy. A senior Director in Defra and the Department of Health for twelve years, her experience covers a wide range of areas relevant to CLA members’ interests, including farming, environment, rural development, climate change, forestry, water and floods.

James Farrell is a Partner at Knight Frank and the Head of the Rural Consultancy business for the firm. James joined the partnership in 2021 and brings a wealth of experience to his role. Excited by the challenges of the post-Brexit era, James is committed to enhancing the lives of those he works with, shaping a future of shared growth, happiness and prosperity whilst ensuring that estates are not only relevant in this new era but also thrive into the 22nd century.

Nicholas Lyons joined Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York in London in 1982 then worked at Salomon Brothers and Lehman Brothers. He specialised in advising banks and insurance companies on mergers and acquisitions and raising capital.

He is currently taking a sabbatical as Chairman of Phoenix Group, the largest player in the UK retirement and long term savings industry. He sits on the boards of Convex Group, a specialty insurance underwriter and Miller Insurance Services, a London market insurance broker. He is a member of the Leadership Council of TheCityUK, the Advisory Board of the International Business & Diplomatic Exchange, the Association of British Insurers and the Chartered Insurance Institute. His City career has spanned over 40 years.

Senior Manager in PwC’s Sustainability team, specialising in Nature Finance and Policy for Financial Institutions and the Public Sector, alongside a focus on International Climate Negotiations.

Baroness Penn was appointed Treasury Lords Minister in the UK Government on 30 October 2022, having been Baroness in Waiting (Government whip) between 19 March 2020 and 20 September 2022.

She previously served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Theresa May from 2016 to 2019 and became the youngest member of the House of Lords when she joined the House on 21 October 2019. From 29 October 2019 to 21 April 2020, she was a member of the Lord’s Science and Technology Committee.

Graham has held a wide range of leadership roles during his 30+ year career, growing and investing in businesses in food and agricultural technologies, sustainable development, renewable energy, and rural land management. Graham is a partner with Greensphere Capital where his principal role is to lead their investment strategy in Nature Based Solutions.  Prior to this Graham founded the Wheatsheaf Group, part of the Grosvenor Estate, and led the business to become one of the leading, largest, and longest established international investment groups in the Food and Agritech sector.  Earlier Graham was responsible for the expansive rural land portfolio of The Co-operative Group, was a partner with a national land and farm management consultancy responsible for rural estates throughout Scotland and northern England and prior to this was an officer in the Royal Navy.

Tushita Ranchan is an internationally experienced financier, investor and executive with broad experience of serving on private and non-profit sector boards as executive and non-executive in the UK and overseas. She has deep knowledge of investing in large scale green energy projects and managing a technology manufacturing business. Previously, as a banker, she raised several billion dollars for leading infrastructure and energy projects globally. She has negotiated and advised on strategic deals and led complex operations with diverse teams. She also founded a non-profit organisation for youth volunteering. Tushita now teaches an elective course at select universities and invests in early stage start-ups based out of London.

Susannah Stock is a Director at the UK Infrastructure Bank. She was previously at Aviva, where she was responsible for the management of infrastructure debt strategies for specialist accounts. Prior to Aviva, Susannah was at Lloyds Bank, where she was Director, Project Finance focused on renewable energy projects. Before that, she worked in project finance for Financial Securities Assurance, Investec and Bank of America. During her career to date, Susannah has had deep experience of UK infrastructure projects across health, education and transport sectors. Susannah holds Engineering and Science degrees from the University of Auckland as well as a Masters of Engineering Science (Water) from the University of New South Wales.

Whitni was appointed head of the corporate finance team in January 2022. Previously she was a senior manager in the team, responsible for raising capital from a wide range of investors including institutional investors and individuals. She led the development and launch of the crowdfunding platform and managed it for several years. Whitni has worked on a broad range of capital raising and advisory mandates including raising the investment capital for the Wyre Catchment natural flood management project.

Whitni joined Triodos Bank in 2006 and first worked in the venture capital team making equity investments in ethical businesses and helping to grow the bank’s presence in the social investment market.

Whitni started her career at JP Morgan where she worked for six years in New York and London structuring debt for leveraged buy-outs, before heading up the access to finance team at the think tank New Economics Foundation.

Rachel joined the Aldersgate Group from KPMG, where she advised major UK and global clients on harnessing the opportunities presented by the transition to net zero. Prior to that, Rachel held senior roles in several Government departments driving forward work on climate, energy and the environment. She has also acted as Manager Director at Sandbag, a climate thinktank, and spent a year in Tesco’s corporate affairs team. Throughout her career, Rachel has demonstrated interest in the opportunity for businesses to deliver meaningful, positive impact and in the vital importance of well-designed regulation in providing them with a level playing field.

As Group Chief Sustainability Officer, Andy Brown works with the Anglian Water’s board to oversee the delivery of their purpose, “to bring environmental and social prosperity to the region we serve through our commitment to Love Every Drop”. He has worked for over 10 years embedding sustainability & purpose throughout the business, overseeing the development of their six capitals framework and the Purpose Scorecard. He is the sponsor of their Sustainability Centre of Excellence and is working with their Group companies develop their sustainability frameworks.

Having worked in sustainability for the past 20 years he has led in the areas of natural environment, climate change adaptation and now sustainability & purpose. He has worked with BSI to develop PAS 808 Purpose Driven Organisations and now chairs BSI National Group on this subject. He is currently a member of Business in the Community’s Place Taskforce and a member of the Regional Leadership Board. He is an external advisor and Chair of Tarmac’s Sustainability Panel. In 2021 and 2022 he was also appointed as a Visting Fellow of Practice for the Government Outcomes Lab based at the Blavatnik School of Government in the University of Oxford focusing on place-based regeneration and responsible business.

Georgie Nelson is Head of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) for abrdn’s real estate investments business covering over £43 billion* of AUM globally. She leads on the ESG strategy and integration for abrdn’s real estate investments with a specialist expertise in climate change and biodiversity. Previous to abrdn, Georgie was a consultant supporting investors, academic institutes and corporates on their sustainability strategies.

Georgie sits on numerous expert industry working groups both in the UK and globally including the UK Financial Institutions for Nature Group launched by the Green Finance Institute’s Nature Programme (GFI Hive), the Nature Finance Certification Alliance (NFCA), the British Property Federation (BPF), the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB), the Association of Real Estate Funds (AREF) and the Better Buildings Partnership (BBP) where she co-chairs the European Investments Working Group. She is also a member of the technical standards board at Wilder Carbon. She holds a BSc in Biology and an MSc in Climate Change and Development.

*as at 31 December 2022

I have worked on environmental issues in Scotland for over 30 years, starting as an ornithologist and then working on a wide range of nature restoration and community projects across the country. Since 2020 I have been Head of Natural Capital Policy in Scottish Government where I work as part of a cross-sector partnership taking forward our vision for a values-led high integrity market for responsible private investment in natural capital.