CCI Conservation Seminar: Craig Bennett, The Wildlife Trusts
"The Wildlife Trusts: What’s our strategy for addressing the nature and climate crisis?"
1st November 2023
16:00 to 17:00
Main Seminar Room, David Attenborough Building
Refreshments will follow in the DAB Common Room
Craig will give a high level overview of the work and scope of The Wildlife Trusts. The Trusts' very local ‘on the ground’ structure and lack of international work means they are not as well known to people in the CCI as they should be, and so Craig will give a basic overview of the Trusts' strategy and approach.
Craig is Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts. He has been described as “one of the country’s top environmental campaigners”, by The Guardian as “the very model of a modern eco-general” and was recently included in The Sunday Times Green Power List of the UK’s top 20 environmentalists. The Wildlife Trusts are one of the largest landowners in the UK with more than 920,000 members and 35,000 volunteers. They are working in the heart of local communities to help nature recover and to ensure that is nature is part of everyone’s lives. Since becoming chief executive in 2020, Craig has spearheaded plans to protect 30% of UK land and sea for nature by 2030.
Biography for Craig Bennett (September 2022)
Chief Executive, The Wildlife Trusts
Craig is Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts. He has been described as “one of the country’s top environmental campaigners”, by The Guardian as “the very model of a modern eco-general” and was recently included in The Sunday Times Green Power List of the UK’s top 20 environmentalists.
The Wildlife Trusts are one of the largest landowners in the UK with more than 920,000 members and 35,000 volunteers. They are working in the heart of local communities to help nature recover and to ensure that is nature is part of everyone’s lives. Since becoming chief executive in 2020, Craig has spearheaded plans to protect 30% of UK land and sea for nature by 2030.
Craig was formerly CEO of Friends of the Earth where he refocussed the organisation to empower communities to take action on the climate and ecological crises, resulting in a step change in the scale and impact of the movement, with over 200 new Friends of the Earth community groups set up during his tenure. He also led the organisation to numerous campaign victories including on bees, fracking and against the expansion of Heathrow Airport.
Earlier in his career, Craig was Deputy Director at The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), and Director of The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change (from 2007 to 2010) which he transformed into one of the most progressive business voices on the international climate change agenda.
Craig has twenty years’ experience of designing and contributing to executive education and leadership programmes at numerous universities and business schools around the world including the Judge Business School, London Business School, Duke CE, and many others.
He also has a long history of providing advice and constructive challenge direct to CEOs and company boards. He is currently Chair of the Independent Challenge Group for Anglian Water, and a member of the Innovation Lab for Marks and Spencer plc. He was previously a member of the Net Positive Board for Kingfisher plc.
He is Honorary Professor of Sustainability and Innovation at Alliance Manchester Business School, an Associate Fellow of Homerton College (Cambridge), a Senior Associate of The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and a Policy Fellow of The Centre for Science and Policy at The University of Cambridge. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Leadership Fellow at St. Georges House, Windsor Castle.
He has a BSc (Hons) in Human and Physical Geography from The University of Reading and an MSc in Biodiversity Conservation from University College London, and Honorary Doctoral degrees from University College of Estate Management (UCEM), and Anglian Ruskin University (ARU).
He is also a judge on The Wainwright Book Prize, a Trustee of the think-tank Green Alliance. and an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM). He regularly appears in the print and broadcast media.
Twitter/X: @CraigBennett3
Instagram: @craigbennett3
Linked-In: www.linkedin.com/in/craig-bennett3
Please note: Craig does not accept speaking invites that would result in an all-male panel.