Biodiversity Summit: Nature positive pathways to 2030

Dr Gemma Harper OBE

CEO, JNCC Gemma is Chief Executive of the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), the UK’s statutory advisor on nature. She leads JNCC’s Together for Nature strategy, ensuring that the organisation’s statutory functions - providing trusted evidence, advising governments and supporting the UK’s international environmental commitments - translate into practical insight for decision-makers.

Kristian Teleki

CEO, Fauna & Flora Kristian is CEO of Fauna & Flora, the world's oldest international conservation charity. Prior to joining as CEO in 2023, Kristian was the Global Director of the Ocean programme at the World Resources Institute, where he also led the Ocean Action Agenda at the World Economic Forum and the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy. Kristian has had an impressive career in wildlife conservation; starting out in coral reef research, he’s since held several high-level roles in environmental and conservation organisations, including with the Prince of Wales’s International Sustainability Unit, Global Ocean Commission, and the UNEP – World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC).

Andrew Walton

Chief Sustainability Officer & Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Lloyds Banking Group Andrew joined Lloyds Banking Group as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer in December 2018. In October 2023, Andrew took on the additional role of Chief Sustainability Officer, responsible for shaping the Group’s approach to responsible business. In his time as Chief Sustainability Officer, Andrew has led key Group initiatives across social and environmental sustainability, from shaping the Group’s financial empowerment strategy and investing in Lloyds’ nature capability, to championing the Group’s call to build one million more social homes by 2030.

Victoria Brownlie MBE

Victoria Brownlie is Chief Policy & Sustainability Officer at the British Beauty Council, previously working as Director of Policy and Public Affairs at the National Hair and Beauty Federation. She has more than eighteen years of experience influencing government policy and lobbying across a variety of areas from the environment to equity, local government, construction, animal welfare and business.

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Harry Greenfield

Harry Greenfield is a Programme Manager at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), where he works with businesses, financial institutions and policymakers to accelerate the transition to a nature-positive economy. His work focuses on helping organisations move beyond ambition and develop practical approaches to embedding nature and biodiversity into business strategy, value chains and market systems. Harry's recent work has explored how nature-positive business models can be mainstreamed, and the coordination required across sectors, supply chains and institutions to enable their scale and impact. He has worked extensively on the commercial, governance and market mechanisms needed to align business success with the restoration and protection of nature, with a particular focus on food, agriculture and land-use systems.

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Ellen Williams

Senior Nature Markets and Investment Manager, Welsh Government Ellen Williams is Senior Nature Markets & Investment Manager at the Welsh Government, leading the nature finance programme and development of the first Nature Finance Strategy for Wales. Her work focuses on creating the policies and investment conditions needed to mobilise public, private and blended finance for nature recovery at scale. Ellen also serves on the BSI Nature Investment Standards Advisory Board, the UK Nature Markets Group and has established an international community of practice on nature finance policy.

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James Knightbridge

James is the Principal Account Lead for the Water Sector at Mott MacDonald. He is a specialist in environmental and social account management, stakeholder engagement, and strategic planning for major water and resource programmes.

Anne Reaney

Anne is Head of Origination at Rebalance Earth, the UK's first 'nature as infrastructure' investment manager, delivering resilience through nature. She works with partners and businesses to invest in nature-based projects that tackle risks such as flooding, water scarcity, and biodiversity loss. With over 18 years' experience spanning finance, ESG and climate tech, including scaling IHS Markit into a £40 billion business acquired by S&P Global, Anne brings deep commercial experience to a long-standing conviction: that since nature underpins economic growth, commercial rigour, financial innovation and nature restoration must combine to deliver value and resilience for people, businesses and the economy.

Gavin Edwards

Gavin is Executive Director at Nature Positive Initiative. He is a conservation and environment advocate with three decades of experience in pursuing and helping secure break-through solutions to the twin biodiversity and climate crises. He coordinates NPI’s policy, advocacy, high-level engagement, business, finance and civil society engagement. He has recently helped develop and launch the Nature Positive Initiative – a collaboration of 27 leading organizations who will drive alignment around the definition, integrity and use of the term ‘nature positive’ and support broader efforts to deliver nature-positive outcomes.

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Khadija Ali

Khadija Ali is the Group Director for Sustainability and Responsible Business at Lloyds Banking Group. At Lloyds she is responsible for the Group’s sustainability strategy and works in close collaboration across the Group’s business units and functions in deploying the strategy. Before joining Lloyds, Khadija was an Equity Partner at EY based in London. She was EY’s UK Climate Change and Sustainability Services Leader for Financial Services, where she built a market-leading practice in supporting a number of global financial institutions across both advisory and assurance services.

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Paul Harrison, UKBBF Chair

Paul recently stepped into his role as Chair of the UK Business and Biodiversity Forum (UKBBF), the leading network bringing together business, government, and finance to drive the UK's nature-positive transition. A conservation strategist by training, Paul brings over 25 years of international experience across biodiversity policy and conservation finance, including senior roles at the United Nations and advisory positions for Defra, UNDP, and the GEF.

Julia Baker

Julia Baker is Technical Director, Nature Services at Mott MacDonald, leading the development and delivery of nature‑based solutions and biodiversity strategies for infrastructure and development projects. She combines ecological science with engineering to restore habitats, enhance ecosystem services, and deliver climate‑resilient, multi‑benefit outcomes. Julia leads multidisciplinary teams, advises clients and policymakers on best practice, and mentors colleagues to embed biodiversity and community‑focused design across projects.

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Dr Mark Johnston

Mark is Director of the UK Business & Biodiversity Forum CIC. An ecologist by background and training with more than 35 years’ experience in the field. Mark in his day job is the Senior Sustainability Manager (Biodiversity) in the sustainability team at bp plc, as well as lead authors for the IPBES methodological assessment of the impact of businesses on biodiversity and board member of the Tandem Global/Wildlife Habitat Council.

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Edward Pollard

Edward is science and technical lead for Accounting for nature and is a world leading expert in the field of business and biodiversity, with over 20-years’ experience of integrating biodiversity within decision making and operations of many of the world’s largest companies. He is also a Director at the UKBBF.

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Tom Butterworth

Tom is Fellow & Director, Nature Lead at Arup, and has extensive experience in nature positive, natural capital and biodiversity assessments. He has delivered biodiversity and natural capital assessments across many high-profile projects, particularly in the energy, road, and rail sectors. He is also a Director at the UKBBF.

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