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Sir David Attenborough OM FRS is a broadcaster and naturalist. His career as the face and voice of natural history programmes has spanned more than 60 years. He is best known for writing and presenting the nine Life series, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit. He is also a former senior manager at the BBC, having served as controller of BBC Two and director of programming for BBC Television in the 1960s and 1970s.

Sir David’s long collaboration with the BBC Natural History Unit includes many groundbreaking nature documentaries: The Blue Planet (2001), the unit's first comprehensive series on marine life; Planet Earth (2006), the biggest nature documentary ever made for television and the first in high definition; Life (2009), focusing on extraordinary animal behaviour; The Frozen Planet (2011), a major series on the natural history of the polar regions, and the epic Africa (2013). More recently he has been collaborating with Sky, working on programmes for its 3D network including Flying Monsters 3D (2010); Kingdom of Plants 3D (2011); and Galapagos 3D (2012). His most recent project for the BBC is Blue Planet II, the long-awaited and spectacular follow-up to his earlier documentary.

A number of Sir David’s documentaries have adopted a more overtly environmentalist stance. In State of the Planet (2000), he assessed the impact of man's activities on the natural world, while The Truth about Climate Change (2006) examined global warming. He also contributed a programme highlighting the plight of endangered species to the BBC's Saving Planet Earth project in 2007, the 50th anniversary of the Natural History Unit.

Sir David became a member of Fauna & Flora in 1959 and has been a vice-president since July 1979. In that time he has offered enormous support to the organisation and attended numerous events, including our centenary celebrations in 2003 and our 110th anniversary event in 2013 during which he was interviewed by Radio 4’s Libby Purves on the challenges of conservation for the future.

Rove McManus started his entertainment career as a stand-up comedian, going on to become Australia’s most successful talk show host and one of its biggest producers of entertainment television, as well as being a radio presenter and media personality. He is a three-time recipient of Australia’s most prestigious television, award, the Gold Logie for Most Popular Personality.

Rove has a genuine passion for wildlife conservation and has visited a number of our project sites and has hosted Fauna & Flora events in Australia since he became a vice-president in 2008.

Georgina Bloomberg is a professional equestrian, philanthropist, published author and passionate animal activist. In addition to a successful competitive show jumping career, Georgina serves on the Board of Directors of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and is Chair of Humane Generation New York, a program operated by HSUS that seeks to cultivate the engagement of young leaders with humane work. She is also on the board of the Emma and Georgina Bloomberg Foundation, the Bloomberg Family Foundation, the American Museum of Natural History, the Hampton Classic Horse Show, and the board of Trustees of the United States Equestrian Team. Additionally, she serves as Vice President of Animal Aid USA and an EQUUStar for the EQUUS Foundation. In 2006, she founded The Rider’s Closet to provide new and gently used riding attire to equestrians in need so they may pursue their horsemanship dreams at any age and at every level. Now a program of the EQUUS Foundation, The Rider’s Closet accepts riding apparel donations from around the U.S. and shares them free of charge with equine charities, scholastic riding programs, pony clubs, equestrian camp programs and individual riders in need. Most recently, she became an ambassador for One Drop, an organization that aims to ensure sustainable access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene for the most vulnerable communities through innovative partnerships, creativity and the power of art. Georgina, her fiancé, their four children, and their large four-legged family of rescue animals split their time between homes in New York City and North Salem, New York, as well as South Florida.

Conservationist and TV personality Giles Clark is an Ambassador for the Big Cat Sanctuary in Kent after having been, until recently, its Director. The Sanctuary offers a home to animals that do not have the opportunity to be released into the wild, and helps support and run educational and conservation projects around the world. Having worked with big cats in captivity since leaving school, Giles is passionate about conservation and dedicates a large amount of his personal time to saving the species in the wild. His career began at a small UK zoo, Paradise Wildlife Park and prior to his current position, he was Head Tigers and Conservation Manager at Australia Zoo, Queensland. During his 13 years at the Zoo, Giles was pivotal in setting up and managing their various partnerships worldwide with conservation organisations, including their significant annual grants to Fauna & Flora for tiger and rhino work, among other species. Giles has also been a contributor to numerous mainstream TV and radio programmes, working with the BBC’s Natural History Unit on the popular About the House series. His unfaltering drive and infectious enthusiasm inspire others to join him on his mission to make a difference in helping save some of the planet’s most endangered cats from extinction. Giles became a vice-president in 2018.

Justin Mundy is a co-founder of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) Partners, Chair of its Board of Directors and Head of Impact. He oversees the firm’s work on impact and sustainability, ensuring these goals are integrated into all investment strategies.

Justin has over thirty years of experience working on development, climate change, environment and energy issues and has done so at senior levels within the public, multilateral, private and NGO sectors. Formerly the Director of The Prince of Wales’s International Sustainability Unit (ISU), he is currently, in addition to his role at SLM Partners, a Senior Adviser to the World Bank, Strategic Adviser to Willis Towers Watson, a Distinguished Fellow at the World Resources Institute and is a trustee of WWF-UK. Prior to the ISU, in the private sector, he was a Managing Director at Climate Change Capital Limited, a Senior Consultant on climate change to Deutsche Bank Global Markets, a Director of Aon Carbon and a founder of ForestRe.

In the public sector, Justin was an Adviser to the UK Government on Russia, Energy and Climate issues and was the principal architect of the Clean Energy Investment Framework under the Gleneagles’ G8 Action Plan as well as a member of the UK Government’s Sustainable Energy Policy Advisory Board. During the UNFCCC COP6 and COP7 he was appointed Adviser to the European Commission on EU-Russia coordination. He has carried out extensive work on forest and landscape management in Africa, Asia and South America, and during the 1990s was the Manager of the World Bank’s environmental and forestry programmes in Russia and Central Asia.

Justin was elected as a vice-president in 2018.

Andrew Sykes joined FFI’s Council of Trustees as Treasurer in 2005 and served as Chairman from 2007 – 2020. He has worked in the financial services industry since 1978, and is currently Senior Independent Director of Intermediate Capital Group plc. He served previously as Chairman of Smith & Williamson from 2013 to 2020, and was a director of Schroders plc from 1998 to 2004. He is Sub Warden of Winchester College, and an external member of the investment committee of Nuffield College, Oxford.

Edward van Cutsem is Managing Director, BlackRock Family Office Partners, an American multinational investment management corporation and the world's largest asset manager. Since 1996 he has also been a Director of ECOspray, which is committed to the advancement of ethical and sustainable food production through the scientific development of naturally based pesticides and decision support systems.

Edward is involved with work at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya, the Game Conservancy and Wildlife Trust and the building of the new Defence and National Rehabilitation Clinic, whilst his wife, Lady Tamara Grosvenor is interested in charities supporting stray dogs, medical dogs and orangutan conservation. The van Cutsems reside in Cheshire and joined FFI's Conservation Circle in 2010. Edward was elected to Council in 2012 and re-elected in 2016.

Richard Walker OBE is Executive Chairman of Iceland Foods, Chairman of Bywater Properties & Chairman of the Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation. Richard graduated in geography, qualified as a chartered surveyor and developed his own property businesses in Poland and the UK before joining Iceland Foods (the company founded by his parents Malcolm and Rhianydd in 1970) in 2012. He spent a year as a shelf-stacker and cashier before becoming an Iceland store manager and then moving to head office, where he took up the role of Managing Director in 2018, becoming Executive Chairman in January 2023.

Richard is a committed environmentalist who has led all Iceland’s recent sustainability initiatives including the removal of palm oil from the company’s own label range in 2018, its pledge to eliminate plastic packaging from the Iceland own label range, the publication of the full plastic footprint of the business, and its pledge to achieve Net Zero carbon in its operations by 2040. Bywater Properties has recently concluded a new joint venture agreement with Sumitomo Forestry to drive the adoption of low carbon property development and refurbishment across Europe.

In addition to his role as Chairman of the Iceland Foods Charitable Foundation, Richard is an Ambassador for the Wildlife Trusts and Alzheimer’s Research UK, and Patron of the Cheshire Wildlife Trust. He is also a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, a member of The Prime Minister’s Business Council, and a regular panellist on shows such as BBC1’s Question Time and Radio Four’s Any Questions. His first book The Green Grocer was published in 2021. Richard was appointed OBE for services to business and the environment in the late Queen’s Birthday Honours list for 2022. He holds an honorary doctorate in science from the University of Bedfordshire and is an honorary fellow of University College London.

Outside family and business, Richard’s greatest passions are trail running, skiing, surfing and climbing. In April 2023, he embarked on a successful ascent of Mount Everest with the famous climber Kenton Cool, aiming to raise over £1m to help fund the creation of the world’s first Rare Dementia Support Centre. Richard recently stood down from Council having served five years as a Fauna & Flora trustee.

Gareth Rhys Williams has run a number of global businesses, in particular Vitec Group plc, the supplier of products and services to the worldwide entertainment and photographic industries, Capital Safety Group Ltd, the supplier of equipment to the oil/gas industry, and Charter International, the FTSE250 welding and industrial fans group. His most recent CEO role was at PHS Group, where he led the financial restructuring and operational turnaround, stepping down in December 2014. He was appointed as Government Chief Commercial Officer in March 2016.

Married with three young children, Sir Gareth lives in London. He enjoys travel and all aspects of the natural world and has been an attendee at FFI's Conservation Circle events. Sir Gareth's grandfather, the 1st Baronet, Sir Rhys Rhys-Williams was present at the very first meeting of the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire in 1903 and went on to serve for a number of years as the Honorary Secretary of the Society. Gareth was elected to Council in 2012, re-elected in 2016 and is a member of the Audit and Nominations Committee.

The Rt Hon Baroness Young of Old Scone is a member of the House of Lords with special interests in the environment, agriculture, natural resources and climate change.

Barbara has been Chair of the Woodland Trust since 2016. She has also been Chair of the Royal Veterinary College since 2019, and is a member of the Commission on Food, Farming and the Countryside. Until 2020, Barbara was Chancellor of Cranfield University for ten years. Her other voluntary positions include honorary president of the South Georgia Heritage Trust and vice president of RSPB and BirdLife International. Baroness Young has formerly held a variety of environmental leadership roles, including chief executive of RSPB, chair of English Nature and chief executive of the Environment Agency. She also held leadership positions in health and social care, including the Care Quality Commission and Diabetes UK. Other posts she has held include vice chairman of the BBC and non-executive director of AWG plc.

Baroness Young has been a Fauna & Flora vice-president since 1998.

Jochen Zietz is the Founder of The Long Run, one of the world’s largest conservation alliances preserving 13 million acres of wilderness, and Co-Founder and Co-Chair of The B Team, a not-for-profit initiative formed by a global group of business leaders to catalyse a better way of doing business, for the wellbeing of people and the planet.

Jochen served 18 years as Chairman and CEO at PUMA, the multinational sportswear manufacturer, where he launched a long-term sustainability program and developed the first-ever Environmental Profit & Loss Account. Zeitz is now the Chairman, President and CEO of Harley-Davidson, having served as a Board member since 2007 and as Chair of its Sustainability Committee since its inception in 2011.

In Africa, Jochen is the owner of Segera, a neighbouring conservancy to Ol Pejeta (OPC) in Laikipia, Kenya, and home to the award-winning sustainable luxury Segera Retreat. In 2009, Jochen was made an Honorary Warden of Kenya by the Kenya Wildlife Service. In September 2017, together with his partners at the V&A Waterfront, Jochen opened the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town, South Africa. Jochen founded the not-for-profit Zeitz Foundation for Intercultural Ecosphere Safety in 2008. The mission of the Foundation is to create and support projects promoting an inclusive, holistic paradigm of conservation that enhances livelihoods and fosters intercultural dialogue while achieving long-lasting positive impact and sustainability. Jochen became a Fauna & Flora vice-president in 2018.

Twenty-five-year-old Agustin is a professional polo athlete, activist, and conservation advocate. He has represented the US team twice, most recently winning the silver medal in the FIP World Cup. Growing up in a family surrounded by animals, he credits his mother for his passion for conservation and animal welfare. As an activist and conservation supporter, he plans to use his platform to raise awareness in this critical time as an Ambassador for Fauna & Flora. He has dedicated his career and personal life to leaving the world a better place.

McLain Ward is a renowned showjumper who has competed in 5 Olympic games and won gold medals in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, as well as silver medals in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. He was introduced to riding before he could walk and earned the nickname “The Kid” after winning the United States Equestrian Team Medal Finals and the USET Talent Derby at age 14. McLain has won numerous competitions, including the Grand Prix of Devon, the World Cup Final, and the Spruce Meadows Masters. He was also ranked #1 in the Longines FEI world rankings in April 2017.

In addition to his successful career as a showjumper, McLain is also an advocate for conservation efforts. He recently joined Fauna & Flora as a rider ambassador, using his platform to bring awareness to important conservation issues. Through his partnership with Fauna & Flora, McLain hopes to inspire others to take action and protect the planet’s wildlife and natural resources for future generations. McLain and his wife, Lauren, who is also a competitor, live in upstate New York with their two daughters.