
BOARD OF TRUSTEES

CHRIS BAINES
PRESIDENT
Chris Baines trained as a landscape architect. He is one of the UK’s leading independent environmentalists and an award-winning writer and broadcaster. He is best known as a champion of urban nature and wildlife gardening. He is self-employed and works as an adviser to central and local government and to a number of corporate clients in the water, financial management and urban regeneration industries.
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Chris currently chairs the stakeholder advisory panels for ecological mitigation of the Thames Tideway Tunnel and the National Grid’s Visual Impact Provision. He also advises developer Lendlease on green infrastructure aspects of urban regeneration in Elephant and Castle. He is an adviser to the International Green Pilgrimage Network and chairs the Wyre Forest Landscape Partnership in the West Midlands.
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Chris is Honorary President of the Thames Estuary Partnership, the Essex Wildlife Trust and the Sustainable Building Association (AECB), a Vice President of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts and an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management.
VICTORIA BORWICK
CHAIR
Victoria previously served as Deputy Mayor of London and as the MP for Kensington. She also worked for the P&O Group for over ten years.
She has a well-deserved reputation for forging creative links across the public, corporate, and charitable sectors, and she knows London and its famous river particularly well.


ANGELA GORMAN
VICE CHAIR
Angela has worked in the environment sector for almost 20 years, in conservation, regeneration, fundraising and environmental planning. Having joined the Environment Agency (EA) in 2012 she worked across south London and the Thames Estuary as a Catchment Coordinator and supported a range of partners in their efforts to protect and improve river catchments.
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Angela now works in the EA’s National Climate Change and Energy team, working internally and with partners such as Defra, supporting their aims to adapt to a changing climate and producing a new National Adaptation Programme for 2018-2023.
PHIL STRIDE
Phil Stride previously served as Strategic Projects Director at Tideway, a position he held for nearly ten years. Tideway was created to deliver the Thames Tideway Tunnel, the largest privately financed infrastructure project in Europe.
Phil is a civil engineer by trade and has a wealth of experience managing both wastewater and clean water projects in the UK and internationally. He is a Fellow of both the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

INGRID CHUDLEIGH
Ingrid has worked in the environment sector in both Australia and the UK for nearly 20 years. Since joining Natural England’s predecessor English Nature in 2005, Ingrid has worked with many stakeholders and partners from across the Greater Thames Estuary, with a focus on coastal and marine planning and management.
Ingrid currently works in Natural England’s national Planning and Net Gain team, leading on Net Gain local implementation.

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JOHN MEEHAN
John is a specialist in landscape, green infrastructure, coastal issues, climate change and energy. He is the Acting Head of Environment and Flood Management for Essex County Council. He believes that green spaces are for people, which is reflected in his work on opening up new green spaces in South Essex, including over 1000 hectares of new forest areas and 2000 hectares of marshland.
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Recently John has led the Thames Estuary path project creating a 29-mile path link the marshes, the estuary and 6 train stations. As an effective fundraiser, John has raised more the £23 million for environmental projects in Essex from government, the EU, Lottery and charitable trusts.
DR JAMES PASKINS
James Paskins works for the Office of the Vice-Provost (Research) at University College London (UCL). Major research projects include the UCL Grand Challenge of Sustainable Cities, the UCL London Agenda and the development of the UCL Environment Research Domain.
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James facilitates cross-disciplinary research that addresses complex issues that relate to the environment and urban sustainability, including transport, energy, health, water, resources and green spaces. He graduated from the University of Westminster in 2000 with a first class degree in Psychology, and went on to complete a PhD at UCL.


ALAN JOHNSON
Alan works for the Royal Society for the Projection of Birds (RSPB), and represents the interests of the RSPB regarding priority habitat areas located adjacent to and on the Thames Estuary.
PENELOPE MCNEILE
Penelope is currently a consultant raising finance for a major entertainment resort as well as helping charities with fundraising and support development. She previously led business development for a number of professional bodies, most recently the Institution of Civil Engineers. Before that she worked in three London universities in marketing roles.
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She has an MBA with distinction from Cass Business School and a first degree from Cambridge. Her early career was in book publishing.


ALISTAIR GALE
Alistair Gale joined the Port of London Authority (PLA) as Director of Corporate Affairs in August 2006. He has worked in communications and community relations for over two decades and has a background in the shipping and ports industry, having worked for the Japan Ship Centre and Associated British Ports Holdings in the mid-1990s. In 1997 he joined the UK’s largest cement maker, Blue Circle Cement, and set up the in-house communications operation. The parent company, Blue Circle Industries, was taken over by French building materials group, Lafarge in 2001.
Alistair remained with the organisation as PR & Communications Manager for Lafarge’s UK cement operations until leaving to join the PLA. At the PLA Alistair leads on: all external and internal communications; and strategy, including the Thames Vision.
AMRIT GHOSE
Amrit is National Framework Director for Waterman Infrastructure & Environment, providing strategic leadership for numerous public sector frameworks. He is responsible for business development, business planning and forward vision, technical and commercial performance and overseeing external activities and communications.
Amrit has over 30 years’ experience of civil engineering design & construction and is a national expert on asset management, having co-authored numerous national guides and standards. His has managed strategic and high-volume Frameworks in the Greater London area, as well as for County Councils. Amrit is an advocate of sustainable construction, carbon reduction and biodiversity net gain. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Fellow of Chartered Institute of Highways & Transportation and a Chartered Environmentalist.


JOHN EDWARDS
From New Zealand, John was an engineer for 37 years in the Far and the Middle East and became a resident in London in 2014.
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His family home is now in the Square Mile and is a Victorian warehouse conversion (which was his full-time job for the 4-year self-build renovation). This involvement with the City of London Corporation was a positive experience, inspiring John to run for election as an Independent Councillor.
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John is now on several committees including Port Health and Environmental Services which introduced him to the Thames Estuary Partnership.