Meet the core team
Championing a principled, radical and innovative agenda for lasting change, the Founder (and Trustee) Mark Southwood has spent nearly 40 years working in the environment and planning arena and is very aware of the key challenges for sustainability. His father, the eminent biologist Sir Richard Southwood, who Chaired the Royal Commission of Environmental Pollution and was also involved in the first UK Roundtable on sustainability.
The Foundation benefits from the experience and expertise of a network of innovators, policy influencers, academics and industry specialists who share a common purpose of achieving meaningful change for the benefit of the public.
Getting there won’t be easy, but we know we need to cooperate like never before. We believe a sustainable future is not only reliant on new technologies, however smart they may be, but will also require a deep understanding and appreciation of nature and natural processes, collective intelligence, collaborative action and unlimited creativity.
Trustees

Mark has over 40 years’ experience in the environmental field and related areas including sustainability and planning.
He has developed environmental policy and strategy for many in the private and public sectors and has led and reviewed numerous research projects and programmes. He has served on a range of Professional and European Committees.
Mark founded Temple in 1997 and has also worked as a Director of SECBE (South East Construction Built Environment), NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) – Innovation Advisory Board and was on the Ceequal Board (CIRIA).
Mark is passionate about delivering meaningful change to deliver on sustainability, hence the reason for setting up TSF.

John is a Chartered Civil and Structural Engineer. He served as a Director at Arup for 20 years and is now a Senior Consultant. He has worked in the UK and Internationally.
His recent work has focused on major infrastructure projects including large stations in London. He is particularly interested in how these major projects shape cities and communities, and how they can be developed sustainably for long-term benefit.

With a masters degree in town planning, Michelle started her career as a local authority planning officer in London. She then moved into grant-giving and project management for the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF), the largest dedicated grant funder of the UK’s heritage.
She now has more than 20 years’ experience through a range of leadership roles and is currently responsible for all the Fund’s grant-giving activity in London and the South of England. She leads a talented and committed team to distribute over £90m each year and oversee more than 700 heritage projects being delivered by charitable organisations of all sizes.
Michelle passionately believes that, by bringing talented people together to collaborate and innovate, we can tackle even the toughest challenges and threats to our biodiversity and natural environment.

Ben is an experienced senior manager and strategy advisor specialising in sustainable development and climate change. He has spent nearly 20 years, leading teams advising on the integration of sustainability into different parts of the economy, including senior roles in consultancy such as UK Climate Change & Sustainability Director for Built Environment Consultancy Arcadis and in the public sector as Head of Strategic Funding for the European Commission funded, EIT Climate-KIC. He brings a combination of commercial, leadership and technical expertise.
Ben is currently an independent advisor, working with organisations to promote the transition to sustainable development whilst going through his own transition to establish a small holding on a Welsh hillside.

Sally is a highly experienced Marketing and Communications professional, working at board level in blue chip agencies before starting up her own brand and marketing agency working with international brands and UK government departments.
To fulfill a growing interest in the environment, she studied sustainable business at Cambridge and moved into the NFP sector as Marketing Director for a number of charities, with a focus on behaviour change, and as a trustee for The Woodland Trust.

Shelley is a strategic communications specialist with over 30 years of experience driving change in the infrastructure and environmental sectors. Her career journey began in environmental consultancy in Australia and evolved through diverse roles across the charity, public and private sectors, both within the UK and internationally.
She has used this varied experience to inform leadership, communications and business development roles across the infrastructure sector, including with CH2M (now Jacobs), Eurovia UK, and VINCI Construction UK.
As a freelance consultant, Shelley now combines her proven strategic leadership expertise, environmental knowledge, and passion for making a difference, to engage with and support projects and people that are shaping a truly sustainable future.
Our Team

Advisor
Gary shares the core beliefs of the Southwood Foundation that the world needs to move towards a more sustainable future and needs to work towards this at pace, with passion and with pride. He bring over 30 years’ experience as a knowledge broker and advisor in the public, private and professional sectors including serving as Deputy Chief Scientist in Natural England & various roles in Defra. His particular specialism in foresight and futures analysis, applied in the development of environment and sustainability strategies, is fundamental to the innovation of solutions, approaches and technologies.

Operations Manager
Caroline joined the Southwood Foundation in July 2019 to help us convene and drive innovative responses to the climate emergency, bringing a wealth of experience in community building, communications and organisational development at the national and local levels. Caroline’s career has spanned management of European social policy programmes and communications in the European Commission, pan European negotiations on employment and disability rights, leadership in launching and implementing Barclays’ ground-breaking work on inclusion and diversity globally, and a breadth of experience in strategy development and community engagement in the charity sector.
Caroline was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to young people and the arts in Sussex in the Queen’s birthday honours list 2022.

Senior Administrator

Advisor
James is an ESG Analyst for Moodys ESG Solutions and specialises in Infrastructure, which covers real estate, construction and building materials. He holds an MSc in Environment & Sustainable Development at the UCL Bartlett Institute of Planning and a BA in International Relations. James is interested in building a world of thriving biodiversity and addressing the significant losses incurred over the last four decades. He has been involved in the Foundation from the outset and helped contribute to its strategic objectives and goals.
Steering panel
Ambassadors
orem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book.
Partners


Affiliates
Learn more
If you would like to get involved, speak with one of the team or learn more about the Foundation, get in contact or join our facebook landing page.