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Speaker biographies

Alison Barnes

Alison is Chief Executive at New Forest National Park Authority and has worked in the field of landscape management for 25 years.  She is the Convenor of the Green Halo Partnership and an elected Fellow of both the Landscape Institute and RSA.

Earlier in her career Alison, worked in Scottish local government and with RSPB on opencast mine restoration projects. She later led on local biodiversity policy within Defra and was Head of Advocacy for English Nature, developing policy across Parliament, Whitehall and Europe and supporting the passage of the NERC Act. She was a founding Director at Natural England, leading NE’s work in London and holding national portfolios for Landscape and Green Infrastructure, including advising on greening the London Olympics and chairing the Thames Gateway Partnership.

Alison has served on the Mayor of London’s Sustainability Commission and Forestry England’s Regional Advisory Committees and is currently on the Board of Directors for Business South, is a Trustee of the National Park City Foundation and a Leadership Fellow of St George’s House, Windsor Castle.

Professor Sir Dieter Helm

Sir Dieter Helm is Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Economics at New College, Oxford. He was Independent Chair of the Natural Capital Committee, providing advice to the government on the sustainable use of natural capital, until the end of the second term of the Committee in November 2020. In the New Year 2021 Honours List, Dieter was awarded a knighthood for services to the environment, energy and utilities policy.

He has written many books, most recently Net Zero (September 2020, William Collins) in which he addresses the action we all need to take to tackle the climate emergency. His other books include: Green & Prosperous Land (2019, William Collins), Burn Out: The Endgame for Fossil Fuels (2017), The Carbon Crunch: Revised and Updated (2015) and Natural Capital: Valuing the Planet (2016), all published by Yale University Press.

Dieter has provided extensive advice to UK and European governments, including The Cost of Energy Review for the UK government in October 2017 and for the European Commission in preparing the Energy Roadmap 2030. He served both as a special advisor to the European Commissioner for Energy and as Chairman of the Ad Hoc Advisory Group on the Roadmap. He also assisted the Polish government in its presidency of the European Union Council.

Dieter is Chairman of Natural Capital Research, developing natural capital models and assessments for the better use of land, and Honorary Vice President of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.

Aldred Drummond – Fawley Waterside Ltd

Fawley Waterside Limited was founded and is managed by Aldred Drummond, alongside well established investors. In 2015 the company purchased the Fawley Power Station site in Hampshire from RWE npower with the ambition to create something transformational for the Southern Waterside.

Aldred is a Director of Real Estate at Long Harbour and has overseen investment in 23 towns and cities in the UK with a particular focus on building homes for rent.

Aldred is the owner of the neighbouring Cadland Estate which once owned the land where the Power Station was built. He is passionate about the long-term prosperity of the local area and conceiving a new settlement that respects the natural beauty and importance of New Forest.

Anne-Marie Mountifield – Solent LEP

Anne-Marie Mountifield has been the Chief Executive and Board Director at the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) for the last eight years.

A member of the Institute of Directors (IoD), and the National Maritime UK Council she is also a ‘Women in Maritime’ ambassador.

In September 2020, Anne-Marie was announced as the winner of the prestigious New Chartered Director category at the Institute of Directors London and South’s annual Director of the Year Awards.

Before taking up the role as Chief Executive at Solent LEP, Anne-Marie held senior executive leadership posts for more than 20 years in further education, the Civil Service (Department of Business Innovation and Skills) and local government.

An inspirational leader, Anne-Marie clearly conveys the vision for the Solent LEP and leads on the development of the strategy for the area and the roll out of the Solent £1bn Capital & Infrastructure programme.

Layne Hamerston

Layne is a passionate innovative social entrepreneur with over 25 years’ experience within public, private and community sector, at local and national level, kickstarting collaborations for healthier communities.

In recognition of his innovative and collaborative approach, Layne is a recipient of the Royal Society for Public Community Health and Wellbeing Award for his work in cancer survivorship, NHS Dorset and Somerset Partnership Award for community public health.

Layne is currently working with Bournemouth University with a special interest in Nature, Health and Happiness, and is co-founder of The Nature Health Network.

Layne is also a practicing and enthusiastic forest bathing practitioner who loves helping people find their inner smile.

John Durnell

John Durnell is Director of Estates for the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust. He has worked for the Trust, in a number of roles, for nearly 24 years and has been involved in conservation land management for a further four. John has lived in the New Forest for the past 15 years and has been Vice Chair of the New Forest Leader Local Action Group and a member of the New Forest Consultative Panel, New Forest Sustainable Development Panel and the Verderers Grazing Scheme Advisory Group. John is a very keen naturalist and is passionate about the role nature based solutions can play in addressing some of the most pressing problems that confront us today.

Joseph Owen

Joseph Owen is a doctoral student of law and literature at the University of Southampton. He has recently worked as a policy consultant for the New Forest National Park Authority, focusing on delivering a green recovery for the South Hampshire region.