Board of Trustees
The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew was established under the National Heritage Act 1983 and came into existence on 8 August 1983. From 1 April 1984 responsibility for many aspects of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew was transferred from the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (now DEFRA) to the Board of Trustees.
- Code of Best Practice for Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (pdf)
- The agendas and summary reports for meetings of the Board of Trustees are available online.
- Statement about Heathrow expansion proposals following the RBG Board Meeting on 15 September 2005.
Trustees
Chairman - Mr Marcus Agius
Professor Jonathan Drori CBE
Professor H Charles J Godfray
Professor Sandy Harrison
Dr Geoffrey Hawtin
Mr Timothy Hornsby
Sir Henry Keswick
Mr George Loudon
Sir William Stewart FRS
Professor Nicola Spence
Ms Jennifer Ullman
Sir Ferrers Vyvyan
Marcus Aguis - Chairman
Group Chairman of Barclays PLC and a Senior Independent Director of the BBC. Also Chairman of the Foundation and Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Formerly: Chairman of Lazard London, Deputy Chairman of Lazard LLC, and Chairman of BAA PLC.
Professor Jonathan Drori CBE
Director of Changing Media Ltd, a London consulting group. Visiting Professor at Bristol University, specialising in misconceptions in science and in the uses of technology for learning. Adviser to public bodies on new media and audience strategies. Previously: Director of Culture Online at the Department for Culture Media and Sport, Head of Commissioning for BBC Online, Head of Digital Media and Learning Channels, Executive Producer and Director.
Professor Charles Godfray FRS
Hope Professor in the Zoology Department and Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford University. Formerly Director of the NERC Centre for Population Biology and Professor of Evolutionary Biology at Imperial College London. Fellow of the Royal Society, a Foreign Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an honorary research fellow of the Natural History Museum and Rothamsted Research.
Professor Sandy Harrison
Professor of Climate Dynamics in Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol. Member of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) core project on Integrated Land Ecosystems and Atmospheric Processes. Coordinator of the IGBP Cross-project Initiative on Fire. Co-chair of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Palaeoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project, and President of the INQUA Commission on Palaeoclimatology.
Dr Geoffrey Hawtin
An expert in the conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources and the founding director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust and currently the Trust’s Senior Advisor. During his career he has also been the CEO of two research institutes of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research: the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) in Colombia and Bioversity International in Rome, Italy.
Timothy Hornsby CBE
Chair of the Horniman Museum, Chair of the Harkness Fellows Association. Independent member of the Consumer Council for Water,Trustee of the International Institute for Environment and Development and of the Charles Darwin Trust, Governor at the Legacy Trust. Previously Commissioner and Chair of the National Lottery Commission, following Chief Executive posts at the National Lottery Charities Board (now the Big Lottery Fund), the Royal Borough of Kingston, and the Nature Conservancy Council, after a career in academic life and subsequently in HM Treasury and the Department of Environment. Not undertaken any political activity over the last ten years.
Sir Henry Keswick
Chairman of Jardine Matheson, Director of Rothschilds Continuation Holdings AG. Formerly, Chairman of the National Portrait Gallery, President of the Royal Highland Agriculture Society, proprietor of The Spectator, and member of the National Trust Council.
George Loudon
Chairman and Director of a number of investment and other firms including Pall Mall Capital Ltd and Altius Associates Ltd; former Director of Midland Bank Plc and former Vice-Chairman of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. Former Director of the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation. Board member of the Rijksakademie Beeldende Kunst (Amsterdam) and former Trustee of both the Galapagos Conservation Trust, and London Library.
Professor Nicola Spence
Nicola is Chief Executive of Science City York, formerly Chief Scientist at the Food and Environment Research Agency and Head of Plant Health at the Central Science Laboratory. She is Special Professor in applied plant pathology at the University of Nottingham and an expert in plant health and international plant trade. She is a Board member for the British Society for Plant Pathology and a scientific adviser to the BBSRC and the EU.
Sir William Stewart FRS
Recently retired Chairman of the Health Protection Agency. Formerly, Chief Scientific Adviser, Cabinet Office, and the first Head of the Office of Science and Technology. Founding Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Dundee, Secretary of the Agricultural and Food Research Council, member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a vice-President of the Royal Society.
Jennifer Ullman
Landscape consultant, and was formerly Chief Parks Officer for Wandsworth Borough Council and Chairman of the Board of Greenspace.
Sir Ferrers Vyvyan
Owner and manager of Trelowarren Estate and Chairman of the Royal Institution of Cornwall (RIC), a Learned Society that owns and runs the Royal Cornwall Museum.
