Panel Facilitator

Matthew Wright is one of this country’s best known journalists and broadcasters now hosting Weekend Breakfast on LBC. A regular on TV’s This Morning, Matthew hosted his own show Channel 5’s The Wright Stuff for 18 years during which time he interviewed everyone from reality stars to Prime Ministers as well as eating all manner of nasties in the I’m A Celebrity Jungle. A keen fly-fisher, clean water campaigner and vintage motorcycle enthusiast, Matthew occasionally gets on stage and sings with legendary space rock band Hawkwind.

CEO at South East Rivers Trust, Bella joined the Trust in 2009, initially as Development Officer for the Wandle Trust. She became Trust Director in 2011 and as the Trust expanded became CEO. She is passionate about restoring aquatic environments so that they thrive with wildlife. She loves working with Trust staff, partners, local communities and volunteers to bring rivers and other aquatic habitats back to life. Bella has a long-standing interest in the environment and aquatic ecology.

Director at The Wild Trout Trust, Shaun is an unashamed fish bloke. After degrees in marine biology and then pollution, Shaun has had a professional life in fishery management, both game and coarse. Shaun brings to the Trust a lengthy and ongoing scientific background and continuing involvement with the fisheries and fish farming sectors. He is an avid fisher though continuously disappointed that 45 years of practice appears only to make him worse at the sport with each outing.

Penny Gane is Head of Practice at Fish Legal, a non-profit team of environmental lawyers holding polluters to account on behalf of anglers. Penny joined Fish Legal in its previous carnation (Anglers Conservation Association) and is the longest serving member of the team.

Jim Murray, is an English actor and Founder of Activist Anglers. He is best known for a number of television roles, more recently including Colonel Neil 'Chick' Harding in Masters of the Air, and Prince Andrew in The Crown. Jim is a passionate angler and conservationist, empowering anglers to take action for their waterways through the Activist Anglers campaign.

Jack grew up right next to the River Wandle and has lived by, played in or worked on rivers for most of his life. Having spent the early part of his career as an academic historian, working across the UK, Europe and southern Africa, Jack is now lucky enough to work for South East Rivers Trust (SERT) developing and delivering projects on the Wandle - and across SERT’s twelve catchments. Outside of work, he is a founder and the president of The Fly Connection, a charitable foundation dedicated to celebrating and promoting activism, engagement, community building and the arts amongst the global angling community. He is also a serving bailiff for the Wandle Piscators.

Dylan Roberts is Head of Fisheries at the GWCT. Dylan’s early career focused on assessing the impacts of riparian restoration on the abundance of salmonids and trout stocking but since taking over as Head of Fisheries, he has focused on project management, policy and fundraising. He has raised over £10m for Trust’s fisheries research, including the EU funded MorFish and SAMARCH projects.

Hannah is Senior National Archaeologist at the National Trust where she has responsibility for connecting historic environment interests with natural environment led projects such as peatland restoration, river restoration, habitat creation and tree planting. Prior to joining NT Hannah was Head of Environmental Strategy at Historic England where she led work connecting historic environment interests with flood and coastal strategies in England. She is also a founding member and current vice chair for the international Climate Heritage Network, a contributing author of the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment, and has spoken at several COPs and at national and international policy meetings on the role of heritage in climate action. Her expertise in this area was recognised in her participation in the IPCC/UNESCO/ICOMOS co-sponsored meeting on cultural heritage and climate.

Hannah Gunter is a dedicated researcher currently immersed in the world of environmental science. Pursuing a PhD in fluorescence spectroscopy, her focus lies on the crucial area of detecting E. coli in various environmental settings. Partnering with the esteemed University of Birmingham and collaborating with RS Hydro/Proteus Instruments, her research journey has taken her deep into the intersection of academia and industry. As well as her PhD, Hannah is a Project Research Manager with RS Hydro/Proteus Instruments, Hannah brings invaluable practical experience to her academic pursuits. Her work delves into the innovative realm of fluorescence applications for environmental monitoring, a field teeming with potential to revolutionise our understanding and management of water quality.

Panel Facilitator

Rob Yorke has lived in the wilder and wetter parts of the UK, including Shepherds Bush and now the Black Mountains in South Wales. Wearing two hats: one as a rural chartered surveyor managing projects involving land, water and people; the other as an unaffiliated communicator with 135 letters published in The Times, interviewer of high profile names from Michael Gove to George Monbiot, moderator of environmental events and presenter of 90 sec vlogs.

Ecologist and Farmer Cluster Facilitator. Employed by a landowner, Robin is an Ecologist focusing on agricultural biodiversity and water quality. He partakes in project management of water quality, biodiversity and soil health programs and is the facilitator of the Wylye Valley Farmers cluster group in Wiltshire.

Mike is a river restoration designer, author and commentator, and Director of Operations at Wessex Rivers Trust. He has been designing, delivering and advising on river restoration, fish passage and floodplain enhancement projects for the best part of two decades. He is an advocate for restoring the natural resilience of our rivers; undoing the harms of the past, in order to face the threats of the future.

Ed Ayton is the Sustainability & Ethics Advisor for the sustainable grocery delivery company Abel & Cole, managing supply chain impacts such as biodiversity, animal welfare and human rights. With a passion for wildlife, sustainability and good food, he believes all three can meet with mutual benefit, and finds there’s usually a good story behind it all too.

Henry has over 25 years’ experience in Rural-business and leads the Knight Frank Grant Funding team covering the whole UK. Henry specialises in providing Grant funding alongside strategic business advice for clients, providing consultancy for Rural project management to include project design, development to delivery. Henry has provided a lead role in the management of many heritage, conservation and environmental projects for Rural businesses, Farms and Rural Estates.