Our ambassadors

Dame Judi Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA

One of Britain’s most respected film, stage and television actresses, Dame Judi has worked for the National Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company and won no fewer than eight prestigious Olivier Awards. Known internationally for roles in films including James Bond, Mrs Brown, Shakespeare in Love and Iris.

Dr J Nicola Nicholls, LVO

A former Cambridge University inorganic chemist, Nicola worked in private equity for 18 years with City of London firm Charterhouse Capital Partners. Nicola was chair of our Board for six years and pioneered the idea of a Woodland Trust ambassador network. She was awarded an LVO (Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order) in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Honours’ list in 2012 for services to the Jubilee Woods.

Audrey Hoare

Audrey Hoare is family representative at Hoare and Co, a private bank in Fleet Street. Audrey was the fundraising director and is now an ambassador at the charity Nordoff Robbins, as well as serving as an ambassador for the Woodland Trust since 2011.

Clive Aslet

Clive joined Country Life magazine in 1977 as an architectural writer, working his way up to editor. He continues to write freelance articles for newspapers such as the Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph as well as writing books and broadcasting on radio and television. Clive has been an ambassador for the Trust since 2010.

Tracy Chevalier

Tracy is the author of nine novels, including the international bestseller Girl with a Pearl Earring. As well as working in publishing for several years she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, president of the Royal Literary Fund, and sits on the Board of the British Library. Tracy coordinated and joint edited Why Willows Weep, a collection of short stories produced to support the work of the Woodland Trust.

William Fiennes

William Fiennes is the author of two books, The Snow Geese and The Music Room. William has also written for Granta, the London Review of Books, The Observer, The Daily Telegraph and The Times Literary Supplement. He is the director and co-founder of the charity First Story, which promotes writing in challenging schools in Great Britain.

Judith Batchelar OBE

Director of Sainsbury’s brand for 15 years, Judith is also a non-executive director of the Environment Agency and The Rugby Players Association, deputy chair of Farm Africa, is on the executive board of The Princes Trust Accounting for Sustainability Project, a fellow of both the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) and the Royal Society of Arts and Manufactures (RSA).

From 2013 – 2018 she co-chaired the Government’s Agri-food Tech Council, and currently sits on Defra's Food and Drink Sector Council. 

Adam Shaw

Adam Shaw is an award-winning journalist, presenting programmes such as BBC’s Panorama, Money Box and ITV’s The Tonight Programme. In addition to his work on television and radio, Adam has written for several newspapers and co-authored a number of books. He has been an ambassador for the Woodland Trust since 2011.

Veronica Pickering

Veronica Moraa Pickering is a deputy lieutenant for Nottinghamshire and has worked with children and families from multicultural communities in London as a social worker and a children’s guardian. She also worked in Africa as an international child-protection consultant. Veronica now negotiates the needs of diverse communities on behalf of multi-national and global companies, advising them on corporate social responsibility programmes.

Sir David Steel

Sir David joined the Royal Navy in 1979 and, during the course of a career in uniform lasting 36 years, specialised in operational logistics and personnel management. As a barrister, he also held a number of appointments as a legal adviser, as well as being the Royal Navy’s senior judge advocate. Sir David retired from the role of Second Sea Lord in the rank of Vice-Admiral in 2015. He is currently Governor of Gibraltar, as well as a trustee of a number of charities.

Elliott Mannis

A former trustee and chair of the Finance Committee and the Board Affairs Committee at the Woodland Trust, Elliott is chief executive of London Bridge Capital Infrastructure. A chartered accountant by background, Elliott was previously group financial controller at Aegis, group finance director at AWG and chief executive at D1 Oils. In addition to time spent working with young entrepreneurs, Elliott is also the non-executive chairman at Permastore, a non-executive director at Amarenco Infracapital Renewable Energy, and a member of UK Trade and Investment’s Environment and Water Services Advisory Group.

John Lovering

Previously finance director of Sears plc, a FTSE 100 company, John moved on to be chief operating officer at Tarmac, Homebase, Debenhams and Somerfield. In 2007, he established the Lovering Charitable Foundation to provide bursaries and scholarships for less privileged students to study at university and he also supports pre-school education, care for the elderly and research by the Centre for Social Justice.

Sue Roe, OBE

Sue worked for the Woodland Trust for 19 years and was also chairman of the Tree Council. She is an active member of the Royal Horticultural Society’s herbaceous plant committee, a trustee of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust and a member of the National Garden Scheme’s Norfolk committee, and continues to be a conservation and horticultural activist.

Kate Adie, OBE

Kate is an award-winning journalist renowned for her breakthrough work as the first female correspondent to report from warzones and hotspots such as Iraq, the Balkans and Rwanda. She is the author of five bestselling novels, presents a show on BBC Radio 4, and in 1993 was awarded an OBE.

Jon Drori CBE

A former editorial director and executive producer for the BBC, Jon now works as director of Changing Media and is a visiting industrial professor at Bristol University. He has been with the Woodland Trust since December 2008, serving as a trustee until March 2017 and ambassador from January 2016. Jon is a trustee at the Eden Project, an ambassador for the World Wide Fund for Nature and author of Around the World in 80 Trees and Around the World in 80 Plants.

Miranda Kendall

Miranda co-founded communications business Phipps which is now one of the UK’s leading PR advisers to the food and drink industry. She also owns an innovative organic farm in Suffolk and is a trustee of Aldeburgh Music and director of Exaudi, Britain’s leading contemporary vocal ensemble.

Simon King, OBE

Simon King is a renowned wildlife cameraman and television presenter. Specialising in nature documentaries and programmes such as Springwatch and Big Cat Diary, he has been working in the field of natural-history film making for over 30 years. In 2012, he planted 2,000 native trees at his home.

Sandi Toksvig

Sandi is a prolific author, broadcaster, entertainer and historian. Her recent work has made her a household name, presenting television shows such as The Great British Bake Off and QI. Sandi has written a number of children’s books as well as many fiction and non-fiction books for adults.

Charity Wakefield

An established film, television, and stage actress, Charity Wakefield has starred in a range of critically and commercially acclaimed projects, including the BBC’s Sense and Sensibility and Wolf Hall, Channel 4’s Any Human Heart and The Great, Poliakoff’s Close To The Enemy, The Cherry Orchard (The National) and Nicole Charles’s all-female production of Emilia (The Globe/Vaudeville Theatre).

David Oakes

David is a prolific stage and screen actor, having starred in productions of Venus in Fur at the Theatre Royal Haymarket and Shakespeare In Love at the Noel Coward Theatre. He is best known for his roles as Prince Ernest in ITV’s Victoria, The Duke of Clarence in the BBC’s The White Queen and Juan Borgia in The Borgias. David also presents his own natural history podcast, ‘Trees A Crowd’. 

JB Gill

JB Gill rose to fame as a member of JLS – one of the UK’s biggest boybands – after which he set up a farm in the Kent countryside where he produces award-winning KellyBronze turkeys and free-range Tamworth pork. JB has used his success within the entertainment industry to educate children about the origins of their food, presenting the BAFTA-nominated television series, Down On The Farm. JB’s enthusiasm for farming life and knowledge of countryside issues has seen him contribute to the BBC’s Countryfile and Springwatch as well as front programmes such as Springtime On The Farm and Big Week At The Zoo.

Patrick Cregg, MBE

Patrick Cregg worked for the Woodland Trust for over twenty years, during which time he was appointed director of Northern Ireland when the office was established in 2000. In 2015, while in office, Patrick was awarded an MBE for his services for woodland conservation. Outside of his work for the Trust, Patrick was president of the Bangor Horticultural Society and and has recently taken on the role of president of Bangor Rotary. Since stepping down from the Trust in 2019, Patrick continues to support the Trust to ensure a brighter future for our native trees and woodland.

Cressida Cowell

Children’s Laureate 2019-2022, Cressida Cowell MBE is the number one bestselling author-illustrator of the How to Train Your Dragon, The Wizards of Once and Which Way to Anywhere book series, and the author of the Emily Brown picture books, illustrated by Neal Layton. She is best known for her How to Train Your Dragon series which has inspired a generation of fans worldwide and DreamWorks’ Academy Award-nominated film and TV series.

Cressida is a passionate believer in the transformative power of books and a vocal advocate for the need to support creative industries in the UK. Cressida is a trustee of World Book Day, a patron of Read for Good, an ambassador for the National Literacy Trust and the Woodland Trust, and she is on the Council of the Society of Authors. She is an honorary fellow of Keble College, Oxford, and has an honorary doctorate from the University of Brighton. She has won numerous prizes for her books, including the Blue Peter Book Award, the Ruth Rendell Award for Championing Literacy, Gold Award in the Nestle Children's Book Prize, the Hay Festival Medal for Fiction, and Philosophy Now magazine's Award for Contributions in the Fight Against Stupidity.

Ann Medlock

After qualifying as a chartered surveyor in 1988, Ann has worked in commercial property for over 25 years, in both the UK and the US, establishing and running an international commercial investment company. 

Now living back in Scotland, Ann has established a bespoke tour business to cater for international travellers seeking a unique Scottish experience, particularly focused around Scotch whisky.

Over the past five years, Ann has sought out rare and limited-edition Scotch whisky for her clients as well as buying and selling private collections on behalf of enthusiasts all over the world. More recently, she has established Golden Decanters with Julia Hall Mackenzie-Gillanders, taking rare bottlings to a network of private clients in North America, Asia, and across Europe.

Katya Speciale

Katya read chemistry at Oxford University and spent 15 years at Unilever in a number of different roles, from supply chain to marketing. In 2013, she co-founded strategic consultancy Off The Fence Marketing, specialising in strategy, communication and innovation and working with leading brands in food, drinks, beauty and retail. Passionate about investing in future generations and sustainability, Katya is a member of Cambridge University’s Chemistry Department philanthropy group and a long-term supporter of woodland conservation. 

Danny Clarke

Danny is a garden designer and TV presenter, best known for appearing on BBC's Instant Gardener, Channel 5’s Filthy Garden SOS, and as a member of Alan Titchmarsh’s Love Your Garden team. He is well known for transforming gardens into incredible spaces. 

Danny founded his own bespoke garden design company in 1997, called The Black Gardener, and co-directs Grow2Know, a charity set up to bring horticulture to a diverse group of young people and disadvantaged communities. Danny believes in building gardens to inspire, educate, empower, and heal. 

Humphrey Battcock

Humphrey was a managing partner at Advent International, one of the world’s largest and most global private equity firms. He has worked in private equity for 30 years, during which time he has served on the boards of 23 companies in a variety of industries.

He also serves on the Cambridge Campaign Board and is a trustee of the Institute for Research in Schools and lectures at Oxford Business School. Humphrey became an Ambassador for the Woodland Trust in 2009.

Will Hobhouse

Will has worked in retail and digital businesses all his working life developing Tie Rack and Whittard of Chelsea as CEO; latterly Jack Wills, Le Pain Quotidien, Explore Learning, Teemill and King and Mcgaw as Chair.

He has previously worked with the British Museum Company, Cancer Research UK, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and Greenhouse Sports to further their aims.

With his wife Kate he manages their woodland in Hertfordshire with the ‘help’ of his five children. Will became an ambassador for the Trust in 2011.

Tristan Gooley

Tristan is best known as an author and natural navigator. After setting up his navigational school in 2008 he has gone on to write for numerous publications including the Sunday Times, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal as well as penning numerous internationally bestselling books including The Natural Navigator, The Walker’s Guide to Outdoor Clues & Signs and his most recent Sunday Times Bestseller, How to Read A Tree.

Tristan has given talks across the world and appeared on TV and radio programmes in the UK and internationally, including The Today Programme, Countryfile and BBC Stargazing Live.

He is also Vice Chairman of the independent travel company, Trailfinders and is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation and the Royal Geographical Society.