Benet Northcote | Chair

Benet is a Senior Adviser to businesses and NGOs, and founding partner of advisory firm Four Thirty Two.  He was previously the Director of Corporate Responsibility at the John Lewis Partnership, Deputy Private Secretary to The Prince of Wales, and Chief Policy Adviser to Greenpeace UK.  He started his career as a BBC News trainee.

Luke Graham | Treasurer

 

Luke was the  MP for Ochil & South Perthshire 2017-19, during which time he was a CEN MP. He sat on the Public Accounts Committee, was PPS for the Cabinet Office and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Luke also served in No10 Downing Street as Senior Special Advisor to the Prime Minister 2020-21. Alongside his political experience Luke has a 13-year finance and sustainability career which has seen him work at start-ups and corporates in the UK, Asia and the USA as well as qualifying as a Chartered Management Accountant.

Sophie Brodie ​

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Sophie works in sustainable investing with a particular focus on climate risk and the energy transition. She was formerly a business journalist at the Telegraph and stood as a Parliamentary candidate in 2010. She has been a member of CEN since 2015.

Lord Gascoigne

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Ben is a member of the House of Lords and served in the Government from November 2023 until the 2024 General Election. Previously, Ben was Political Secretary to the Prime Minister before becoming Deputy Chief of Staff in Downing Street. In addition to a brief period in the private sector, Ben has also worked in the Foreign Office and London City Hall.

Mark Holmes​

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Mark is the Director of Public Affairs for Water UK, the trade association representing the water industry across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. He leads on their engagement with politicians, advisers and third parties across Westminster and Whitehall.

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Mark worked in a similar role for the international development charity WaterAid, at the National Farmers Union (NFU) and in a public affairs consultancy focusing on energy and environment policy. He started his career working for the Climate Change Committee Chairman Lord Deben and was previously the Interim Director of CEN. 

Jane MacBean

 

Jane is a councillor in Buckinghamshire and currently chairs its Health & Adult Social Care Select Committee. She is also a member of Bucks’ Natural Environment Partnership Board and its Leisure Board, and a member of the Strategic Flood Management Team. She co-created Communi-Tree, an urban re-planting initiative.

Daisy Powell-Chandler​

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Daisy is a Partner at the strategic consultancy Public First. She runs the company’s Energy + Environment practice, which uses opinion research, economic modelling and policy analysis to change corporate strategy and government policy in order to reduce the impact of climate change. Before joining Public First, Daisy spent six years at pollster Populus leading public opinion research projects all over the world. 

Linda Richards​

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Linda is a long serving parish and local councillor until 2023, and is also Rivers Ambassador for CEN.

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In particular, Linda has driven forward several environmental projects in her local area, creating Bathing Water Status for the River Wharfe in Wetherby and building the first Living Wall around a local town centre primary school. 

Rosa Rotko

 

Rosa is an energy transformation specialist at Mott McDonald, a global management and engineering consultancy. She is also a non-executive Director at the Retail Energy Code Company, where she oversees their net zero work. Prior to this Rosa worked in the Department for Energy and Climate Change, for the energy company SSE, and the law firm Clifford Chance.