Growing businesses
naturally

Dr Steph Wray is the founder and Managing Director of Nature Positive. She is a Chartered Ecologist, Fellow and past President of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM). Steph ensures that Nature Positive achieves our company vision, identifies sectors where Nature Positive can deliver benefits, builds relationships with business leaders and provides the support needed to help them achieve more positive outcomes for nature.

Steph has worked in biodiversity consultancy for over 25 years and is passionate about the potential for businesses to be a force for good. Throughout her career, she has worked with many clients in a wide range of sectors including energy, mining, manufacturing, and fast-moving consumer goods. Steph has an in-depth knowledge and understanding of both nature and business, and the opportunities which arise from putting sustainability at the heart of your organisation.

Steph is the current Chair of the wildlife charity, Mammal Society, and in 2011 she was awarded the Mammal Society medal for her work on mitigating development impacts on mammals.

Stephanie claims that she is not ‘a little bit country,’ but considering she owns an American quarterhorse and a very smart pair of vegan cowboy boots, it could be argued otherwise.

Dr Rossa Donovan is a Technical Director for Nature Positive. He is a Chartered Ecologist and sustainability expert with more than 25 years’ experience. Rossa supports Nature Positive by providing technical advice across a range of projects, and his blend of ecological and sustainability experience is invaluable.

Rossa worked at Network Rail as Head of Environment and Sustainability where he led the development of their most ambitious and forward-looking strategy to date. A 30-year strategy encompassing decarbonisation, biodiversity, climate change adaptation and circular economy. Rossa understands the challenges facing organisations when integrating sustainability into the heart of their operations. His sustainability experience from academic, consultancy and public sectors adds an extra dimension to our unique blend of skills in the Nature Positive team.

Rossa has held positions both as Director of Ecological Services at WSP, Regional Director and Head of Ecology at WYG (now Tetra Tech). In both roles he led the delivery of ecological consultancy services and provided clients with advice across a wide range of developments including housing, mineral extraction, road, rail, industrial, retail, water, and renewable energy.

Rossa enjoys getting out into nature and photographing wildlife. Sometimes he leaves the camera at home and just takes binoculars to check out the many fantastic birds on the Somerset levels.

Katherine is an Associate Director for Nature Positive. She translates complex sustainability issues into practical solutions for companies to implement. Her experience as a management consultant has given her a wealth of knowledge of delivering end to end change programs for cost, performance and sustainability purposes. Her experience ranges from understanding a company’s performance and risk level, developing a new strategy or business process, to the implementation of the change.

Katherine has worked across a range of sectors including infrastructure, energy, utilities and financial / professional services. This has equipped her with a comprehensive understanding of the different strategies companies can use to achieve their required outcomes. These can range from process updates, organisation structure changes, improved governance, reporting and much more. She has gained extensive experience of high-quality project management and change management through her work on both long- and short-term change programmes.

As well as having a keen interest in business culture, leadership and building high performing teams, Katherine also knows Loughrigg Fell, from Catbells or Scafell Pike. Her love of nature started in childhood with family hiking and boating trips to the Lake District. She has climbed many of the mountains there over the years and they are the backdrop to many treasured memories.

Jim White is a Principal Consultant for Nature Positive. He integrates delivery and operational sustainability into the heart of the organisations he works with. Using his skills in reporting, communication, data analysis and visualisation, he maintains a clear focus on benefits to your business and provides the governance required to achieve them.

Jim brings a wealth of experience in programme management and client consultancy, primarily on major infrastructure projects in the rail, aviation and nuclear sectors. This has equipped him with a rounded knowledge of corporate strategy and capital programme / project hierarchy. As an enthusiastic advocate for sustainability, Jim has developed his career with the aim of genuinely impacting what he is most passionate about, the protection and restoration of biodiversity.

As a Mental Health First Aider, Jim recognises the importance of wellbeing. When he is not helping clients meet their objectives, you will likely find him looking after his own wellbeing by walking his loopy lurcher Archie or picking off opposing quarterbacks whilst playing defensive back for the Manchester Crows American Flag Football team.

Jenny is an Associate Director Sustainability Management Consultant for Nature Positive. She brings her broad experience in sustainability, the natural environment, social value and climate change consultancy to support clients to deliver realistic sustainability strategies.

Jenny was recently the recipient of the BusinessGreen Leaders Award for “Young Sustainability Executive of the Year”. Her passion and energy for achieving organisational and societal change is complemented by excellent consultancy and project management skills.

Her experience ranges from developing sustainability visions and policies, managing geographic analytics projects and undertaking risk assessments to leading regulatory environmental and climate change assessments. Jenny has nine years’ experience in different sectors, including the built environment, energy, construction and hospitality.

In her previous role at Stantec, she contributed to developing an internal sustainability strategy for the UK business and delivered initiatives and projects, including on employee engagement, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and climate change literacy. She also developed the company’s approach to social value. Jenny managed an Innovate-UK-funded research project to develop methods to assess and quantify social value outcomes and is keen to continue bridging the gap between research and practice in her new role.

Jenny recently delivered a pilot climate education project for a secondary school and is a mentor for Catalyse Change.

In her spare time, Jenny loves spending time outdoors and in nature – including on her gravel bike, swimming or attempting to surf.

Louise is a Consultant at Nature Positive. She works with clients to help them understand the reasons people make the decisions they do, thus helping companies develop long-term strategies to lead people to make choices that are better for both nature and their business.

Louise has a background in psychology and a particular interest in consumer psychology, the power of social influence and nudge theory. She is a Mental Health First Aider and is passionate about staff wellbeing, engagement and how the natural environment plays a role in both of those.

Louise has worked in ecological and medico-legal companies in a range of supporting roles. This included supporting the management team with the integration of a small business into a larger group and helping to improve existing systems and develop new inclusive ways of working.

She also completed a ski season as a chalet host in France and now knows every cream-based method for cooking potatoes. She later burnt off those calories cycling from Vietnam to Cambodia and climbing Kilimanjaro (separate trips).

Jill MacKeith is a Senior Sustainability Management Consultant for Nature Positive. Using her masters degrees in Environmental Science from Trinity College, Dublin, and Sustainable Development from Technological University, Dublin, Jill helps our clients understand the actions required to reduce impacts on the environment, improve social value, and transition towards a circular economy.

Jill has over 18 years of project management expertise and is a certified APM Project Management practioner. Throughout her career, she has deployed her project management and business analysis skills across a range of sectors, including rail, research, financial services, local government, hospitality, ecological consultancy and the built environment. This multi-sector experience means that she has acquired useful insights into the key issues affecting a number of industries and supply chains, and how their sustainability impacts can be tackled from both top-down strategy and practical bottom-up approaches.

Jill has experience of facilitating and chairing groups to reach consensus decisions on sustainability and safety issues and supporting and delivering change programmes to help organisations innovate. Additionally, she is interested in evidencing change and evaluation methodologies having supported the development of theories of change for a multi-discipline project. Jill is passionate about helping businesses become nature positive and her attention to detail often results in efficiencies in processes and projects, bringing positive outcomes for nature and business alike.

Outside of work, Jill is a fan of slow travel and loves the adventure of sleeper trains, having travelled from London to Beijing by rail.

Professor Richard (Dez) Delahay is a Director at Nature Positive. He has responsibility for research and development in ecological techniques, including biodiversity footprinting and supports us by providing technical advice across a range of projects.

Dez has had an extensive career as a research scientist working for government research agencies, often in close collaboration with university academics and nongovernmental organisations. Dez is a specialist in ecology of wildlife disease and its management.

Dez has an honorary chair at the University of Exeter, UK and has published more than 150 scientific papers and book chapters on various aspects of ecology and biodiversity. He is an active member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM), a Chartered Ecologist and a successful science communicator who makes regular contributions to both national and international meetings.

Dez claims he was in a punk band and used to sport a mohawk. We have yet to see photo evidence of this, but in any case, he now channels his energy towards resolving human and wildlife conflicts.

Dr Tim Hounsome is a Managing Director of Nature Positive and Managing Director of RSK Biocensus (parent company of Nature Positive). He has many years of experience in ecological and biodiversity consultancy. Tim is a board member and trustee of Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) and a member of their Strategic Policy Panel. He is a council member of the Mammal Society, Lead Author of the Bird Survey Guidelines for Ecological Consultants and a member of the UK Government’s All Party Parliamentary Group on Nature

Tim worked as a research scientist and is a champion of research-based practice and the importance of data and evidence to underpin sound ecological and environmental practice. Tim founded Biocensus on these principles and was the main instigator of its transformation into RSK Biocensus, where he applies the same rigorous approach to business. This blend of ecological and business experience is invaluable to Nature Positive.

Tim is still a research scientist at heart and has been known to make a dash to tropical countries to explore pristine rainforests atop mountains. Or at least that is what he claimed he was doing in Mozambique, coincidentally also home to many beautiful beaches.

Luka is a graduate environmental consultant for Nature Positive. She is committed to protecting nature and has participated in sustainability-related projects since 2014. Luka’s lifelong passion for nature and the outdoors, combined with a love of research, communication and education, has led to success in the fields of environmental science and policy, with her recent dissertation focused on the importance of land suitability for peatlands in order to reach national climate targets.

Luka’s background in academia has provided great opportunities to work with a number of clients in the UK and South America. Recently, she worked with the National History Consortium to produce a co-authored report on domestic pesticide use in Bristol.

Fresh to the environmental consultancy profession, Luka brings an enthusiastic, creative and modern outlook to Nature Positive. She hopes to bring about meaningful change to protect and restore nature.

Outside of work, Luka is likely to be found outdoors, either climbing, hiking or enjoying the sunshine. These interests have taken her across the world to explore the mountains of Europe, Japan and New Zealand.

Tasha is the Business Development and Marketing Executive for Nature Positive. She develops our outward facing communication and marketing materials enabling us to communicate complex biodiversity advice to a variety of audiences in a way that in meaningful and engaging.

Tasha manages our on-line content to ensure our message about being more Nature Positive reaches the key people in the business world. She seeks out opportunities for Nature Positive to support new clients particularly those who are just starting out on their sustainability journey.

While marketing might be a side hustle for Tasha as an Equity card carrying member of the acting profession, she has always had a keen interest in ecology which is reflected in all her work. We knew she was right for us when we saw how animals love her and how all her pets live to extraordinary old ages.

Dr Gavin Wilson is a Director of Nature Positive. He has 25 years’ experience in ecological research and management and has worked in academia, government research agencies and environmental consultancies.

Much of Gavin’s research has focused on the development and implementation of robust methods to monitor wildlife populations. He has published over 40 peer reviewed scientific papers on applied wildlife ecology, and has a wealth of experience of providing clear, evidence-based advice to clients in government and industry. He is passionate about sustainability and helping businesses in the critical role they play in creating a more nature positive future.

Gavin’s ongoing attempts to rewild his garden have had a mixed response from family members and curious neighbours. The bees and other lovely pollinators however, really don’t seem to mind.