Environment Agency Board Member appointments
Environment Secretary reappoints Non-Executive Directors to the Environment Agency.
The Environment Secretary, George Eustice, has reappointed four Non-Executive Directors for second terms to the Board of the Environment Agency and extended the second terms by 12 months of the Deputy Chair Richard Macdonald and Non-Executive Director Lynne Frostick.
John Lelliott and Dame Caroline Mason’s appointments will run from 30 September 2021 until 31 March 2024. Judith Batchelar and Robert Gould’s appointments will run from 30 September 2021 to 31 March 2025. The extended term of Lynne Frostick will run until 15 July 2022 and the extended term of Deputy Chair Richard Macdonald will run until 31 March 2022.
All appointments are made on merit and in accordance with the Governance Code on Public Appointments. There is a requirement for political activity (if significant) to be declared. Judith Batchelar, John Lelliott and Dame Caroline Mason have not taken part in any significant political activity in the past five years. Robert Gould has declared that he was the Conservative Leader of Dorset County Council until May 2017 and member of West Dorset District Council until May 2019.
The appointments are based on a time commitment of four days per month and receive a remuneration rate of £16,800.
Biographies
Judith Batchelar
Judith is a member of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee and the Environment and Business Committee. Judith is the Area Board member for Thames and Solent and South Downs.
Judith is a Special Advisor on Corporate Responsibility, Sustainability and Public Affairs at J Sainsbury plc and will leave this role on 19th November 2021. Judith holds several other roles, including:
- Chair of the Rugby Players Association
- Chair of the Advisory Board at Biological Sciences Research Council on Transforming Food Production
- Trustee of The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Accounting for Sustainability and the Matt Hampson Foundation
- Ambassador for the Woodland Trust
She also sits on the Natural Environment Research Council.
Robert Gould
Robert is Chair of the Pensions Committee, a member of the Flood and Coastal Risk Management Committee, Audit and Risk Assurance Committee and People and Pay Committee. Robert is the Area Board member for Wessex. He is also the Environment Agency’s shareholder representative at the Brunel Pensions Partnership where he chairs the Oversight Board.
Robert was Leader of Dorset County Council from 2014 to 2017 and a member from 2009 to 2017. He was a member of West Dorset District Council from 2003 to2019 and was Leader from 2004 to 2014. Robert was a member of the Local Government Association’s Improvement and Innovation Board from 2015 to 2017. He previously managed the family farm and has worked industry and property management.
John Lelliott OBE
John is Chair of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, a member of the Flood and Coastal Risk Management Committee and a member of the Pensions Committee. He is the Area Board member for East Midlands. John is a Non-Executive director and Chair of the Audit Committee of the Covent Garden Market Authority and a member of Defra’s Audit Committee.
Other roles include:
- Non-Executive Director of University Hospital Dorset NHS Foundation Trust (UHD), where he is Chair of the Charity and Sustainability Committees’ and member of the Finance and Audit Committees’.
- Chair of the Natural Capital Coalition and is now a board member of the Capitals Coalition.
- Chair of the ACCA Global Sustainability Forum
- Member of HRH The Prince of Wales Accounting for Sustainability Project (A4S) Advisory Council
- Trustee of JTL Training and Chair of The Finance and Audit Committee and Trustee of The Centre for Sustainable Healthcare.
Dame Caroline Mason
Dame Caroline is a member of the Environment and Business Committee and the Pensions Committee. Caroline is the Area Board member for Herts and North London.
Caroline is Chief Executive of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, one of the UK’s largest independent grant-making foundations. She was previously Chief Operating Officer at Big Society Capital and, Chief Operating Officer at Charity Bank.
Caroline was the co-founder of Investing for Good, a social investment advisory firm and one of the first Community Interest Companies. Before joining the social sector, Caroline worked in creative and innovative product development in the financial services sector. Caroline was appointed CBE in 2013 for services to social investment and awarded a Damehood in the New Year 2021 Honours for services to the Charity Sector, notably making an additional £16m of funding available to help organisations across a wide range of sectors during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lynne Frostick
Lynne is Chair of the Flood and Coastal Risk Management Committee and the Regional Flood and Coastal Committee (RFCC) and lead Board member for FCRM. Lynne is also the Area Board member for Yorkshire and the North East areas.
Lynne is a Professor Emerita in Physical Geography at the University of Hull, a fellow of the Geological Society and Chartered Geologist, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Chartered Geographer, a fellow of the British Society for Geomorphology and a member of the International Association for Hydraulic Research. Since 2018, Lynne has been an Honorary Fellow in the Energy and Environment Research Institute at University of Hull and was awarded the David Linton medal of the British Society for Geomorphology in 2021.
Richard Macdonald
Richard is Deputy Chair and a member of the Audit and Risk Assurance and People and Pay Committees and Chair of the Environment and Business committee.
Richard is the lead Board member for Land Agriculture, ethics lead, and is also Area Board member the West Midlands.
Richard was the Chair of the Better Regulation Task Force and was responsible for its implementation. He has a strong farming background and was the Director General of the National Farmers’ Union from 1996 to 2009. He is the Chairman of Sidia (a social impact business in Kenya), and the Vice Chairman of the National Institute for Agricultural Botany (NIAB).
Further information
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The Environment Agency is a Non-Departmental Public Body set up under the Environment Act 1995 to take an integrated approach to environmental protection and enhancement in England. It has major responsibilities in flood management, water resources and quality, climate change, land quality, chemicals, pollution prevention and control, waste, conservation and biodiversity, fisheries conservation, air quality and navigation.
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The Board for the Environment Agency comprises a Chair and ten members.