Meet the team

Zofia Dziewanowska-Stefanczyk

  • Zofia gained project management experience across several areas including international development, media, and public engagement. She has worked at the intersection of public and private sectors with a number of international funding institutions, such as the United Nations and the European Commission, as a project manager of grant audits in the fields of local development, education, health, and environment. Zofia has also been involved in project management for sustainability in the private financial sector and championed for the introduction of sustainable business solutions. She is dedicated to nature-based solutions and educating the wider public about the benefits of working with and learning from nature.

    In her free time, Zofia is a keen photographer, mindfulness practitioner, and sound artist. In her creative work and mindfulness practice, she explores our relationship with the environment and its restorative powers for our mental health. Her storytelling draws on skills learned at the BBC radio production and Polskie Radio as well as Manchester Metropolitan University's creative writing course.

Beth Harwood

  • Beth moved to the Highlands in 2019 to pursue her career in nature conservation. It was while growing up in the French countryside that Beth developed her love for wildlife. While still in France, she undertook a BSc in population biology followed by a MSc in ecology and ethology. After graduating Beth enhanced her practical skills by volunteering for conservation charities first in France and then in Scotland.

    Since moving to Scotland, Beth has had the opportunity to work on some of the Highlands most iconic and unique habitats while carrying out practical conservation and habitat management to maintain and enhance a variety of nature reserves.

    Beth has a particular passion for mammals. She led a study on badger population densities in Burgundy, France, and has been involved in various projects such as GPS tracking wild boar, winter bat roost counts, and helping complete a mammal atlas of the region of Normandy, France.

    More recently, Beth has taken an interest in growing and foraging her own food by developing a vegetable garden and collecting wild berries and mushrooms.

Dr Hannah Rudman

  • Dr Hannah Rudman's applied research and development  work focuses on nature tech and their data for validating and proving nature-based projects' impact – digital measurement, reporting and verification (dMRV). She has developed tech start-up businesses, including distributed ledger technology focussed SICCAR and Envirodigital. She is convenor of decisiongradeiot.com, an adhocracy creating international open standardised processes for digital devices and their data measuring carbon, biodiversity and nature improvements.

    Hannah is a co-leader of the Scottish Nature Finance Pioneers network of over 620 organisations, and is Expert Evaluator for the European Commission’s Research Executive Agency. She acts as Advisor to the Scottish Government's natural capital, biodiversity and green finance programmes. Hannah publicly serves as Board Trustee and Director for the National Galleries of Scotland.

Rowan Maclean

  • Rowan has been living and working on Tayvallich estate for 14 years, looking after the private and commercial holiday houses. Being a friendly host and point of contact making sure everyone has an enjoyable stay. Rowan has been working as a classroom assistant for 10 years. Up until recently she has been working in the local Early Learning Centre, enjoying playing and learning in the outdoors with the next generation of local nature enthusiasts and sharing her knowledge of planting and growing with the children.

    A keen gardener Rowan along with husband Ewan enjoy growing food for their family in their pollytunnel.

Scott Hendry

  • Scott was born in Inverness and has a background in building and landscaping. For the past 7 years, he has worked as a countryside ranger in the Great Glen, supplementing his work with part-time study through the Open University for a BSc in Environmental Science. Having previously studied at Aberdeen University for a Higher National Diploma in Animal Care and Behaviour, Scott then went on to work as an animal keeper on the hoof-stock team at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland Highland Wildlife Park before moving into rangering and ecology. A keen amateur wildlife photographer, Scott enjoys educating the public about wildlife and spends his free time surveying for badgers with the Scottish Badgers charity, and monitoring birds of prey with the Highland Raptor Study Group. A member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management and Scottish Countryside Rangers Association, Scott is passionate about ecological restoration and allowing nature to flourish.

Claudia Foster

  • Claudia is a Conservation Ecologist who was born and raised on a working farm on Loch Sween. She completed a Bachelor’s of Science with honours in Animal and Conservation Biology at Edinburgh Napier University. Her studies focused on animal behaviour, ecology, physiology, and evolution. Concentrating on the understanding of animals in their natural environments while addressing major environmental threats, gaining key skills in species identification, field surveys in terrestrial and marine environments.

    Previously Claudia has worked as a Field Assistant, collecting seagrass data in the coastal areas of Vanga, Kenya. In her free time Claudia enjoys outdoor activities especially surfing.

Dr Jeremy Leggett

  • Jeremy is a social entrepreneur, writer and climate campaigner. Before embarking on the Bunloit project in March 2020, he founded Solarcentury (1998-2020), one of the world’s most respected solar energy companies, winner of a Queen's Award for Enterprise in Innovation. He also founded SolarAid (2006-2020), an international charity set up with a levy on annual Solarcentury profits, winner of a BITC Unilever Global Development Award. An Entrepreneur of the Year at the New Energy Awards, he was the first Hillary Laureate for International Leadership in Climate Change, has won a Gothenburg Prize, and was the first non-Dutch winner of a Royal Dutch Honorary Sustainability Award. After taking a D.Phil in Earth Science at the University of Oxford, he taught at the Imperial College of Science and Technology (1978-1989). He was scientific director of the climate campaign at Greenpeace (1990-1996), and has been an occasional lecturer on courses in business and environment at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and St Gallen (Switzerland). He has written four books about the climate crisis, as he has experienced it on the front lines for three decades. www.jeremyleggett.net.

Helen Avery

  • Helen leads nature programmes and GFI Hive at the Green Finance Institute, overseeing the Institute's initiatives to mobilise private capital into Nature Based Solutions and nature restoration.

    Prior to joining the Institute she was Sustainable Finance Editor at Euromoney, spearheading the magazine's global coverage of social and environmental finance, impact investing, conservation finance, inclusive finance and inclusion and corporate responsibility.

    Her passion lies in working with those bringing practical solutions to biodiversity loss, climate change and inequality.

Archie Fraser

  • Archie has a long track record of leadership and innovation in renewable energy, in the fields of corporate finance and the development and financing of renewable energy projects. After taking an MA at Oxford, he qualified as a solicitor at Slaughter and May before moving into corporate finance at Kleinwort Benson. His journey through the early years of the renewable energy industry started in 1994 when he moved to biomass project developer Fibrowatt.

    He joined Solarcentury in 2012 as Director of Corporate Finance and he became a Vice President at Statkraft after it acquired Solarcentury in 2020. Until recently he was Chief Investment Officer at Exagen Group, a developer of utility-scale solar and storage projects.

    Archie’s father grew up in the Highlands in a large family near Beauly, and Archie has been coming to the Highlands every year since he was very young.

Irene Knight

  • Irene has always worked in the hospitality business. She has been the housekeeper at Beldorney for the last nine years, ensuring the smooth running of the castle and other properties on the estate.

Dr Annabel Everard

  • Annabel is an ecologist particularly interested in evidence-lead ecosystem restoration and nature conservation. She has recently completed a PhD at the University of Aberdeen where she investigated the ‘naturalness’, ‘ancientness’ and ground flora dynamics of Scottish broadleaf woodlands and temperate rainforests. Her research applied analyses of fossilised pollen, seeds, fungal spores and modern vegetation to guide woodland restoration and conservation.

    Annabel holds a MSc in Ecology and Conservation from Aberdeen University and a BSc in Physical Geography from the University of St Andrews. She has also worked as an ecological surveyor in a range of woodland and peatland restoration/management projects, predominantly, in the Scottish Highlands.

    Whenever possible, Annabel enjoys immersing herself in nature by hiking, running and wild swimming off the beaten path and is keen to continue exploring the natural wonders Scotland has to offer.

Tim Rose

  • Following 15 years in the aerospace industry, Tim switched to renewable energy in 2008, initially developing new business opportunities with a wind turbine start-up and then moving to solar where he spent seven years at Solarcentury, becoming Managing Director of the Europe and Africa business. In 2019 Tim became the project director for the Energy Superhub Oxford Project, working for EDF Renewables and focusing on innovation in large scale battery storage, EV charging infrastructure and ground source heat pumps.

    Tim’s role as Head of Energy at Highlands Rewilding includes seeking opportunities for efficiency improvements and minimizing the company’s dependence on the grid. Tim loves spending time in nature and enjoys hiking, running, cycling and most other things related to being in the mountains. He studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Edinburgh.

Meet the board

Tony Crawte

  • Tony was Finance Director and CFO at Solarcentury for 12 years as the business grew from a UK-focused operation to a £240 million group operating across 4 continents prior to its sale to Statkraft in late 2020. He is a Chartered Accountant with over 25 years’ experience in commercial finance.

Aki Maruyama-Leggett

  • Aki coordinates activities with local schools and those related to art, while managing refurbishment of properties.

    With a background of climate change and energy, she was a Programme Officer at United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) based in Paris, policy researcher at the Institute for Global Environment Strategies (IGES), Japan and consultant to the World Bank. She was on advisory board of an international charity SolarAid. Previously, she worked for Deutsche Bank. She is a qualified master of Ikebana, and a keen flautist, playing with many amateur orchestras and chamber groups. She was also involved in making and presenting a documentary on Japan's ageing society for BBC World Service. She has Msc from University of Oxford.

Daniel Holm

  • Daniel’s career in conservation and forestry began with an Honours degree in Environmental Biology from Napier University where his thesis focused on the freshwater fishes of Sulawesi. This was followed by a Masters in Conservation Biology with a focus on the use of riparian habitats by large mammals. Since then he has worked on a wide variety of research projects including a year supporting ecologists in the Ecuadorian Amazon and a year spent monitoring the behavior and activity patterns of Pine Martens in the Highlands of Scotland. Daniel has also worked on the front line of habitat restoration for many years, having planted close to one million native trees across the Highland area and removed acres of invasive species. Daniel has a strong interest in regenerative agriculture and in particular, agroforestry practices. He has established his own 2 acres food forest in the Highlands experimenting with over 200 species of edible and useful plants and trees suitable for this climate. He is also a keen wood carver and sculptor crafting unique pieces of art and bespoke yurts.

Louise McLaren

  • Louise was born in Aberdeen and still lives in Aberdeenshire. She worked for over 20 years in the NHS as a GP and has recently changed to a career in conservation. She is currently studying for an MSc in Wildlife and Conservation Management at SRUC and is working on her dissertation on Guillemot Chick Diet in Northeast Scotland.

    Her first role in conservation was as Aberdeenshire Reserves Ranger for the Scottish Wildlife Trust and she is now delighted to be Ranger at the beautiful Beldorney Estate.

    Outwith work, Louise has a passion for nature and loves being outdoors with her family and dog.

Nikki Yoxall

  • Nikki has a background in education and has experience of teaching as well as leadership and management in the landbased and tertiary education sector. With her husband James, she moved to Scotland four years ago and is now pursuing a different path, more aligned with her food and farming interests. Nikki has an MSc in Sustainable Food and Natural Resources and is now studying for a PhD investigating Agroecological Transitions.

    She works with Pasture for Life in research and training, and sits on a number of boards and steering groups including NatureScot, the Soil Association Farmer and Grower Board and the Nature Friendly Farming Network Scotland Steering Group.

Erik Riddell

  • Erik was born and raised in Tayvallich with a strong connection to the land and the community, and so jumped at the chance to return and work on the estate. Following a HND in Travel and Tourism at Stirling Uni Erik undertook a Bsc Hons with SRUC in Countryside Management with an emphasis on conservation and habitat management, discovering a passion for an integrated land use approach to wildlife conservation. Following university Erik farmed for 5 years on a conventional livestock farm with beef cattle and sheep in Argyll, growing a strong interest in persuing regenerative agricultural practices; conserving species rich habitats, sequestering carbon and minimising inputs, all the while producing highly nutritious food. He hopes to pursue at Tayvallich with Highlands Rewilding, while engaging with the community as to the reasons for our various land management approaches.

    Erik’s interests are spending time in and on the water through sailing, kayaking and recreational diving as well as hiking into the hills.

Frances Mills

  • After 5 years as Head of Operations and Marketing for an active travel company, Frances returned to studying, gaining a Master of Land Economy from Aberdeen. Diving into the fascinating world of nature recovery, she chose to write her thesis on ‘Funding Scottish Rewilding’, joining Highlands Rewilding to work with the science team amplifying research and engaging diverse audiences in nature restoration. With expertise in content strategy, creation, stakeholder engagement, and growing digital engagement by crafting compelling narratives around complex topics. She has used her experience to deliver successful multi-channel fundraising campaigns, PR and media relations and releases, and management of in-house and consultant marketing and content creation professionals. In her spare time, Frances has run and camped 2,500 miles around the English and Welsh coast, with dreams of continuing around Scotland’s rugged coastline.

James Yoxall

  • James has many practical skills from former roles as a mechanic and climbing instructor. Recently he has been studying a Masters degree in Organic Farming at SRUC. With his wife Nikki, he manages “The Wee Mob”, a herd of Rare and Native breed cattle. The cattle are herded to optimise ecological functioning using Holistic Management. James is a member of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust Scottish forum who seek to improve the future for Scottish rare breed livestock and showcase the importance such genetics might play in resilient food systems in the future. James believes strongly in the integration of nature restoration and food production, with wildlife, people and food at the core of everything he does.

Ewan Paterson

  • Ewan has lived and worked on Tayvallich Estate for over 14 years, and is the point of contact for residents, face of the estates for locals, outside organizations and agencies on estate matters. He has great knowledge of the land, coastline and history of the estate and his large and varied role has developed over time from Head stalker and registered game dealer - setting up a quality assured game larder which has the potential for local food production - to undertaking varied construction, maintenance and restoration work on estates properties and infrastructure, and working with NatureScot on Tayvallich’s SSSIs.

    Ewan is also a qualified dive master and HSC scuba, and has worked in most aspects of commercial scuba diving including shellfish diving, recovery, rescue, moorings, filming with BBC and national geographic. In his spare time he enjoys snowboarding, fly and sea fishing, kayaking, diving and snorkeling, golf, land and sea foraging, gardening.

Alex Davies

  • Alex has worked in regenerative land management for over twenty years. After training in Horticulture, he set up a company to create productive, wildlife-friendly gardens. For the past ten years, he has facilitated land based projects with a focus on community involvement and agroecological food production. He has managed several market gardens and has worked to help people with a broad range of challenges including mental health issues and learning disabilities. Most recently he established educational programs on the Black Isle, working with schools and running workshops to demonstrate how to produce food whilst integrating space for our native wildlife.

David Smyth

  • David is a marine biologist who has been working in the field of biogenic reef restoration for over 20 years. He obtained a BSc in Marine Biology and PhD from Queen’s University Belfast. He is particularly interested in the implementation of bivalve ecosystem services as nature-based solutions to compromised marine habitats. He has extensive experience in establishing, monitoring and augmenting both subtidal and intertidal populations of native oyster, pearl oyster and horse mussels. He is a predictive population modeller of invasive bivalve species, with Magallana gigas and Pinctada radiata species of interest. He is considered a leading expert on passive restoration techniques for the European flat oyster and has managed and installed numerous native oyster nursery programs throughout the UK.

    David has worked in marine habitat restoration, aquaculture and research for Queen’s University Belfast, the British Antarctic Survey, Qatar University, Bangor University Wales and the Ulster Wildlife Trust. He has sat on numerous advisory groups for both the Native Oyster Restoration Alliance of Europe and the Zoological Society of London.

    David has written or co-written more than 50 peer-reviewed papers and has been involved in numerous research funding proposals. He is a qualified HSE 1,3 and 4 diver, who has worked in both engineering and science and is looking forward to exploring the exciting underwater habitats in the waters around Tayvallich.

John Faulks

  • John is a commercial lawyer with over 25 years’ experience in private practice, the not-for-profit sector and as an in-house lawyer. He qualified as a solicitor in 1990 with Clifford Chance, has a law degree from Oxford University and a Masters in Environmental Law from King’s College, London. He was Company Secretary and General Counsel at Solarcentury for 15 years and a key player in taking the business from a start-up in the UK to a £240m group active across 4 continents, whilst keeping it on course as an ethical business, which included setting up SolarAid. John also has experience in government affairs having spent 6 years with the RSPB, as an EU lobbyist, and participated in the UN negotiating sessions of the Climate Change Treaty as part of the legal team advising the Alliance of Small Island States.

Cathy Atkinson

  • Cathy received an OBE for services to data science in 2020 for her work at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Prior to her 6.5 years in the Civil Service, Cathy worked for 13 years in the solar photovoltaics sector, beginning at Solarcentury in the early stages of industry. She holds a BSc in Geography from the University of Bristol, and an MSc in Data Science for the Environment from Lancaster University.

Tony Crawte

  • Tony was Finance Director and CFO at Solarcentury for 12 years as the business grew from a UK-focused operation to a £240 million group operating across 4 continents prior to its sale to Statkraft in late 2020. He is a Chartered Accountant with over 25 years’ experience in commercial finance.

Keir Smith

  • Keir started his career in the mid-1990s, before earning a BSc in Forestry and Conservation Management from the University of Stirling in 2001.  He has worked in private consultancy, the USDA Forest Service in Oregon, and spent 16 years at Forestry Commission Scotland/Scottish Forestry in woodland management roles.  His experience includes securing EIA and FGS consent for several large woodland creation schemes across Scotland and contributing to national forestry guidance.  At Highlands Rewilding, he oversees estate operations, including forestry, agriculture, deer management and health & safety, while working with stakeholders and ensuring compliance with regulations.  His role involves balancing land management priorities, maintaining financial oversight, and supporting estate teams in delivering long-term environmental and community objectives.

Dr Jeremy Leggett

  • Jeremy is a social entrepreneur, writer and climate campaigner. Before embarking on the Bunloit project in March 2020, he founded Solarcentury (1998-2020), one of the world’s most respected solar energy companies, winner of a Queen's Award for Enterprise in Innovation. He also founded SolarAid (2006-2020), an international charity set up with a levy on annual Solarcentury profits, winner of a BITC Unilever Global Development Award. An Entrepreneur of the Year at the New Energy Awards, he was the first Hillary Laureate for International Leadership in Climate Change, has won a Gothenburg Prize, and was the first non-Dutch winner of a Royal Dutch Honorary Sustainability Award. After taking a D.Phil in Earth Science at the University of Oxford, he taught at the Imperial College of Science and Technology (1978-1989). He was scientific director of the climate campaign at Greenpeace (1990-1996), and has been an occasional lecturer on courses in business and environment at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and St Gallen (Switzerland). He has written four books about the climate crisis, as he has experienced it on the front lines for three decades. www.jeremyleggett.net.

Dr Penelope Whitehorn

  • Penelope is a research ecologist with a broad interest in anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. She completed her BSc in Zoology (1st class Hons) at the University of Edinburgh and a Masters in Wildlife Biology and Conservation at Napier University. Penelope then worked for a number of conservation organisations in the UK, Eastern Africa and the US before gaining a PhD from the University of Stirling, where she assessed impacts of habitat fragmentation, inbreeding and parasites on bumblebees. She has since had 11 years of post-doctoral experience, including 3 years as an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow in Germany, researching the effects of climate and land use change on bumblebees.

    Penelope is a member of NatureScot’s Scientific Advisory Committee Expert Panel, has worked as a contributing author on the IPBES regional assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services for Europe and Central Asia and has previously worked as a terrestrial ecologist for the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency. She has written or co-written 28 peer-reviewed research papers and research grant/fellowship applications and is particularly keen on making sure her research findings reach a wider audience through outreach with schools and writing for the wider public.

Dr Calum Brown

  • Calum is a land system scientist interested in how land management affects ecosystems and societies. He uses a range of methods to investigate how people’s use of land might change in the future, and the potential for nature-based solutions to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss. Calum has worked in research and conservation in Scotland, the US, Slovakia and Germany, most recently as a Senior Researcher in Land Use Change & Climate at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. He has developed a widely-used framework for agent-based computational modelling of land use change and coordinated an international working group on large scale land system models. He has been a member of the Scottish Wild Land Group’s Steering Team, and worked as a consultant for Scottish Environment LINK and the Scottish Agricultural College. Calum has written or co-written more than 60 peer-reviewed research papers and many research proposals for UK, European and international funding. He was raised and educated in the Highlands and holds a Masters from the University of the Highlands and Islands and a PhD (funded by a Microsoft Research Scholarship) from the University of St Andrews.

Dr Hannah Rudman

  • Dr Hannah Rudman's applied research and development  work focuses on nature tech and their data for validating and proving nature-based projects' impact – digital measurement, reporting and verification (dMRV). She has developed tech start-up businesses, including distributed ledger technology focussed SICCAR and Envirodigital. She is convenor of decisiongradeiot.com, an adhocracy creating international open standardised processes for digital devices and their data measuring carbon, biodiversity and nature improvements.

    Hannah is a co-leader of the Scottish Nature Finance Pioneers network of over 620 organisations, and is Expert Evaluator for the European Commission’s Research Executive Agency. She acts as Advisor to the Scottish Government's natural capital, biodiversity and green finance programmes. Hannah publicly serves as Board Trustee and Director for the National Galleries of Scotland.