Meet the Team

CHAIR

John is the Chairman of the Scottish Campaign for National Parks and an Honorary Fellow of Scottish Environment LINK. He spent 23 years working for the National Trust for Scotland, latterly as its Head of Policy and Planning, then 14 years as Director of Action to Protect Rural Scotland. He chaired Scottish Environment LINK from 2006 to 2009 and was President of the Scottish Countryside Rangers’ Association from 2016 to 2024. He is a retired Chartered Town Planner who also trained as a landscape manager and geographer. He was brought up in Birmingham but spent his entire professional life in Scotland. He lives in Edinburgh with his wife and two sons, and in his spare time he enjoys cycling, skiing, hillwalking and playing the piano.

VICE CHAIR

An historian and economist by training, environmental and land use issues have preoccupied John throughout his career. After grappling with a range of related matters during his early years in the Treasury, he worked in the field of town and country planning in both England and Scotland before spending almost twenty years handling many aspects of landscape, access, land management, development and planning policy as a Director in Scottish Natural Heritage. He is a past Convener of the UK-wide Countryside Recreation Network, of Scotland’s National Access Forum and of the Southern Uplands Partnership and now chairs the Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland. Locally he is Vice-Chair of the Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere. He lives near Kirkcudbright, where he and his wife run a small herd of black Galloway cattle. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Currently Head Ranger on Glen Tanar, in the Cairngorms National Park. For 7 years, from its inception, Eric has served as Vice Convenor of the Cairngorms National Park Board, as a Ministerial Appointee. Eric was awarded a Churchill Fellowship, in 1991, for his study of the Access/Conservation interface, in protected areas of Northern Europe and has undertaken conflict resolution work, at the invitation of the Portuguese Minister for Environment, in the Tejo protected area.

Eric is a co-opted member of the Council of the European Federation of National Parks and Protected Areas. Co-author: the original ‘Cairngorms Forest and Woodland Framework’.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

During his career Ross was a town planner and landscape architect whose private practice was well known for its environmental planning and impact skills. Ross started his career in the USA and continued his international interests with work in Botswana, Southern Africa , Qatar and Hong Kong. On retiring he and his wife developed a Green Tourism business which won a wide variety of awards and became well known nationally. Ross became Chairman of SCNP in 2014 Following his term as Chair in 2018 Ross stepped down to take a place on the executive committee where he remains totally committed to the establishment and need for more National Parks.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Duncan is a Geographer and having worked as a teacher and diving instructor in the late 90’s, studied for a Masters degree in Coastal Management. Duncan established Coastal Zone Management (UK) in 2001 to channel his work on protected areas relating to research, practical management, planning, evaluation and reporting. Much of his recent work has been focussed on coastal and marine sites in The Caribbean and in The Seychelles.

He is a Fellow of The Royal Geographical Society and an active member of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas. Duncan lives on The Black Isle in The Highlands and takes an interest in protected areas work on his doorstep and nationally. His downtime is spent with his family and dogs, surfing, hill walking or cooking.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Jane trained initially as a molecular geneticist but was always very involved with the macro side of the natural world as well. She now manages a 1000 hectare ecological restoration project, Gorrenberry, in the Hermitage Valley of Scottish Borders, mainly planted with native broadleaves but with room for a small herd of hardy Belted Galloways (pictured above). She chairs the Campaign for a Scottish Borders National Park.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Susan has always had a close interest in land use and nature conservation especially in the remoter parts of Scotland, and how these areas can support sustainable tourism.

Susan has worked in Sutherland and Orkney in the past and more recently as Biodiversity Officer in Edinburgh.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Beryl’s first degree was in Zoology with Botany, and her subsequent MSc was in Marine Biology. She spent most of her professional career in Scotland in the delivery and development of biological education, and then administration in a variety of secondary schools.  Despite many commitments there was always time to take her enthusiastic students hillwalking and orienteering, not to mention assisting with the delivery of the Duke of Edinburgh programme.  These activities offered the opportunity to encourage the young people who participated to appreciate the wonderful landscapes and wild life on their doorsteps.

For many years she was very active in her climbing club and served as Secretary and then President on two separate occasions. After retirement, she was a volunteer on the Council for the MCofS [Mountaineering Council of Scotland, now Mountaineering Scotland] and was vice-president for two terms, and chaired the Access and Conservation Committee.  During that time she represented the MCofS on several bodies including the NTS Council and, most importantly, Scottish Environment LINK. She also responded to many consultations and development proposals at a time when wind farms were proliferating extensively across the landscape of Scotland. She has always been an advocate for landscape, wildlife and responsible access, and is a long standing member of the Fife Local Access Forum.

She was the Convenor of the Scottish Wild Land Group for many years and represented them at LINK where she was a Trustee for 3 terms, and also co-convenes the Hilltracks campaign.

She is a busy resident of the community in her village of Limekilns, in Fife, and is particularly involved with environmental issues via the conservation and floral display groups. Her interests include hillwalking and travelling to mountainous regions when time allows.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

A Town Planner by training, Gordon worked in Aberdeenshire before being appointed Director of Planning at Banff and Buchan District.  He then moved to Shetland as Director of Planning and was a member of the monitoring committee studying the environmental impacts of the oil industry.

Gordon became Director of Planning for Dumfries & Galloway Council In 1986. During that time, he set up Solway Firth Partnership, designated Wigtown Bay as the largest NNR in the UK,  introduced a management scheme to Loch Ken, developed the Ranger service, and set up Shetland Amenity Trust to carry out conservation work in the region.

In 1996 he led the team that negotiated the purchase of the Crichton, which he then led, and for 15 years redeveloped the site of 100 acres and 17 buildings, bringing the Universities of Glasgow and Paisley to deliver higher education for the first time to the area. He was awarded an OBE for this work.

He has been a member of the National Committee of the Forestry Commission and the West Areas Board of SNH.

Since retiring he has led the Chamber of Commerce, chaired the Trust redeveloping Shambellie House and is a founder Board member of Galloway National Park Association.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARKS STRATEGY PROJECT MANAGER

Nikki took over the part-time role of project managing the Scottish National Parks Strategy Project from John Mayhew in Spring 2022. The Strategy Project is jointly run with APRS and Nikki had previously worked with APRS first as a volunteer and then managing the APRS Green Belts Alliance project. She has worked as an environmental policy consultant and prior to this worked for the National Trust for Scotland in a range of policy and Management Planning posts. Earlier in her career she worked at RBG Kew and RBG Edinburgh after a first degree in Ecological Sciences and a MSc in Biodiversity and Taxonomy.

ADMINISTRATION AND COMMUNICATIONS

Pamela has a background in Training, Administration and HR Management in the voluntary and finance sectors. After deciding on a change of career in 2019 she began studying with SRUC. Pamela is currently studying MSc Wildlife and Conservation Management and works with the Scottish Countryside Rangers Association, and with the Scottish Campaign for National Parks, managing administration, communications, and website development.