Beccy Speight

About

Chief Executive of the RSPB, the largest nature conservation organisation in the UK, with 1.2 million members, more than 2,000 employees and around 12,000 volunteers. We have more than 200 nature reserves across the UK; wild havens where everyone can get closer to nature and home to 80 per cent of our rarest or more threatened bird species. We undertake conservation work and forge powerful new partnerships that inspire others to stand up and give nature the home it deserves. As well as our work at home, we are the largest global partner and participant in BirdLife International where we help to stem the loss of global biodiversity. The organisation’s work includes projects in Sierra Leone, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Tristan da Cunha, a UK Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic Ocean. I started my career in local government in Scotland and then moved into management consultancy. I have worked in the conservation charity sector since 2000, including as director for the National Trust’s East Midlands and Midlands regions where I was responsible for developing the Trust's sustainable food policy and installing contemporary art. I became Chief Executive at the Woodland Trust in 2014 and led the expansion of the woodland creation charity and a review of its priorities, before commencing my present role at the RSPB in 2019. I lead the RSPB in a decade of critical action due to 41% of species in the UK being in decline, and 15% at risk of extinction. Nature is in crisis, and together we can save it.