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Our advisory council
Our advisory council helps us to champion net zero, nature restoration and resource security. We are an independent organisation, and advisory council members serve in a personal capacity. As a forum, they agree with our principles but do not necessarily agree with every policy we advocate, nor do we necessarily endorse every view of our advisory council members.
Jerome Mayhew MP
Member of Parliament for Broadland and Fakenham. Serves as Shadow Minister for Transport.
Graham Stuart MP
Member of Parliament for Beverley and Holderness. He previously served as Minister for Climate.
Rebecca Smith MP
Member of Parliament for South West Devon.
Lord Sir Alok Sharma
Former Member of Parliament for Reading West. Served as President for COP26, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and Secretary of State for International Development.
Lord Chris Grayling
Former Member of Parliament for Epsom and Ewell. Served as Secretary of State for Transport.
Sir Simon Clarke
Former Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland. Served as the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities and Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
Rebecca Pow
Former Member of Parliament for Taunton Dean. Served as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the DEFRA
Selaine Saxby
Former Member of Parliament for North Devon. Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Celtic Sea and the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Cycling and Walking.
Cllr Ian Courts
Leader of Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council. Portfolio Lead for Housing and Land for the West Midlands Combined Authority.
Cllr Marisa Heath
Cabinet Member for Environment at Surrey County Council. Formerly the Portfolio Holder for Environment and Deputy Leader for Runnymede Borough Council. Chief Executive of the Plant-based Food Alliance UK.
Cllr Joe Porter
Staffordshire Moorlands District Councillor for Brown Edge and Endon.
Cllr Linda Taylor
Leader of Cornwall Council.
Cllr Shengke Zhi
Trafford Borough Councillor for Bowdon Ward. Shadow Executive Member for Climate Change.
Ben Goldsmith
Chief executive of Menhaden Resource Efficiency Plc, founder and chair of the Conservation Collective and previously Chair of CEN and non-executive director for the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs.
Nicholas Boys Smith
Founding Director of Create Streets and an influential writer on the design and history of our towns and cities. Co-chair of the Building Better Building Beautiful Commission and chair of the Advisory Committee of the Government’s new Office for Place.
Ben Caldecott
One of the five founders of CEN and served on its board until 2023. Ben specialises in environment, energy, and sustainability issues and works at the intersection between finance, public policy, and academe, having held senior roles in each domain.
Adrian Gahan
Co-founder of CEN. UK & EU Policy Director for National Geographic Pristine Seas. Government affairs adviser to the Blue Marine Foundation and chair of the Great Blue Ocean coalition of NGOs.
Isabella Gornall
Founder of Seahorse Environmental. Chair of UK100, the ambitious network of UK Cities committing to Net Zero by 2045.
Resham Kotecha
Head of Policy at the Open Data Institute. Appointed by the Cabinet Office to be a Social Mobility Commissioner. Head of Engagement for Women2Win and is an Advisory Board member of the Conservative Friends of International Development.
Matthew Lesh
Director of Public Policy and Communications at the Institute of Economic Affairs.
Anatol Lieven
Director of the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Washington DC. He was a professor at Georgetown University in Qatar from 2014 to 2021. He serves on the advisory committee of the South Asia Department of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Charlie Ogilvie
Formerly Director of Strategy for COP26 at the UK Cabinet Office.
Sam Richards
CEO of Britain Remade. Formerly the Prime Minister’s Special Adviser on energy and the environment and Director of CEN.
Rachel Wolf
Founding Partner at Public First. Co-authored the Conservative Party’s Election Manifesto in 2019. Previously education and innovation adviser to the Prime Minister at 10 Downing Street.
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