Introducing our new CEO

I am honoured to have been appointed Chief Executive Officer at GCT, my ultimate dream job! I have committed my career to high priority conservation, dedicating the last 12 years to the Galapagos Islands through my work with GCT as the Head of Programmes.

My passion for Galapagos and the wonderful people who live there has only grown with each new experience I have had, fuelling an ongoing motivation to have the greatest impact I can to protect it into the future. The same is true for GCT, an organisation I have grown with, learned so much from and never fail to see the potential of. I am proud to have been a part of developing the special working culture that GCT embodies – implementing our values and continuing to improve Diversity, Equality and Inclusion as we strive to achieve more and more impactful conservation outcomes. The GCT team and network of partners are truly special and inspiring people that I am very grateful to work with.

I have been inspired by the Galapagos Islands since the first time I ever read about them, and I continue to be under their spell. I have experienced the Islands in many ways – as a student, a donor, a delegate at political events, a scientific advisor, an environmental educator, a tourist, a tour guide and a partnership broker. I have experienced living in hostels, fishing boats, cruise boats, research vessels, volunteer dorms, on a farm and in a beach house, gaining a varied view of island life.

I have been in the field with Charles Darwin Foundation’s landbirds team catching avian vampire flies with fruit juice, surveyed baby hammerhead sharks in a mangrove nursery survey with the Galapagos Science Center, joined school groups radio-tracking giant tortoises and collected endless samples of sand, seawater and algae looking for microplastics with many citizen scientists.

I have even been in a submarine thanks to an invitation to a research expedition led by Dr Sylvia Earle of Mission Blue. I have heard stories of Galapagos from incredible individuals, several of whom are sadly no longer with us, including the great Godfrey Merlen and Randal Keynes, of times gone by and how the rate of current change is astounding. I have witnessed this with my own eyes over the last ten years of visiting.

We are at a pivotal point for GCT to have more impact than ever, with experience, evidence and connections coming together to allow us to accelerate our goals. We are being invited to sit at increasingly influential tables, representing voices from the Islands that deserve to be amplified – the result of more impactful programmes, communications and networking.

We have boundaries to push, and I am convinced with the strong foundations our former CEO, Sharon Johnson, built with us over the last eight years, we are on track for some great things in the years to come. The need to protect Galapagos and many other vulnerable places in the world is increasingly urgent in the face of the biodiversity and climate crises. My motivation has never been higher.

Please join us.