Chair

Charmian is a Senior Partner at the strategic management consulting firm, The Boston Consulting Group where she has worked for over two decades. She supports global and large UK Consumer and Retail companies on strategic issues, large transformation and change programmes. Many of these programmes today are in the digital space. Charmian also works in the field and on strategic topics for UN agencies such as the World Food Programme. She has a strong interest in travel and the natural world and in particular, the Galapagos Islands. Charmian is a Trustee of the Courtauld Institute and on the CBI Council for London. She has four children and lives in London.

Pippa began her career in commercial direct marketing at Brann and OgilvyOne then joined specialist charity fundraising Agency Tangible. Pippa took on the strategic planning and campaign implementation for charities such as The Salvation Army, Marie Curie Cancer Care and The Royal British Legion. She decided to make the move from ‘agency’ to ‘charity’ and took the position of Head of Individual Giving at WWF-UK. She was promoted to Director of Fundraising, leading a £45m fundraising operation with a team of 100. She was lucky enough to work on capacity building across the global WWF Network. Always looking to develop she then secured experience in capital fundraising in the museum sector and most recently has spent five fruitful years in education fundraising. Pippa has her own fundraising advisory business and was a Trustee of Make A Wish UK for seven years. As a keen scuba diver she was particularly inspired to join the Board of GCT knowing the reputation of the islands for the schooling hammerheads. She hopes to bring her communications and fundraising expertise to bear to support the Trust’s mission to protect the unique nature and beauty of Galapagos.

Sandra is a Brazilian conservation professional living in the UK who started her career in Brazil as a wildlife vet, with a degree in veterinary medicine from the University of Sao Paulo (USP). After a year in Panama doing on research of the epidemiology of arborviruses (arthropod-born viruses) in wild marine and forest bird populations with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), she spent 6 months in 1984 working as a volunteer with the Charles Darwin Research Centre in the Galapagos, triggering a life-long interest in the conservation of the islands.

Sandra co-founded FUNATURA, an NGO dedicated to conservation of the Cerrado savannas of central Brazil, and working for the Brazilian government’s protected areas department, after which she earned her MSc in conservation and wildlife management from the University of London. Sandra then joined WWF-UK as their first Head of Latin America. During this time, she helped set up WWF-Brazil, and then was their Interim CEO for a short time in 2004. Since then, Sandra has held various other positions at WWF including Head of Forests at WWF-UK, Deputy Leader and then Leader of WWF’s Living Amazon Initiative.

Chris is a senior level fundraising leader, working for over 15 years within the charity sector, with hands-on experience in developing strong fundraising strategies and delivering growth in income.  He is currently Director of Supporter Engagement at Sense & Sense International.

Jane is from the technology sector, working for IBM and then as CEO of an innovative software development company, taking it from start-up to sale to a US company  Jane has since held a portfolio of non-executive directorships with large and small companies, ranging from the John Lewis Partnership to technology start-ups. She has also held non-executive roles in the Department for Work & Pensions and the Ministry of Justice, and has acted as advisor to various companies, public sector bodies and investment banks.

Jane is currently a non-executive director of StatPro plc, F&C Global Smaller Companies plc, Nominet Ltd and her local Citizen’s Advice Bureau.  She was awarded an MBE for services to the IT sector in 1991, and an OBE for services to the public service and voluntary sector in 2009.

Marta began her career as a biologist and has a long-standing interest in the part that Galapagos has played in our understanding of evolution. As a half Ecuadorian this is even closer to her heart, and she hopes to make a valuable contribution to help safeguard the islands’ natural heritage. Marta lived in Galapagos whilst working for the Charles Darwin Foundation, where she experienced first-hand the scientific and funding challenges faced by the Galapagos and by researchers more broadly. She chairs GCT’s programmes and grants committee.

She is currently the Executive Director of the UK Collaborative on Development Research (UKCDR), which ensures strategic coherence across UK government departments and research funders of international development. Prior to this she has worked at various world-leading organisations developing and implementing research funding partnerships and capacity strengthening initiatives in developing countries. Marta has a research background in malaria with a PhD in parasitology from Imperial College London. She is also a Trustee of the Royal Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.