Defra Ministers have appointed three new Non-Executive
Commissioners to the Forestry Commission.
Dr Hilary Allison, Professor Evans and Sandy Storrie have
been appointed for three years commencing on 1 April 2020.
The Commissioners will play a pivotal role in establishing a
strong, sustainable future for the organisation, enabling it to
set out with confidence on the road to the next hundred years of
forestry in England.
Evans, formerly Professor of
Forestry at Imperial College and previously the Forestry
Commission’s Chief Research Officer (S), is also a past president
of the Institute of Chartered Foresters, vice-president of the
Commonwealth Forestry Association and chaired (2013-19) the
Forestry Commission’s Expert Committee on Forest Science.
Memberships include Confor, the Royal Forestry Society, and
Woodland Heritage. He is an honorary fellow of Bangor University
and author of over 100 research papers and many books on tree and
forestry related matters. For more than 30 years he has owned a
30-acre woodland in Hampshire. He was appointed OBE in 1997.
Sandy Storrie in his 35 years in the British Army led the “Desert
Rats” in Iraq, served as an Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff,
taught at the Royal College of Defence Studies, and was deputy
head of the NATO mission in Afghanistan. In retirement, he works
as a strategy consultant, company director and NATO senior
mentor, advising the current generation of coalition commanders
on crisis management and Board development. An Oxford graduate,
he holds the IOD’s Diploma in Company Direction, and is a Fellow
of the Chartered Management Institute. He brings an external
perspective, broad experience of strategic and operational
planning, and a strong track record of leadership and management
in the public sector.
Hilary Allison is currently Head of Ecosystem Assessment and
Policy Support at UN Environment Programme World Conservation
Monitoring Centre. She was Director of Policy at the Woodland
Trust for 17 years and has participated in several government-led
processes on forest and tree health policy as well as leading
advocacy work to enhance policy on woodland conservation. She is
a former chair of Wildlife and Countryside Link, and also worked
briefly for the National Trust and the Nature Conservancy
Council.
The Forestry Commission (FC) is a non-Ministerial Government
department established over a century ago as a body serving Great
Britain (GB).
In 2013, Natural Resources Wales took over most of FC’s functions
in Wales, and the Scottish Government took over FC’s functions in
Scotland last year, which means that from this point on the FC’s
work will be primarily in England. Forest Research will continue
to operate across GB, and the whole FC will remain an outward
looking, connected organisation, engaging with the forest
industry and other national and international partners and
stakeholders, and delivering research and other services to
Scotland and Wales by agreement with the devolved governments.
All appointments to the Forestry Commission are made on merit and
political activity plays no part in the selection process. The
appointments comply with the Ministerial Code of Governance on
Public Appointments. There is a requirement for appointees’
political activity (if significant) to be declared. All three
appointees have declared that they have not taken part in any
political activity in the past five years.
