Meet The Team
We are proud of the expertise and experience of our team. We work together to tackle poverty and the effects of the climate crisis by growing trees, improving people’s incomes, and restoring and protecting land.
We all believe in protecting the environment so that people can live a healthy life, free from poverty.
Trustees
Our board of trustees work together to set our strategic direction. They ensure we are true to our mission and values and check our progress against our strategy. The board of trustees is led by our chair, Elizabeth Davis OBE.
Elizabeth is an experienced senior leader in the public sector, with a particular interest in good governance, workforce and organisational design. As an HR practitioner, she has had roles in international development with both the UK government’s Department for International Development and the United Nations. Elizabeth was part of the senior team in Wales that brought together the Forestry Commission, Environment Agency and Countryside Council. In 2015, she was awarded an OBE for her contribution to public services in Wales.
Hilary’s experience is in advocacy for forests and for nature both in the UK and internationally. As Director of Policy for the Woodland Trust she established the trust’s approach to campaigning and lobbying for UK woodland from 1998 onwards. More recently she worked for UNEP-WCMC as Head of Ecosystem Assessment and Policy Support, focusing on the power of data, information, evidence, and knowledge to underpin better biodiversity-related decision-making. She now works part time as a government-appointed Forestry Commissioner for England and for UNEP’s Global Assessment Unit. She became a Tree Aid Trustee in 2021.
Katie is an experienced senior leader in the not-for-profit sector, most recently Director of Fundraising and Marketing Strategy at the British Red Cross where she was responsible for developing an ambitious transformation programme for fundraising and supporter engagement. In the past she has held senior fundraising roles at Diabetes UK and Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity and has worked in a range of other UK charities including NSPCC and Bliss. She is a member of the advisory panel for Missing People and a trustee for The Conservation Volunteers. She has been a trustee at Tree Aid since 2024.
Roger’s career has been predominantly working in the charitable sector, as Chief Executive and prior to that as Finance Director. For the ten years to 2014, he was Chief Executive of MHA, one of the UK’s largest charities and foremost providers in the sectors of care and housing for older people.For the past ten years, he has been working for several organisations on a non-executive basis. Current positions include Chair of Rangeford Villages, a developer and operator of retirement villages, part of the Octopus Group, and a consultant to LMS Capital, an investment company listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Defrim is a Grants and Innovate Finance specialist who has previously headed the global grants and innovative finance practice area at Chemonics UKD, and other consultancy firms. He has designed and managed more than 100 grants and innovative finance programmes on behalf of FCDO, USAID, DFAT, EU, Trust/Foundations and Development Financial Institutions (DFIs). He is a strong advocate of private sector development involvement in achieving SDGs and in particular tackling climate change, having championed the use of grants and other innovative finance instruments to offset risk and bring other investors and donors to the fore.
Tristram is a Chartered Forester and is an environmentalist with more than 20 years’ experience in the land management sector. Tristram is the Chief Operating Officer for Forestry England, the largest landowner in England, with responsibility for the organisations operations. Tristram is also a Non-Executive Director for the Broads National Park. Tristram has an Masters of Business Administration from Bayes Business school and is committed to sustainable land management to deliver social, environmental and economic benefits. Tristram has served as a Trustee for Tree Aid since 2021.
Anwar is an award-winning Executive Producer with over 21 years’ experience in TV production. Spending a decade with the BBC, and currently with Wildstar Films, he specialises in natural history and adventure documentaries for UK, US and international broadcasters. Anwar believes in bringing diverse voices into production, both on-screen and off-screen, to attract new audiences to the natural history genre. He has been a Tree Aid Trustee since 2024.
Henry is a deep technology investor with a passion for climate policy and activism. Over a decade as a climate investor, Henry has worked with some of the world’s most iconic clean technology companies and helped raise 2 billion dollars for climate solutions. He has led a number of transformative climate campaigns to establish Electric Vehicle mandates and incentives and to shut down coal plants. Henry’s passion for the environment is rooted in his childhood summers spent in the French countryside and in the woodlands of Maine. Henry holds degrees in history and business administration and is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan.
Sabrina is a licensed attorney and a third-sector risk and compliance specialist with over 20 years of experience supporting small, medium, and large international NGOs, NGOs, and local and national NGOs to develop, manage, and monitor their risk and compliance operating environments. She has worked for public, private, and third-sector organisations worldwide and has experience managing and implementing humanitarian and development projects funded by institutional, private, and blended funders. Sabrina is thrilled to bring her skills to the Tree Aid board and help support the achievement of the organisation’s goals. Sabrina became a Tree Aid trustee in 2024.
Alex has experience leading the operations of organisations in inclusive finance. He was Head of Operations at The Private Infrastructure Development Group, an infrastructure development and finance organisation that delivers pioneering infrastructure in the poorest and most fragile countries. Prior to that he was Group Operations Director at AgDevCo, an impact investor that focusses on inclusive African agriculture. He has worked for the UN, advancing inclusive agri-SME and smallholder finance, as well as in the private sector with global agricultural value chains. He is passionate about protecting and enhancing livelihoods whilst mitigating the effects of climate change. He became a Tree Aid Trustee in 2021.
Kate is passionate about building solutions for climate, nature, and human rights, particularly in regions affected by conflict and fragility. She founded and leads CrossBoundary’s Natural Capital practice, focusing on unlocking private finance for climate and conservation in emerging and frontier markets. She advises nature-based carbon projects globally and leads The Fund for Nature. Prior to CrossBoundary, she was based in Istanbul as Chief Operating Officer at Hala Systems, a humanitarian technology company focused on civilian protection in Syria. Kate holds an MBA from Stanford and a B.S. in Economics and International Affairs from Georgia Tech. She is based in Dakar, Senegal and became a Tree Aid Trustee in 2024.
Senior Management
Our chief executive and three directors together make up our senior management team. They are responsible for day-to-day decision making and for leading our three departments: programmes, finance and resources, and communications and fundraising.
Ben joined Tree Aid as Director of Finance and Resources in June 2017. Having qualified at Deloitte, he has over 25 years of experience in commercial and international development finance. He has worked in the Gambia, Tanzania and in the UK, most recently as Finance Director of Restless Development. He is experienced in leading international finance teams to deliver transparency and value for money.
Georges started as the Director of Programmes in July 2020 having previously been Tree Aid’s Director of West Africa Operations. Georges has more than two decades of experience in national and international organisations like FAO/Ministry of Environment Project, ORGANIC and Self Help Africa. His areas of expertise are sustainable agriculture, natural resource management, agroforestry, land tenure management, crop value chain development and smallholder’s organisational development.
Sally re-joined Tree Aid as Director of Communications & Fundraising in April 2023, having previously managed the organisation’s communications team for many years. Sally has dedicated her career to charity communications and PR across national and international NGOs, from the National Trust to Womankind Worldwide. Prior to Tree Aid, she was on the senior management team at WWT, leading their communications and campaigns work. Sally has also been a fundraising advisory board member for Bristol City Funds.
Tom Skirrow was appointed as Chief Executive in July 2020 after more than four years as Director of Operations at Tree Aid. During his time at Tree Aid, Tom has led the team to deliver significant growth across its operations, securing large-scale investment for projects, overseeing the development of new and pioneering monitoring and evaluation systems and supporting the development and delivery of the organisation’s ambitious five-year strategy. He brings over 14 years of experience in programme and operational roles working on projects in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. Before starting with Tree Aid he worked as Country Director for Save the Children in Vanuatu.
Advocacy
Our advocacy team works to accelerate and scale up community-led ecosystem restoration across Africa’s drylands by bringing the voices of dryland communities to the national, regional and international level to create and support enabling environments for the communities we serve.
Annie joined Tree Aid in May 2021 to guide the organisation in the development of its advocacy work in-country and internationally. Annie’s background is in international, national and grassroots policy and advocacy, specialising in climate action, human rights and sustainable development. Annie has previously worked on international and national climate mitigation programs in the Australia-Pacific region, and been a climate science communicator for the UK Met Office, advising UK government on the latest climate science available.
Fabrice joined Tree Aid in 2022 and is the Regional Communication and Advocacy Coordinator for our West Africa office. He has a degree in communication and journalism and is certified as an NGO and association manager. After ten years of practicing journalism, he moved into communications, working for a civil society organisation promoting budgetary transparency. He previously worked for the National Coordination of the Great Green Wall of Burkina Faso and OCADES Caritas Burkina. Fabrice has conducted and participated in several studies and training courses as a consultant in Burkina Faso and the sub-region.
Pietro has over 20 years of experience in sustainable agriculture, agroforestry, and watershed management in a development context, with over 10 years’ work with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), as well as with other international development charities. At Tree Aid, Pietro is responsible for supporting the improvement of programme quality and leading our advocacy team.
Rabeca joined Tree Aid in April 2024. She is responsible for leading the organisation’s climate finance and carbon finance advocacy work at the international level. She has an extensive background in international policy and advocacy, with a focus on climate change and human rights. Rabeca is passionate about nature and its vital role in addressing the climate crisis. She previously worked for Save the Children International in climate advocacy and disaster risk reduction in-country.
Communications & Fundraising
The communications and fundraising team engage our supporters, who generously give their time and money to support our work. They also raise awareness of Tree Aid’s work in media and across other communications.
Sally re-joined Tree Aid as Director of Communications & Fundraising in April 2023, having previously managed the organisation’s communications team for many years. Sally has dedicated her career to charity communications and PR across national and international NGOs, from the National Trust to Womankind Worldwide. Prior to Tree Aid, she was on the senior management team at WWT, leading their communications and campaigns work. Sally has also been a fundraising advisory board member for Bristol City Funds.
Summer joined Tree Aid in 2023 and leads the development and implementation of our communications strategy. She works with the wider team to deliver communications content and activities to engage target audiences, maximise Tree Aid’s voice, profile and brand, and create opportunities to grow funding and other income sources. She has a background in journalism and previously worked for a charitable trust where she led on digital communications.
Dec joined Tree Aid in 2020. He brings 9 years’ experience working in digital marketing, specialising in paid social media and PPC advertising. As the Digital Marketing Manager he leads on the strategy to reach and inspire people about Tree Aid’s work through digital paid media. His agency background has lent him experience achieving a wide range of marketing objectives, which has helped him to rapidly evolve the digital function at Tree Aid; expanding to new platforms, supporting significant growth in digital fundraising and reach of digital comms.
Emily joined Tree Aid in 2014 and is our Head of Fundraising. She is responsible for donations across all areas of fundraising including individuals, businesses, legacies, and community groups and is passionate about leading her to team to raise money for a cause she cares so deeply about. Emily has over 16 years’ marketing experience and before joining the charity sector worked for various publishing houses including BBC Audiobooks.
Nia joined Tree Aid in 2020 and became the Philanthropy Manager in 2024. With previous experience in both unrestricted and programmatic funding roles within the organisation, she brings a wealth of knowledge about Tree Aid’s work to the team. Nia manages our philanthropy and trust programmes, building relationships with supporters and working with them to ensure they understand how impactful a gift to Tree Aid can be.
Programmes
Our programmes team look after all of our projects across Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Senegal. This includes overseeing our monitoring and evaluation systems and our specialist technical work.
They work with communities and local partners to directly tackle poverty and the effects of the climate crisis.
Abdoulaye joined Tree Aid in October 2017 and has previously worked in various public and private organisations, including the Ministry of Agriculture and national and international NGOs. Abdoulaye’s main areas of expertise are the decentralisation, local governance and sustainable management of natural resources, intensification of agro-silvopastoral production and development and management of farmers’ organisations.
Alexis joined Tree Aid in 2013 as the Forest Governance Projects Officer and is now responsible for coordinating Tree Aid’s natural resource management and forest governance activities. Alexis has more than 12 years’ experience in national and international organisations, including World Bank and IUCN. His areas of expertise include forest governance, agroforestry, climate change and rural business value chains.
Amadou joined Tree Aid in October 2017. He has more than 12 years of practical experience working with national and international NGOs such as Sahel Eco and Farm Radio Internationale. His work has included programming, management and coordination of agroforestry, resilience and value chain development projects. Amadou is the winner of the African Innovation for a Sustainable Development prize received at the France Africa 2013 summit.
Cheru was appointed as Ethiopia Country Manager in June 2014 and is responsible for the development of our programme work and engagement and co-operation with local partners. He has overseen the establishment of the Ethiopia office (opened in June 2014) and is responsible for running and developing the country plan for the expansion of Tree Aid’s Ethiopia programme. Cheru is an environmentalist and livelihoods development expert with more than 25 years’ practical experience in the sector.
David joined Tree Aid in January 2018. He has over 15 years of experience in international project development, implementation and evaluation. Previous roles include programme management, infrastructure support and planning and commissioning. He currently focuses on strengthening organisational capacity for internal monitoring, evaluation and learning.
Désiré joined Tree Aid in October 2007 as a Project Officer. Since August 2023, he has been the Country Director of Burkina Faso, after having acted as Director of West Africa Operations. He has over 22 years of professional experience in the development and management of projects and programmes, working with national and international NGOs, government, multi and bilateral cooperations. His area of expertise is natural resources management, agroforestry, climate change, local and decentralised governance and local development.
Dupont joined Tree Aid in August 2023 to work on the Tond Tenga project. He holds a Master’s degree in Tropical Plant Biodiversity and a diploma as Inspector of Water and Forests. He previously worked at Burkina Faso’s Environment Ministry and the General Directorate of Water and Forests, and served as sectoral focal point for Burkina Faso’s national measurement, reporting and verification system. His experience includes forest inventories, land‑tenure security, carbon stock assessment and training for agents.
Georges started as the Director of Programmes in July 2020 having previously been Tree Aid’s Director of West Africa Operations. Georges has more than two decades of experience in national and international organisations like FAO/Ministry of Environment Project, ORGANIC and Self Help Africa. His areas of expertise are sustainable agriculture, natural resource management, agroforestry, land tenure management, crop value chain development and smallholder’s organisational development.
Hervé joined Tree Aid in April 2022. He brings over two decades of experience in rural development, livestock management, and international programme coordination across several African countries. Hervé previously served as an international consultant for IFAD, contributing his technical expertise in livestock and pastoral systems across Niger, the Central African Republic, Burkina Faso, and the Republic of Congo. His work focused on programme design, evaluation, and support for communities facing challenges such as climate change, food insecurity, and conflict. At Tree Aid, Hervé leads the strategic development and delivery of programmes across West Africa. Hervé holds an Inter-university Master’s degree in Animal and Plant Resources Management in Tropical Environments from the University of Liège and the Faculty of Agronomic Sciences in Belgium, and a Rural Development Engineering degree from the Polytechnic University of Bobo Dioulasso in Burkina Faso.
Jean Parfait joined Tree Aid in August 2023. He holds a Master 2 in geography with a specialisation in cartography, geomatics and geographic information system (GIS). He has 7 years of experience in monitoring and evaluation in the humanitarian and development sector within organisations such as Humanity and Inclusion, NGO HELP, Action Against Hunger and CARE International. Prior to joining Tree Aid, he held the position of technical officer for monitoring, evaluation, learning and impact measurement on the Agribusiness Program for Integrated Resilience and Economic Development in the Sahel (Pro-ARIDES) at CARE International.
Jonathan joined Tree Aid in 2014. He became the Country Programme Manager in 2016. Prior to joining Tree Aid, he worked with a local NGO in Ghana as project coordinator and also with the Ghana Education Service as a teacher. He has a wealth of experience in participatory process in natural resource management and poverty reduction. He was promoted to Country Director in 2024 and now focuses on developing relationships with donors and government institutions to grow the work in Ghana.
Lydia joined Tree Aid in April 2017 to support our Monitoring and Evaluation. She has over 13 years of experience in monitoring and evaluation of development projects and programmes. At Tree Aid, she leads on the set up and maintenance of our monitoring and evaluation system.
Matthew joined Tree Aid in September 2023. He has a BSc in Environmental Science and MSc in Ecological Economics. He has worked in ecosystem restoration and sustainable agriculture since 2021, beginning with sustainable palm oil in Malaysia, migrating to consulting on carbon project design across Africa in 2022. At Tree Aid he designs and implements carbon projects across our West African countries.
Nathalie joined Tree Aid in 2022. She is a sociologist, gender and development expert and holds Master’s degrees in gender studies and local development and territorial community management. In 2024 she was promoted to Gender, Social Inclusion & Conflict Sensitivity Coordinator for Tree Aid West Africa, providing support to project teams to ensure that they implement projects taking into account gender and conflict sensitivity in a context of conflicts in the Sahel region.
Pietro has over 20 years of experience in sustainable agriculture, agroforestry, and watershed management in a development context, with over 10 years’ work with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), as well as with other international development charities. At Tree Aid, Pietro is responsible for supporting the improvement of programme quality and leading our advocacy team.
Robert joined Tree Aid in 2018 as Project Officer and was promoted to Country Programme Manager in 2024. His previous experience includes the Evangelical Presbyterian Development and Relief Agency and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Robert comes with a wealth of professional experience in rural development and natural resource management, community mobilisation and training, team building, facilitating farmers’ production and marketing, forest governance and a level of experience in carbon projects. He holds a MSc in Environmental Science, Policy and Management; BA Integrated Development Studies and Certificate in Sustainable Agriculture.
Sana joined Tree Aid in 2025. She is an expert in environment and sustainable development and has 17 years of experience in developing environmental policies, managing complex projects, and addressing climate change challenges. She holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Organisations and Sustainable Development, and has gained recognised expertise in environmental compliance, waste management, gender and social inclusion, public-private partnerships, leadership, and mentorship. Sana has worked in over 20 countries across Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, holding strategic positions at the Senegalese Ministry of Environment, Abt Associates and USAID’s Trade Hub project.
Sareme joined Tree Aid in 2025. She is an economist specialized in environmental economics and sustainable development. With more than six years of professional experience, she had the opportunity to work with several local and international organisations such as Oxfam International and IUCN. From 2022 to 2025, Sareme has worked for Farm Radio International (FRI) as the Nature-based Solutions Specialist. She supported FRI’s project staff strengthen their capacity in terms of NbS and ensures content quality in radio programming. She also contributes to Monitoring and evaluation, knowledge sharing and programme development. She holds Masters’ degree in Sustainable Development, Environmental Economics and Public Policy.
Sean joined Tree Aid in April 2014 and now oversees all of our projects. He has more than 10 years of project management experience in both commercial and international development contexts. He is experienced in managing portfolios of work across multiple countries, developing management processes and systems and has APM and PMD Pro qualifications.
Sitan joined Tree Aid in 2025. She is an experienced development professional with over 20 years of leadership experience managing large-scale donor-funded and INGO programs across Africa. Sitan has held key leadership roles such as Chief of Party for the USAID Mali Salam Project and Country Representative for Chemonics International, and previously served as Head of Programme Implementation at Plan International Mali. She has also worked with FHI 360, Oxfam, UNICEF, and WaterAid, leading programs that advance inclusive governance and sustainable community development. Fluent in French and English, Sitan holds a Diploma of Higher Studies in Public Law from Gamal Abdel Nasser University in Guinea.
Vanessa is currently on maternity leave.
Vanessa joined Tree Aid in February 2017 and now develops and manages our entire restricted funding portfolio. She has 10 years of experience in project development and project management in international development contexts. Previous roles include programme manager, fundraiser and project development manager in different international NGOs such as ACTED and WAVE.
Yassinte joined Tree Aid in 2006 as Village Tree Enterprises Manager having studied rural development engineering and agronomy. In 2018 Yassinte was appointed as Enterprise and Value Chain Expert with Tree Aid, and has since been promoted to Country Programme Manager for Burkina Faso.
Our Patrons
We are lucky to have dedicated patrons who support our work and help us spread the word about what we do. Whether it’s voicing a radio appeal or attending an event, our patrons generously give their time to Tree Aid.
One of Britain’s leading actors, Adjoa Andoh won global acclaim as Lady Danbury in the Netflix smash Bridgerton. Her many television appearances include Fractured, Dr Who, Witcher, Silent Witness and Casualty. A renowned stage actor at the National Theatre and The Royal Shakespeare Company, Adjoa co-directed and played Richard II at Shakespeare’s Globe, in the UK’s first all-women-of-colour production in 2019. Adjoa made her Hollywood debut in 2009, starring alongside Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon in Clint Eastwood’s biographical sports film Invictus. She’s been a BBC radio actor for over 30 years and is an award-winning narrator of over 150 audiobooks. Adjoa is passionate about the role environmental restoration plays in tackling poverty and inequality around the world.
Dame Joanna Lumley is a much loved British actor, author, and TV presenter. She has been Tree Aid’s patron for more than 25 years and has supported the charity in many different ways during our long-term partnership. Joanna says: “Trees are being wiped from the landscape in the African drylands and the desert is spreading, making it harder for people to feed their families and earn an income. I have been supporting Tree Aid for more than 25 years because it provides such an effective, practical solution to the urgent issues of poverty in Africa and the environmental decline that so often causes it.”
Hilary Benn is a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Labour Party and served in the Cabinet from 2003-2010 and was Shadow Foreign Secretary from 2015-2016. He is passionate about international development and has been a Tree Aid patron for a decade.
Zoë Wanamaker CBE is an American-born British actor who has worked extensively across film, TV, and theatre. Our patron of over 20 years, Zoë has supported Tree Aid in many different ways, including voicing our BBC Radio 4 appeal in 2019. Zoë says: “What I admire most about this charity is the practical nature of the world, that it empowers people to lift themselves out of poverty. It’s not a handout, it’s about giving people the tools and skills to make a life for themselves, and for the future generations.”
