'Some blessed Hope’: Wildness beside us, every day
Member Exclusive Lectures • 1h 15m
Beccy Speight is Chief Executive Officer of the RSPB, the largest nature conservation organisation in the UK, with 1.2 million members, more than 2,000 employees and around 12,000 volunteers.
The RSPB has more than 200 nature reserves across the UK; wild havens where everyone can get closer to nature and home to 80 per cent of our rarest or more threatened bird species. They undertake conservation work and forge powerful new partnerships that inspire others to stand up and give nature the home it deserves. As well as work at home, they are the largest global partner and participant in BirdLife International where they help to stem the loss of global biodiversity. The organisation’s work includes projects in Sierra Leone, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Tristan da Cunha, a UK Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic Ocean. Beccy started her career in local government in Scotland and then moved into management consultancy. She has worked in the conservation charity sector since 2000, including as director for the National Trust’s East Midlands and Midlands regions where she was responsible for developing the Trust's sustainable food policy and installing contemporary art. She became Chief Executive at the Woodland Trust in 2014 and led the expansion of the woodland creation charity and a review of its priorities, before commencing her present role at the RSPB in 2019.
Beccy leads the RSPB in a decade of critical action due to 41% of species in the UK being in decline, and 15% at risk of extinction. Nature is in crisis, and together we can save it.
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