ARC: Staff

OUR TRUSTEES ARC has offices in Bournemouth and Peterborough (Neal Armour-Chelu) AND STAFF

Find out more about our work...

Amphibian and Reptile Conservation staff are mainly based at our office in Bournemouth

Satellite staff, located in Surrey, Cumbria, London, Cambridgeshire and Lancashire can be contacted through the Bournemouth office or see our Contact Us page for individual staff contact details.

OUR TRUSTEES

Prof. Andrew Hull

Andrew Hull is Emeritus Professor of Landscape Ecology at Liverpool John Moores University. From 1995-1999 he was seconded from the University to become Project Director of the EU-funded “Pond Life Project” working in the UK, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands. Outputs from the project have become a benchmark for pond conservation both in the UK and beyond, including the need to work at a landscape scale; stakeholder involvement and working with volunteers. More recently he has been involved with the establishment of the European Pond Conservation Network (EPCN) which, through the recently published Pond Manifesto is seeking to influence key decision makers of the need for greater recognition and support for the conservation of these small but significant wetland features. He is currently the first president of EPCN as well as a Trustee of the national conservation charity Amphibian and Reptile Conservation.

Mr Bill Whitaker

Bill (now 75) is a retired scientific civil servant, and lives in South East London. He has always had an interest in wildlife and became seriously interested in conservation in the late 1970’s as a member of the Kent Wildlife Trust.

A realisation that reptiles particularly, were rarely seen on field forays even on nature reserves focused his attention on them and he joined the British Herpetological Society, as a member of its Conservation Committee. In 1989 he was invited and became a founder Trustee of the Herpetological Conservation Trust (HCT) now Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (ARC).

Since 1994 he has involved himself in promoting herpetological conservation issues representing ARC as a partner in the BAP process at County as well as at local levels. He particularly enjoys doing field work surveys, and “hands on” winter work party volunteer tasks to maintain habitats. He is particularly now concerned with the widespread amphibian and reptile species conservation issues in urban environments.

Dr Chris Tydeman

Chris Tydeman works as an independent environment and development consultant working with a range of non-governmental bodies, private sector organisations, governments and the European Commission on a range of issues including water policy, climate change, biodiversity, MDCs, capacity building and corporate and social responsibility.

Dr Tydeman was Chief Scientist with WWF before becoming a consultant in 2001. He was responsible for establishing the European Programme Office and also their international Marine Programme and European Freshwater Programme.

He is currently a member of the European Union Initiative Coordination Group and its Working Groups on Africa and Finance. He is Chairman of the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum and Trustee/Treasurer of Amphibian and Reptile Conservation having been Chairman of the Herpetological Conservation Trust.

Mr Howard Inns

Howard Inns’ lifelong interest in reptiles and amphibians resulted in his involvement in the early 1980s as an active member of the British Herptological Society’s Conservation Committee. Since then Howard has remained actively involved in practical conservation and monitoring of the species found in Britain, making contributions in the 1990s to the early development of standardised monitoring techniques for reptiles. He continues to monitor populations for rare reptiles and undertake practical conservation on the heaths of SW Surrey close to his home in Farnham

Howard’s professional career has been in the UK IT and Telecommunications industry where he has held a variety of senior marketing roles. In his role as Vice Chairman of ARC he is keen to bring some of his communications and management skills to the organisation. He writes the regular reptile and amphibian report in the naturalist’s journal British Wildlife and is always keen to bring important news about ARC’s work into the public eye.

Looking to the future Howard’s particular interest for ARC is not only to continue the excellent work the organisation is doing for the rare species but also to accelerate development of monitoring and conservation activity that will mitigate the worrying signs of decline in the more widespread species.

Mrs Jan Clemons BSc (Hons), MSB

Jan has a lifelong interest in herpetology and has been involved in the voluntary sector for over 25 years and one aspect of her job as Head of Biology at Rugby High School has been to raise awareness of our native herpetofauna with the next generation of herpetologists. The school grounds support populations of frog, smooth and crested newts, common lizard and slow worm and is one of the best places in Warwickshire to see amphibians and reptiles.

Throughout her teaching career Jan has travelled extensively with numerous A level students and taken part in and led expeditions (both challenging and herpetological) to Japan, Namibia, Peru, Belize, Honduras, Costa Rica and Cuba.

In the early nineties she chaired the BHS Conservation Committee and honed her skills in surveying rare species such as the sand lizard, smooth snake and natterjack toad. She also had to deal with the politics of herpetology and learnt a lot about working with statutory agencies and the management of nature reserves for reptiles and amphibians. Jan still maintains close links with BHS and is now their Conservation Officer and organises field trips to herpetological hotspots in the UK.

Jan has been Chair of Warwickshire Amphibian and Reptile Team for 15 years working for the conservation of herpetofauna at the local level organising surveys and training, publicity for an events programme and safeguarding local sites of reptile and amphibian assemblages.

In 2004 Jan became Chair of ARG UK and played a leading role in the development of the organisation. This resulted in the establishment of many Amphibian & Reptile Groups and the network has grown to over 60 groups. Jan still sits on the ARG UK Panel as Treasurer.

As an ARC Trustee Jan can offer not only her herpetological knowledge but experience in training and education, working with the voluntary sector, leading and organising conservation projects as well as her enthusiasm and support for the overarching strategy of ARC

Mr Jonathan Webster

Jonathan’s entire professional career has been spent in the London Insurance Market working in both Lloyd’s and the Company Market environment. His interest in herpetology dates back to as far as he can remember and was nurtured by his father who was a keen herpetologist and founder member of the British Herpetological Society (BHS) which was established in 1947.

In 1969 he was involved in the setting up of the Conservation Committee of the BHS and it was largely due to the successes achieved by this committee that led to the formation of the Herpetological Conservation Trust (HCT) in 1989 where he held the position of Vice Chairman and Treasurer.

In 2010 he was delighted to be asked to act as Chairman of HCT’s successor organisation namely the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (ARC).

He remains an active volunteer and is a regular attendee on ARC’s Sunday volunteer management tasks that are arranged on our Wealden nature reserves. In addition he is a member of the Balkan Herpetological Group and spends as much time as possible on field trips searching out and photographing European herpetofauna.

Prof. Richard Griffiths

Richard Griffiths is Professor of Biological Conservation at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) at the University of Kent, where he is currently Academic Head and Director of Graduate Studies. Richard has managed conservation projects in Britain, Europe, Latin America, and Madagascar. Research interests focus on the population ecology and conservation of threatened amphibians and reptiles. This includes long-term work on population changes and investigations into the effectiveness of translocations and development mitigation actions. Richard is a Fellow of the British Herpetological Society, Chair of the International Herpetological Committee of the World Congress of Herpetology and an Honorary International Conservation Research Fellow at Durrell Wildlife (Jersey). He is also a member of IUCN and an advisor and trustee to several international conservation organisations.

Dr Roger Mitchell CBiol FSB

Dr Roger Mitchell is a Trustee of the Charity and the Managing Director of ARC Ecological Services, the Charity’s associated consultancy. He is also Co-Chief editor of the journal ‘Conservation Evidence’, a member of the Conservation Science Group at Cambridge University and Deputy-Chair of the Cambridge Conservation Forum. He was Chairman of Natura International, Chief Scientist of Corrour Lands Ltd., Chairman of the Management Board of the Corrour Trust, Environmental Director of the Arcadia Fund and Conservation Advisor to Ingleby Farms. He has also held the posts of International Chief Scientist of the Earthwatch Institute; National Manager of Species and Biodiversity at English Nature; Head of Marine Conservation Science for the Nature Conservancy Council and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee; and Senior Scientist in coastal management in the former Department of the Environment.

Roger has also served as Trustee and Director of the European Climate Foundation and the Herpetological Conservation Trust; Director of HSBC Cares for the Environment Fund (Malta); member of Cambridgeshire County Council Local Access Forum; Chief Editor of Aquatic Conservation; Chair of the Marine Conservation Trust; Vice-chair of the Marine Conservation Society; Trustee of the Council for International Contact; and Chief of Staff of the London International Youth Science Fortnight.

Prof. Trevor Beebee

Trevor Beebee is professor of molecular ecology at Sussex University. He has worked on the ecology and conservation of amphibians, especially natterjack toads, since the early 1970s and has written over 150 scientific papers and several books including, with Richard Griffiths, the latest, New Naturalist volume on British Amphibians and Reptiles. He has served as editor of the Herpetological Journal and as chair and president of the British Herpetological Society. He has been actively involved in amphibian conservation monitoring and management and initiated the Natterjack Toad Site Register, a database of all British natterjack toad populations. In 2009 he received the Peter Scott Memorial Award, for contributions to amphibian conservation, from the British Naturalist association.