This page explains who's who in BSBI: staff members and Hon. Officers. We have separate pages listing all the BSBI trustees and all the County Recorders. If you are unsure who to speak to, please use this Contact Form or email our Enquiry Desk. You can also refer to our Staff Chart.
Leadership Team
Julia Hanmer is BSBI's Chief Executive. Julia leads on strategy, priorities and partnership building as well as supporting the trustees on good governance. Read an interview with Julia on our News & Views blog.
Kevin Walker is Head of Science. The BSBI has a remit to develop scientific uses of our data and provide services to academia and the conservation sector - Kevin's role is to plan the BSBI’s scientific activities and lead on undertaking contracts for external agencies.
Staff Members and Officers
Dr Stuart Desjardins, Early Career Fellow - Plant Biology at Univ. Leicester, has taken over from Prof. Ian Denholm as Editor-in-Chief of British & Irish Botany, our scientific journal.
James Drever is BSBI’s Data Support Officer. His role is to support the collection and use of botanical data, provide guidance and training, and contribute to the development of BSBI’s websites.
Gwynn Ellis is our Membership Secretary and was Editor-in-Chief of BSBI News from 1984 to 2017. Gwynn is the person to contact if you have a change of address or a page is missing from your mailing.
Julie Etherington is our Finance Manager, in charge of keeping everything in proper order.
Jen Farrar is our Botanical Skills Officer - Northern Ireland, responsible for developing, delivering and facilitating a range of botanical skills training events and opportunities and supporting the National Plant Monitoring Scheme in Northern Ireland.
Matt Harding is BSBI's Scotland Officer; his brief is to encourage and support BSBI members across Scotland with identification, learning and recording activities. He's also BSBI County Recorder for Stirlingshire. Read an interview with Matt on our News blog.
James Harding-Morris is BSBI's Countries Manager. His role is to lead and coordinate BSBI's work to support and build the community of botanists across Britain and Ireland. James is also BSBI County Recorder for North Lincs.
Chantal Helm is BSBI's Training Coordinator; her role is to look after Identiplant and Field Identification Skills Certificates (FISCs).
Alastair Hotchkiss is BSBI's Wales Officer (Priority Plants Project). His focus is on a Nature Networks Fund project, working with botanical recorders across Wales to survey priority plants on SSSIs with few or no recent records.
Tom Humphrey is our Database Officer - he created and manages the BSBI Database and Herbaria at Home.
Bridget Keehan is BSBI's Ireland Officer - her role is to provide support for County Recorders in 40 Irish vice-counties and to promote botany and BSBI in Ireland.
Sandy Knapp OBE is Chair of the BSBI Board of Trustees. Sandy is also a botanist at the Natural History Museum, London, specialising in taxonomy and evolution of the nightshade family, Solanaceae.
Liz Kungu is BSBI Handbooks Editor, responsible for commissioning new titles in the series of BSBI Handbooks and guiding authors through the production process.
Louise Marsh is BSBI's Communications Officer: she keeps the website updated, answers enquiries, promotes the society’s work to a wider audience, liaises with media contacts, edits the News & Views blog and online newsletter, and handles BSBI's social media platforms.
John Norton is Editor of BSBI News, the Society's membership magazine.
Barry O'Kane is the BSBI's Hon. General Secretary, email hongensec@bsbi.org. The Company Secretary role is now carried out by WMT LLP Chartered Accountants, 4 Beaconsfield Road, St Albans, Hertz AL1 3RD. Tel 01727 838255. Email info@wmtllp.com.
Jonathan Shanklin is the BSBI's Hon. Field Meetings Secretary. He collates the field meetings in our annual events programme.
Dr Micheline Sheehy Skeffington is BSBI President; she has a PhD in saltmarsh ecology and an academic background in botanical teaching and research. She is also BSBI County Recorder for South-east Galway. Read an interview with Micheline here.
Pete Stroh is our Scientific Officer; he's involved with many aspects of our research and is lead author for Plant Atlas 2020, the England Red List and Grassland Plants of the British & Irish lowlands.
Sam Thomas is BSBI England Officer, tasked with increasing support for our County Recorders across England and overcoming barriers to recording, data flow and mobilisation of data.
Sarah Woods is BSBI's Fundraising & Engagement Manager, assisting our supporters and actively seeking new resources to sustain and enrich BSBI's work. You can read an interview with Sarah on our News & Views blog.