IEMA Board of Directors - New Chair

The board at IEMA consists of individuals recognised and committed to the ongoing work of sustainability and environmental management. We are delighted to announce that Paul Leinster is IEMA's new Chair of the Board with Louise Nicholls appointed as Vice Chair of the Board.

Professor Paul Leinster CBE has over40 years of practical experience in environmental management, policydevelopment and regulation. Paul joined Cranfield in 2015 as Professor ofEnvironmental Assessment. Prior to this he was Chief Executive of theEnvironment Agency and before that had been Executive Director of Operationsand Executive Director of Environment and Business at the EA. Paul worked inthe private sector for over 20 years, before joining the EA, for companiesincluding SmithKline Beecham, BP and Schering Agrochemicals.

He has aparticular interest in translating research into effective policy, regulatory,operational and governance measures and in natural capital and ecosystemservice approaches to environmental management.

Paul hasa BSc in chemistry and a PhD in environmental engineering both from ImperialCollege, London and an MBA from the Cranfield School of Management. He isa Fellow of IEMA and of the Royal Society of Chemistry and is a charteredenvironmentalist and a chartered chemist.

LouiseNicholls is Managing Director of Human Rights and Sustainabilityconsultancy Suseco.org. Previously she worked for Marks & Spencer mostrecently as Corporate Head of Human Rights, Food sustainability and FoodPackaging. She led M&S's approach to Food sustainability and CorporateHuman Rights programme for over 18 years from inception, through thedevelopment of Plan A, to their approach, being consistently recognised for itsleadership, including Top of UK FTSE 100 modern slavery statements 2016, 2017,2018 and recognised for leadership in Corporate Human Rights Benchmark.

Louise isa Fellow of the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) and was alsopart of the M&S Food technology leadership team for over 26 years, whereshe led packaging and sustainability experts supporting buying teams and supplychain on a daily basis with issues affecting plastics, food waste, Fairtradeand sustainable raw material procurement. She was instrumental in developmentof Sedex sitting onthe board for 16 years and chairing Sedex stakeholder forum (SSF)establishing SMETA, globally the mostwidely used ethical trade audit methodology. She also play a leading role inthe formation the Gangmaster and Licensing Abuse Authority. In additionLouise has held Board positions at the Ethical Trading Initiative, LOCOG Stakeholder oversight board,Consumer Goods Forum and is currently a trustee of the Bread and Butter thing anda director of IEMA.

We alsowant to take the time to thank Diana Montgomery as our outgoing Chair on theBoard of IEMA for her work of over 8 years, bringing to the role extensiveexperience in strategy and policy development backed up by a strong trackrecord of operational delivery. We wish Diana all the very best in her futurework.

Read more about IEMA's Board of Directors HERE