Board of Directors
Jeremy Young
Jeremy grew up working on sheep and arable farms in East Anglia before embarking on an international business career. In 2012 he bought a sheep farm with some upland in the Dark Peak with a vision to restore the farm to what it was prior to over-grazing and industrial pollution.
Stephen Catlin
Stephen has over 45 years of insurance industry experience, having served as founder and CEO of Catlin (1984-2015), Executive Deputy Chairman of XL Catlin (2015-17), and Chairman of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers.
Neil Eckert
Neil was the co-founder and CEO of Climate Exchange PLC, which hosted over 90 percent of carbon credits traded globally. Neil was previously the Chairman of Trading Emissions PLC, an AIM-listed company and one of the world’s leading funds investing in emission reduction permits.
Sir Jim Paice
Following a career in farm management, Sir Jim served as the Member of Parliament for South East Cambridgeshire between 1987 and 2015. He was the Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2010-2012.
Christopher Sparrow
Christopher acts as Managing Director for NCA. He is a Chartered Surveyor and business owner with 27 years of experience covering predominantly rural interests. Previously, Christopher has worked from London as Head of Rural and Coastal for the Duchy of Lancaster, a 47,000-acre private estate now owned by King Charles, as Duke of Lancaster. This followed 11 years as the Resident Agent at Boughton, the Northamptonshire home of the Duke of Buccleuch.
Teresa Dent CBE
Teresa is Chief Executive of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust. In this role, she has been able to combine her practical and business experience of farming and land management with the conservation prescriptions and policy produced by the GWCT’s scientists.
Operations Team
Nick Sheeran
Since qualifying as a Chartered Management Accountant in 1991, Nick has worked in a broad range of commercial sectors including manufacturing, engineering, support services and public utilities. Since 2015 he has been the Chief Finance Officer of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust. In this role he also manages the finance and company secretarial aspects of Natural Capital Advisory Ltd.
Dr Roger Draycott
From a farming background and with a PhD in Pheasant Ecology, Roger has worked at the GWCT since 1993. He spent many years undertaking applied research on pheasants (reared and wild) and grey partridges through Britain before joining the Advisory team in 2012. Roger provides advice on game management and wildlife conservation to farmers, shoot managers, conservation organisations and the agricultural supply chain across eastern and northern England in addition to heading up the Advisory team.
Digby Sowerby
Digby is Operations Officer at NCA and joined in summer 2022. Digby manages the day-to-day operations of NCA to ensure that we can service the requirements of our customers effectively. He joins from a fast-growing rural ‘altnet’ where he led a project looking at the role of telecommunications infrastructure in agri-tech. Digby studied International Management and French at the University of Bath and was brought up on the tenanted family arable farm in North Lincolnshire. He enjoys the outdoors, including triathlon, tennis, water polo and travel.
Rachel Ridd
Rachel is a Business Officer at NCA. She joins having previously ran her own local business in the Salisbury area for over five years and before that she worked in Investment banking in London. She has done a wide range of jobs within that time and her last role was trading within the equity swaps arena. Rachel studied Economics at Aberdeen University and was brought up on the family arable and livestock farm in County Meath, Ireland. She enjoys cooking, fitness, and travel.