Meet the Team

Professor Des Thompson FRSE

Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow, University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI)

With more than 30 years’ experience working in government agencies, Des is former Principal Adviser on Biodiversity and Science with NatureScot, Scotland’s Nature Agency. He worked closely with the Scottish Government devising the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy 2022-2045, and its Delivery Plan. Now a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow with the UHI North, West and Hebrides his interests include the conservation ecology of north European shorebirds, upland ecosystems, and science-policy biodiversity decision making. He advises the UN on climate and biodiversity issues as the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) COP-Appointed Scientific Councillor for Climate Change. He is also a member of the Technical Advisory Group supporting the CMS regarding birds of prey in Africa and Eurasia (founder chair for ten years), member of the Scottish Government’s Biodiversity Programme Advisory Group, and Vice President of the Field Studies Council. He has published widely, and took his PhD and DSc from the University of Nottingham.

IAN NEWTON OBE, FRS, FRSE

Until he retired, Ian Newton worked as an ornithologist involved in research relevant to conservation. He began his ornithological career at the University of Oxford, studying seed-eating birds, and then moved to work for the Natural Environment Research Council, studying first waterfowl and then birds-of-prey, particularly the impacts of DDT and other pesticides. For many years, he was head of pesticide and pollution research at Monks Wood Research Station near Huntingdon. He is especially interested in the factors that limit bird populations, including different forms of land-use, and has made detailed studies of various raptors. He has also been involved in several raptor reintroduction programmes in Britain and North America. Apart from his research, he has served as Chairman of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the British Trust for Ornithology and The Peregrine Fund in the USA. In addition, he is a past President of the British Ecological Society and of the British Ornithologists’ Union, and a Fellow of the American Ornithologists’ Union. He has written more than 300 papers in the scientific literature, and ten books, including Uplands and birds, reflecting his interests in both birds and land-use.

FIONA DAVIES

A chartered accountant by training with a degree in business studies and French from the University of Edinburgh, Fiona has held a variety of different senior finance roles, with an emphasis on strategy, business planning and business efficiency. Latterly she was the finance director for the Personal, Wealth and Ulster businesses at RBS/NatWest.

Since retirement, Fiona has taken up a number of trustee roles, including currently vice chair and treasurer of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, treasurer at the Edinburgh Dog and Cat Home and treasurer at Sistema Scotland. She has as served as vice chair of the Edinburgh Fringe Society and treasurer of the SSPCA.