RFS President and the Board of Trustees

Alison Field

President

Alison has been committed to developing and expanding opportunities for forestry for more than three decades. Working across England and overseas, she has been involved with the forest industry, wildlife conservation, forest recreation and the urban forest.

Alison is a Trustee for the National Forest Company, a Trustee for the Forest Industries Education and Provident Fund a non-exec Director for English Woodlands Forestry Ltd and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Foresters.

James Hamilton Stubber

Vice President

James is a Chartered Surveyor with over 40 years experience working in the commercial property industry. He has run a family estate in Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland since 1986, a large part of which is commercial forestry. He is very involved in various aspects of the renewable energy industry in the UK. He was a Trustee of the RFS for six years until 2022 and has been Chair of the Northern Ireland division since 2009. He has also served on the Board of Confor since 2013. He is an active campaigner for the expansion and proper management of woodlands in Northern Ireland. This is not only for environmental reasons but also to provide a local sustainable timber supply for the future, therefore supporting rural economic activity and employment.

Ian Tubby

Chair

Ian Tubby is a policy adviser with the Forestry Commission. His focus is on the management of established woodlands, the development of new markets for wood fibre and adapting woodlands to climate change. Ian joined Forest Research in 1997 and initially worked on projects investigating the natural regeneration of broadleaf woodland before researching site and growth interactions of single stem poplar and short rotation coppice. He led research and technology transfer programmes on bioenergy and woodfuel before moving to the FC Policy Advice Team in 2010.

Rodney Morgan-Giles

Treasurer

Rodney Morgan-Giles is an arable farmer and forestry owner in Hampshire and has responsibility for a Grade 2* historic house and other listed buildings. Projects include biomass heating, planting new woodland and restoring landscape features. He has a degree in Economics and Law from Cambridge and in Business management; has worked in financial services and has been finance director and chairman of other businesses. Rodney was Treasurer and on the Board of the CLA for many years, and was the association's appointee on the National Trust Council and is now on the Regional Advisory Board. He has been chairman of Investment Committees and is a trustee of a pension fund and other charities.

Ben Herbert

Immediate Past President

Ben Herbert was a trustee of the RFS for nine years until 2015. He owns and manages the Llanarth Estate in Monmouthshire, and has chaired the RFS South East Wales Division and the CLA South Wales Branch.

Cheryl Lundberg

Cheryl is the Senior Woodland Manager with Robinson Forestry Ltd. A forestry graduate from Edinburgh University and Chartered Forester, Cheryl’s background has seen her previously involved in contracts management early in her career and as a forester managing the public forest estate. Cheryl gets involved in the ‘full cycle’ of woodland management including: woodland survey work, writing woodland management plans, preparing budgets and work schedules, organising and over-seeing woodland management operations including timber harvesting, restocking and woodland creation. She also provides similar advice and support to golf courses, local authorities and charitable organisations so her client base is very diverse.

Harriet Schiavone

Harriet Schiavone is a Forestry Manager at Savills, managing woodlands across Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire. She is particularly interested in woodland management as part of integrated landscape plans, working with Estate owners, farmers and other landowners to plant and manage woodlands alongside their other income streams. Harriet recently changed career, having spent nearly10 years in international development designing and implementing EU funded projects across Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.

Caroline Harrison

Caroline is a Chartered Forester with some 26 years of forestry and wood supply chain experience. She is the Technical Policy Manager for the Institute of Chartered Foresters. Caroline started her career at the Working Woodlands Project supporting the southwest woodland supply chain and stimulating market demand for local wood products. Since then she has been the England National Manager for the Confederation of Forest Industries with representational and director roles at the UK and national level and a director of Evolving Forests, a business who works in forestry, timber use, innovation and media. She has inadvertently specialised in forestry, timber, tree health and land use policy but her passion is supporting the people in the arboricultural, forestry and timber sector to be heard.

Felix Gregory

Felix has been involved in woodlands from an early age, and following a degree in Forestry from Bangor University and periods working in mid Wales and Devon, is now Senior Forest Manager at South West Woodland Management. Felix is also a Chartered Forester and working in the west country’s diverse woodland landscape, enjoys the challenge of managing varied woodlands for numerous objectives.

Greg Vickers

Greg is an experienced and highly-skilled forester with more than 35 years in the industry working in both the public and private sector across all parts of the UK. Greg is Head of Forestry for Grosvenor Rural Estates, overseeing the management of trees and woodlands across Grosvenor’s three UK rural estates. He also leads Grosvenor TimberWorks, a producer of sustainably grown British timber products which brings a progressive approach and long term commitment to British woodland management with a dedication to the craftsmanship of high-quality timbers, using both precision machinery and traditional methods.