About the Trust
The Scottish Forestry Trust trustees
The Scottish Forestry Trust has ten Trustees who are appointed for their experience, expertise and objectivity, and their ability to provide a good balance of appropriate skills.
Biographical notes on the current trustees
The current trustees of the Scottish Forestry Trust are:
Robert Scott OBE FRICS, is the current Chairman of the Scottish Forestry Trust. Robert studied Rural Estate Management at RAC Cirencester.
Based at Baronscourt in Co Tyrone, Robert has been Agent and Factor with Abercorn Estates since 1977, where his responsibilities include the management of approximately 2,400 hectares of woodland in Scotland and Northern Ireland. From 2002 to 2004, he was Chairman of the Forestry & Timber Association. He has been a non-executive Director of Balcas Timber Ltd since 2005. he has a keen interest in continuous cover forestry, in developing the sporting and recreational potential of woodlands, and in forest industry development in Great Britain and Ireland. Robert was appointed Lord Lieutenant for Tyrone in 2009.
Email: chairman(at)scottishforestrytrust.org.uk
Guy Watt is the Deputy Chairman of the Scottish Forestry Trust. He is Managing Director of John Clegg Consulting Ltd which provides business, economic and rural development consultancy services. He is a forestry graduate of Aberdeen; has a B.Litt in forest economics from Oxford and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Foresters and a Member of the Institution of Economic Development. He worked in the South Pacific for two years followed by four years at the Forest Research Institute in New Zealand. He has undertaken consultancy assignments for over 20 years in the South Pacific, Asia, Africa and South & Central America. In the UK he has undertaken a wide variety of consultancy assignments over the last 20 years firstly while with EFG as a forest economist followed by 13 years with John Clegg & Co where he was responsible, as a partner, for consultancy work, before starting John Clegg Consulting Ltd in 2003. He is Vice Chair of the Central Scotland Forest Trust, a partner in Beacon Forestry and was Chairman of the Scottish Hardwood Timber Marketing Group for 5 years.
Colin Mann graduated with a BSc. Hons. in Forestry in 1977 from Aberdeen University. In the same year, he started work with SWOAC Ltd as a Trainee Forest Manager, the forerunner of Scottish Woodlands Ltd, the firm of which he is now Managing Director. Through his career he has worked in all aspects of forest management in Scotland but between 1992 and 2005 specialised in the promotion of forestry as an investment medium in the capacity as the company’s Investment Director before taking up the post as MD at the end of that period. His work in investment marketing has encompassed a wide geographic area including, as well as the UK, long term business development in Hong Kong, mainland Europe and Canada. He has served on the Council of the Institute of Chartered Foresters for two terms and is now a member of the Scottish Forest Industry Advisory Board which was formed in spring 2008. He is also a director of Northern Energy Developments Ltd which is a young company specialising mainly in the development of small scale renewable energy projects, utilising fuels derived from forest harvesting operations. His career has allowed him to develop expertise particularly in the economic development of the UK’s commercial forest resource and the production of timber for utilisation by the country’s expanding wood processing and renewable energy industries.
Dr Michelle A Pinard - is a Senior Lecturer in Tropical Forestry in the
Institute of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Aberdeen and is a member of the Aberdeen Centre for Environmental Sustainability (ACES). She has more than 20 years of research experience in tropical forests, including work in Bolivia, Brazil, Ghana, Ethiopia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. Her main research interests are in natural forest management for conservation and production and the interplay with rural livelihoods. Dr Pinard is currently involved in research on local institutional change and resource governance in Ethiopia, ecosystem services and poverty alleviation in Brazil and Bolivia, and, drivers of mangrove degradation in the Philippines. She is also supporting the development of community monitoring programmes for natural resources in protected areas in Ethiopia. Dr Pinard serves on the Editorial Board for Conservation Biology and Biotropica, the journal supported by the Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation. At the University of Aberdeen she coordinates the taught postgraduate programmes in the School of Biological Sciences, supervises PhD students and teaches a range of courses in forestry and ecology, including courses on experimental design and statistics.
Willie McGhee is a forest ecologist whose pioneering work in social and environmental forestry has influenced the direction of community woodland and native woodland policy and practice in the UK. He has been a Trustee on the Millennium Forest for Scotland Trust and from 1996 to 2011 was the Executive Director of Borders Forest Trust, which involved him in the establishment of small scale timber processing enterprises including Woodschool and Real Wood Studios. He is executive Director of Bioclimate Research and Development Ltd. [BR&D], a world leader in the field of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), and which works principally in developing countries, linking forest conservation and ecosystem restoration with the rural poor. Willie is a founding member of, and Policy Officer for, the Forest Policy Group; a coalition of forestry focused NGOs and forestry and land use professionals in Scotland who research and promote new approaches to forestry and rural development. He served on the Forestry Commission's Native Woodland Advisory Panel and the Forestry for People Advisory Panel and is a Trustee on Scottish Power’s Green Energy Trust.
Dr Chris Quine is Head of Centre for Human and Ecological Sciences, Forest Research, and an Executive Board member of Forest Research, the research agency of the Forestry Commission. He studied for a first degree in geography at Cambridge University, followed by a Masters in Forestry at Oxford University, and then joined the Forestry Commission in South Scotland. After five years of forest management he moved to Forest Research, and has since conducted research in silviculture (particularly windthrow) and forest ecology, obtaining a PhD in forest ecology from Edinburgh University. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Foresters.
Michael Williams MBE is a farmer from East Lothian with a deep interest in farm conservation and farm woodlands. Michael is currently a Trustee of Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group, Director of Southern Upland Partnership. He is also a member of Scottish Biodiversity Forum Rural and Landuse Working Group and has been a Trustee of the Scottish Forestry Trust since 2002.
Dr Stephen Woodward is reader in forestry in the Department of Plant and Soil Science, School of Biological Sciences at the University of Aberdeen, specialising in tree pathology and urban forestry. He is editor-in-chief of Forest Pathology and associate editor of Phytopathological Mediterranea; currently he is leading the EU-funded COST Action FP0801 on impacts of Phytophthora species in European forest ecosystems. Since joining the staff at Aberdeen in 1989, Dr Woodward’s research has focused on root-infecting pathogens of forest trees, including leading four major EU-funded projects on Heterobasidion (Fomes); other research includes the ecology of wood inhabiting micro-organisms, modelling of forest disease dynamics, fine root pathogens in Scots pine forests and biological control of pathogens. The current emphasis is on alien invasive pathogens impacting on European forestry. In addition to work in north temperate forests, Dr Woodward has also worked on pathogenic fungi in tropical forests and on genotyping of important tropical timber species. During the course of this work, he travelled extensively in Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and Australasia.
Gordon Callander is Managing Director of the family sawmilling firm James
Callander & Sons in Falkirk. Having completed undergraduate and post graduate degrees at Edinburgh and imperial College, Gordon joined the family business in 1986 and has been involved in all aspects of the business with a particular interest in processing. Gordon has served as President of the UK Forest Products Association; Board Member of TRADA; Convenor of the UK Softwood Sawmillers Association Health & Safety sub committee; Convenor; Convenor of the UK Forest Products Association Technical & Development sub committee; Member of the technical sub-committee, Forestry Commission Advisory Panel and Member of the Scottish Forest Industries Cluster management board.
Alan Black worked in the Scottish financial sector for 30 years, managing Private Client and Charitable monies for the Royal Bank of scotland Investment Department and Capital House Investment Management. In 1996, he joined Newton Investment Management (Private Investment). He is currently a Director of the Aged Christian Friend Society of Scotland and a member of the Scottish Community Foundation Finance Committee. Alan is married with two grown up children and his main form of relaxation is climbing Corbetts and studying for an Open University Degree.
The Projects and Research Committee
Recommendations on projects that are approved by the Trust are made by the Projects and Research Committee which meets three times a year to consider funding applications. The committee is made up of the following Trustees :-
Guy Watt - Chair
Willie McGhee
Dr Chris Quine
Dr Michelle A Pinard
Dr Stephen Woodward