Our Trustees
The Scottish Forestry Trust has eleven trustees 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:
Professor Paul Atkinson, Chair of the Board of Trustees
Paul is a serial business founder, who brings extensive experience across investment, entrepreneurship, governance, and public interest work. He is a Co-Founder and Partner at Par Equity, a leading UK-based investment firm working with private investors, wealth managers, and institutions. At Par Equity, Paul chairs the Par Investor Network and leads the firm’s forestry investment initiatives, reflecting a long-standing commitment to sustainable, long-term value creation. Par Equity merged with Praetura Investments in 2025 to create the PXN Group.
Alongside his investment work, Paul provides strategic leadership and guidance to business founders. He has held a number of senior NXD roles, including as former Chair of the digital engineering scale-up, CreateFuture. He is currently Chair of InfinitX, which incorporates the JP Jenkins private capital markets venue, StretchSense, a leading IP focused technology business, and is the Founder and Former Chair of Taranata Group, a collective of talent-focused businesses founded 2001.
Paul is deeply committed to pro bono and public-interest work. He serves as Chair of the Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland, supporting organisations across the country to strengthen cyber and fraud resilience.
An academic as well as a practitioner, Paul holds a degree in Physics from the University of Manchester, is a Visiting Professor and Honorary Doctor at Edinburgh Napier University Business School, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. PA Register of Interests
Dr Helen McKay OBE FICFor CEnv
Helen is a forest scientist and senior forestry leader with more than 40 years’ experience in research, policy and sustainable forest management. She holds a BSc and PhD from the University of Edinburgh, specialising in plant ecology. During her career she has held a range of senior roles at Forest Research and the Forestry Commission, including Head of the Centre for Sustainable Forestry and Climate Change. Since 2020, she has served as Chief Forester for Scotland and as a Research Fellow at Forest Research. Helen is also the Chair of the Trust's Projects and Research Committee. She was awarded an OBE in 2020 for services to forest science and forestry, and the Institute of Chartered Foresters awarded her The Institute’s Medal in 2025. HM Register of Interests
Eddie Balfour
Eddie is Joint Managing Director of James Jones & Sons Ltd, an integrated timber processing group with operations covering harvesting, sawmilling, timber engineering and pallet manufacture across the UK. A Forestry graduate from the University of Edinburgh, Eddie started his career with the Forestry Commission before moving into the timber processing sector in 1989. During his 30-year career in the sector, Eddie has held management roles in both timber harvesting and sawmilling operations within Wales, Aberdeenshire and the Scottish Borders. In the last 12 years, Eddie has been heavily involved in the development of the Stevens Croft site near Lockerbie, with a particular focus on timber processing technologies which can add value to our homegrown timber resource. EB Register of Interests
Ralland Browne FICFor
Ralland was the Managing Director of Scottish Woodlands Ltd with 30 years experience in most aspects of private sector, forestry management since joining the company in 1987. Ralland has particular experience in forestry investment having served as Investment Director of the company since 2007. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Foresters and has served both on council and as an examiner. RB Register of Interests
Professor David Burslem
David is Professor of Forest Ecology and Diversity at the University of Aberdeen, and Keeper of the Cruickshank Botanic Garden and Arboretum. He is also Interdisciplinary Director for Environment and Biodiversity in the University of Aberdeen’s Interdisciplinary Institute. His research and teaching interests focus on forest ecology and conservation science, responding to the linked crises of biodiversity loss and climate change in collaboration with partners in government agencies, non-governmental organisations and statutory bodies. A major theme of his current research is to leverage time series of forest inventory and remote sensing data sets for quantifying changes in forest cover, dynamics and carbon storage, and to use these results to inform policy and fiscal interventions that would incentivise forest restoration. David has 30 years of experience in forest research in the UK and overseas and has authored or edited more than 150 papers and two books. DB Register of Interests
Professor Ioly Kotta-Loizou
Ioly is a molecular microbiologist specialising in mycovirology (the study of viruses that infect fungi) and focuses on microbial life cycles and pathogenicity, together with potential applications for forestry, agriculture and medicine. She is based in the Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, and holds honorary positions at the Universities of Manchester and Hertfordshire (UK) and the California Institute of Medical Research (USA). Ioly is the Chair for the Partitiviridae study group in the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, an Editor for numerous scientific journals focused on virology and microbiology, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a STEM ambassador.
Tim Liddon FICFor
Tim grew up with forestry in the South West of England where his father had a forestry business. He studied Forestry at University of Aberdeen graduating in 1980. He has enjoyed the challenges and opportunities in the industry over the last 40 years.
In 2001, he moved to South West Scotland managing commercial investment forestry in that area and became a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Foresters in 2004.
In 2007, he was instrumental in planning and delivering the Eskdalemuir Timber haulage road, and also managed the rising restock programme and its associated challenges of large weevil numbers and an increasing deer population. In 2014, he became a founder Director of the then Sitka Spruce Breeding Cooperative (now the Conifer Breeding Cooperative), which is a public-private partnership to ensure the improvement of productive conifers continues.
In 2015, Tim was appointed to the Tilhill Board as Forestry Director where he continued to seek solutions and to raise standards in forestry - from large-scale re-afforestation, weevil and deer management to protecting the workforce and the environment.
In May 2021, Tim retired from Tilhill and has since become a grandfather. TL Register of Interests
Professor James Pendlebury FICFor FRSB
James is the Chief Executive and Accounting Officer of Forest Research, an executive agency of the Forestry Commission, and a member of the Forestry Commission Executive Board. James is responsible for the strategic vision and scientific direction of Forest Research, the leadership of more than 4200 staff and an annual turnover in excess of £43 million. He works with colleagues to ensure that Forest Research provides appropriate science, evidence and data to governmental, private sector, environmental and community bodies involved in forest, woodland and urban tree management across the UK. As a member of the Forestry Commission's Executive Board he contributes to the strategic governance of the Forestry Commission and brings relevant scientific knowledge to decision making.
James holds a BSc (Hons) degree and a PhD in Forestry from the University of Aberdeen and joined the Forestry Commission in 2002 holding several positions before becoming Chief Executive of Forest Research. Prior to this, he had a distinguished career in research, management and market development in the timber and forestry sectors in several countries including the UK, United States, South Africa, The Netherlands and New Zealand.
Professor Adam Kleczkowski
Adam Kleczkowski is a statistician and mathematician with more than 30 years of experience addressing plant and tree health. Having graduated in Poland, he worked on epidemiological and ecological models in Germany and the UK, holding a Senior Research Fellowship at the King’s College, Cambridge, and a lectureship at the University of Cambridge, followed by a professorship at the University of Stirling. Since 2018 he has been a Global Talent Professor in Mathematics at the University of Strathclyde. His work is dedicated to understanding how pests and diseases affect the UK and global forests and what can be done to prevent such devastating outbreaks as Ash Dieback or Emerald Ash Borer, and to future-proof our forests and woodlands from climate change. He firmly believes that we can only start to understand the links between forestry, ecology, economics and health by bringing together different disciplines. He uses statistics and mathematics to underpin this work. He has written multiple popular science articles on epidemiology and statistics. He has been a member of the British Society for Plant Pathology for 24 years and a Fellow of the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications. He is also a member of Royal Forestry Society and CONFOR. AK Register of interests
Dr Trefor Owen FICFor
Trefor Owen is a chartered forester and senior leader in large-scale sustainable land management and climate transition and adaptation. He was formerly responsible for the care of Scotland’s 650,000 hectares of national forests and land. He is a strong advocate for sustainable resource use, multi-dimensional land management, skills and learning and further development of the bio-economy. Trefor is also a proficient project sponsor and independent reviewer. He is Chair of the Institute of Chartered Foresters Professional Complaints Review Board. He is also Deputy Chair of LANTRA, the leading provider of training, qualifications and career guidance for land-based industries across the UK and the Republic of Ireland. TO Register of Interests
Dr Ian Willoughby FICFor
Ian is a Principal Silviculturist with Forest Research, and has particular research expertise in integrated forest vegetation management and early silviculture. In both cases, his ethos is to deliver clear, practical solutions for forest managers, based on undertaking high quality, peer-reviewed science. He has authored more than 100 publications.
Ian’s research on forest vegetation management covers all silvicultural systems and includes plant competition, the use of pesticides as control measures for dealing with invasive pests, diseases and weeds, alternatives to pesticides and pesticide reduction, and developing integrated solutions for managing invasive vegetation. His research on early silviculture focuses on adapting forest regeneration to increase resilience to climate change and biotic threats.
Ian obtained a BSc (Hons) in Forestry from the University of Wales at Bangor in 1991, an AMBA-accredited Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the Open University in 1999 and a PhD in Forestry from the University of Wales at Bangor in 2010. He has worked for Forest Research since 1992, as well as spending time in management roles in various other parts of the Forestry Commission. Ian is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Foresters. IW Register of Interests
You can also learn more about our Trustees by reading our monthly Meet The Trustees feature.
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:
Dr Helen McKay (Chair), Professor David Burslem, Professor Adam Kleczkowski, Professor Ioly Kotta-Loizou, Tim Liddon and Dr Ian Willoughby.
Dr Stuart Glen, Executive Director
Stuart joined the Trust as Executive Director in June 2024. He is an experienced executive having worked as Member Services Director for the Institute of Chartered Foresters for eleven years and Membership and Marketing Manager for The Scottish Wildlife Trust for eight years. Stuart studied at the University of Glasgow and the University of Birmingham, and has a PhD in entomology. Stuart is a Trustee of Scotland's Finest Woods, the charity that runs the prestigious Scotland's Finest Woods Awards.