Our Team
Lesley Malpas
Lesley is a conservationist, ecologist, the founder of Operation Future Hope, creator of the Nature and Rewilding Apprenticeship Programme and author of The Rewilding Manual for Schools. Her vision is to create a network of biodiversity havens in schools, and in so doing not only restore wildlife to the land, but also restore the relationship between young people and nature.
Through the online learning programme, Lesley’s aim is to enable young people to discover the truth about their own nature and connection to the Web of Life, and to empower them to become pioneers of change, actively working to regenerate nature.
Her hope is that a generation of young people will emerge, who understand their role as co-participators and co-creators of life, who hold a deep empathy for all species and who can build a new culture - one of collaboration and regeneration, where the whole community of life on Earth thrives.
“Bringing humanity back into right relationship with nature is the key to solving the ecological, environmental, economic and social challenges of our time, and education is the pathway.
There is an urgent need for clear, immediate, up to date, holistic and experiential learning in schools that teaches of the interconnectedness and interrelatedness of all life, and of the interdependence and place of our own species within the wider community of life on the Planet. Nature must urgently be placed centre stage and be at the heart of learning for all.”
- Lesley Malpas
Peter Tait
Peter is an educationalist and historian with a keen interest in conservation and the environment. Born and educated in New Zealand, Peter is committed to developing a new curriculum with ethics and values at its heart dealing in particular with environmental issues, sustainability and individual and collective responsibility.
Peter has lived in the United Kingdom for the past twenty years and was Head of Sherborne Preparatory School in Dorset for seventeen years prior to retiring in 2015 to pursue other interests.
He has an MA in History and a post-graduate Diploma in Education and taught in state and independent primary and senior schools in New Zealand before moving to the United Kingdom.
Peter has written several books with a third book on the subject of Thomas Hardy due for publication in early 2018. He writes on education topics for the national press, (mainly Daily Telegraph on-line) as well as education magazines and related publications and has contributed to other books on Littleton Powys and the process of selection in secondary education.
“‘While the father of nuclear physics, Ernest Rutherford, was born and educated in New Zealand, the country never embraced nuclear power in any shape or form. In the 1970s in the face of French nuclear testing in the South Pacific, the New Zealand government sent a frigate into the test zone at Mururoa as a protest, leading people the world over to see what could be done if governments and people worked together.”
— Peter Tait
Andrew Scott George
Consultant, Landscape Designer and Habitat Creation Specialist
Andrew has been designing wildflower meadows for private clients since the mid-1990s, after developing his own 3-acre plot in the Mendips, specifically for butterflies.
Andrew is author of ‘The Butterfly Friendly Garden’, which features his designs for various clients and describes habitat and meadow creation processes. His designs more often begin by weaving a story around place, allowing this to influence the shape and appearance of the meadow whilst working with the landscape.
Andy Quayle
Andy was born and educated in Manchester, and since graduating in Zoology from Manchester University has been slowly moving south!
Andy has worked in practical habitat conservation as conservation officer for the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, and a few years spent looking at bacterial genes and amphibian chromosomes at Leicester University.
From 1990 to the present date, with a four year “sabbatical” in ecological consultancy, Andy has been a lecturer at Sparsholt College, Hampshire teaching ecology and conservation on Sparsholt’s BSc Honours degree.
Wildlife and ecology have been a lifelong interest, especially reptiles and amphibians, but over the years he has become increasingly interested in the human impact on the wider environment at the larger landscape scale. Human activity can devastate whole landscapes, but sometimes has created rich, biodiverse habitats that work for both people and wildlife. It is this “permaculture” approach at the landscape level in which he is most interested.
“Conservation must not be the hobby for well-fed westerners. To be successful, conservation has to embrace social justice, human development and sustainable management of biodiversity at the planetary level.”
— Andy Quayle
Our Friends & Advisors
Ruth graduated from Edinburgh University with a degree in Geography and completed her PGCE at Moray House Institute of Education (Edinburgh). She holds a Masters in Population and Health and PhD in Non-communicable Epidemiology, which she gained at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She is currently Headmistress of Sherborne Girls, the fifth school she has worked in.
As a geographer, geologist and epidemiologist, an experienced traveller and outdoor pursuits enthusiast, Ruth is passionate about all aspects of the environment and human interaction with it. Having been a vegetarian since conception, Ruth certainly dovetails reality with rhetoric. She has embedded this concern throughout her educational career and Operation Future Hope is the most recent manifestation by which she hopes to develop, through practical action, the awareness of the community, in particular the pupils at Sherborne Girls.
As well as being a keen runner and triathlete, Ruth has trekked and cycled through many of the world’s great mountain regions. In her twenty years as an educator she has also led dozens of geography and geology fieldtrips around the planet and numerous extended personal development expeditions, all which have a strong element of environmental and social responsibility. She has led expeditions in Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and South America and has a particular relationship with Nepal and the Himalaya.
Tony Cooke
Sustainability Strategist and Social Entrepreneur
Tony is a sustainability strategist and social entrepreneur who has worked internationally for over 25 years with leading companies, governments and non-profit organisations to find solutions across a wide variety of sectors including agriculture, education, facilities management, financial services, foodservice, health, media, science and technology.
Tony is CEO of One Planet Education Networks, which he co-founded with WWF to work with some of the world’s most innovative educators to develop change agents for sustainability.
He is an Honorary Associate Professor of Sustainability Leadership at the University of Nottingham’s School of Geography and is in demand around the world as a speaker on entrepreneurial leadership for sustainability
He is a founding Member of the SDG Transformations Forum, a high-levelcoalition for co-ordinating achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, where he co-leads their work on place-based transformation, pursuing his passion for creating a wellbeing economy based upon regenerative, resilient communities living in harmony with nature.
Tony was previously a Senior Vice President at Sodexo, the world’s largest foodservice company, where he was responsible for the sustainability of its business. He has previously worked with Cabinet Office, Defra, Department of Health, Elior, Fairtrade Foundation, FareShare, HRH Prince of Wales, Jamie Oliver, Lloyds Banking Group plc, Royal Agricultural Society of England, Sainsburys, Sustainable Restaurant Association, WWF and Zac Goldsmith.
Tony holds an MBA from University of Exeter Business School and a degree in land management from University of Reading. He is a Fellow of both the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society of Arts. Tony is also a TEDx organiser and a school trustee in his hometown of Sherborne, as well as a keen offshore sailor and instructor.
Julia Hailes MBE
Thinking, Campaigning, Writing, Speaking, Advising, Challenging, Doing, Experimenting and Learning.
With nearly 35 years experience in the sustainability sector, Julia Hailes has become a leading opinion former, consultant and speaker on sustainability issues. She has written or co-written nine environmental books, including The Green Consumer Guide, which sold over 1m copies worldwide. In 1987 she co-founded environmental think tank, SustainAbility and has worked with a wide range of companies advising them on issues such as waste, recycling, packaging energy, climate change and deforestation.
Currently, Julia is on the board of two organisations: Rubbish Ideas - leading the way in the circular economy; and CHASE Africa - supporting family planning and conservation.
In 1992, Julia was elected to the UN Global 500 Roll of Honour for outstanding environmental achievement, and in 1999 was awarded an MBE.
In 2020 she has had help from Operation Future Hope in carrying out a wilding project at her home in Dorset and she’s planning to do a lot more with wilding over the next decade.
Paul Hilton
Conservation Photojournalist
Paul is a Hong Kong-based photojournalist and wildlife trade consultant who focuses on global environmental and conservation issues and endeavors to bring about urgent change in the way we treat our surroundings. Presently, he is working on the palm oil issue: documenting deforestation, land clearing, and the wildlife trade in Sumatra’s Leuser Eco-system, Indonesia, in collaboration with Rainforest Action Network (RAN), Wildlife Asia and Forest Nature and Environment Aceh (HAkA).
Previously, Paul followed the manta and mobula ray trade across the world and set up the Manta Ray of Hope project to document, in partnership with WildAid and Manta Trust, the plight of the great rays and investigate the use of gill-rakers in traditional Chinese medicine. He is now an Associate Director with Manta Trust and a WildAid consultant.
Paul’s undercover footage of the illegal wildlife trade features heavily throughout the 2015 film “Racing Extinction”, produced by the Ocean Preservation Society and directed by Oscar winner, Louie Psihoyos, which premiered at the SunDance film festival.
In 2009, Paul became a member of the prestigious International League of Conservation Photographers, and in 2010 launched his first book, Man & Shark, highlighting the global Shark-Finning industry. He has received numerous awards for his conservation photography: in 2012 a World Press Photo award for his body of work on the Shark Fin issue and was also awarded Wildlife Photographer of the Year in 2012, 2014 and 2016; the Asian Geographic Best of the Decade series, and the Ark Trust Award for exposing bear bile farming in China, for Animals Asia Foundation. His photos were published in the book, Black Market, which deals with the wildlife trade in Asia, and included investigative photojournalism in the wild-animal markets and theme parks of China.
Paul has spent that past decade following the shark fin trade across the globe, from the fishing ports of Yemen and the middle East to the high seas of the Pacific and Indian Oceans; documenting life onboard long-lining fleets from Taiwan, China, Philippines, and Indonesia; in the dried seafood markets of Southern China and Hong Kong; documenting a newly-discovered blue whale migration; satellite tagging of humpback whales; and documenting sustainable pole-and-line tuna fisheries worldwide. These projects have been in cooperation with WildAid, Human Society International, Greenpeace International and the Hong Kong Shark Foundation.
Wren Franklin
Ecologist and Land Manager
Having turned a childhood interest in wildlife and the outdoors into various volunteer placements with nature conservation charities in his late teens, Wren went on to gain an HND in Landscape Conservation from Bournemouth University and a BSc in Countryside Conservation from the University of Wales Aberystwyth.
Currently Wren is the nature reserve manager for Ryewater Nursery – a unique estate in north Dorset with a 40-year history in pioneering habitat creation. Wren’s focus is on creating and maintaining wildflower plant communities, hedgerows, scrub, woodland and wetlands as the foundation stones of a biodiversity hotspot. Ryewater use butterflies and moths as indicators of habitat health and survey these groups regularly and thoroughly.
“As a father to two young children I have an investment in the aims of Operation Future Hope and feel the pressing need to help sow the seeds of intrigue, enjoyment and respect for the natural world.
Millie Baring
Founder and Director The Lambay Club.
Millie is the Founder and Director of The Lambay Club, a community of authentic, bold and creative individuals from all over the world who strive for a balanced and connected life with the planet, themselves and each other.
The Club is focused around Lambay Island, home to Millie and just 5 other permanent residents, and the largest privately protected island in Northern Europe. Lambay fosters a sustainable and consciously connected way of life, with an extraordinary plethora of flora, fauna and natural beauty that facilitates long-lasting and authentic connections between her visitors.
Millie is passionate about promoting and preserving a high quality of life for all living organisms, which requires a healthy planet and ecosystem. She is currently studying for an Integrated MSc in Psychotherapy & Counselling, to further her life-long interest in mental health and psychology. She is an enthusiastic champion of OFH and Lesley’s brilliant efforts to educate younger generations in the importance of remaining consciously connected to our planet.