Craig BENNETT

Biography for Craig Bennett (for IUCN WCC) (English)

Chief Executive, The Wildlife Trusts

Candidate for IUCN Councillor elected from the Region - West Europe

Craig is Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts and Candidate for IUCN Councillor elected from the Region (West Europe).

His is an Honorary Professor of Sustainability and Innovation at Alliance Manchester Business School, an Associate Fellow of Homerton College (Cambridge), and a Fellow of The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. He is also a Commissioner on the UK Government’s Clean Power 2030 Advisory Commission, with a particular focus on developing nature-positive renewables and grids. 

He has been described as “one of the country’s top environmental campaigners”, by The Guardian as “the very model of a modern eco-general” and was included in The Sunday Times Green Power List of the UK’s top 20 environmentalists.

Craig was formerly CEO of Friends of the Earth (UK) where he led the organisation to numerous campaign victories including on bees, fracking and against airport expansion. He has served on the Board of Friends of the Earth Europe and Friends of the Earth International and has extensive experience of international governance.

From 2007 to 2010, Craig was Deputy Director at The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), and Director of The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change (from 2007 to 2010) which he transformed into one of the most progressive business voices on the international climate change agenda. 

Earlier in his career, he worked at the Environmental Investigation Agency to expose and take action against the illegal international wildlife trade. 

Craig has twenty-five years of experience in designing and contributing to Executive Education and Leadership programmes at numerous universities and business schools around the world, and of providing advice and constructive challenge direct to CEOs and company boards. He is currently Chair of the Independent Challenge Group for Anglian Water.

He is also a Policy Fellow of The Centre for Science and Policy at The University of Cambridge, a Fellow of the Hawkwood Centre for Future Thinking, a judge on The Wainwright Book Prize, a Trustee of the think-tank Green Alliance, and an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM). He regularly appears in the print and broadcast media

He has a BSc (Hons) in Human and Physical Geography from The University of Reading and an MSc in Biodiversity Conservation from University College London, and Honorary Doctoral degrees from University College of Estate Management (UCEM), and Anglian Ruskin University (ARU).

Please note: Craig does not accept speaking invites that would result in an all-male panel.