Our Trustees:
■ Diana Schumacher OBE (Vice President & Co-founder)
■ Martin Polden OBE (Vice President & Co-founder)
■ David Hart (Chair)
■ Michael Taite (Vice Chair)
■ Owen Lomas
■ Jeremy Woods
■ Danielle Morley
■ Nicholas Flynn
■ Joey Tabone
Diana Schumacher
Diana is a founder member and Vice President of the Environmental Law Foundation. In early life Diana was a refugee in India. After repatriation and during her adolescence she developed a keen sense of social justice. Diana has become a prolific writer and social activist focusing on the connections between energy, environment, economics and education (‘the 4 E’s’). Diana has been involved in a plethora of organisations. She is a founder member of the New Economics Foundation, Green Alliance, Green Books (first UK environmental publishing company), and the Gandhi Foundation. She has also been a trustee or patron of over 25 other educational, environmental or development organisations and is currently Vice-President of ECOROPA (Ecological Action Group for Europe).
Martin Polden
Martin Polden is the Vice-President, co-founder and the first chair of the E.L.F. Martin has had a long career as a solicitor in general practice. He has focused on how the application of law can be used to counter environmental depredation and be a source of support in protecting community interests. Martin has served on the Law Society Planning and Environmental Law Committee and the European Environmental Bureau; he is a Fellow of the Society for Advanced Legal Studies and of the Royal Society of Arts. In 1994 he co-authored The Environment and the Law (published by Longman), an account of the interconnectedness of environmental factors with the theme of the four elements: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. He has made frequent appearances on TV and radio. In 2006 he was appointed O.B.E. ‘For Services to Environmental Law’.
David Hart QC
David Hart is a barrister with One Crown Office Row chambers. He practises in environmental law, professional negligence, construction and medical law. His environmental work covers the whole range of issues - litigious, regulatory, planning, public law, criminal and transactional work – over all subject areas including water (Cambridge Water), waste (SRM, REPIC), air (Coalite), odour (Dobson), noise (Dennis, Watson), fishing (cockles, polluted trout streams, and Mott about salmon licences), windfarms (Macarthur). He also has a wide contaminated land practice, including two leading appeals (Sevenoaks and Sandridge). He has appeared in courts at all levels, including the European Court of Justice (Bromley) and House of Lords (Cambridge Water, UU), and Supreme Court (E). He has particular experience of group actions, in the environmental field (7 group actions alleging odour nuisance, 4 alleging dust & noise and a petrol contamination claim) and in medical cases.
Michael Taite
MD, Blue Moon Creative
Michael is MD and co-owner of the digital branding and communications agency Blue Moon Creative which, in 2014, won the Skills Funding Agency’s National Small Employer of the Year award for its work in training and developing young graphic designers and website developers. In 2015, the firm was listed as a City & Guilds Top 100 Employer.
A copywriter by vocation, from 1989 to 94 Michael was Head of Marketing & Sales for Regalian Properties PLC in London, reporting directly to Chairman & CEO David Goldstone. He subsequently established his own consultancy, primarily advising legal and property companies on marketing matters. These included, from 1999 to 2008, an investment vehicle of the Washington State Investment Board which involved Michael in a great many projects in Hungary, Romania and Poland.
Owen Lomas
Owen Lomas is a Consultant in Environmental Law to Travers Smith LLP. He was formerly Partner and Head of the the Global and Environmental Law Group at Allen & Overy. Owen has over 25 years experience in environmental, planning and health and safety law in the context of regulatory compliance. Specialist areas include waste management, producer responsibility for waste re-use and recycling, contaminated land, economic instruments, environmental policy and audit, air and water pollution and environmental insurance. Owen is a respected speaker and writer on environmental and climate change issues and is regularly ranked as one of the most highly recommended environmental lawyers in the UK.
Jeremy Woods
Jeremy Woods is a Lecturer in bioenergy at Imperial College London working on the interplay between development, land-use and the sustainable use of natural resources. Recently he became co-director of the Porter Alliance, a network of UK research institutions dedicated to the development of advanced biorenewables and he chairs the UK working group of the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment and coordinates a number of research projects with a focus on African development and the potential for bioenergy production.
Danielle Morley
Danielle Morley is a qualified solicitor with a background in property and environmental law. She has an MSc in Global Environmental Change and Policy from Imperial College, specialising in Climate Change. Recruited by WaterAid to run Freshwater Action Network in 2001, Danielle has played a significant coordinating and influencing role on international water policy events since the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002.
Nick Flynn
Nick Flynn is Legal Director at Avaaz.org and a member of the International Advisory Council of Legal Action Worldwide.
Nick is an environmental lawyer who previously worked at Weil Gotshal & Manges as head of the firm’s London pro bono and CSR program. He is a founder and chair of the Legal Response Initiative, a charity providing legal support to developing countries participating in the UN climate change negotiations and a founder and trustee of Advocates for International Development, a charity providing legal advice in support of the achievement of the MDGs/SDGs.
Joey Tabone
Director, Business in the Community.
Trustee, Neuroblastoma Children’s Cancer Alliance.
Fellow, Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce
Joey has a background in sustainability gained during 10 years with the Australian Federal Government’s Climate Change Office and more recently in the UK through The Prince of Wales’ charitable network. Community engagement and transformational change is at the heart of all of his work.