Our team

We have a small core staff of three, and rely on dozens of volunteers, specialists and partner organisations to make it all happen.

Our founders 

The project is Carina Millstone's brain child. She thought of the project back in December 2008, after attending some Transition Town meetings for a few months. She decided to actually make it happen while out for a jog on her local common. Her background is in sustainability consultancy, but she has also developed on-the-ground experience over the years.  She’s been trained in permaculture design and orchard management, and is involved in green politics.

Carina founded the project with close friend Rowena Ganguli. Before joining the project, Rowena founded her own eco-conscious giftware business, and worked for organic food company Abel and Cole. She has now become a Trustee of the project, and spends her days buying apples for Innocent. 

Our team

Kath Rosen is the Chief Executive Officer of the project.  She joined David Blair and Lewis McNeill in Oct 2011, who focus on developing and implementing the project's activities. Kath has worked in the voluntary sector for over 10 years, for BTCV and other environmental charities. She has recently been running a Volunteer Centre in Richmond and has an edible hedgerow in her garden. 

David is the Project Manager for our Creating New Orchards programme.  He has previously worked on urban community tree planting projects in cities across the UK, learning from the many people and groups he has met along the way.  He is passionate about working with urban community groups to reawaken our connection with the living world in all its beauty and diversity.

Lewis is the Project Manager of our Rediscovering London's Lost Orchard Heritage programme. He also works for Learning through landscapes where he has been researched the history of local orchards, grafted heritage varieties, and designed new orchards within schools. Lewis has also worked as an environmental educator for RSPB and BTCV and is a keen environmental activist, involved in setting up Transition town groups. He is trained in permaculture design.

Our Trustees and senior sponsor

We have a senior sponsor and a trustees who bring inspiration, experience, expertise and creativity to the project.

Sara Parkin OBE is our senior champion for our Project. Sara was awarded an OBE in 2001, for her services to education and sustainable development.

Thomas Lingard is the Chair of the Board of Trustees. When not helping out on the Project, he is the Global External Affairs Director at Unilever and was previously Deputy Director at the Green Alliance, an environmental think tank. 

Toby Hammond spends his days restoring an old mill on the Norfolk- Suffolk border while planning his next environmental start-up. He founded and directed micro-generation company Better Generation. Toby is also known as the man who cycled to the UN Earth Summit in Johannesburg back in 2002.

Danny Chivers is an award winning slam poet, leading climate change activist, New Statesman contributor and all round climate change guru, author of the No Nonsense Guide to Climate Change. 

Rowena Ganguli co-founded the Project, and has since worked for Fairfood International and is now one of Innocent's fruit buyers. 

Hywel Lloyd is a keen volunteer at the project, and has helped out at a number of planting days. He is now a trustee, and is a Senior Fellow at the Office for Public Management, after working for DEFRA.

Our experts

We work with a team of experts, who support our work, provide guidance and help make sure our orchards get the care they deserve. 

Russell Miller is a trained arboriculturalist, with plenty of letters by his name, and has planted orchards in his home borough of Hackney for the last decade with his group the Tree Musketeers. 

Bob Lever, orchard expert and member of the East of England Apples and Orchards Project is a fountain on knowledge for orchard restoration and apple identification. 

Wade Muggleton is the Countryside Officer for Worcestershire County Council and star of the permaculture world, who specialises on planting in trained forms to make the most of small spaces.

Chris Wedge is an expert on orchard establishment and management and author of Natural England's technical guidance notes on the subject.

Our orchard leaders

We have trained and support 80 ‘orchard leaders’ from our partner community groups. Our orchard leaders are responsible for the implementation of the orchard management plan developed with us. They are therefore critical to the success of the community orchards, so thank you all for your hard work and keep it up!

Our friends

A number of organisations and individuals have provided us with their creative expertise for free.  A huge thank you to:

• Amy Sims, author of Tasting Pages,  for helping to write our copy
• Jason Gleeson, for making our film
• Lisa Bretherick, for taking some of our project pictures
• Monika Koziol and Felix Ackermann, for their design work and project branding
• The Legendary Urb Scrunting, for his musical genius, and composing a song in honour of Green Gate Common Orchard

Watch him sing at the planting of Green Gate Orchard here