Corporate Partnerships
+44 (0) 1865 318***
Paul Laird
Interim Director of Corporate Partnerships, Europe - Extn: 844
Paul joined Earthwatch in November 2005 and is Interim Director of Corporate Partnerships, Europe. In this role he is responsible for business development and corporate partnerships, and works with Earthwatch's corporate partners in the agriculture and forestry sectors. Paul coordinates programmes with British American Tobacco and Syngenta in particular. As part of Earthwatch's focus on sustainable resource management, these programmes raise awareness of the impacts of agriculture and forestry on biodiversity and develop capacity and skills to address those impacts. Paul has visited Earthwatch's project Restoring Vietnam's Forests, the ‘biodiversity and farming' projects at Upton Farm and Bordeaux which are supported by Syngenta, and British American Tobacco Biodiversity Partnership activities in Africa, Asia and South America.
Previously he worked for Sheffield Wildlife Trust, Living Earth Foundation, SOS Sahel and the Forestry Commission. Paul is a forester with an MSc in Environmental Management. He has over 20 years' experience of managing forestry, agriculture and rural development projects in Africa (mainly Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia and Cameroon). He has a particular interest in exploring ways in which biodiversity conservation can contribute to sustainable livelihoods for rural communities.
James Campbell
International Director of Corporate Development
James joined Earthwatch in 2008 and was appointed International Director of Corporate Development in 2011. James has a corporate background, having worked in the global financial services sector and in the international built environment sector, and retains many contacts in the commercial arena. James has worked with a broad portfolio of companies, aligning their business goals with environmental and sustainability agendas to mutual advantage across the globe. Understanding core business needs lies at the heart of Earthwatch’s corporate strategy, demonstrating that effective and proactive engagement in environmental issues generally produces sound, measurable and easily articulated business benefits. With independent external validation of these positive outcomes across a range of measures – employee satisfaction; increased productivity; enhanced employee retention; improved creativity; positive public relations – being some examples, companies are recognising the benefits for shareholders, investors and employees of significant connection with the environmental sector. James is leading the Corporate Development team across the globe, working collaboratively with companies committed to the combination of business enhancement allied to environmental progress.
James has previously worked in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors, in locations across the world. At Earthwatch, he managed the HSBC Climate Partnership, a flagship global program which he brought in ahead of time, exceeding targets and objectives within a complex budget, and negotiated a new 5 year global program with HSBC which will run from 2012-17. James travels frequently to support corporate development, particularly in Asia and the Americas. When at home, James enjoys spending time with his wife and three children, two dogs, and two cats - walking, gardening, planting trees – and when travelling, he enjoys reading and music.
Simon Barnes
Corporate Development Manager
Simon joined Earthwatch in 2010 as Corporate Development Manager primarily responsible for establishing, building and maintaining commercially sustainable relationships with Corporate supporters and partners. Simon's extensive business experience provides input into Product Development, Marketing, External Communications and Budgeting across the Earthwatch programme of work with the corporate sector.
Prior to Earthwatch Simon held a series of successful Company Director and investor board level positions across a broad range of Commercial interests and companies including BSkyB, Lanetro Zed and technology based start-ups.
Simon is interested in many aspects of the natural environment with a passion for sub Saharan Africa especially Kenya where he has family. Nearer to home Simon has spent considerable time building and tending his arboretum with over 600 specimens. This activity along with rare breed sheep and dogs ensure active and tired children for most of the year...
Jonathan Escolar
Project Officer, Biodiversity and Agriculture - Extn: 683
Jonathan joined the Earthwatch Corporate Partnerships team in July 2011 to work on issues of biodiversity and agriculture. Primarily he is involved with the British American Tobacco Biodiversity Partnership (BATBP) and is helping to further develop the Biodiversity Risk and Opportunities Assessment tool (BROA) as the Partnership enters its third five year term, but is also supporting ongoing work with Syngenta and Kraft.
Before joining Earthwatch Jonathan was working for EcoDecision, an Ecuador-based consultancy specialising in developing innovative ways to finance nature conservation. During this time he carried out research on the conceptual and technical aspects of biodiversity offsets for the Wildlife Conservation Society and helped successfully advocate a ‘no net loss’ of biodiversity policy to the Ministry of the Environment in Ecuador, which is now under development. He has also spent two years in the rainforests of the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Amazon working on and managing biodiversity monitoring and community development programmes, and worked for an environmental consultancy in Spain.
Jonathan holds an MSc in Environment, Science and Society from University College London, and a BSc (Hons) in Zoology from Liverpool John Moores University. Outside of work Jonathan enjoys bird watching (convenient when living in a biodiversity hotspot such as the Amazon), various sports, cooking, and reading.