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International Trustees and Founders

The International Trustees are responsible for safeguarding the values that underlie A Rocha's mission and maintaining the integrity of the A Rocha family.

Prof Sir Ghillean Prance, Chair Prof Sir Ghillean Prance was for eleven years Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, until his retirement in 1999. He trained as a plant taxonomist and is an expert on the flora of the Amazon rain forests, having led annual expeditions there over a period of 25 years and collected more than 450 Amazonian plants new to science. More
Steve Beck Steve Beck is the Co-founder of SpringHill Equity Partners, LLC, a private equity fund manager that provides growth capital and managerial support to small and medium sized enterprises in Africa and India. From 2002-2007 he served as Executive Vice President and then Chief Executive Officer of Geneva Global >> More
Sarah French Sarah French is an Associate Senior Lecturer and Consultant with the Centre for International Development and Training, University of Wolverhampton, UK. She is also on the Board of Earthmind, a Swiss NGO, and a member of two IUCN Commissions. More
Rebecca Irvin Rebecca Irvin is director of the Rolex Awards for Enterprise and the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, two international philanthropic programmes of the Rolex watch company in Geneva. She joined Rolex in 1993 to head the Rolex Awards, a unique corporate programme that supports innovative people and projects in science, exploration, the environment, cultural heritage and technology. >> More
Paul Jeanson Paul has been involved in international conservation for many years, as Director of France’s largest ornithological reserve, at Marquenterre, for 20 years, and in various projects in Africa, French Guyana, Vietnam and Thailand. More
Dr Paul Kariya Dr Paul Kariya is Executive Director of the Independent Power Producers Association of British Columbia, and continues as an adjunct faculty member at Trinity Western University. Prior to this, Paul was the Executive Director of Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the protection, conservation and recovery of Pacific salmon based in Vancouver BC. More
Ian Marlow Ian runs a tax and accountancy business in South London, working with individuals and small businesses in the UK and further afield. He has an MBA in Small Business Administration and a Diploma in Theology. More
Gerry Rawcliffe Gerry Rawcliffe is a Managing Director in the Financial Institutions Group at Fitch Ratings in London. He trained as a Chartered Accountant after studying German literature at the universities of Warwick, Kiel and London. More
Stella Simiyu Stella Simiyu works with Botanic Gardens Conservation International, seconded to the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity to support the implementation of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. More