{"id":5743,"date":"2023-09-12T11:21:03","date_gmt":"2023-09-12T10:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bornfree.org.uk\/?page_id=5743"},"modified":"2026-03-16T10:35:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T10:35:44","slug":"trustees","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bornfree.org.uk\/trustees\/","title":{"rendered":"Trustees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Reyner, Chair<\/h3>\n

\"Head<\/h3>\n

Michael is the Senior Partner of MWM Consulting, a leading executive search and Board advisory firm, after an earlier career as a Partner at McKinsey, the leading management consultancy. Michael joined the Board in September 2009 and became Chair in December that year.<\/p>\n

\n

Dame Virginia McKenna DBE, Co-Founder<\/h3>\n

\"Head<\/h3>\n

After a highly successful career as a stage and screen actress, Virginia has devoted her life to wildlife conservation and co-founded Born Free with her late husband, Bill Travers MBE and son Will Travers OBE. Virginia still plays an active role in the charity and sits on the Board of Trustees.<\/p>\n

\n

Michael Drake<\/h3>\n

\"Head<\/h3>\n

Michael is an experienced solicitor and partner in a London firm.\u00a0 He is a longstanding Born Free Foundation trustee and has also held a number of non-executive directorships, and other charity trusteeships, including until recently the Galapagos Conservation Trust.\u00a0 He has travelled widely in Africa, Asia and South America, always with a special interest in exploring the wildlife, and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.<\/p>\n

\n

Navindu Katugampola<\/h3>\n

\"Head<\/h3>\n

Navindu Katugampola is Global Head of Sustainability for Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM). In his role, Navindu and his team work closely with the MSIM investment teams to help them achieve their sustainability objectives, providing insight and robust solutions to meet regulatory, product, data and stewardship requirements.\u00a0 He is married, with two children, and lives in London.<\/p>\n

\n

Sharon Peake<\/h3>\n

\"Head<\/h3>\n

Sharon is a gender diversity expert and experienced diversity and inclusion leader with over 20 years’ experience in global businesses. She is a registered psychologist, a certified coach and the Founder and CEO of Shape Talent. Born in Australia, Sharon has lived and worked in Australia and the UK, and her roles have given her experience working across 6 continents, delivering work in locations as diverse as Colombia, Romania, India, Uganda, New York, and Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

\n

Jess Ruben<\/h3>\n

\"Head<\/h3>\n

Jess is the Chief People Officer at WONE, a precision health platform tackling the stress epidemic. She has held various COO, CPO, Strategy Director and Board Advisor roles in high growth tech businesses, is a certified coach and holds a BA and MSc from Oxford University.<\/p>\n

\n

Jenny Seagrove<\/h3>\n

\"Head<\/h3>\n

Jenny Seagrove has a successful career in theatre, film and television but her main passion is animals, animal welfare and the natural world. She is honoured to be a Trustee of The Born Free Foundation and is also the Founding Trustee of Mane Chance Sanctuary.<\/p>\n

\n

Bella Lack<\/h3>\n

\"Head<\/p>\n

Bella Lack is a 20-year-old conservationist and Director of Reserva Youth Land Trust. She uses social media, video-making, podcasting and writing to try to educate and inspire a wide group of people to protect the natural world. In addition, Bella delivers speeches, including speaking at the People\u2019s Walk for Wildlife, the Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference in 2018 and TEDx Brighton 2019. Bella worked on a feature-length documentary; ‘ANIMAL’, with the director Cyril Dion along with primatologist Jane Goodall.<\/p>\n

\n

Sean Cassidy<\/h3>\n

\"Head<\/p>\n

Sean Cassidy joined the board of Born Free USA in 2016 and has served as its Board Chair since 2017.\u00a0 A real estate developer working on residential projects in New York City, The Hamptons, Palm Springs, and Paris, Sean previously founded and owned a chain of Parisian-inspired premier men\u2019s clothing stores.\u00a0Growing up in Maine, even as a child, Sean was outraged by the ubiquitous \u201csport\u201d of hunting and trapping. Born Free has provided him a powerful platform to advocate for treating animals with compassion and respect, and an opportunity to engage and inspire others in this mission.<\/p>\n

\n

Nicky Whitehead<\/h3>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Nicky Whitehead is a Director at Crowe UK, the leading provider of audit and assurance services to charities. Nicky leads the provision of audit and other services to a wide range of well-known national and international not for profit organisations. He is a charity finance specialist and an FCA Chartered Accountant.<\/p>\n

\n

Andrew Mura<\/h3>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

With a professional background in legal services and based in Nairobi, Kenya, Andrew joins the Board of Trustees to strengthen its multi-sectoral coordination of conservation efforts. Andrew is passionate about wildlife conservation and uses his legal acumen to ensure responsible and transparent leadership. His presence in Nairobi allows Born Free to benefit from real-time regional perspectives and robust fiduciary monitoring. Andrew is dedicated to ensuring that our UK charitable objectives are delivered effectively within the Kenyan context, safeguarding the future of the species we protect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Reyner, Chair Michael is the Senior Partner of MWM Consulting, a leading executive search and Board advisory firm, after an earlier career as a Partner at McKinsey, the leading management consultancy. Michael joined the Board in September 2009 and became Chair in December that year. Dame Virginia McKenna DBE, Co-Founder After a highly successful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5743","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bornfree.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bornfree.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bornfree.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bornfree.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bornfree.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5743"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bornfree.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37826,"href":"https:\/\/www.bornfree.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5743\/revisions\/37826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bornfree.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}