Chief Executive: Dr Gabriel Hemery - BSc (Hons) DPhil (Oxon) CEnv MICFor MIEEM

Gabriel co-founded the Sylva Foundation with Sir Martin Wood. Gabriel has practical hands-on experience in land management, extensive knowledge of the forest sector and is a specialist in hardwood forestry research (with a doctorate in walnut research). He has conducted a range of consultancies for Government, NGOs and the private forestry sector and has worked widely in collaborative international research programmes. The author of more than 50 papers and articles, he has acted as editor for an international forestry journal, and is a member of the international editorial board of the CABI Forest Science Database. Gabriel has held several senior positions in the UK environmental sector including Head of Land Science and Director of Land Operations for the Northmoor Trust in Oxfordshire, and Director of Development for the Botanical Society of the British Isles. Gabriel has a track record in innovative project creation. He designed and planted a new 30 hectare woodland in Oxfordshire, England. In the 1990s he organised the establishment of more than 25 field trials across the UK and Ireland, and developed Britain’s first independent research centre dedicated to hardwood trees – Paradise Wood. He was a founding member of the British & Irish Hardwoods Improvement Programme. He co-created the PINE project, introducing broiler chickens into farm woodlands. With SYLVA he has co-developed the myForest service, and leads the OneOak project, TreeWatch initiative, and Forestry Horizons think-tank. He is currently a committee member of the Forestry Commission's Regional Assembly for the South East, a Council board member for the Institute of Chartered Foresters (and on their professional examination board), and serves on the Board of the Society for the Environment.

Director of Forestry: Alistair Yeomans - BSc (Hons) MSc (Oxon)

Alistair is a founding member of staff of the Sylva Foundation. He co-developed and leads our myForest service. He has published a number of reports on subjects ranging from county-level wood fuel resource assessments, to woodland economic studies. He has a broad range of experience in horticulture, arboriculture and forestry in the UK and internationally. His research work has focused on environmental factors effecting the growth of trees and woodlands. His commercial work has involved the management of a variety of land-based businesses. Alistair is a Chartered Forester and is Regional Secretary (South East) for the Institute of Chartered Foresters. He graduated with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Horticulture from Strathclyde University and a M.Sc. in Forestry and its Relation to Land Use from the University of Oxford. Alistair qualified as an arboriculturalist while working and studying at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.

Administration Manager: Lesley Best - BA (Hons) MBA

Lesley leads the management of our personnel and financial systems, and works closely with the Chief Executive to support the development of SYLVA. She played a major role in organising the public launch of our OneOak project in 2010. She has broad business experience through working in private and public sector organisations, government funded bodies and charities. She excels in leading strategic and operational elements of business such as sales and marketing, finance and administration, fundraising and quality management, and project management. This has been in high profile Oxfordshire-based organisations including, Solid State Logic, Research Machines, Heart of England Training and Enterprise Council, and the Northmoor Trust. Lesley studied part time alongside a full time job towards gaining her BA (Hons) and MBA.

IT Manager: Richard Pigott

Richard has led the development of SYLVA’s entire suite of websites, marrying a keen eye for design with practical coding skills. He has a pivotal role in developing our cutting edge IT capabilities in the myForest service. He has experience of many areas of IT, and has worked for several years as a freelance web-designer. He has worked in software design as well as technical and hardware support with companies such as Softpress Systems and JNA Consulting. Most recently Richard managed the IT for the science department of Cokethorpe School near Oxford. Richard is currently studying Computing at The Open University, while working part-time for Sylva.

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Dr Nick Brown

Nick is a University Lecturer in the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford and the Senior Tutor of Linacre College. He investigates how forests respond to both natural and human inflicted disturbance and the implications of this for sustainable management and has published in excess of 50 academic papers of these subjects. He works with the UN Environment Programme on a number of forestry projects in parts of the developing world impacted by war and natural disaster. He is chair of the Wytham Woods management committee.

Dr Peter Savill - FICFor

Peter retired at the end of 2006 as a Reader in Forestry from the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford and Vice-Principal of Linacre College. His research interests are in the fields of forest ecology, silviculture, and the improvement of broadleaved trees grown in Britain by selection and breeding. He has published more than 80 academic papers and four books. He is currently Chairman of the British and Irish Hardwoods Improvement Programme, a Trustee of two environmental Charities and is involved in co-authoring a book on the contribution of Wytham Woods to the science of ecology.

Sir Martin Wood - FRS Hon FREng

Martin studied engineering at Cambridge University and Imperial College, and came to Oxford University to work in the Department of Physics. He co-founded Oxford Instruments plc with his wife and devoted a lot of his time to developing high tech industry within the county, particularly companies formed to capitalise on university-based research. Always interested in forestry and conservation, he now devotes most of his time to these subjects and in particular how to manage our forests in ways which produce most usable timber, compatible with wildlife conservation and social benefits. He is a patron of both the Northmoor Trust and the Oxford Trust.

Lady Audrey Wood - OBE MA

Audrey studied Biology and then English Literature at Cambridge. She co-founded Oxford Instruments with her husband in 1959 and remained on the Board for twenty four years, finally writing a history of the company, published by OUP in 2001. As Company Secretary for many years she acquired corporate, legal and management experience. She became involved in many other small companies and co-founded the Northmoor Trust for Countryside Conservation and the Oxford Trust to encourage the study and application of science and technology. She remains a patron of both. She has a deep interest in the countryside and its woodlands.

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John Evelyn ( 1620 - 1706 )

John Evelyn lived through the English Civil War, the Commonwealth, the Restoration, the reigns of Charles II, James II, William III and Mary II, and the early reign of Anne. He was best known in his own lifetime and during the eighteenth century for his book Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees, a work produced in 1664 at the request of the Royal Society, following his delivery of a paper on the subject in 1662. He highlighted the damage done to England's wooded estates during the Interregnum and sought to encourage reforestation. Sylva was one of his most substantial works and he prepared three further editions in his lifetime.