Staff Team

Back: Jo Roberts, Helen Payne, Richard Corby, Sue Macfarlane, Lynda Richardson Front: Jonathan Barker & Mike Ridgewell

The Wilderness Foundation UK team comprises:

  • Jo Roberts – Chief Executive Officer
  • Richard Corby – Operations Manager
  • Sue Macfarlane – Personal Assistant to Jo Roberts
  • Helen Payne – Project Coordinator – TurnAround
  • Jonathan Barker – Instructor – Down to Earth
  • Lynda Richardson – Finance
  • Mike Ridgewell – impACT Youth Group

Many of these people are providing their time, skills and experience on a voluntary basis to further the aims of the Foundation.

Jo Roberts – Chief Executive Officer

Jo Roberts has been Director of the Wilderness Foundation since 2004, but has been involved as Projects Director and Project Coordinator since 1998.

South African by birth, Jo has enjoyed a rich life of wild places in many parts of Africa as she grew up. She trained and worked as a Social Anthropologist during the time of Apartheid, working mainly with rural communities. Her main interest in life is the vital connection between humanity and nature, and the value that experiential learning and outdoor education brings to social and personal change.

Jo focuses her attention on linking wilderness trails to peace and reconciliation and the effects of wilderness on developing sound youth leadership built on environmental awareness and ethics, and the turn around potential for youth who are vulnerable or at risk. Using the extensive wilderness network and her close link to South Africa and programmes running there, she merges best practice from around the world into creative programmes that suit British climate and culture.

Richard Corby – Operations Manager

Richard joined the Foundation in January 2007 after completing a National Diploma in Countryside Management, following a fifteen year career in business finance.   Some of the great strengths Richard brings us are his excellent financial skills, strategic and organisational planning and talents for web publishing. He is managing a number of our school programmes and also serves on the Steering Committee of the TurnAround Project for vulnerable youth.

Early in 2008 Richard completed Educational Visit Coordinator training with Essex County Council, which has strengthened our educational portfolio by enabling us to provide outdoor educational activities to students and young people for whom Essex CC has a responsibility.

In 2011 Richard was promoted to the position of Operations Manager and is responsible for the smooth and efficient running of the charity.  His remit includes Communications and Awareness and Financial Management.  Richard is also the lead on the Sirius Schools Programme.

Sue Macfarlane – PA to Jo Roberts

Sue joined the Wilderness Foundation UK in September 2007 after a short spell of volunteering on the TurnAround Project. She continued to work on TurnAround until our second intake graduated in November 2009.  We are delighted to announce that on 1st November 2009 Sue took up a new role in the Foundation, acting as PA to our ever-busy CEO Jo Roberts.  Sue is the friendly voice on the telephone and the smile that you meet at the door when contacting the Wilderness Foundation.  She is an excellent organiser and has put these skills to good use in managing our wilderness trails bookings.

Helen Payne – Project Coordinator – TurnAround

We recruited Helen to our team in September 2010 when she took up the post of Project Coordinator for TurnAround, our intervention programme for youth-at-risk in Essex.   Helen comes from a strong youth engagement background and is also a proven instructor in the fields of leadership, mentoring and personal development.

Jonathan Barker – Instructor – Down to Earth

Jonathan joined our team in January 2009 to project manage impACT – our environmental youth action group based in Chelmsford, Essex.   Jonathan is a keen naturalist and is passionate about wildlife and the environment.  He comes to us with a many skills, including those of wildlife photographer and film maker, which gives enormous strength to our work in providing visual documentation of our achievements.  Jonathan also has experience as a lecturer working in Chelmsford and is an active volunteer helping in the local community.  Jonathan now works as a sessional instructor for our community gardening programme Grow Together and combines this with running his succesful business.