The Executive Group comprises the YHEF Chair and up to 7 other YHEF members appointed by consensus, plus any YHEF employees appropriate to the agreed business of each meeting.

YHEF is like a duck. Calm on the surface, because the Exec is always paddling like the dickens underneath.

Executive Members

Simon Bowens (chair), Simon has been Yorkshire and Humber Campaigns Coordinator for Friends of the Earth (www.foe.co.uk) since January 2008 having previously worked on their national transport campaign. He has a strong interest in reducing the region’s carbon footprint (and is a member of the region’s Climate Change Partnership) and ensuring that the biodiversity of the region is strengthened and enhanced. He has a business background in management accountancy and, in his spare time, is found either on the allotment or fell running in the beautiful Yorkshire countryside

Nick Sandford is Regional Policy Officer for the Woodland Trust (www.woodlandtrust.org.uk) covering the northern regions and east midlands, having worked for the Woodland Trust for 16 years. He has a degree in Biochemistry from Oxford University and previously worked in financial services. He is a city councillor in Peterborough and a board member of the Peterborough Environment City Trust. 

Cate Hammond is a qualified planner. She has been a lecturer at Sheffield Hallam (www.shu.ac.uk) since November 2006 and is course leader for the Master in Planning and Master in Planning and Transport awards. Catherine is also active in regional governance and planning and was the environment sector representative on the Regional Assembly for Yorkshire and the Humber and Deputy Chair of the Regional Planning Board. Cate also has a woodburning stove and has planted a little woodland on some unused allottments.