Leadership team

Eliot Lyne, Chief Executive Officer

Eliot Lyne joined NWT in 2021. Before this, he pursued a 15-year career in senior finance and operations roles in many well-known UK Charities such as Scope, Amnesty International UK, Greenpeace UK, Livability and National Children’s Bureau. This culminated in a turnaround role as interim Finance Director and then interim CEO at RNIB.  

Eliot is a qualified Chartered Accountant and started his career at Deloitte and Touche, followed by a few years in the commercial sector. Much of Eliot’s work has been improving the financial and strategic sustainability of organisations, both from the perspective of the resources that they have but also how they choose to use them to further their charitable impact. He is passionate about the power of integrity in leadership to make change happen. Eliot is Treasurer and Trustee of Become, the charity for children in care and young care leavers, and in the past has served as a Trustee of Peace Direct and as an independent member of the finance committee at St Helena’s Hospice in Colchester, Essex.  

Eliot holds a BA in Geography and an MSc in Environmental and Energy Studies. He is married with one daughter. He runs, cycles, gardens, and enjoys music in his spare time. 

Natalie Bailey, Director of Engagement 

Natalie joined NWT in 2022 after nearly twenty years working in public engagement roles across the public and private sector including 12 years at the University of East Anglia, a few years producing Norwich Science Festival and a stint working on a global conference in Sydney, Australia. She is passionate about the mutually beneficial relationship between people and the natural world and the importance of nature connection for our mental health. In her spare time she can be found pottering on her allotment, swimming in the Bure and drinking copious amounts of tea!  

Gareth Dalglish, Director of Nature Recovery 

I joined the Trust in December 2022 and am delighted to be leading the work of recovering nature outside of our nature reserves.  We will be working with farmers, landowners and many other partners & stakeholders to meet the challenge of achieving 30% land and sea managed for nature by 2030.  Previously I worked for the Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Natural England and the RSPB as a professional ecologist in a variety of roles from managing nature reserves to leading teams working on planning & advocacy for nature. I have been involved in the conservation of fens in Norfolk & Suffolk for well over 40 years and live on the edge of a fen in south Norfolk where I am lucky enough to have some superb wildlife on my doorstep including cuckoos, reed warblers and rare orchids. 

Kevin Hart, Director of Nature Conservation 

Kevin’s family is at least fifth generation Norfolk Broads, he attended all of the Stalham schools before attaining a first degree in Countryside Management at Leeds followed by a Post Graduate Diploma in Ecology from Liverpool. His professional career has been based in Norfolk working in conservation and land management for the past 28 years, 21 years in the charity sector and 13 of those with Norfolk Wildlife Trust. Kevin currently works as Director of Nature Conservation for Norfolk Wildlife Trust with responsibility for nine patch based teams managing over 5,000 hectares of high conservation value land throughout Norfolk. He is a Trustee of Kelling Heath SSSI and is a mentor and guide to other land management professionals working for a green tourism provider in North Norfolk. 

Rachel Savage, Director of Development and Partnerships 

Rachel Savage has over 25 years’ experience in the charity sector. She has considerable experience of delivering large scale fundraising and marketing campaigns, strategic and financial planning, brand and audience development, and supporting organisational change. Prior to joining Norfolk Wildlife Trust, she worked as Director of Client Development for a full-service marketing agency supporting a number of charities both large and small. She has also held senior management, marketing and fundraising positions at the RHS, Save the Children and Voluntary Service Overseas. Her role at NWT includes leading the fundraising and membership teams along with our five Visitor Centres and Norfolk Wildlife Services our ecological consultancy. 

A passionate gardener she is a trustee of The Gardens Trust, spends a great deal of her spare time in her veg patch and has recently completed her PhD in nineteenth century garden history. 

Jo Smithson, Director of Finance and Support Services 

I joined the Trust in mid 2022, moving from another local charity. I am a qualified accountant with over 30 years’ experience in finance and senior management, across many sectors including health, manufacturing and banking. I have lived most of my life in Norfolk and love the people and the countryside around me. I am also a Trustee at another local charity.