In Aid of
Conservation of the Red Squirrel, National Trust of Scotland
Amount donated: £22,599
As Patron of the National Trust for Scotland, I am delighted to welcome you to the fourth Women of Achievement Luncheon.
The National Trust for Scotland continues to be at the forefront of efforts to preserve and celebrate Scotland’s cultural and national heritage. As Patron, I did just want to pay tribute to this important work which has enriched the lives of so many people over successive years, and I am thrilled that last year’s lunch was so successful in raising vital funds to help the Trust in its mission.
I am particularly pleased that this year’s lunch is supporting the Trust’s work toward the conservation of the red squirrel and its habitat. Red squirrels are one of the most charming and irresistible of British native mammals and are under ceaseless, pernicious attack by the relentless march of the imported greys which do such untold damage to newly-planted, native hardwood trees.
I have been trying to encourage a raft of organisations and individuals to act decisively on this issue and we are now seeing evidence that, with practical action, existing populatios of reds can be stabilised and can even grow and move into new areas. Our red squirrels are facing a battle for survival and I am delighted that the Trust is contribution to the crucial task of grey squirrel control.
This comes with my heartfelt thanks for your continued support of The National Trust for Scotland and my warmest good wishes for an enjoyable and entertaining lunch.
Prince Charles, Patron
Chair
Lady Ross
Susie has been involved with the London Committee of the NTS for many years and lives opposite the NTS property Threave Estate in Dumfries and Galloway. She is married to a former Member of the Royal Household who is current Lord Lieutenant of Kirkcudbrightshire. She is passionate about fields sports, very involved with local charities and advisor to a London based IT company.
"This year we are continuing with our animal theme, because having raised money in aid of the conservation of Puffins, it was brought to our attention that the Red Squirrel population is seriously under threat and we, the committee, agreed that we should use the profits from this year’s lunch to do something about this.
The Trust still has very good populations of Red Squirrels on many of its properties and they provide ideal places for research to be carried out by the various squirrel protection groups."
The money we raise today is going towards the conservation of the national habitat of the Red Squirrel and to the prevention of the relentless march of the Grey Squirrel into Scotland, and its subsequent threat to the Red population.
Our Patron, the Duke of Rothesay, is behind us and already very involved, as you can see from his foreword, with Red Squirrel preservation.
Thank you all so much for coming, we are confident that the National Trust for Scotland is now in good hands and will be able to put its problems behind it and get down to the running of its beautiful properties and estates, it is impossible to imagine Scotland without them.
Sponsors
Speakers
Mary MacLeod MP – Conservative Party Member for Brentford & Isleworth 2010
Mary Macleod was elected as the Member of Parliament for Brentford & Isleworth in West London on 7th May 2010. She served on the Home Affairs Select Committee from May 2010 and stepped down in September 2010 due to her appointment as Parliamentary Private Secretary to RT Nick Herbert, Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice. Mary supports the Treasury and Education ministerial teams and has led a long campaign to increase the number of women in Parliament, most recently setting up the All Party Parliamentary Group Women in Parliament. She has also joined the Parliamentary Armed forces as a Squadron Leader to the RAF.
Mary was previously a senior executive at Anderson Consulting / Accenture and has twenty years’ experience in business consulting, working with large multinationals to help transform their business and develop their leaders. Her most recent roles were with ABN AMRO as Chief of Staff / COO for Group Operations and Group Communications Head of Transition at RBS. Mary has also served as Policy Advisor to the Queen and the Royal Household at Buckingham Palace advising on PR, communications and strategic change within the monarchy.
Mary is a trustee of the Holland Park School Trust and is also on the Advisory Board of Learning for Life. She was previously an Ambassador for Actionaid and has a keen interest in Africa, poverty and international development.
Mary was born in London and lives in her constituency. She enjoys sport, music, art and evening with family and friends.
Viscountess Younger of Leckie – European Women of Achievement Awards for Business 2004
Jennie is Executive Director of Development at King's College London and King's Health Partners (Guys & St. Thomas' Hospital, the Maudsley Hospital and King's College Hospital). She is also Non-Executive Chairman of the Centre for Process Innovation and an Advisory Partner of a private equity firm.
Prior to this Jennie worked for over 30 years in pharmaceuticals (GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca) and in financial and professional services Deutsche Bank, FTI Consulting. BZW and Kleinwort Benson).
She is married to Viscount Younger of Leckie, a Government Minister in the House of Lords, and they have three grown-up children.
Rachel Johnson – Editor, The Lady magazine
Rachel Johnson has been in national newspapers since the age of 23, when, after leaving Oxford, she became the first female graduate trainee at the Financial Times. She spent five years covering the bond markets and the economy for the FT, one of which was on secondment to the Foreign Office’s policy planning staff.
Rachel then moved to the BBC to work as a senior broadcast journalist for the BBC Radio 4 current affairs programme, the World Tonight, before leaving the country to pursue a freelance career – initially as a columnist for the Sunday Telegraph from Washington D.C. and then the Financial Times from Brussels.
For the last 12 years, Rachel has written a weekly column for a number of national newspapers including most recently the Sunday Times and the Evening Standard as well as the Daily Telegraph, and for magazines including Esquire and Conde Nast’s Easy Living.
In September 2009, Rachel became editor of The Lady magazine, England’s longest running magazine for women. In the last year, she has overseen the magazine’s relaunch and redesign, and featured in a Channel 4 Cutting Edge documentary about the magazine, entitled The Lady and the Revamp.
Rachel has also written four books, The Mummy Diaries, Notting Hell and Shire Hell and A Diary of the Lady – charting her first year as editor.
Rachel is married and has three children. She divides her time between her homes in London and Exmoor.