Management and Administration

Arlin Rickard
Trust Director (CEO), Association of Rivers Trusts

Email: arlin@associationofriverstrusts.org.uk

Profile
A versatile director and project leader with wide-ranging experience of agriculture, land use, ecology, fisheries & wildlife, the charitable sector and community relations. Arlin has spent many years working closely with community groups including, farmers, land managers and riparian owners and developing new project initiatives adopting the Ecosystem Approach. He is a media relations, training and communications specialist, with numerous personal appearances on prime-time national and local radio and television stations. In recent years Arlin has developed and worked on a number of European partnership projects covering a range of issues including climate change, river restoration, the EU Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC, fisheries, agriculture and the development of the “third sector” through championing the community based Rivers Trust Movement. 

Experience with Rivers Trusts
He was the Director of Westcountry Rivers Trust and a director of its trading subsidiary, Westcountry Rivers Limited for 10 years from the Trust’s launch in 1994 until 2004 with overall responsibility for the Trust's activities. As well as being responsible for the development of Westcountry Rivers Trust, he has been instrumental in establishing the Association of Rivers Trusts, initially as an unincorporated association of the regional rivers trusts in England and Wales and then in 2004 as a company limited by guarantee as the umbrella body of the Rivers Trust Movement.

Other Experience

2002 - Director of Association of Rivers Trusts
1994 - 2004 - Director, Westcountry Rivers Trust
1994 – 2004 - Company Director of Westcountry Rivers Limited (Tamar Consulting)
1984 -1994 - Regional Director, Media Relations and Wildlife Advisory roles - Countryside & Conservation Organisations
Arlin was an active commoner on Bodmin Moor in Cornwall for 17 years where he worked to develop new bio-diversity based grazing management regimes.

Specialist skills

• Proven leadership, fundraising and management skills
• Public relations and media expertise
• Ecosystem Approach - linking human & social, environment and the economy
• Sustainable river basin management
• Grassland ecology and agri-environment policy issues
• Broad knowledge and experience of countryside issues
• Negotiation and mediation

Academic Qualifications
1973 - 1976 National & Advanced National Certificate – Agriculture & Grassland Ecology

Professional Portfolio

• Member Defra Water Framework Directive National Stakeholders Group – current
• Member Defra Catchment Sensitive Farming National Stakeholders Group - current
• Member Salmon & Trout Association, Environment & Technical Committee - current 
• Former Member of the IUCN (The World Conservation Union) Commission on Ecosystem Management

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Alistair Maltby - BSc (Hons) MSc CEnv FIFM
Director - North

E: alistair@associationofriverstrusts.org.uk

Profile
Alistair was formerly Director of the Eden Rivers Trust in Cumbria before transferring to Association of Rivers Trusts in 2006. He is a biologist with particular experience in river restoration and is passionate about the protection of water quality and resources and the management of water in the UK . He is also experienced at putting together project funding applications with specific knowledge of the Single Regeneration Budget, Heritage Lottery Fund, Landfill Tax, Sustainability Funds, the England Rural Development Programme, Regional Development Agency funding and the EU Interreg programmes.

His principal role within the Trust is to:

• Support new and established Rivers Trusts in the North of England
• Develop project funding bids
• Develop the Association’s Technical Working Group
• Provide advice and support to the Director on technical matters

Alistair developed the Eden Rivers Trust from a one-man outfit carrying out simple habitat improvement works into a professional organisation delivering a wide range of research, community and river restoration projects. He is therefore ideally placed to help others avoid some of the pitfalls and to understand the technical tools needed to achieve cost effective and scientifically sound environmental improvements.

Previous experience
Alistair’s professional interest in fisheries management began with his MSc dissertation which was titled “The effect of catch and release on stress levels in brown trout, salmo trutta L.”. During this period he also worked in the aquaculture industry, farming trout for the table.

After graduating he worked for an international water company, Generale des Eaux, on a pilot project to develop environmental dossiers for different water industry operational sites. With a growing interest in river restoration, Alistair joined a very young Westcountry Rivers Trust in the early days of the Tamar 2000 project. This groundbreaking catchment-scale project aimed to deliver river restoration outcomes by identifying economic savings from environmental improvements with farmers.

Nearing the end of Tamar 2000, Alistair became a Fish Health Inspector for CEFAS. This warranted role gave Alistair a very important insight into statutory matters and considerable experience of fish disease.

In 2000 Alistair moved back into the charitable sector as a project manager for Thames21. This was a diverse and challenging role, delivering river and canal environment improvements worth over £1.2M in an urban setting and prided valuable preparation for the development of the Eden Rivers Trust.

Specialist skills

• Urban and community based river restoration projects
• Catchment and local scale environmental and fishery restoration projects
• Fish and shellfish health and disease
• Aquaculture and mariculture
• Project funding, monitoring and reporting
• Litter in water

Academic and Professional qualifications
2008 - Fellow of the Institute of Fisheries Management
2005 - Chartered Environmentalist for the new Society of the Environment
2001 - Registered member of the Institute of Fisheries Management
1998 - Licentiate member of the Institute of Fisheries Management
1997 - MSc Aquaculture, University of Stirling
1996 - BSc Physiology, University of Leeds

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Archie Ruggles-Brise - BSc (Hons)
Director - South East

E: archie@associationofriverstrusts.org.uk

Profile
Archie was formerly Project Manager of the Tyne Rivers Trust in Northumberland before coming to work for the Association of Rivers Trusts in 2008. He is a biologist with particular experience in community engagement and is passionate about the protection of river catchments, water quality, recreation and water resources in the UK. He is experienced in project planning and putting together project funding applications with specific knowledge of the UK grant-making Trust sector, Big Lottery and EU Interreg programmes.
His principal role within the Trust is to:

• Support new and established Rivers Trusts in the South and East of England
• Develop project funding bids
• Represent the Trust in policy fora
• Support the Trust’s information dissemination activities including events

Archie was the first employee at the Tyne Rivers Trust, developing it from a group of volunteer Trustees with a good idea into a professional organisation capable of delivering a wide range of research, community and river restoration projects. Whilst he was there they raised almost £1m and employed and additional 3 staff. He is therefore ideally placed to help others avoid some of the pitfalls of setting up Trusts and to understand the tools needed to achieve high levels of community engagement that help lead to cost effective and scientifically sound environmental improvements.

Previous experience
Archie’s professional interest in water began with his role as a Technical Advisor to a water company in the North East of England. His personal interest in the environment stems from growing up in the Essex countryside where he was carrying out water tests in local rivers since his early teens. In the last 10 years he has worked in the agrochemical industry and water industry before settling in the rivers trust movement. He also runs a small still-water carp fishery in Essex.
After graduating from Newcastle University Archie worked for one of the UK’s highest performing water companies, Northumbrian Water Ltd, on numerous projects designed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of water and sewerage treatment, distribution and catchment management.
Since then Archie has worked exclusively in the charitable sector for the Tyne Rivers Trust giving him important hands-on experience of all aspects of Rivers Trust work, from office management to planning and delivering projects at all scales.

Specialist skills

• Development of a strategic approach to support rivers trust work and fundraising
• Community based river restoration and volunteering projects
• Community Engagement
• Network development
• Small-scale funding sources
• Project funding, monitoring and reporting
• Trust office management and administration

Academic and Professional qualifications
2003 – BSc (Hons) Applied Biology, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
2003 – Graduate Member Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management
2003 – Associate Member Institute of Water Officers
2006 – Member North East Regional Fisheries, Ecology and Recreation Advisory Committee

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Alan Hawken - BSc (Hons), FCIS
Trust Secretary, Association of Rivers Trusts

E: alan@associationofriverstrusts.org.uk
T: 01726 822 343

Profile
Alan is an experienced chartered secretary, with expertise across a range of organisations from a public listed company to many private companies limited by shares and by guarantee, a trade association and charities.  His academic background is in geography, with particular emphasis on geomorphology and fluvial processes.  He has a lifetime’s interest in salmon and sea trout angling in Cornwall, and a practical understanding of the issues facing the river catchments in the Westcountry.

Previous experience
He was a founder member, trustee and honorary secretary of Westcountry Rivers Trust (“Westcountry”) from its inception in 1994 until 1999.  He became executive secretary of Westcountry in 2003, before moving across to become Secretary of Association of Rivers Trusts in 2004.

Prior to 2002, Alan spent nearly 30 years working within the former English China Clays (“ECC”) Group.  In the earlier years he was involved in Information Science and Economic Forecasting. He then studied as a chartered secretary and transferred to the ECC Group Secretariat in 1984, becoming Company Secretary of ECC International Ltd, the principal operating subsidiary, in 1986.

With the re-location of ECC to Reading in 1991, Alan remained in Cornwall and took over responsibility for local legal and insurance matters, as well as helping out at various times as Secretary of the China Clay Association, Wheal Martyn China Clay Museum Ltd and Restormel Local Enterprise Trust.  Following the take-over of ECC in 1999 by Imerys, the French group, ECC’s Reading office was closed and all UK secretariat and legal matters were transferred back to Cornwall under his control.  With integration virtually complete, there was a timely opportunity to join up with Arlin Rickard at Westcountry; an opportunity that Alan seized.

Specialist skills

• Commercial and general employment law
• Company law
• Compliance issues
• Insurance and litigation matters
• Risk management
• Secretariat systems

Academic and professional qualifications
1991 - Elected Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (Associate 1984)
1970- 1973 - BSc (Hons) Geography, Bedford College, University of London