Our team

Dr Ruth Nussbaum

Ruth has been working with certification and sustainable management of natural resources for nearly two decades. Her experience includes running a global forest certification programme, advising governments, industry and NGOs on responsible natural resource management, developing international and national standards and writing a range of guides and books. She has worked in more than 40 countries and has vast experience of developing, interpreting and implementing policies and processes for delivering sustainable management and independent verification of natural resources.

Ruth is a co-founder and director of Proforest.

Neil Judd

Neil has spent the last eighteen years working with environmental certification and responsible management of natural resources.  He has extensive experience of delivering practical solutions to sustainability requirements, specialising in audit and certification, supply chain control and best management practices, in an extremely wide range of tropical and temperate settings. His experience has included management of the largest global forest certification programme, and a leading role in the development of sustainable oil palm.

Neil is a co-founder and director of Proforest.

Abraham Baffoe

Abraham has over 14 years of experience working on natural resource management with a specialisation in sustainable forest management, certification and forest policy. His experience involves managing community forestry projects, developing and implementing forest certification programmes and providing support to forest standard setting and policy implementation. As the Forest Programme Leader at the WWF West Africa Forest Office, he coordinated several forestry projects including providing technical support to the FLEGT/VPA process. He has also provided training and technical support to companies on forest certification for the Global Forest and Trade Network.

Abraham is an Associate Director at Proforest.

Jose Castro Negrete

Jose has a background in mechanical engineering, renewable energy and carbon markets. Over the last 11 years Jose has gained experience in a wide range of environmental projects worldwide. After six years of experience in education, networking, advocacy, environmental planning and renewable energy sectors in Mexico he moved to England to study a MSc in Environmental Technology at Imperial College London.

In 2005, Jose joined EcoSecurities where he implemented CDM projects on several technologies (biomass, geothermal, energy efficiency, chemical industry) and countries (South East Asia, China, Mexico and Central America), and developed business models to lock-in new carbon reduction opportunities. Jose has considerable experience in organizational development, supporting the development of effective and integrated management systems and systematizing knowledge and information sharing across organizations.

Jose joined Proforest in 2011 as Operations Manager.

Dawn Robinson

Dawn has a background in rural development, and natural resource management. She has extensive experience in developing and implementing certification and accreditation systems, including forest certification, and global multi-stakeholder initiatives working with soy, cotton, sugarcane and oil palm. She has considerable field experience in participatory research and development projects in Latin America where she lived and worked for over 10 years. Her experience includes projects working with participatory land-use planning, community forestry, forest certification, NTFP harvesting, advocacy and information networks and participatory monitoring and evaluation.

Dawn is an Associate Director at Proforest. She is fluent in Spanish. 

Dr Christopher Stewart

Chris is an Associate Director of Proforest, with a background in biology, forest ecology and tropical plant physiology. His experience includes extensive periods of ecological field research and project work, mainly in the tropics. Since joining Proforest in 2006, he has worked on conservation and sustainable crop production projects, especially the development, interpretation and application of conservation frameworks within natural product standards. Since March ’09, he has been managing the High Conservation Value Resource Network full-time.

Previously, he spent several years in the biopharma and food industries developing high-value crops such as medicinal plants and oils. He also worked for the UK Government, directing the UK Technology Programme’s support for Environmental Technologies, including policy development and funding for technological innovation.

Isaac Abban-Mensah

Isaac is a forester specializing in the socio-economics of tropical forestry. He has diverse work and research experience in forest ecology and social forestry particularly in his home country, Ghana. His experience ranges from coordinating community forest plantation development projects and assisting on ecological research in the tropical high forests of West Africa. Isaac has recently completed a master’s degree at the University of Copenhagen where his dissertation evaluated government interventions for forest plantation development in Ghana.

Isaac joined Proforest in 2010 as a Project Manager and his work focuses on forest governance in Africa.

Ellen Brown

Ellen has a background in environmental anthropology, conservation and community based natural resource management. Ellen lived and worked for more than six years in tropical forests and farming villages in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Togo and Tanzania prior to joining Proforest. Her professional experience includes biodiversity conservation, forest governance and land use planning. She holds master’s degrees in environmental management and anthropology from Yale University and University College London. She has conducted research on indigenous hunting practices in DRC and participatory forest management and REDD+ in Tanzania. Ellen speaks English, French and Swahili.

Ellen is a Project Manager at Proforest and her work focuses on certification schemes, REDD+ and conservation and land use planning.

Bilge Daldeniz

Bilge Daldeniz is the Programme Manager of the Sustainability Initiative Support Programme and joined Proforest after four years with the Centre for Tourism in Islands and Coastal Areas (CENTICA, Kent Business School), where her research concentrated on tourism in South East Asia and Latin America. Bilge’s background is in tourism in developing countries, with a particular focus on the industry’s socio-economic and environmental impacts on local communities and their adaptation strategies to crisis and climate change. She has substantial knowledge of tourism certification. Previously, Bilge spent six years as researcher and consultant leading large multi-country projects at an international research consultancy firm, and has extensive experience in the wider field of international development, including earthquake relief work in Turkey, education projects in Senegal, and study semesters in Togo and Mexico.

Bilge holds a BA in Politics and an MRes in Environment and Development from Lancaster University and speaks English, French, Spanish and German.

Isabella Freire Vitali

Isabella has a wide experience in corporate engagement, policy analysis, project design and management and strategic planning in both Brazil and the UK. Most recently she led WWF UK’s Livestock and Soy Programme engaging with a range of companies in the supply chain to use market forces to reduce the impacts of these sectors on natural habitats. Prior to that she worked with Conservation International in Brazil focusing on corporate engagement and establishment of partnerships to achieve biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. She also monitored and analysed development plans and international development programmes and their impacts. She has experience with certification processes, multistakeholder initiatives, agribusiness, infrastructure, energy, and mining.

Isabella holds a BA in International Relations from the University of Brasilia and an MPhil in Environmental Policy from the University of Cambridge. Isabella joined Proforest in 2011 and is based in Brazil. She speaks English, Portuguese, Spanish and Hungarian.

Perpetua George

Nilofer Ghaffar

Nilofer is a zoologist, specialising in the behavioural ecology of primates. She spent three years living and working in tropical forests in Southeast Asia, which has given her a broad overview of the ecology of tropical forests and the adaptive responses of their inhabitants. Nilofer also has experience of teaching in British universities, including University College London.

Her current role at Proforest is coordinating the High Conservation Value (HCV) Resource Network, which involves promoting the HCV concept and ensuring a consistent approach is applied worldwide. Nilofer is of Pakistani origin and is fluent in Hindi and Urdu.

Ilan Kruglianskas

Ilan is an agronomist and since 1995, has had extensive experience working with NGOs and the private sector in human development, conflict management and organizational change in Brazil. He has also worked as a consultant on strategic socio-environmental management and has a Master's degree in Environment Science from the University of São Paulo.

Ilan worked in WWF-Brasil for several years dealing with conservation issues and the expansion of agriculture commodities, such as soy, sugar cane and cattle ranching.

Ilan is Brazilian and speaks fluent English, Spanish and Portuguese. He is a Proforest Associate.

Joyce Lam

Joyce Lam has wide experience in supply chain management, implementation of responsible timber purchasing policies for both private and public sectors. For example, she was involved in the evaluation of Danish procurement guideline in 2005, and the review of Belgian timber procurement policy in 2008. Joyce has also worked extensively in assessing forest certification schemes for different clients. Joyce has carried out baseline audits for timber product manufacturers in China and her native Hong Kong, and provides ongoing support on improving their timber sourcing.

Joyce joined Proforest in 2004 after finishing her MSc with distinction in Forest Ecology and Management in Edinburgh University. Previously, she worked in Forest and Trade Network in WWF Hong Kong generating the demand for certified forest products. Joyce speaks fluent English, Cantonese and Mandarin.

Simon Levy

Simon has extensive international experience of forest certification, gained over the last eleven years. This expertise has been gained as an auditor, a manager of certified woodlands and a producer of certified wood products.

His work also covers practical forestry and research both in the UK and abroad and includes projects for both public and private forestry and environmental organisations.

Simon is a Proforest Associate.

Erin Logan

Erin has experience in a range of environmental fields, including ecological assessment, environmental aspects of chemical risk assessment and environmental exposure assessment. Most recently she has been working with multi-stakeholder groups to map and understand the supply and value chains of their chemicals. She has a BSc (Hons.) in Geography and Biology and an MSc in Conservation Ecology.

Erin is a Project Manager and works on biofuels and responsible sourcing for agricultural commodity supply chains.

Jenny Lopez

Jenny has experience with engaging a wide range of stakeholders in environmental issues and policy, including working with a variety of NGOs on environmental justice, law and empowerment. More recently she worked with the UNEP Finance Initiative on building stronger relationships between the private sector and policy makers to address climate change, with a focus on the financing of REDD+ projects. Jenny has a Masters in international studies and diplomacy from SOAS in London, and has previously studied psychology and law. Jenny is half Mexican and fluent in Spanish.

Jenny joined the Proforest team in the summer of 2011 as a Project Manager.

Rhiannon Murgatroyd

Rhiannon has a background in teaching English as a foreign language and editing.  She also has a Masters in Environmentalism and Society and has researched the history of the recent land crisis in Zimbabwe and its impact on the culture and traditions of the Shona people.  Rhiannon joined Proforest in April 2008 and is currently part of the CPET team. Her role involves, amongst others, organising the regular CPET workshops and editing and updating the CPET website and newsletters.  She also works as an in-house copy editor for Proforest.

Rhiannon has lived and worked in a number of countries including Spain, Turkey, the United States and Zimbabwe.

Sofie Tind Nielsen

Sofie Tind Nielsen has background in biology, sustainable land use and natural resource management and has worked in developing countries assessing the effects of deforestation through ecological impact surveys and biodiversity analysis. She has professional expertise and experience with the process of developing public procurement policies for timber and an extensive knowledge of forest standards and certification. She is responsible for coordinating and managing the Central Point of Expertise on Timber (CPET) which supports the implementation of the UK Government’s policy on legal and sustainable timber procurement.

Andry Rakotovololona

Andry has wide experience in forestry and conservation projects. Her work has ranged from strategy development to practical fieldwork in Madagascar as well as in France. She also has extensive experience as production and quality managers for a range of timber companies in Europe. 

Andry is currently the Training and Quality Manager at Proforest, coordinating training and maintaining the quality management system. She also works in supply chain management with private sector clients on the implementation of responsible purchasing policies. As a native speaker of French, Andry is leading the Proforest francophone projects. She is a French and Madagascar national.

Pavithra Ramani

Pavithra has experience in economics, biodiversity conservation, oil palm and greenhouse gases. She has worked in many countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia, US and the UK with various NGOs, government agencies and consulting companies in the areas of biodiversity conservation, climate change management, and oil palm management. She holds a MSc from the Oxford University Centre for the Environment, where her dissertation focused on the feasibility of sustainable oil palm production amongst smallholders in Aceh, Indonesia.

Pavithra joined Proforest in 2009 as a Project Manager, and works closely with agricultural commodities, particularly oil palm. Pavithra is of Indian origin and can speak Bahasa Indonesia and Tamil.

Mooi-See Tor

Mooi-See is a trained forester specializing in tropical forests management, wildlife management and forest policy. She has worked in South East Asia, East Asia and Europe for more than 10 years. Her experience includes forest management and supply chain (CoC) auditing and support, policy advocacy, standard development, legality verification, HCVF and community forestry analysis. She has worked for both NGOs and consultancies in implementing forestry standards such as FSC and PEFC/MTCS.

Mooi-See joined Proforest in mid 2011 and is based in the Kuala Lumpur office, working in the forestry and agricultural commodities sectors. Mooi-See is Malaysian and speaks fluent English, Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin, Cantonese and Bahasa Indonesia.

Anni Vuohelainen

Anni has a background in ecology, conservation management and forest governance. She has experience working in ecological research and forest conservation in the UK and Latin America. She has lived and worked in various countries in Latin America including Brazil, Mexico, Costa Rica and Peru. She has a BSc in Ecology and she recently completed an MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management at the University of Oxford. As a part of this degree, she carried out research on the effectiveness of protected areas in preventing deforestation in the Peruvian Amazon.

In Proforest, her work focuses on biofuels and agricultural commodities. Anni is Finnish and speaks Finnish, Spanish, Portuguese and French.

Our support team

Shereen Dulau

Shereen is the office administrator in our South East Asia regional office. She has a degree in Business Administration and has worked in various roles in the IT and banking sector.

Shereen is fluent in English, Bahasa Melayu, Mandarin and Cantonese. She is Sabahan.

Janka Folkova

Janka works at Proforest as the Office Administrator and her role is to support technical office staff and manage Proforest administration. She is also responsible for making travel arrangements for the project managers and supporting the Communications Manager. She has six years of experience in administration for both private and public sectors, and has recently completed a BA marketing management degree.

Janka speaks Slovak, as well as fluent English and Czech.

Fern Lee

Fern is a graphic designer and has an MA in communication design. She is part of the Proforest communications team, where she is responsible for designing and formatting reports and publications. Fern is Malaysian.

Junia Monteiro

Junia joined Proforest in 2008 as the Office Administrator. She has a background in leisure management but at Proforest her role is to help run the office as well as ensure all the project managers get to the right place and on time. She is also responsible for ensuring our office reduces its carbon footprint as much as possible.

Junia is Brazilian and speaks fluent English and Portuguese.

Hannelie Watkins

Hannelie is a Chartered Accountant and has a background in financial accounting. She has experience in various sectors, including charitable, NHS, treasury management and manufacturing.

Hannelie is Proforest’s Finance Manager.

Raymond van de Wiel

Raymond is a philologist and has a background in journalism and copywriting. He also has experience with public relations management and policy development in the non-profit sector.

Raymond is Proforest’s communications manager. He is Dutch.

Pamela Willoughby

Pam has been with Proforest since it started in 2000. As Proforest has grown she has done many jobs but is currently the accounts administrator, dealing with our financial administration, invoicing and payments.