The Society has no paid staff and is managed by its volunteer trustees, elected for terms of five years by members at the Annual General Meeting. Council usually meets three times each year. Minutes of AGMs, Council meetings and Annual Accounts are vaulted in our archive once they have been approved.  For full details of how Council works, see the Constitution.

President

Iolo Williams was elected President in 2009, succeeding David Saunders OBE. Iolo is a well known radio and tv presenter, who has done much to raise the profile of birds and nature conservation to the Welsh public on the BBC and S4C, and through the Welsh language bird guide, Llyfr Adar. He has studied upland birds, especially birds of prey, for three decades and co-authored the landmark book Birds in Wales, which reviewed all the birds that have ever occurred in the country.

Chair (email)

Mick Green has been a WOS trustee since 2008 and was elected Chair in 2015 (term ends in 2020). He is an independent ecologist based in north Ceredigion. He has special expertise in uplands and waders, including innovative projects using radio and satellite tracking. He works mainly in Wales, but also on projects in the Middle East and Africa. Mick has also worked on policy development and research for several national NGOs and is a policy advisor to Whale and Dolphin Conservation. He is a trustee of the Welsh Kite Trust and Rewilding Britain.

Vice chair and Editor (email)

Julian Hughes has been a WOS trustee since 2008 (term ends in 2019). He is Editor of the Welsh Bird Report and is currently Head of Public Affairs for RSPB Cymru, having previously been site manager of RSPB Conwy nature reserve. He regularly appears in the regional media, writes a weekly birdwatching column in The Daily Post and leads on WOS press releases.

Secretary (email)

Ian Spence has been secretary of WOS since 2007. His term ended in 2016 but with no-one willing to take the role, Ian was co-opted by Council for a further year and was re-elected as a Trustee for a further term at the AGM in 2017 (ends in 2022). He is county bird recorder for Denbighshire and Flintshire, chairing the Clwyd Bird Recording Group. Ian is a keen ringer and a director of Cofnod, the biological records centre for North Wales and was one of the authors of The Breeding Birds of North Wales (2013). 

Treasurer (email)

Steve Sutcliffe was was elected as Treasurer in 2016 (term ends in 2021). He has lived in Pembrokeshire for most of his life and has a particular interest in seabirds. He organised the last Seabird Census in Pembrokeshire, is a former Warden of Skomer NNR, Secretary of the BTO and Board Member of the Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, and currently sits on their Islands Advisory Committee. Following a management career in industry, Steve has helped to establish an ecology consultancy and has spearheaded the restoration work on Skokholm leading to its re-opening and re-establishment as an accredited Bird Observatory.

Membership Secretary (email)

Alison Noble was co-opted as a Trustee in 2018 and elected at the AGM that year (term end in 2023)  taking over the role of membership secretary from Alan Williams. Born and brought up in Wales, she first became involved with the world of birds when she joined the staff of the RSPB at The Lodge.  After raising a family, she worked as Head of Administrations at Sussex Wildlife Trust and later as a grants manager at Brighton & Hove City Council.  When her husband, Keith (WOS Trustee) retired they moved to Wales and she became Volunteer Membership Secretary for Brecknock Wildlife Trust for some years before concentrating on her other interest of local history.

Anne Brenchley was co-opted as a WOS Trustee in 2019 having served on Council previously. She began birdwatching in Kent at the age of five and studied Zoology at Aberdeen University, completing a PhD on the breeding and feeding ecology of the Rook in the UK. She joined the Nature Conservancy Council in 1985, working in East Anglia, Dorset and Aberdeen, continuing with English Nature in Suffolk until 1999 when she moved to live in Wales.  Anne is the BTO Regional Representative for Clwyd East and served on the BTO’s Ringing Committee, Regional Network Committee and BTO Council (2005-2008). Anne took voluntary redundancy from Natural England in May 2011 and now leads local birdwatching trips in West Cheshire and NE Wales and is one of the authors of The Breedng Birds of North Wales (2013).

Heather Crump has been a WOS trustee since 2017 (term ends in 2022). She has a PhD from Aberystwyth University, relating to the decline of Golden Plovers in Wales, utilising geographical information systems (GIS) and remote sensing. She has also completed a post-doctorate with the Spatial Modelling Laboratory at Aberystwyth University. Heather is a trustee of the Ecology Matters Trust and works for Natural Resources Wales.

Richard Facey has been a WOS trustee since 2011 (term ends in 2019). He is Conservation Officer with Natural Resources Wales and an active member of Cardiff Bird Ringers. Within WOS, Richard takes the lead on our work for younger birdwatchers, administering the Derek Moore Student Research Award and the Young Conservationists’ Bursary. Contact email.

Bob Haycock has been a WOS trustee since 2011 (term ends in 2019). Retired as warden for CCW’s Stackpole and Corsydd Llangloffan NNRs, he is the BTO representative for Pembrokeshire and, with his wife Annie, regularly leads bird identification courses for the Field Studies Council in Pembrokeshire and seabird monitoring courses in conjunction with Pembrokeshire College and University of South Wales. Bob is currently chairman of the Pembrokeshire Bird Group and is also a director of West Wales Biodiversity Information Centre. He was one of the organisers and co-authors of the Pembrokeshire Breeding Bird Atlas 2003-07, and played a leading role in monitoring the impacts of the 1996 Sea Empress oil spill.

Keith Noble was elected as a trustee in 2015 (term ends in 2020). He moved to Brecon in 2007 after retiring from the RSPB where he worked for 30 years in South-east England. He regularly contributes sightings and photographs to Brecknockbirds blog and the Breconshire Bird Report; he is a member of its Records Committee. He was a trustee of Council of Brecknock Wildlife Trust for six years, including a term as Chairman, is Dragonfly Recorder for VC42 Breconshire and a Director of the local record centre, the Biodiversity Information Service for Powys and Brecon Beacons National Park. Keith helps to organise our annual Conference.

Carlton Parry was re-elected at the 2017 AGM (term ends 2022), having served on Council previously. Growing up on the Welsh border, much of his early birding was in Radnorshire (mid Powys) where he has lived since 1985. A long-time member of the BTO he is currently their Regional Representative for Radnor. He is also a keen ringer and active member of the Llangorse Ringing Group. Carlton maintains the events area of our website.

Giles Pepler (email)
Giles was elected as a Trustee in 2015 (terms ends 2020). A BTO member for more than 50 years, he has served on the Ringing & Migration Committee and BTO Council, leading ringing research expeditions in France and Iberia, studying European migration patterns in Acrocephalus and other warblers. He moved to north east Wales in early 2012 and is Secretary of the Clwyd Bird Recording Group. A keen ringer, Giles leads our work with affiliated bird clubs and manages the website.

Rhion Pritchard has been a trustee since 2015 (term ends in 2020). He is the county recorder for Caernarfonshire, was editor of the Cambrian Bird Report from 1996 to 2008, and was Editor of the Welsh Bird Report from 2009 to 2015. Rhion has authored two county avifaunas: Birds of Meirionnydd (2012), and Birds of Caernarfonshire (2017). He was also one of the editors of The Breeding Birds of North Wales (2013).

Danielle Rouse
Danielle was co-opted on to the Council in 2017 and elected as a Trustee at the 2018 AGM (term ends in 2023). Dan has a passion for wildfowl and spends a majority of her time on the Burry Inlet, where she surveys the geese flocks through the winters. She has worked at WWT Llanelli, and is also BTO Assistant Regional Rep for Carmarthenshire. A native Welsh speaker, she can regularly be found on Radio Cymru talking about ornithology and wildfowl. She manages the WOS e-newsletter, the WOS Twitter feed and Facebook page.

BTO Cymru representative
Kelvin Jones attends WOS Council meetings as Development Officer for the BTO in Wales, and has been a major player on the Welsh birding scene for some years, as police Wildlife Crime officer and ringer. He is also a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio Cymru.

RSPB Cymru representative
Neil Lambert attends WOS Council meetings on behalf of RSPB Cymru. Neil started his RSPB career on the Mawddach in the early 1990s and took part in bird surveys across Meirionnydd. He then spent the next 20 years working on reserves in eastern and central England with a particular focus on wetland management, restoration and creation spending 10 years as the first site manager of Otmoor nature reserve in England. Neil returned to live near the Mawddach in 2014 taking on responsibility for the RSPB’s reserve network in Mid-Wales including Ynys-hir, Lake Vyrnwy and the Gwenffrwrd-Dinas. He is currently Head of Conservation Management with responsibility for all RSPB Cymru landscape scale species and habitat conservation delivery.