Craig Bennett

Craig Bennett stands outside with grass and trees behind him. He is wearing his Wildlife Trusts jacket.

Areas of Interest

Charity, Environment and Agriculture

Honorary Award

Honorary Doctor of Science



Citation

Vice Chancellor, it is my pleasure to read the citation for Craig Bennett for the award of Honorary Doctor of Science.

Craig Bennett is Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts, having joined in April last year with the bold ambition of putting a third of the UK’s land and sea into nature recovery by 2030.

Born in Essex and now living in Cambridge, Craig has a BSc (Hons) in Human and Physical Geography from The University of Reading and an MSc in Biodiversity Conservation from University College London.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and has been described as one of the country’s top environmental campaigners, and by The Guardian as ‘the very model of a modern eco-general’. He was also recently listed as one of the UK’s top social media CEOs.

Prior to his role at The Wildlife Trusts, Craig was Chief Executive of Friends of the Earth for five years, following five years as Director of Policy and Campaigns.

Under Craig's leadership, Friends of the Earth led the fight against fracking and the decline of the bee population, as well as campaigning for clean air.

Prior to his time at Friends of the Earth, Craig was Deputy Director at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and Director of the Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change.

He maintains his links with the University of Cambridge, as a Policy Fellow at the university’s Centre for Science and Policy, and as a Senior Associate at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.

Craig has supported ARU’s Global Sustainability Institute by speaking on panel sessions and at events such as our annual Ruskin Lecture in 2019, and offering informal advice to the Director, Professor Aled Jones. He is also Chair of the Sustainability and Resilience customer challenge panel for the Anglian Water region.

Craig’s work strikes a powerful chord with our University’s core value of environmental responsibility and, at what is a critical time for nature’s recovery, Craig will be a truly inspirational role model for all our students, especially those on our Animal and Environmental Sciences and Sustainability courses.

Vice Chancellor, it is my pleasure to present Craig Bennett for the award of Honorary Doctor of Science.

Photo credit: Rachel Bradshaw Cheshire WT