Rewilding Europe is delighted to welcome three highly experienced and talented new team members at the start of 2018. Keith Tuffley joins the Rewilding Europe Circle, Timon Rutten starts as the new head of enterprise, and Susan Wright takes up a role as our multimedia producer.
Keith Tuffley
Based in the Swiss city of Lausanne, Keith joins the Rewilding Europe Circle. Keith has spent more than 25 years in finance, investment banking and the capital markets. He has advised major corporations and governments globally on corporate strategy, mergers and acquisition transactions, equity capital raisings, valuations and privatisations. Working for Goldman Sachs, he served as managing director, head of investment banking and a member of the management committee and board in Australia, and as head of the industrials sector group for Europe, the Middle East and Africa in London. From 2015 to 2017 he was managing partner and CEO of global non-profit initiative The B Team.
Keith is also a director of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, a director of Bush Heritage Australia, a governor of WWF Australia, a member of the corporate advisory board of We Mean Business, and a member of the corporate advisory panel of the World Forum for Natural Capital.
Keith’s personal interests include a wide range of adventure activities and sports, many of which are pursued to promote environmental causes. In his Grand Tours Project 2013, he became the first amateur to cycle every kilometre of the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España on the same day as each race, all in one season. As a keen mountaineer he has climbed most of the 4,000-metre peaks in the European Alps, and he has led numerous expeditions across the world. In 2016-17 Keith skied the final 1.5 degrees to the North Pole, and then skied and cycled 620 kilometres on a new route from the Antarctic Coast to the South Pole.
As a highly skilled new member of the Rewilding Europe Circle, Keith will focus on supporting Rewilding Europe’s enterprise component. With Keith’s appointment the Rewilding Europe Circle now boasts 12 members from 11 countries.
“As an innovative and impactful organisation with a model that can be scaled throughout the world, Rewilding Europe provides a positive vision for us all,” says Keith. “It will be an honour for me to serve as a Circle member.”
View Keith Tuffley’s full biography here.
Timon Rutten
Timon joins Rewilding Europe as the new head of enterprise. He has studied at the Technical University Eindhoven and Nyenrode Business University in the Netherlands, and at Cornell University Ithaca in New York. From 2003 to 2008 he worked as an associate at strategy consulting firm McKinsey & Company, focusing on large transformation programmes, mergers and acquisitions and operational excellence for both financial service and industrial corporations.
In 2006 Timon took a sabbatical year, working as a consultant for the African Parks Network in the Majete National Park in Malawi, where he helped to set up commercial park management systems. From 2009 onwards he switched to become founder, owner and investor in a number of companies, such as one of the largest bike retail companies in the Netherlands. He has now become a serial entrepreneur, founding and investing in several small start-up companies.
Timon’s extensive, hands-on, strategic experience in setting up and running companies make him an excellent choice to lead Rewilding Europe’s enterprise team. He will head up all strategic planning, organisation and implementation of enterprise work within the initiative, both at central and local level. He will also play a role in corporate fundraising, attracting investment, supporting ICT and helping to build the organisation.
“Rewilding Europe is making Europe a wilder place by helping strong and innovative nature-based enterprises to grow right across the continent,” says Timon. “I am looking forward to collaborating with entrepreneurs, corporations, investors, governments and municipalities as we now take this work forward and scale it up.”
View Timon Rutten’s full biography here.
Susan Wright
Based in Scotland, Susan is a writer and content producer with 20 years of experience in journalism, film and communications. She began her career in magazine production before moving on to film and television via Screen Academy Scotland, producing drama, documentary and promotional films.
Susan has a great passion for the outdoors, gaining understanding of rewilding and biodiversity issues as head of communications for the John Muir Trust, a Scottish wild land charity. She then went on to manage the launch communications for Rewilding Britain. She will work for Rewilding Europe on a major multimedia project focused on our rewilding work across the continent.
“I’m thrilled to be on board with Rewilding Europe,’ says Susan. “I love the dedication and passion of everyone involved, the level of knowledge in the organisation, and the hands-on work that’s taking place. Rewilding is our best hope for the future and it will be a privilege to help bring the rewilding story to a big, worldwide audience over the coming year.”
View Susan Wright’s full biography here.