Amy Coyte, Chief Executive

Amy was first introduced to bats by her father when he pointed them out in their garden flying against the night sky and she was instantly and permanently hooked. During her time at school and through environmental voluntary work Amy's interest in wildlife and landscapes grew and she went on to undertake environmental studies for her degree. After graduation Amy began working in the environmental sector and now has over 15 years' experience in wildlife charities and organisations, including three wildlife trusts and the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology.

Watching others experience the ‘wow' factor of bats when they are first introduced to them on a bat walk and seeing how this inspires them to get involved in bat conservation is one of the many reasons why Amy is passionate about the species. Their status as an indicator species makes working for their conservation especially important to her in that when we conserve landscapes for bats we conserve a healthy environment, thereby supporting a wide variety of biodiversity.

Amy first worked for BCT as a Development Officer in the early 1990s when the trust was very much in its infancy. She returned to BCT in 2000 as Chief Executive and has a particular expertise in the development of wildlife charities. In addition to her environmental degree she also has an MBA.

Email Amy

Julia Hanmer,  Deputy Chief Executive

Julia works on developing and raising funds for BCT projects (from government, charitable trusts, lottery and landfill) and staff management, recruitment and development. She has worked at BCT since 1997, on the London Bat Project, then as BCT’s first Chief Executive and Joint Chief Executive with Amy and now works 2.5 days per week, Tuesday-Thursday, balancing life with her family/two children.

Julia has more than 15 years' experience of developing conservation projects and raising money to make them happen! Previously she worked at the Mammal Society, CPRE and ICI. She has an MSc in Conservation from University College London and a Zoology degree from Oxford University.

Julia has been member of BCT since 1990 and is a member of London Bat Group and a past member of Cheshire Bat Group.

Email Julia

Dr Karen Haysom, Director of Conservation

Karen heads the Conservation Team, which includes the National Bat Monitoring Programme team, Biodiversity Officers and Bat Group Officers.  Before joining BCT in January 2006, she studied Zoology and trained as a research ecologist at Durham University.  She subsequently worked in ecological research at the Scottish Agricultural College, CABI Bioscience and Reading University.  Her research has mainly focused on the impact of agricultural management practices on
invertebrate and plant communities, agri-environment scheme policy and invasive non-native species. 

Karen first trained for a bat roost visitor licence when she was a member of Durham Bat Group in 1993 and has been spending her spare time with bats ever since.  She has volunteered as a Natural England bat warden for the Hampshire and Thames & Chilterns NE teams since 2001. Over the years, working around Britain has enabled her to join Essex, Ayrshire, Dumfries, Hampshire and Surrey Bat Groups. Her main involvement is with Berks. & South Bucks. Bat Group which she has chaired since 2003.  She enjoys taking part in BCT's National Bat Monitoring Programme and leading bat walks in Berkshire each summer.  Highlights of life as a bat enthusiast have included watching bats in the Peruvian Amazon, Costa Rica and Hungary and helping to organise "Bats and Trees weekends" and a regular surveying programme in Windsor Great Park. 

Email Karen

National Bat Monitoring Programme (NBMP) Team

Philip Briggs, Monitoring Projects Manager

Philip joined BCT in 2003. He currently co-manages the National Bat Monitoring Programme, with particular focus on the long-running surveys and some of the newer projects. Philip has been involved in the voluntary conservation sector since 1998. He developed an interest in bats through volunteering at one of London's best bat sites, the WWT London Wetland Centre, where he assists with regular bat surveys and leads bat walks and wildlife walks. He is a member of London Bat Group and spends a lot of his spare time exploring London's open spaces to discover which bat species are present. Philip finds this very rewarding as, although London's bat habitat is somewhat fragmented, the region certainly has its fair share of interesting species. In 2007, he co-wrote a paper on trends in London's bat populations which was published in The London Naturalist.

Email Phil

Jules Agate, Monitoring Projects Manager

Jules has been a member of BCT team in one form or another since 1998. She joined as the first helpline officer after completing her M.Phil. in The Environment and Development. Her main area of interest is echolocation, ultrasonic detectors and sound analysis which began during her studies for a BSc. Ecology degree and grew throughout subsequent volunteer work and early NBMP surveys with Dr Colin Catto. She has written and presented courses and workshops for volunteers and professionals for BCT in her previous role as BCT Training Officer, and now co-manages the NBMP.

She is a member of two bat groups and also has a particular liking for newts. As an ex-veterinary nurse she also has an interest in wildlife treatment and rehabilitation.

Email Jules

Helen Miller, Bechstein's Bat Project Officer / Training Officer

Helen joined BCT in 2005 as part of the Bat Helpline team, and now works with the training team and with the NBMP team, where she is responsible for the Bechstein's Bat Project. Helen's interest in bats began whilst studying Zoology at university, following a talk from a local bat expert. She then went on to study for a Masters in Wildlife Biology and Conservation, choosing to research the winter activity of the cape serotine bat (in South Africa).

Helen is a member of Surrey Bat Group and Membership Secretary for Essex Bat Group, through which she has taken part in roost visitor training, NBMP survey projects and local bat group activities.

Email Helen

Bat Helpline 

Kit Stoner, Helpline and Training Manager  

Kit joined BCT in 2002 as Training Development Officer, and has since overseen the development of a number of courses for volunteers, consultants, arborists, planners and the construction industry. She has since moved into the role of Training and Helpline Manager; she continues to have an overview of training and related projects, such as the mitigation conference. In addition, she now manages the Bat Helpline and organises the National Bat Conference.

Kit's interest in bats began when she did a distance learning module in Mammal Ecology and Conservation, and shortly after this, she joined the Cambridge Bat Group and signed up for some NBMP surveys. She was very excited when the opportunity at BCT came up and allowed her to combine her publishing and training experience with her interest in bats.

Email Kit

Amanda Adebisi, Helpline Officer 

Amanda joined the BCT Helpline team in February 2007. She has a first class degree in Animal Behaviour with Ecology and Conservation from Anglia Ruskin University and has a passion for mammal conservation. Her interest in bats developed from a young age,  when she discovered one in her bedroom.  Originally from Grantham in Lincolnshire, Amanda has gained experience in helpline and administrative roles for companies such as 4-Rail Services and Wickes Head Office.

As well as working on the Bat Helpline, Amanda undertakes surveys for the NBMP and takes part in local bat walks.

Email Amanda

Crystal Schintz, Helpline Officer

Crystal  joined the BCT Helpline team in March 2008. She was born and raised in Canada, where she studied Fish & Wildlife at Sir Sandford Fleming School of Natural and Environmental Resources in Lindsay, Ontario. Both her father and grandfather were National Park Wardens, and so Crystal has had a keen interest in wildlife conservation from a very young age. She has done volunteer work at an Animal Sanctuary in NZ and a National Park, Muskellunge Rearing & Reintroduction facility and Humane Society in Canada. After spending a few years travelling around the globe, she is happy to be settled in London, working to protect the UK's bats!

Email Crystal

Jen Pope, Helpline Officer

Jen joined the BCT Helpline team in June 2007, after spending most of her formative years with her head stuck in various ponds and trees. She volunteered at a wildlife hospital for several years before travelling to Madagascar to participate in a marine conservation project and afterwards attended the University of Plymouth, where she gained a BSc in Marine Biology and an MSc in Conservation Biology. She volunteered for a Devon based charity before moving back up country to work for BCT, and is now a member of three local bat groups.

Email Jen

Training  

Kit Stoner, Helpline and Training Manager  

Kit joined BCT in 2002 as Training Development Officer, and has since overseen the development of a number of courses for volunteers, consultants, arborists, planners and the construction industry. She has since moved into the role of Training and Helpline Manager; she continues to have an overview of training and related projects, such as the mitigation conference. In addition, she now manages the Bat Helpline and organises the National Bat Conference.

Kit's interest in bats began when she did a distance learning module in Mammal Ecology and Conservation, and shortly after this, she joined the Cambridge Bat Group and signed up for some NBMP surveys. She was very excited when the opportunity at BCT came up and allowed her to combine her publishing and training experience with her interest in bats.

Email Kit

David Sutton, Training and Events Administrator

David joined the BCT Training team in November 2007.  His interest in the environment developed from many years of enjoying the fresh air of the South Downs.  He has an Honours degree in Conservation and several years voluntary experience around the UK.  David has previously worked for the National Trust, where he developed a keen interest in bats as a result of leading bat walks around the properties during the summer evenings.

Email Dave

Count Bat

Dan Merrett, Count Bat Project Co-ordinator and the Regional Officer for the South and West of England

Dan has a background in bats and project work, having come to BCT from Bath & NE Somerset Council, where he was the council ecologist and previously ran the Batscapes project which engaged the public and landowners in the conservation of horseshoe bats. Dan got his first taste of bat work in 1999 as a ranger in Milton Keynes and went on to work with the Wildlife Trust, where he delivered school bat visits as part of a English Nature funded project. He was involved in the then newly-formed North Bucks Bat Group where he acheived the dubious distinction of being the first person to resign from their committee when he moved west, and now sits on the committee of the Avon Bat Group.

Ed Santry, Count Bat Project Regional Officer for London and the South East

Ed started at BCT in January 2008 as part of the new Count Bat team. Ed joined BCT from London Voluntary Service Council (LVSC), a charity that provides support and advice to voluntary and community groups in London. Ed has experience in community and organisational development, resource management and organising events and training. Before working at LVSC, Ed completed an MSc in Environmental Technology, focusing on ecological management.

Ed has carried out conservation and environmental education voluntary work in Australasia, South America and Europe including caring for and promoting the conservation of Spectacled Flying Foxes in northern Queensland.

Email Ed

Diana Hagues, Count Bat Regional Officer for the North and East of England

Diana joined BCT in January 2008 as part of the new Count Bat team. Diana previously worked for Buglife – the Invertebrate Conservation Trust, where she successfully led their Big Bumblebee Hunt project to raise awareness of bumblebees and their conservation in London and the south east. Diana has a masters in Environmental Sciences, and she has experience in leading and developing community projects, PR, organising events and training delivery. She has previously worked for Trees for Cities in London and the Bedfordshire Rural Communities Charity; engaging and involving local residents in nature conservation in their neighbourhoods.

Diana is also a member of the Cambridgeshire Bat Group and looks forward to learning more about bats in her county. (She is lucky to be able to see pipistrelles just from sitting in her lounge!). She is also an active member of the ecology group at her local Wildlife Trust, where they have a Bat Pathfinder project to map bats on their nature reserves in relation to habitat connectivity.

Email Diana

Bat Groups

Laura Dunne, Bat Group Officer

Laura’s always loved the great outdoors, and regularly volunteered with BCTV whilst completing her BSc. in Ecology (Hons) at Plymouth. She was introduced to the wonderful world of bats whilst working as an Ecologist for RPS.  Through this, she was lucky enough to meet some inspiring bat workers who were happy to share their knowledge and experience in all things batty (though a shared love of the obligatory gadgets definitely played a part!).  After returning to Uni to study her MSc. in Biodiversity and Conservation, Laura joined the Species Team at JNCC, where she worked on the Habitats Directive Article 17 (Favourable Conservation Status) report, before finally joining the BCT family in 2007.

As the Bat Groups Officer, Laura is always looking for new ways to support and champion local bat group efforts. So any queries or requests, please don’t hesitate to give her a call, and chat through your ideas.

Email Laura

Anne Youngman, Scottish Bat Officer

Anne is the Scottish Bat Officer for Bat Conservation Trust. Her interest in bats was first sparked by a talk from Bob Stebbings during her Environmental Science degree. His knowledge of bats and enthusiasm for the subject was so contagious she was hooked. Her work with the Nature Conservancy Council for Scotland and later Scottish Natural Heritage fed this interest further. During this time she was involved in giving bat advice to a range of audiences from householders, planners, developers, countryside rangers and vets.  Anne has been involved in bat conservation for nearly 20 years. She is a licensed bat worker, a bat worker trainer and member of Central Scotland Bat Group.  She happily roost–shared with pipistrelle bats before moving to take her current job. She is based in the attic of Scottish Churches House in Dunblane (when she is not flitting about over other parts of Scotland).

Email Anne

Biodiversity team 

Louise Mapstone, Biodiversity Officer

Louise joined BCT in late 2007 as BCT's new Biodiversity Officer. Louise is responsible for overseeing BCT's work relating to bats and biodiversity. The role has a broad remit and includes responding to numerous government consultations on policies and proposals that could have an impact on bat conservation, lobbying the government on specific issues relating to bat conservation, providing input to the Joint Nature Conservation Comittee (JNCC) on progress and updates on the bat species for which BCT is lead partner for on the UK's Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) and working on various strategic projects that will benefit bat conservation.

Louise is a trained ecologist and has always had an enthusiasm for wildlife! Louise has an honours degree in Biology, an MSc in Environmental Impact Assessment and Auditing and a post graduate qualification in Biological Recording and Species Identification.  Louise is an active member of the Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (IEEM) and is also a Chartered Environmentalist. 

Prior to joining BCT, Louise was an ecological consultant for seven years and undertook numerous bat surveys throughout England. Louise has experience of dealing with a number of protected species and other ecological issues but bats have always been a favourite! Louise continues to be involved in voluntary bat work and in 2004 she obtained her bat licence. Since then Louise has been a voluntary bat worker for Natural England and undertaken surveys under the National Bat Monitoring Programme (NBMP). Louise is a member of the Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire Bat Groups and has recently joined the North Bucks Bat Group.

Email Louise

Dr Carol Williams, Bats and Built Environment Project Officer

Carol joined BCT in January 2007, and aims to take the message of bat conservation to the heart of the building industry. She has been a bat worker for around 20 years and was also fortunate enough to carry out research into the winter ecology of the lesser horseshoe bat for her doctorate. On completion of that period of research, Carol worked for English Nature from their Truro office for the 5 years prior to joining BCT. 

Carol has been a member of the Cornwall Bat Group for 15 years, 10 of these as treasurer.  It is a very active group and on their behalf she gives a number of talks and walks every year and carries out surveys and other projects.  Carol has also been associated with the Isles of Scilly Bat Group since their inception. She carries out hibernation, field transect and colony counts for the NBMP and has done so since 1999. She is stil as thrilled by bats and committed to their conservation as when she first became involved.

Email Carol

Alison Rasey, Investigations Officer

Alison joined BCT in 2000.  Prior to this she worked for a local planning authority, based in the planning policy team.  Having always been interested in natural history, her interest in and concern for bats increased when barn conversions really took off - legally protected species were not being taken into account by developers.  She then joined Surrey Bat Group, and from then on her interest in bats has developed.  She is also a member of Kent Bat Group.  Alison has an environmental sciences degree from London University, and a masters in land use planning from South Bank University.  Whilst at BCT she has held three posts - bat group officer, biodiversity officer and now investigations officer.

Email Alison

Roman Guziak, Pan European Project Officer

Roman has worked in conservation for almost 20 years, since he founded the Polish Society of Wildlife Friends “pro Natura”.Since 1992, he has been involved in building the bat movement in Poland, supporting the creation of bat groups and the National Agreement for Bat Conservation.

Roman was coordinator of the 5th and 6th International White Stork Census in Poland, and was also the author of scientific reports of these censuses. He has developed and run several conservation projects and has also been involved in international cooperation in organisations including the Living Lakes programme, Eurosite, CEEWEB.In 1994, Roman worked as a director of the Polish branch of the Environmental Partnership for Central Europe, a grant-giving, capacity building and training programme for the environmental NGOs.

Email Roman

Communications and Membership team

Jaime Eastham, Communications and Membership Officer

Jaime joined BCT in May 2006. She has a background in journalism and public relations and has written for a wide range of newspapers and magazines in Australia, Hong Kong and the UK. Since moving to the UK from Australia several years ago, Jaime has worked for Jean Lambert, Green Party Member of the European Parliament for London, as well as a charity providing supporting for families of prisoners. Jaime has volunteered as a Member of the Independent Monitoring Board of HMP Brixton in London for several years, and was also a volunteer for the Animal Welfare League in Australia.

She is passionate about conserving wildlife and first developed an interest in bats after watching fruit bats roosting near her Sydney home.

Jaime manages BCT's external communications, membership and sponsorship and is also involved in fundraising. She has a BA Communications, majoring in journalism and politics.

Email Jaime

Steven Lonergan, Communications and Membership Assistant

Steven Lonergan joined BCT in June 2006, assisting Jaime Eastham with membership development and external communications. After previously obtaining a BSc (Hons) in Management Studies specialising in marketing, Steven arrived at BCT after spending five years as an account manager at a leading media agency, working with clients such as Samaritans, before undergoing a brief excursion in the legal clerking sector.

Steven has long possessed a keen interest in wildlife and the natural world, undertaking an Open University course studying mammals, and is relishing the opportunity to channel his skills and energies into raising attention and awareness about bat conservation.

Email Steven

Shirley Thompson MBE, Hon. Education Officer

Shirley’s background is in teaching, first for many years in primary schools, then later in environmental education with the Kent Wildlife Trust and at outdoor field centres. She first became involved in bat conservation in 1983 as a founder member of the Kent Bat Group, when the protection of bats and their roosts was very new.

The lack of any material on bats suitable for children led her in 1987 to set up the Young Batworker’s Club and to produce the Young Batworker, funded by the Bat Group Support Fund. At the inauguration of the Bat Conservation Trust in 1990, the club became BCT’s junior section. Shirley was a Trustee of BCT at that time, and was made Honorary Education Officer, a post she still holds.  She is still editor of The Young Batworker, but is always being keen to promote education in is broadest sense, not as something confined to young people.

She is an active member of the Kent Bat Group, and a licenced roost visitor and trainer. However, she frequently points out that the longer you work with bats, the more your realise how little you know and how much there is still to learn. That’s what makes bat work so exciting!

Email Shirley

Finance/Administration

Rosalind Buckley, Administrator/Bookkeeper

Ros joined BCT in January 2008. After embarking on a 3 month marine conservation project in Madagascar, Ros came back to the UK to gain a Bsc Hons in Marine Biology and has always had an interest in animals and conservation. After seeing a tiny pipistrelle while volunteering for Cheshire Wildlife Trust, she knew that bats and their conservation was important to her and now feels proud to be a member of the BCT team. Ros enjoys having the opportunity to see bats in their natural environment, and also volunteers at various bat events.

Email Ros

Peter Saw, Office Volunteer

Peter Saw has been an office volunteer for almost eight years (initially for two afternoons a week) doing whatever is needed to keep the office running smoothly ranging from mail-outs, to data input and management. He was first interested in these fascinating wild animals as a contrast to his paid employment as a part-time clerk with the Man Group (retail futures). His wife and he are also life members of the BTO and RSPB and members of the Friends of Richmond Park, Friends of Nunhead Cemetery and Friends of Bushy and Home Parks among others.

Email Peter