Vanessa Griffiths

Van is the Deputy Director of Sustainable Business at the Environment Agency. She leads the team responsible for delivering the Agency’s ambition to become a net zero organisation by 2030 and championing a just transition, resource optimisation and environmental net gain.

She was previously chief executive of the Ramblers: a volunteer-led, membership organisation which champions walkers’ rights and active travel and enables people to become healthier and happier through walking in nature.

Prior to this, Van was Assistant Director of National Trust Cymru. The Trust is Europe’s largest conservation charity, supported by over 5 million members. Van was responsible for leading the team caring for the Trust’s coast, countryside and nature holdings across Wales.

Before joining the National Trust, Van was a Director at Groundwork, a charity working locally and nationally to transform lives in the UK’s most disadvantaged communities, through engagement with the natural environment and the creation of green jobs and infrastructure.

She has also been a senior civil servant and held leadership positions at the BBC, Mars UK and Business in the Community, the responsible business charity.

Van is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a business leader of the Marketing Society and a trustee of Mostyn, the foremost contemporary art gallery in Wales. She is married with two teenagers.