Cristina Romero

Cristina Romero is Senior Programme Manager, Overseas and EU at IUCN’s European Regional Office in Brussels, where she works at the intersection of biodiversity conservation, programme leadership and EU engagement. She is part of IUCN’s Protected, Conserved and Heritage Areas programme, within which she oversees BESTLIFE2030.

She oversees BESTLIFE2030, a major grant-making programme supporting locally led biodiversity action across the EU Overseas, and is responsible for its strategic direction, implementation and partnerships. Her work also includes programme development and resource mobilisation, helping connect lessons from the field with wider conservation priorities, donor interests and opportunities for future investment.

In parallel, Cristina supports the management and strategic development of IUCN’s EU Representative Office in Brussels. She contributes to senior management discussions, advises on collaboration and funding opportunities, supports staff and organisational planning, and represents IUCN with EU institutions, partners and at relevant international and regional forums.

With more than 20 years of experience in international programme management, grant-making, partnership development and stakeholder engagement, Cristina has worked across biodiversity conservation and media development, managing complex multi-partner initiatives and donor-funded programmes. Her academic background is in International Relations and Journalism.

Taras Bains

Taras is a young conservation professional with experience across natural world heritage, conservation communications, environmental education, and protected areas/community-based conservation. He holds an undergraduate and postgraduate degree (focusing on conservation biology and protected area - local community relationships in Uganda) from the University of Oxford. 

Currently, he works within the World Heritage team of the IUCN on the conservation and recognition of some of the world’s most globally significant and amazing natural and mixed sites, and on the promotion and consideration of animal culture in global biodiversity conservation. Aside from this he is England Lead of the UK chapter of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (the official global youth constituency of the Convention on Biological Diversity), which advocates for effective and inclusive youth participation in national and international environmental policy. He is also involved in the Wildlife Trusts movement locally, as a Trustee for Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust. 

Zoe Quiroz Cullen

Zoë is a senior conservation, climate and international policy expert with more than 20 years’ experience working at the intersection of biodiversity conservation, community, climate action, sustainable finance, and international environmental policy. Following two decades working in international conservation, her work now focusses on advancing inclusive, nature-based solutions to the climate crisis in the UK; and UK action and accountability on climate and nature on the global stage.   

Craig Bennett 

Craig is Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts, Honorary Professor of Sustainability and Innovation at Alliance Manchester Business School, an Associate Fellow of Homerton College (Cambridge), and a Fellow of The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. He is also a Commissioner on the UK Government’s Clean Power 2030 Advisory Commission. He was awarded an OBE for services to the environment in the King’s New Year 2026 Honour’s List.

He has been described as “one of the country’s top environmental campaigners”, by The Guardian as “the very model of a modern eco-general” and has also been listed in The Sunday Times Green Power List of the UK’s top 20 environmentalists. Craig was formerly CEO of Friends of the Earth where he led the organisation to numerous campaign victories including on bees, fracking and against airport expansion.

Earlier in his career, Craig was Deputy Director at The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), and Director of The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change (from 2007 to 2010).

Craig has twenty-five years experience of designing and contributing to Executive Education and Leadership programmes at numerous universities and business schools around the world, and of providing advice and constructive challenge direct to CEOs and company boards. He is currently Chair of the Independent Challenge Group for Anglian Water.

He is also a Policy Fellow of The Centre for Science and Policy and a member of the Churchill Sustainability Practitioners Network at The University of Cambridge, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the Hawkwood Centre for Future Thinking, a judge on The Wainwright Book Prize, a Trustee of the think-tank Green Alliance, and an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM). He regularly appears in the print and broadcast media.

He has a BSc (Hons) in Human and Physical Geography from The University of Reading and an MSc in Biodiversity Conservation from University College London, and Honorary Doctoral degrees from University College of Estate Management (UCEM), and Anglian Ruskin University (ARU).