Nature’s Valley Trust (NVT), Dr Mark Brown has decided to resign
After seven and a half years of sterling leadership of Nature’s Valley Trust (NVT), Dr Mark Brown, the Director, has decided to resign with a view to pursuing other career interests and spending more time with his family.
Mark has agreed to stay on until the end of May ’20, during which time we will start the recruitment process for a new Director. During this period Mark will delegate his duties and responsibilities to his team members, and we are very fortunate to have a strong, capable team to steer the organisation through this transition. Julie Carlisle, Lindy van Hasselt and other Trustees will provide the team with additional support as needed.
The Trustees would like to acknowledge the extraordinary contribution Mark made to the operations, effectiveness, stature and standing of the NVT. During his seven years as Director, Mark made a very significant contribution to developing the NVT and has played a pivotal role in creating a network of partners and stakeholders to address pressing environmental issues in the greater Garden Route area. Mark and the NVT team have inspired thousands of children through our environmental education programmes, forged good working relationships with neighbouring communities and mentored and supported many honours and post-grad students, interns and volunteers. In addition, several important research papers have been published and the conservation careers of former and current NVT staff have been launched. Annual funding levels have grown significantly, and the number of donors and project supporters increased substantially. Mark has been an asset not only in terms of conservation and research but also to Nature’s Valley community, through the holiday programmes, his willingness and openness to share his love of the natural world and the mutual support structures he has forged with the NVRA.
We will host a farewell event for Mark in due course and details will be communicated closer to the time.
The process to identify and recruit a suitable replacement Director needs to begin but we anticipate that this may take 3-6 months to finalise.
On behalf of the Trustees of Nature’s Valley Trust
25 February 2020
All enquiries in this regard should be addressed to the Chairman of Nature’s Valley Trust, Chris van Melle Kamp, at info@future-purpose.com or call him on 083 604 2757.