Environment Bank Welcomes Jonathan Halford as New Chair and James Moore as CFO

Environment Bank is proud to announce the appointment of Jonathan Halford as our new Chair. Alongside Jonathan, we are also pleased to welcome James Moore to our leadership team as Chief Financial Officer.

Jonathan Halford

Jonathan brings a wealth of leadership experience to Environment Bank having held a number of senior board positions in high growth businesses. This includes successfully chairing eleven organisations across a variety of sectors such as recycling, retail and technology. 

On his new role, Jonathan commented: 'I’m very excited to be Chair of Environment Bank. BNG is an extremely important policy for nature, for business, and for people. This is a leading BNG company, which already has a fantastic position in the market and is working with many great developer clients to help them meet their obligations and gain planning. It has a highly talented team of experts and I look forward to working with them on the next stage of growth.'

James Moore

James brings extensive experience in finance, operations, and commercial development to his role as CFO. His previous position was CEO of the sustainable consumer goods brand, Bambino Mio.

James shared with us some words of enthusiasm for his new role: 'I am very much looking forward to joining the Environment Bank team and driving the business forward to accelerate nature recovery in England and beyond.'

Catherine Spitzer

These appointments come on the heels of Catherine Spitzer's recent arrival as CEO who commented: 'We have plans to announce further senior hires in the coming months as our business continues to grow. Our leadership team is well-positioned to drive our mission forward.'

The right time to step down

Our founder, Professor David Hill CBE, is stepping down as Chair after years of hard work.

David reflected on his journey: “With the company having achieved so much, now feels like the right time for me to transition away from being Chair and to support the business in a part-time advisory role giving me time to pursue other interests. I’m extremely proud of what Environment Bank has achieved. I believe that BNG has helped to make nature economically visible, creating a framework for environmental markets generally, and leveraging much needed finance into nature recovery.” 

David founded Environment Bank in 2006 and successfully lobbied for BNG policy to be mandated into law through the passing of the Environment Act 2021. The policy, which came into effect in February 2024, requires developers in England to account for any habitats impacted by their building work, replace any that have been lost, and create an additional 10% gain in biodiversity overall.

CEO Catherine Spitzer celebrated the new members of our leadership team and acknowledged David's valued contributions: “We warmly welcome Jonathan and James who have the right experience to take Environment Bank to the next level as we grow and help our clients deliver their BNG requirements in a smooth and professional way.

I also want to thank David for his more than eighteen years of hard work and dedication. His commitment to restoring ecosystems through effective policy change has been instrumental, so we’re thrilled to say that David will still provide advisory input to the company going forward.'

We have already established 25 Habitat Banks across England, with more than 6,000 acres of habitat creation under development in partnership with local landowners and farmers. This extensive network of Habitat Banks generates the high integrity Biodiversity Units developers need to meet their BNG requirements.'

'We are thrilled to welcome the newest members of our leadership team and we're delighted to continue to provide quality nature restoration projects that are so vital to England's critical ecosystem recovery.'