The National Forest Company (NFC) is delighted to announce the appointment of John Everitt as its new Chief Executive.

John is currently Chief Executive of the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust (NWT) and will join the team at NFC in January 2015.

He holds a BSc (Hons) in Zoology from the University of Nottingham and an MSc in Conservation Biology from the University of Kent. John began his career in 1989 as Researcher at Nottingham Trent University. In 1996 he joined the Wildlife Trusts as Conservation Manager and progressed to Director of Conservation in 2000 before assuming his current role in 2008.

Catherine Graham-Harrison, NFC Chair, welcomed the appointment. She said: “I am delighted that John Everitt will be joining us as our new Chief Executive.  He will bring a wealth of highly relevant knowledge and experience to the company. He is absolutely the right person to lead the team over the coming years in the development and implementation of our 2014 – 24 strategy, launched in June with local and national support, which I am sure John will build on.”

John said: “It is a privilege to be joining the National Forest Company as its new Chief Executive and I’m looking forward immensely to helping steer the next decade in The National Forest’s development.”

The current Chief Executive, Sophie Churchill OBE, leaves the company at Christmas. Sophie said: “I am thrilled to be passing on the reins to John. I know that his success at NWT will be replicated at NFC and he will enjoy this unique role as much as I have.”