Executive Chair

Acre is delighted to be partnering with Greensphere Capital to identify and appoint an Executive Chair to Kew REACH (Restoration, Enhancement, Adaptation and Creation of Habitats), a first of its kind advisory firm, created in 2023 as a joint venture between Greensphere Capital’s Gaia Sciences Innovation (GSI) and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew).

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Kew REACH’s mission is to be the world’s pre-eminent, science-led, high-trust, habitat consulting firm, powered by RBG Kew’s unparalleled scientific reputation, integrity and expertise. Acre has been appointed to seek its inaugural Executive Chair, charged with leading, communicating, collaborating and delivering an unsurpassed team and to use this extraordinary opportunity to grow the company to deliver significant value to the world.

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Position Overview

As Executive Chair, you will play a pivotal role in leading Kew REACH towards achieving its mission. Working alongside the Board, Shareholders and CEO, you will be responsible for providing vision, gravitas, thought leadership, fostering innovation and ensuring the organisation's growth in the global market of trusted advice to owners of FLAG assets and conservation landscapes.

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Responsibilities

• Values: Greensphere and RBG Kew are values-first organisations. The success of Kew REACH will ultimately depend on long-term “mission lock” and maintaining a high level of integrity as this will be what sets the company apart from its competitors. You must be able to demonstrate exceptional standards, morals, corporate, social and personal responsibility.
  
  Further, these values must be maintained at all levels throughout the whole organisation. You should therefore have a track record of values-driven leadership, embodying a commitment to integrity and transparency. This includes fostering a workplace culture that values diversity, equity, and inclusion.

• Leadership: You will need to have led a significant research organisation or comparable NBS organisation. You will have a long track record of visible leadership of other values-driven organisations and will be recognisable to the scientists at Kew, and other scientists in the area. You will be charismatic, credible, reliable, accessible with the self-awareness to understand others’ perception of their level of self-interest. Working with the CEO and Board, you will play a significant role in setting the values, strategy and vision for the business to achieve transformative progress for the good of the planet.

• Communication & Thought Leadership: You will have a history of strong communication, advocacy, policy thought leadership and engagement at the highest levels of policy, business, academia and NGOs in the nature-based solutions, conservation and nature-based science sector(s). Ideally, you will also have strong name recognition among Kew scientists and other GSI scientists, and would be respected by the science community.

• Strategy & Vision: You must be able to demonstrate evidence of setting the vision and large ambition of a brand like Kew REACH. Working in close collaboration with the CEO, you will be able to define, create the conditions for the delivery of and challenge changes in strategy, always balancing the commercial decisions against risks being taken, and always with a view to creating shareholder value.

• Stakeholder Engagement: You will be able to actively engage with diverse stakeholders at the most senior levels, including clients, governments, NGOs and research institutes, to build partnerships and enhance the organisation's impact. You should have experience in particular of navigating public sector stakeholders at the highest and mid levels.

• Scientific Integrity: You will uphold and advance Kew REACH's commitment to genuine scientific credentials, ensuring all outputs are Kew Science-approved. You will need to have experience in the science of nature – climate, carbon, biodiversity, NBS, Eco-System Services (ESS) – and help guide the CEO as they oversee the provision of a full stack of advisory-to-delivery services, encompassing assessment, high-resolution measurement, AI analytics, capability-building, restoration, enhancement and creation of habitats planning, delivery and monitoring. You will need deep expertise in NBS technology with a strong background in botany, ecology, mycology, biodiversity, etc. Ideally, at least academically-trained in science to post-Degree-level.

• Technology & Data Ethics: A fundamental element of Kew REACH’s offering will be its ability to generate AI-powered insights (and therefore IP) from an unprecedented network of multi-spectral sensors. You will need to be attuned to the possibility of encouraging scientists to work with technology to automate diagnostics and solution sets, and to ensure Kew REACH is well-networked at the highest level with major commercial and governmental stakeholders (e.g. Alan Turing Institute, Centre for Data Ethics) as well as on the front foot in ensuring that Kew REACH is always ahead of the curve on the ethical use of data that it controls, shares and flows through its systems.

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With an unmatched depth of scientific data and research capability, Kew REACH is poised to make a significant impact at the intersection of business and environmental responsibility; finding an exceptional leader will be fundamental to achieving this mission.

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Application Process

Interested candidates are invited to submit their CV and a cover letter detailing their values alignment, suitability and vision for the role. Applications should be sent to Acre’s Alex Westacott: alex.westacott@acre.com.​