Peter de Iongh, Chairman
Peter has been a resident of Whitekirk since 1992. He is a retired headmaster of Lathallan Prep School. He sat on Dunpender Community Council from 1994 to 2001, and was chairman from 1997 to 2001. He was also secretary of the association of East Lothian community councils from 1997 to 2001.

Bill Alder, Treasurer
Bill is a resident of Whitekirk. He worked for 33 years in banking and now works in investment management. He has extensive financial skills to offer the group.

Kathy Duncan, Secretary
Kathy lives at Lawhead Cottages, 5 minutes from Binning Wood. She works at Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, managing a project to develop a Voluntary Sector portal and working directly with voluntary organizations to improve their use of the Internet. Previously she worked in the environmental field for 10 years, including 6 years as an advisory officer with Scottish Natural Heritage, providing information and advice on coastal management and running events. She has carried out various voluntary work, mainly on environmental projects, plus spent 2 years as a field tutor for school groups in Ireland.

John Hunt
A North Berwick resident, John was formerly Head of Nature Reserves for the RSPB in Scotland and more recently Programme Manager for the Millennium Forest for Scotland initiative which funds 81 projects throughout Scotland concerned with the restoration of native woodlands, many of which are community led. He has considerable experience of project management and the improvement of woodlands for conservation and public access.

Andrew Mitchell LLB
Andrew resides in NorthBerwick and is a partner with Archibald Campbell and Harley WS. He has provided legal advice to Scottish Natural Heritage and several major Housing Associations for over ten years. Brought up in Dalkeith, he was involved in a number of projects through the Youth Club of the local Church of Scotland and a club for disabled children.

John Home Robertson MSP
Local MSP and a former Forestry Minister in Donald Dewar’s administration

Willie McGhee
Director of the Borders Forest Trust, Willie set up his own environmental consultancy after studying Ecology and Forestry at Edinburgh University. He has been heavily involved in similar projects where local communities get together to acquire and manage their own woodlands.

Janet Pooley
Janet is a resident of Whitekirk since 2000. She is a mother of three children and a former university lecturer in Optometrics. She is a member of the Dunpender Community Council.

John Maslen
John lives at Lawhead Cottages, 5 minutes from Binning Wood. He is founder and managing director of a Geographic Information Systems consultancy, Geowise, based in Edinburgh. He has extensive project management experience and continues to work with a large number of government bodies in areas of nature conservation, planning and social and economic development.

Alison Clark
Alison lives in North Berwick and has one child. She is a qualified forester, with experience of native woodland management and conservation. She has volunteered with the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers and local conservation groups, and was involved in the early years of the charity Venture Scotland, working with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. More recently she qualified as a primary teacher, and has worked in special schools.

Carole McLaren
A resident of North Berwick, Carole is a biology teacher at North Berwick High School and is the 5-14 Cluster Co-ordinator. She has used Binning Wood extensively as an educational resource for both primary and secondary pupils, as well as for school recreational activities such as orienteering and for her voluntary work as a Duke of Edinburgh Award Leader. She has also assisted disabled groups in their visits to the wood.

Gilbert Meikle
Gilbert is a councillor on East Lothian Council. He is a retired police inspector and is an Elder in Whitekirk parish church and vice chairman of the Shetland sheep society. He is a past chairman of the Royal National Lifeboat Institute and was a group scout leader in the past. Gilbert has experience of stalking and culling roe deer, and of grey squirrel control.

James Brown CBE for services to forestry
James is the owner/manager of Tyninghame sawmill and has considerable experience of continuous cover forestry systems in Europe.