My CPRE farewell speech
Thank you all so much for coming. It’s good to be here with so many of the people I have worked with over the past five years at CPRE and to be joined by partners and colleagues from across the natural environment and the heritage world. I am incredibly lucky to have been able to forge a career in the charitable sector. When I look back to when I started out over 30 years ago (glug) I really had no idea what was possible, where the opportunities might lie. A series of chances, maybe the occasional good judgement and certainly encounters with great mentors and leaders with imagination and empathy have taken me into the mental health, housing, social work, heritage, community development and natural environment sectors just to mention a few, and in the process have given me the chance to do many interesting jobs and to lead several organisations as chief executive and chair. To be able to do that in a values-led, progressive sector and with some of the most hardworking, amazing an