The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has appointed one new Trustee to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and reappointed four.

Fay Cooke has been newly appointed, her three-year term commenced on 1 March this year. Cooke is the current chief impact and financial officer at Yeo Valley Production Ltd, she has a PhD in Zoology and is also a trustee of the Woodland Trust.

Judith Batchelor, director of corporate responsibility and public affairs at J Sainsbury plc, will serve a further three years as a Kew trustee. She is a non-executive board member of the Environment Agency, chair of the Innovation Working Group for the Food and Drink Sector Council and an Ambassador for the Woodland Trust.

Professor Christopher Gilligan is currently a director of research at the University of Cambridge, his term commenced on 8 March 2024, and will serve a further four years.

He has chaired a number of bodies, including the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, the Science Advisory Council for Defra and the UK Tree Health and Plant Security Taskforce. His reappointment will run in parallel to his continued research programmes into epidemiological modelling to manage disease of staple crops and the natural environment.

Sir Paul Nurse is a geneticist and cell biologist. He is currently chief executive and director of the Francis Clark Institute, his reappointment to Kew will continue for a further four years. He received a knighthood in 1999, the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2001, the Legion d’Honneur in 2002, and the Order of the Rising Sun in 2018.

David Richardson, director of horticulture at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, is a chartered fellow of the Chartered Institute of Horticulture and is its current president. His reappointment will last a further three years.

The current RBG Kew Board of Trustees is now made up of: Dame Amelia Fawcett, Steve Almond, Judith Batchelar, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Professor Christopher Gilligan, Sir Paul Nurse, David Richardson, John Scanlon, Kate Priestman, Professor Ian Graham and Fay Cooke.