Helen Browning Takes External Affairs Role At National Trust

The National Trust has appointed Helen Browning as its Director of External Affairs.

Helen, an organic farmer on 1,350 tenanted acres in Wiltshire, joins the Trust from the Soil Association where she was most recently Policy Advisor.

She will take charge of the Trusts external affairs remit, helping ensure that the Trusts work is rooted in the wider needs of society and is actively contributing to debates on issues ranging from heritage protection to CAP reform.

Helen replaces Tony Burton who left the Trust in June 2009 to head up the Civic Societies Initiative.

We are thrilled that someone of Helens calibre is to join our senior team, said Fiona Reynolds, Director General of the National Trust.

Helen brings with her an enormous wealth of experience and has shown tremendous strength and leadership throughout her career.

The Trust is about bringing people and places together and Helen will play a vital role as we look to work ever more closely with our local communities.

Helen will start her new role at the National Trust in mid March 2010.

HELEN BROWNING OBE tenant farms a 1,350 acre organic livestock and arable farm in Wiltshire.  She is the founder of Eastbrook Farms Organic Meat and the Helen Browning brand of pork products sold in major retailers.  Helen chaired the England Animal Health & Welfare Implementation Group throughout its life (2005-2009) and is currently chair of the Food Ethics Council, Policy Advisor at the Soil Association and a director of the Organic Milk Suppliers Co-operative (OMSCO).  She was a member of the Agriculture & Environment Biotechnology Commission (AEBC), the Government Panel on Sustainable Development and the Meat & Livestock Commission until it was wound-up in March 2008.  She has worked with many other food, farming and environmental organisations over the last twenty years, and was a member of the Governments Policy Commission on the Future of Farming & Food (the Curry Commission). She was awarded an OBE in 1998 for services to organic farming and is a fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society (FrAgs).

She said: The opportunity to work with the Trust is very exciting for me, partly because I will have a great deal to learn about heritage issues, but mainly because the Trust is so involved in helping people enjoy and appreciate our land, history and food.

This has been my lifes passion and focus, and this role provides a way to help the Trust have even greater impact in this vital endeavour.