New South West Director at Natural England

27 July 2010

Ciaran Gannon is the new South West Regional Director for Natural England. Ciaran’s family roots are in the far west of Ireland where his parents were born. His father came from a medical family and practiced medicine for 30 years after settling in England in the 1950’s, while his mother’s family are from farming stock, with farming concerns continuing in Limerick and Tipperary.

Born and raised in southern England, Ciaran studied at Cirencester before embarking on a career in farm management with roles over a 10 year period on a number of large estates in Shropshire, Hampshire and Kent. These covered a mix of lowland and upland conditions, with intensive, extensive and diversified enterprises.

Ciaran subsequently gained a MSc in Agricultural Economics at Wye College (London University) and joined ADAS as a farm business adviser in 1990. From 1992, Ciaran was also involved in the consultancy work in Eastern Europe via development programmes funded by the British Government, the EU and the World Bank. In 1996 he completed an MBA in the Food Industry and the Rural Sector from Reading University.

In 2000, Ciaran moved to a Policy Adviser post in London for the Farm Rural and Conservation Agency and continued in this role when the Rural Development Service (RDS) was formed in April 2001 at the height of the Foot and Mouth outbreak. He was actively involved in business recovery activities for culled-out farmers in the North West of England during this period.

Over the next few years Ciaran engaged with the farming community across England in addressing impacts of the Curry report, the Sustainable Food and Farming Strategy and CAP reform. This led to becoming Head of the RDS Farm Advice Unit, which amongst other functions managed the Defra funded advice programmes for Farm Business Advice, Catchment Sensitive Farming, Conservation and Cross Compliance.

The RDS became part of Natural England in October 2006, and since then Ciaran has performed a number of roles including two years as Regional Director in the West Midlands and a one year post in external affairs.

Ciaran says; “My farming background and interest in sustainability in all its forms is at the core of my passion to work with the farming community in the south west of England. I look forward to enabling farmers to develop their businesses while enhancing and supporting the extraordinary natural environment that exists in the region.”

Ciaran already has strong South West connections with family across the region from Truro to Bradford-on-Avon. Away from work, Ciaran keeps busy too. He is married and has five daughters, enjoys spending time on his allotment and playing rugby with London Irish Vets, and has interests in France, cooking and fishing.

For more information about Natural England and its work, visit http://www.naturalengland.org.uk