Jane Stephenson

Non-executive Director

Profile

Jane has over 30 years’ experience working at a senior level in resource management, from senior roles at Avon Friends of the Earth developing practical recycling projects in the 1980s to being a founder member and Chair of the charity Waste Watch. She then developed community led approaches to waste reduction with The Recycling Consortium from the 1990s, through to the development and leadership of Resource Futures as CEO from 2006 to 2016.

In April 2016 she handed over the CEO position to Sam Reeve, the company’s former Operations Director, to take up a new position as Business Development Director in line with the company’s strategic and succession planning.

In April 2019 she left this position to become Chair of the Board of Directors, a role which she held until April 2024, when she handed over to Kate Martin Bruintjes. She remains a non-executive director.

Expertise

Jane has been responsible for developing and leading on a range of initiatives including waste reduction strategies and plans, local authority-wide community engagement campaigns and cross sector partnerships. She is a Non-Executive Director of Bristol Green Capital Partnership CIC, the organisation that is taking forward the legacy from Bristol’s tenure of European Green Capital 2015. With over 900 members, BGCP brings together public, private and civic society organisations to support and develop cross sector sustainability work across Bristol. Jane is a passionate believer in the roles of social enterprise and cross-sector collaborative approaches in making the world more sustainable.

She brings significant experience of operating at Board level and has sat on the Board of a number of organisations during her long career, including: Avon Friends of the Earth Ltd; SOFA Project (furniture reuse); Waste Watch; SevernNet (local network of businesses and community organisations on Severnside).

Current Directorships include Resource Futures Ltd (Chair from 2019) and Bath & West Community Energy, a community benefit society (Chair from 2016). Both these roles involve working with a mix of Executive and Non-Executive Directors and multiple stakeholders on strategic planning and monitoring of progress against key targets.

Jane is also Clerk of the Quaker Trust for the West Wiltshire and East Somerset area.