Two new Directors join the Heart of England Forest team
We are delighted to welcome Ian Nutt and Nick Simms into key roles to aid the charity’s commitment to creating a vast array of habitats to enable animals, plants, and people to thrive.
Ian Nutt - Director of Fundraising and Engagement
Ian joins the Heart of England Forest with senior-level experience across the food, farming, and environmental charity sectors. He brings a strong track record in income generation, strategic development, and audience engagement, with particular expertise in developing innovative fundraising models and building high-impact partnerships.
At Oxfordshire Mind, Ian restructured the fundraising team and successfully launched the charity’s first Individual Giving programme. At Earth Trust, he led critical workstreams through the pandemic and redesigned the Outdoor Education programme to ensure long-term financial resilience. During his time at the Soil Association, Ian secured more than £7 million in income, developed major corporate partnerships, and helped expand the national profile of the Food for Life programme.
He also brings extensive experience in stakeholder engagement, public speaking, and media representation, contributing to national and regional platforms including BBC Countryfile and COP26.
Nick Simms - Director of Land Use Policy and Planning
Nick brings over 20 years’ experience delivering impactful programmes across land, water, heritage, and people. He joins the Heart of England Forest from the National Trust, where he worked as a Senior National Consultant and Senior Project Manager.
Bringing together nature recovery, delivery-led estate management and planning, land-use change and national-scale strategic influence, Nick has led work across large and complex landholdings and nationally important landscapes, spanning regenerative agriculture, woodland creation, habitat creation and restoration, heritage protection, visitor enterprise and public access.
Nick has led complex capital programmes and overseen multi-million-pound investment, securing significant external funding. He has worked closely with statutory agencies, regulators, local authorities, NGOs, landholders and the private sector to deliver landscape-scale recovery, with a focus on long-term environmental recovery and enduring public benefit.
