Our CEOs Miriam Turner and Hugh Knowles

Miriam Turner and Hugh Knowles started in January 2017 at Friends of the Earth, heading up the Innovation Directorate. They built an experiments team from scratch to test new approaches and later integrated the Policy and Insight Unit which leads on Friends of the Earth’s policies and research.

They were appointed as interim CEOs following the departure of Craig Bennett in February 2020.

Following a successful application in Autumn 2020, they became permanent co-CEOs in January 2021. The appointment marked the first time in Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland's history that the position of CEO is filled by a woman.

They both work part time and have young families, so they fulfil the role as a job share – another first for the post.

Prior to joining Friends of the Earth, Hugh was Head of Innovation at Forum for the Future, an independent non-profit working globally with business, government and other organisations to solve sustainability challenges using Futures and Innovation. He has a degree in Zoology and Ecology.

Miriam has an ecology-degree background, MBA and MProf. During her time running collaborative innovation at global sustainability leader Interface Inc, Miriam co-founded Net-Works, an award-winning partnership between Interface and the Zoological Society of London which developed a scalable community-based supply chain for recycling discarded fishing nets into carpets. She is an accredited Partnership Broker and was founding member and now adviser to the League of Intrapreneurs, a global movement of changemakers working to transform organisations from the inside out.

The pair have more than 40 years' experience working on environmental issues.