Photo on Trees for Cities
Photo on David Elliott's Twitter

David Elliott

Chief Executive

Trees for Cities

POSITION

Chief Executive

COMPANY

Trees for Cities

COUNTRY

United Kingdom

SCENE

Environment

SOCIAL

LinkedIn

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

What makes David Elliott a Global Shaker?

David Elliott is Chief Executive of Trees for Cities, the only UK charity dedicated to planting trees in cities on a national and international level. Since 1993, working alongside 80,000 volunteers, the organisation has planted one million trees.

Trees for Cities aims to help revitalise forgotten spaces, create healthier environments and get people excited about eating healthier food. It has numerous revered projects, including edible playgrounds, which transforms school gardens into vibrant teaching gardens; programmes to improve air quality in London; and planting programmes in countries including Peru and Kenya.

“We want to create a ‘bottom up’ movement of urban tree planters and protectors that can pick up the mantel,” he said in an interview with Greenhouse PR. “If we rely just on the ‘top down’ opportunities provided by organisations like ourselves we are always going to be limited in what can be achieved.

“Creating a ‘viral effect’ by inspiring, educating and resourcing a new ‘army’ of tree planters is a big part of our plans.”

Before taking up the role in 2016, Elliott worked at several non profit organisations with international scope. He was Head of Region for Asia, Latin America and Egypt at The Brooke, where he was responsible for a regional budget of approximately £7 million. He had also worked on conflict-focused HALO trust and Action on Armed Violence, and in 2009, founded an international economic and political consultant organisation called Cross Frontiers.

Elliott has also had roles as a Commissioner for the London Sustainable Development Commission, a Trustee for the African Conservation Foundation, and a trustee for the International Tree Foundation.

He graduated with undergraduates degrees in Biological Sciences from Edinburgh University and Politics & International Relations from LSE. He also has an MBA from Cambridge University.

Tags: reforestation, Trees, UK, Urban

Last updated: March 20, 2020