Senior Management Team

Lindsay Cornish, Chief Executive

Lindsay joined the Authority after a long and distinguished Civil Service career, first in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and then in Defra, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, latterly as Head of Defra's Waste Strategy Division. Lindsay has worked mainly on countryside issues, including the Environment and Rural White Papers and introducing the England Rural Development Programme.

Steve Trotter, Director of Conservation, Recreation and Sustainable Development

Steve has worked in countryside conservation for more than 20 years. He joins the Authority from the National Trust, where he managed their activities across 34,000 acres of the High Peak and Longshaw Estates in the Peak District. This is an area of moorland, woodland and hill farms, including places like Kinder Scout and Bleaklow, with high nature conservation, historic and archaeological interest. The estates are extremely popular with the visiting public and much of Steve's activities to date have involved working to achieve sustainable and integrated solutions for conservation and a wide range of land-use issues, in partnership with the full range of national park stakeholders.

Barry Holland, Director of Corporate Services

Barry originally trained and then worked both as a Civil and Structural Engineer for around 20 years. He has a long history of operating within a local authority context.
Prior to joining New Forest National Park Authority, Barry worked in the London Borough of Merton where his focus on business and performance management and passion for improving customer service played an important role in enabling social services to move from Special Measures status to a two star rating.

Martin O'Neill, Director of Information and Visitor Services

Martin has worked in communications, marketing and journalism for more than 20 years. Before joining the New Forest National Park Authority he was Head of Communications for the charity Samaritans. Previously he was Marketing & Communications Manager for the National Trust in two regions of the south-east. Earlier he worked in press and public relations for West Sussex County Council and as a journalist on local newspapers in Nottingham. Martin's interests include books, photography, walking and Derby County Football Club.

John Ward, Director of Strategy and Planning

John is on a two-year secondment from New Forest District Council where he is Head of Policy, Design and Information.  He has worked as a senior planner for the District Council for more than 15 years, during which time he was responsible for the independent team which supported the New Forest Committee.  He also has wide experience in planning with other local authorities including Huntingdonshire, Sunderland and Essex.

Steve Avery, Head of Development Control

Steve joined the National Park Authority from New Forest District Council’s development control section where he worked as a principal planning officer for eight years.  He has also worked for other local planning authorities in Essex and Cornwall.