The Executive Committee

	Committee Member - Andy Tipping Trees & Woodlands Manager at London Borough of Barnet. Began working with trees in early 1987, six months before the great storm and following a short arborist career, has been working in Local government since 1995. He is a Chartered Arboriculturist with ICF and qualifications include Professional Diploma in Arboriculture (Level 6). Has contributed to LTOA publications including Risk Limitation Strategy and CAVAT. Has worked on BS 8545, Joint Mitigation Protocol and was one of the principal authors of National Tree Safety Group: Common Sense Risk Management of Trees. Executive member of LTOA and past chairman, his main interests are regarding urban trees especially with regard to defending unjustified removal demands in subsidence cases.
	Committee Member - Colleen O'Sullivan Colleen is a Senior Tree Officer at London Borough of Camden, where she has worked since 2011. Colleen has been and a member of the LTOA executive committee since 2014. She has a BA in Humanities, an MSc in Urban Forestry & Arboriculture and a Graduate Certificate in Agroforestry. She is an ISA Certified Arborist Municipal Specialist, ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualified and a member of the ISA Credentialing Council. She is also trustee for Fund4Trees and a member of the Urban & Community Forestry Society.

	Committee Member - Oliver Stutter An indigenous Londoner (Balham) working for Southwark Council since 1999, latterly as an arboricultural services manager and now as a senior planner in urban forestry. Previous experience in Bolivia, Cameroon and the Solomon Islands studying forest ecology and working as a forestry extensionist and consultant. MSc Forestry and its Relation to Land use, BSc Tropical Environmental Science, HND Conservation Management, professional member of the Arboricultural Association and Chartered Environmentalist.
	Committee Member - Barbara Milne Barbara is Head of Arboricultural Services at Westminster City Council and has worked for Westminster since 2002. She has more than 25 years experience as an arboriculturist and has a BSc honours degree in ecology, the RFS professional diploma in arboriculture, is a chartered town planner and is a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute. She has been a member of the LTOA for most of her career and has been an elected member of the Executive Committee since 2010. During her time as an LTOA member she has been an active contributor to many working parties, publications and initiatives on behalf of the LTOA, in particular in relation to canopy cover, tree policy, tree preservation legislation, planning and development. She served as LTOA chair from 2018-2020.
	Chair - Dale Mortimer Dale Mortimer has been the Tree Service Manager for the London Borough of Ealing since 2011. He has a Higher National Diploma in Arboriculture and a BSc in Social and Community Forestry. After graduating Dale spent five years on the tools as a climbing arborist before becoming an Arboricultural Officer with the London Borough of Wandsworth. He has been an active member of the LTOA for 12 years participating in working parties including PR, Massaria, OPM, Bio-Security and Contract Procurement. He wrote Ealing’s first Tree Strategy in 2013 and in 2016 tendered the Councils arboricultural contract in a rather creative eleven Lot package; which sought to encourage more interest from small businesses.
	Committee Member - Liam Hutton Liam is the Senior Arboricultural Officer for London Borough of Wandsworth, where he started during Covid. He has previously worked for various tree contractors, including servicing many London boroughs’ contracts and a year in New Zealand. He has a Level 4 Diploma from Merrist Wood.
	Committee Member (Honorary) - Al Smith He started his arboricultural career in 1974 working in Greenwich Royal Park in the tree gang, mainly involved in the control of Dutch Elm Disease. He joined the then the Greater London Council as arborist team leader in 1975, before starting work at Camden Council in 1981 as Tree Foreman, he was subsequently promoted to Arboricultural manager in the late 1980s. A post which he held for nearly 30 years. He has been a co-opted Executive Committee member for many years assisting with financial management, business planning, assisting in the organisation of European field trips, coordinating the LTOA’s national forum for tree officer groups/forums. He retired from Camden Council in 2018, and is now a Honorary Executive Committee member, and continues to be very much involved in the committee. In more recent years he has become a professional member of the Institute of Chartered Foresters, and an Assessor for the organisation’s Professional Management Examination. He is also a member of the National Tree Officers Conference Steering Group.
	Committee Member - Craig Ruddick Craig is the Arboricultural Manager at the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, where he has worked since 2001. Craig began life at Richmond under a two-week temporary contract as an admin assistant, however he soon gained an interest in Arboriculture and was then employed as the Council’s Arboricultural Support Officer. He went on to study at Merrist Wood gaining the AA Technicians Certificate and then worked in various roles including Tree Inspector, Surveyor for early Oak Processionary Moth outbreaks and Richmond’s Arboricultural Planning & Policy Officer before becoming Section Manager in 2012. An immediate challenge was to steer the section through a period of efficiency; Craig has focussed on raising the profile of the Arboricultural Secion at Richmond, this has involved developing positive working relationships with multiple stakeholders including many council services, community groups and societies. He is responsible for the management of the Oak Processionary Moth (OPM) in Richmond and uses his experience to represent the LTOA at the OPM Strategic Advisory Group, which is a forum for external comment on Government Policy and management of OPM. A particular area of focus for Craig is the role that trees play in adapting to a changing climate and that this is communicated to London’s population in such a way to ensure that trees and tree officers are seen as essential components of Council services.
	Vice Chair - Jessica Stocks I am currently employed as an arboricultural officer by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council, having previously worked in the same role in Wandsworth since 2018. Through these organisations I have been a member of the LTOA for two years. In 2018 I joined the LTOA Diversity and Inclusion Working Party, contributing to the effort to increasing awareness of the tree officer role and encouraging applicants from varied sectors of society. In addition to presenting the work of the D&I working party at the 2019 National Tree Officers Conference, I have written articles about our work in the AA magazine and ICF magazine, given talks on arboriculture at local schools and facilitated tree walks with local community groups. I also helped organise the February 2020 LTOA seminar in Wandsworth. As someone with additional experience in the humanities sector and local politics, I hope to contribute to the LTOA executive committee’s work on supporting the LTOA in achieving its aim of promoting, supporting and enhancing the urban forest and those who manage it, through its six objectives. As coordinator for a local political party, I can offer my experience with organisation and public speaking. I have a positive, motivated attitude with a passion for community engagement and I am committed to using my skills to benefit the arboriculture industry.
	Committee Member - Grayham Tindal Grayham has spent over ten years working and managing assets within London, designing and influencing public realm programmes and providing arboriculture & landscape technical expertise. He is qualified and knowledgeable but also down-to-earth, a skilled communicator and has a strong team ethos. He is a dedicated member of my industry and have been involved with various LTOA working parties over the years. He has been employed at Transport for London for just under five years. During this time the role has evolved into the Senior Arboriculture & Landscape Specialist, but the purpose remains the same. To provide arboriculture and landscape expertise to ensure whole-lifecycle advice and solutions to ensure cost-effective, safe, compliant and fit-for-purpose solutions for TFL’s Green Infrastructure assets. Prior to TFL he spent six years working with the Tree Team at Islington as a Tree Officer undertaking the duties many of you are all so familiar with. He looks back fondly at many of the team’s accomplishments and among the many other duties it was a pleasure to be responsible for the borough’s tree planting operations for so long.
	Committee Member - Jon Ryan Jon Ryan is the Arboricultural Manager at the London Borough of Islington. He has been involved with arboriculture for over thirty years, starting as a tree surgery contractor and manager for twenty years before becoming a tree officer in 2008 when he joined Camden Council. He became a planning tree officer at Islington Council in 2009 and then the arboricultural manager in 2017 where he manages the public realm, planning and income generation tree service. Jon has been actively involved in the LTOA since 2010 and was the chair for the planning working party, helping to produce guidance on tree related planning conditions and presenting the conditions to the National Tree Officers Conference in 2017. Jon first joined the executive committee in 2018.
	Co opted Committee member - Greg Packman Greg Packman is Senior Tree Inspector at the London Borough of Islington, having worked in arboriculture since 2009. Previously working in conservation, gardening and tree surgery before The Royal Parks from 2015-19. He has the Foundation Degree in Arboriculture and currently studying the L6 Diploma in Arboriculture. Greg is currently a co-opted member of the Executive Committee, chairing the Massaria working group and project lead for the Ceratocystis survey with the Forestry Commission. Greg has represented the LTOA at various meetings, including London Tree Partnership meetings as well as producing LTOA guidance such as the Ceratocystis guidance document. He also presents at various conferences and seminars as well as being involved with organisations such as the Ancient Tree Forum as chair of the London group, steering group member of the Urban Tree Festival, and involved with the London National Park City, as well as regular public tree walks.
	Co-opted Committee member - Dave Houghton David started his career in trees in 2006 at the London Borough of Camden as an Assistant Arboricultural Support Officer and worked his way up to become a Tree Manager in 2019. He has a number of academic qualifications including a degree in Biology, Level 6 diploma in Arboriculture and an ILM Level 4 certificate in Leadership & Management to name a few. In addition to his academic achievements, he also sits on the London Forestry & Woodland Advisory Committee and the Urban Forestry & Woodland Advisory Committee for England, which provide advice to the Forestry Commission on a range of tree and woodland issues. As part of the LTOA Canopy Cover Working Party he helped measure canopy cover for London. These experiences have led him to develop a holistic approach to tree and woodland management.
	Executive Officer - Becky Porter She has been in the role since 1999. She has an MA in Conservation Policy, Post Graduate Diploma in Environmental Education, Advanced Certificate in Public Relations from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.