Meet the expert minds that will help you to achieve your environmental aims. We take a look inside NatureMetrics at the people who make our DNA-based innovations possible.
NatureMetrics has brought together a team of specialists from leading scientists to global operations experts and project managers – every one a champion of DNA-based biodiversity monitoring that enhances the protection and growth of natural capital.
Executive Team & Board
Katie Critchlow - Chief Executive Officer
Role
Katie oversees all activities at NatureMetrics, spanning all teams from science and data to operations and business development.
Academia
Katie holds an MSc in Environmental Economics and Climate Change from LSE, and a BSc in Biology from Oxford University.
Significant Collaborations
Katie has 18 years’ experience in corporate strategy, innovation and partnership development for a green economy. With M&S, Katie developed Plan A in the supply chain and led a team that were developing global sustainable products and supply chains, including wood, palm oil, cotton and fish. Whilst based in Jakarta with WWF, Katie helped to deliver a Green Economy strategy for Borneo. Katie ran for parliament in 2019, and has experience running green start-ups in the energy and biosciences industries. Katie has a vision to revolutionise nature data provision which she is actively pursuing with NatureMetrics.
Dr Kat Bruce - Founder Director
Role
Kat provides advice and support across the technical and project teams. She leads our interactions with the scientific community and is a thought leader in the industry.
Academia
Kat trained as a tropical ecologist, making many research trips to the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador and Peru. She gained a PhD in tropical ecology and DNA metabarcoding from the University of East Anglia supervised by Prof. Doug Yu, one of the pioneers of insect metabarcoding and a NatureMetrics scientific advisor. Kat also holds an MRes in Entomology from Imperial College and a BSc in Wildlife Biology from Anglia Ruskin University.
Significant Collaborations
Kat leads a working group on field and lab methods in the EU COST Action Project DNAqua-net. She has led the drafting of the first European standard for aquatic eDNA capture, is a Technical Expert on eDNA for the BSI, and is an advisor to the California Molecular Methods Workgroup. Kat currently sits on the steering group of the UK DNA Working Group and the steering committee of the UK Business and Biodiversity Forum.
After completing her PhD in 2014, Kat set up NatureMetrics to bridge the gap between the powerful molecular tools being developed in the research world and the environmental managers who could benefit from their use. Her particular interest lies in how to bring together the worlds of research, industry and policy to drive forward advances in our capacity to monitor the natural world. Through her work in the EU COST Action project DNAqua-net, she actively works to help establish best practice for the use of DNA monitoring tools for aquatic biomonitoring in Europe and beyond.
Dr Juliet Jones - Chief Operating Officer
Role
Juliet leads our operations team and all NatureMetrics business operations from day-to-day activities to planning the logistics of our global growth. Juliet ensures our science and services are delivered to a high standard, underpinning the success of our high-quality facilities and workflows.
Academia
Postdocs in drug research and viral engineering across a range of academic institutions, PhD in Cancer Biology from the Institute of Cancer Research, BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Surrey.
Significant Collaborations
Juliet has spent 13 years in academic and biotechnology institutions and has worked on a broad range of drug discovery projects. Her background as a molecular biologist gives Juliet a wealth of experience working in research and biotechnology laboratories. Having worked with DNA in lots of different ways, Juliet is now applying that range of skills to DNA-based monitoring with NatureMetrics.
Michael Neame - Chief Financial Officer
About
Mike is a CIMA qualified Chief Financial Officer, Finance Director and Board Member with an exceptional track record of creating and protecting value within owner managed and private equity backed companies. Mike has gained extensive knowledge of managing businesses from start-up through to exit and combiness a robust financial control environment with effective decision support and strategic management.
Euan Murray - Chief Commercial Officer
Role
Euan is a member of the board, with responsibility for our growth with customers. He works with the wider leadership team to develop, implement and lead the commercial strategy, bringing together business development, product development, finance, marketing, and others from across the business. He helps to guide future product development and R&D to ensure strong product market fit, and investment in the most tangible and highest return business opportunities for business and environmental impact.
Academia
Euan holds an MSc in Materials Science and Metallurgy from University of Cambridge.
Significant Collaborations
Euan has 20 years’ experience in corporate strategy, sustainability, innovation and organisational growth. As Chief Executive, Euan led the creation and implementation of The Sustainability Consortium’s flagship program with over 2,000 businesses covering product supply chains worth over $1trillion in annual sales. And at The Carbon Trust, Euan built the product and supply chain carbon footprinting business, working with dozens of companies like Tesco, PepsiCo, Unilever and M&S. Prior to that, Euan spent the early part of his career in strategy consulting and financial services.
Bob Ellis - Non-Executive Director
Academia
Bob holds a B.Ed (Hons) in Educational Theory from the University of London.
Significant Collaborations
Bob is a Restructuring Specialist and has particular expertise in complex operational and financial turnaround in Europe, Asia and the USA. As an experienced Investor and Director of businesses at all stages, Bob brings a range of strengths that support the global growth of NatureMetrics.
Simon Acland - Non-Executive Director
About
Simon has been investing in young technology companies as a professional venture capitalist and business angel for over thirty years. In that time has acted as Chair or Non-Executive Director of over forty high growth businesses, many of which have floated on stock exchanges or been sold successfully.
He led the investment in NatureMetrics’ seed round in 2016 and in 2017 he co-founded Green Angel Syndicate, one of NatureMetrics’ investors and the only angel group in the UK focussed on companies which combat climate change and protect the environment. Simon is on the Advisory Panel of the Triple Point EIS Fund, another of NatureMetrics’ investors, sits on the Board of Triple Point Income VCT and of the Satellite Applications Catapult, and is on the Investment Committee of the Angel CoFund. He recently stepped down as Vice-Chair of wild plant conservation charity Plantlife.
Charles Gibbons - Chief Technology Officer
About
Charles is responsible for IT strategy and implementation focusing on both front-end digital technologies and relevant platforms that enable growth. He is always open to help on any challenge. Charles like to support repeatable scalable processes and to promote innovation through technology.
Academia
Charles has a BA in English Literature, a Msc in Maths and a LLM in Law.
Significant Collaborations
Rather uniquely, Charles has worked on 5G for EE and Covid at the Francis Crick Institute.
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