Trustees and key post holders

Andra has a background in ecology and conservation, having completed her MSc at Edinburgh Napier University, where her research focused on exploring spider community assemblages in raised bogs and timber plantation systems. She worked as a research technician for Restoring Resilient Ecosystems at University of Stirling where she furthered her arachnological skills and helped understand ecosystem function along a woodland complexity gradient. Currently, she is pursuing her PhD, examining the biodiversity benefits that sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) can provide in addressing the pollinator crisis across the Central Belt of Scotland.

Anna has always been interested in the natural world, but her passion for arachnology developed after she started studying Animal Management in 2018. Since then, she has completed her Biodiversity and Conservation BSc (Hons) with her dissertation focusing on spider communities in different habitats in the Peruvian rainforest and her MRes, which focused on the conservation genetics of the Fen Raft Spider (Dolomedes plantarius). She will continue studying the Fen Raft Spider during her PhD and hopes to continue integrating ecology and molecular techniques to aid the conservation of other endangered arachnid species in the future. 

Bill is retired, after an enjoyable career largely spent in financial services but also with Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and for the final years working at Dauntseys School.

He's been a keen naturalist, albeit very amateur, since a child and in particular spiders and birds. Other passions include travel, walking, music and reading. 

He lives with Helen, his wife of 40 years and has two sons, both married and two very lively grandsons. 

This will be his second spell on the BAS council and he looks forward to supporting the work of the BAS, as well as he can, during this latest term.

After completing a degree in Earth Sciences at Oxford, Bill opted to follow a different career path, holding a number of roles of increasing seniority in sales, marketing and international business management, the last 27 years of which were with a well-known US multinational company. He is passionate about the natural world and is a keen birder, a licensed bird ringer and a wildlife sound recordist. He is a former Membership Officer for the BAS and became President in 2023. Bill is also spider County Recorder / SRS Area Organiser for Buckinghamshire and, together with Helen Smith, administrator of BAS’s Twitter account. His other interests include guitar, old agricultural machinery and Morris dancing!

Chris has been fascinated by spiders and other arachnids since he was a young boy, looking at them with his grandfather.  He has been lucky enough to have been able to explore this interest in work and as a hobby since.  Chris is a Technical Director at RSK Biocensus, an ecological consultancy, where he in part specialises in invertebrates, including arachnids.  Based in Scotland, he has a keen interest in arachnids associated with montane, peatland, and native woodland habitats, as well as brownfield sites.  He has also been involved with projects elsewhere in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man, and India, as well as an Australian documentary film, Sixteen Legs.  Chris is passionate about sharing the wonder of arachnids with wide audiences, enjoying running training courses and public speaking, as well as ensuring that they, as well as other invertebrates, are appropriately considered in planning, land use, and other policy and legislation.  He is also keen on recording and publishing notable observations, particularly relating to ecology, behaviour, and distribution.

As a recent immigrant to the UK, much of Colin’s  experience has been in Southern Africa. After a short career in the South African Army, his interest in the natural world found him working in one of the oldest snake parks in South Africa, then moving to a snake and crocodile farm. At this point he felt environmental education was more his forte, and worked as an environmental education officer, ending up running a small nature reserve for a few years, his interests being primarily with invertebrates and reptiles. He then discovered technology and has worked in many industries as a software developer over the last 20 years, and hopes to be able to use this accumulated educational and technological experience to further the aims of the Society.

A retired academic from the University of York, Geoff has researched the maintenance of genetic variation and speciation/hybridisation in spiders for over 50 years. He served as an ordinary member of Council between 2000 and 2003 and returned as Vice President in 2009. After a spell as President (2010-2013) he took on his present role as Hon. Secretary in 2014. He is one of the authors of Britain's Spiders, an editor of the Arachnologists' Handbook and, since 2020, an Honorary member of the Society.

Helen was a plant ecologist before converting to arachnology on inheriting the conservation programme for the Fen Raft Spider from Dr Eric Duffey in 1992. Joining BAS Council in 2008 she has served as vice-President and President. She is an editor of the Arachnologists' Handbook, and an author of Britain’s Spiders. Reflecting her life-long interest in conservation, she is a co-author of the 2019 report A New Deal for Nature, a member of the ICUN’s Spider and Scorpion Specialist Group and currently BAS Conservation Officer.

Despite being an engineer and physicist during his working life, Jeremy has always had an interest in the outdoors and the natural world. His interest in spiders grew from a frustration at not being able to identify even the commonest spiders in his garden. He has addressed this issue by attending a spider identification course and a number of BAS Field Weekends, where he has greatly valued the friendship and advice of more knowledgeable members. Jeremy recently volunteered to be the BAS Area Organiser for Dorset, and joined Council as Membership Officer in 2023. He is a keen photographer and microscopist and is unusual in having a Scanning Electron Microscope in a laboratory in his garden! He uses this to create images of a wide variety of subjects, including, of course, spiders. His other interests include playing the cello, both as a member of a string quartet and with a pianist friend.

Jim spent many years working as a warden for the Youth Hostels Association in northern England before running a village shop and Post Office for five years. Over the last 20 years he has worked for two different national charities, firstly as a fund-raiser and latterly as a witness service manager in the York Courts. His interest in natural history started with birds. He was a bird ringer for 30 years, secretary for the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union Bird section for 10 years, and has been involved in bird survey and recording at local and national levels. Jim's interest in spiders was triggered by attending a course at the former Kindrogan Field Studies Council Centre; he now does most of his spider collecting in and around VC62. He became treasurer of the BAS in 2018 and has served in that role ever since.