Podcast: Nick Bubb | Fauna & Flora International

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to switch careers into conservation, maybe moving from banking, marketing or law and supply your trade in an effort to save nature? Well, that’s what today’s guest has done in this special Fauna & Flora International podcast.

Nick Bubb is the Business Development Director at Fauna & Flora International (FFI) and prior to FFI, he spent nearly 10 years in professional ocean racing, covering 100,000 sea miles before moving into finance, and then finally into conservation. He’s now charged with raising funds for major conservation projects and programmes across 40 countries and 300 partners, and gets to work closely with the likes of Sir David Attenborough.

In this podcast, we talk about what skills are needed in the modern conservation movement, and how to switch careers with success. We also discuss how to prepare for a TED talk and what it’s like to spend time with Sir David. It’s a really fascinating, wide ranging chat. Enjoy.

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Audio Transcript

Nick Bubb 

I’m Nick Bubb. I work for FFI, which is Fauna & Flora International and I’m their business development director.

Nick 

So FFI, Fauna & Flora International for people who haven’t heard of it, and I think most conservationists have, but let’s assume there are people listening right now who haven’t. How would you describe FFI to them?

Nick Bubb 

I suppose the traditional description of FFI is the world’s oldest international conservation organisation founded in 1903 with work in 40- 41 countries around the world, somewhere between 100 and 150 major projects depending on how you count them, and a large marine programme as well, which is being developed over the last 15 years.

Nick 

How is FFI different from some of the other big international NGOs or the BINGOs? So thinking like ICN and Birdlife and WWF? What kind of sets you guys apart?

Nick Bubb 

The main thing for FFI is we are very much to deliver our work through local partners. So we’ve got something like 300 partners around the world. So we generally very much in the background sort of building the capacity of local organisations, helping them sort of address the threats that maybe we’ve been involved in recognising and developing a solution too. And so consequently, with that sort of approach, we don’t have a big profile. And you know, it’s a very cost-effective way of delivering it. So, you know, around kind of 80 to 82% of funds raised go to directly into conservation projects, rather than you know some of the more well known organisations that probably have a slightly larger profile because they do more work around raising awareness of the issues and also their profile.

Nick 

Could you just give us some examples, maybe some of the projects that you’re proud of in FFI or some the flagship things that you’ve achieved maybe over the last few years?

Nick Bubb 

You know, in FFI we very much work on protecting critically endangered species and habitats. That’s the sort of the fundamental point of the mission. And rather than going out and looking for things we tend to respond to need to people coming to us. And I suppose sadly at the moment, there’s a significant need. So we do have to spend quite a lot of time with the senior management team working through kind of what do we really see as the most sort of pressing of needs and also, where do we think there’s potential for sort of long term success because clearly, we don’t want to invest a lot of resources and effort into projects which I mean as soon as we leave, the issues might sort of revert back to where they are to start with. So, one of the areas where we put a lot of effort into is in Niassa in Northern Mozambique. So we manage an area which is approaching something like a million hectares, called Chuilexi. It’s a fantastic wilderness, one of the real sort of I guess last wildernesses left in the world really with small communities, where there’s no longer any rhino there, but you’ll still see if you’re lucky rhino, there is still some elephant, a lot of buffalo, a lot of antelope. I mean all sorts of interesting species there and the key thing is we have the support of the government there. They have a good kind of environment department and we have some good buffer zones with other concessions that are quite well managed. So we don’t have big human wildlife conflict issues. So we’re slowly making a lot of progress there. And I love to take people there, take some of the donors that support our work. It’s a real magical place.

Nick 

It sounds wonderful. Yeah, it sounds privileged to be able to go to some of these places, too. So you’re the business development director. What does that mean? You talked earlier about taking donors to projects. A big part of your focus is raising funds and promoting the work of FFI.

Nick Bubb 

Yeah I suppose my job title kind of sits is more of a kind of corporate job title, makes it easy for some people to understand. So really, my aim is to win support for the organisation and our programme of work. So sometimes that’s fundraising, sometimes that’s sort of corporate partnerships. Sometimes that might be sort of high profile, respected individuals slash I guess celebrities getting on board that’s really helping to kind of make the machine function I suppose. So we work very closely with the CEO, Mark Rose, and very closely with the fundraising team. Day to day, I suppose there’s a kind of extreme networking angle, which is, you know, so for instance, in January, I’ll be at the World Economic Forum. I go to a lot of these sort of big finance conferences, and I speak at lots of, or any event really where I get the opportunity to talk about not just what FFI does, but the importance of wildlife conservation, how sort of biodiversity loss and climate change are intrinsically linked, how people can take action. One of those actions may be giving finance to identify, but there are obviously many other options. Yeah, it’s a pretty broad role.

Nick 

Yeah, it sounds very broad but very impactful as well like, kind of a large kind of global scale. So quite an exciting role as well that you are leading on. When you go to some of these forums, you know, the Global Economic Forum and place that you’re speaking to non- conservationist people who haven’t got background in biodiversity, maybe they are politicians, business leaders, whoever they might be, how do you approach the issue of biodiversity conservation? You know, how do you make them care?

Nick Bubb 

It’s very much about using the right terminology. So, now we talk a lot about nature. So it’s trying to simplify it, bring it back to something that fundamentally most people care about, have an interest in, have had experiences in. And then if you’re talking to big sort of corporate leaders, politicians, you’re talking about applying a green lens to the decision making. It’s not just kind of here’s this extra thing that they should really be funding called biodiversity conservation. It’s saying, look, as you develop your business, these are things that you should be considering, and when we talk about environmental impact, or we talk about offsetting flights or whatever it is that sort of people have in their minds in this kind of area, I try to take that down to a real tangible kind of an impact, an example of something that could happen if they make this choice, or a way that they could support some of our work. And then one of the things we do very well I believe at FFI is produce this conservation report, an annual report which aims to demonstrate our impact. Our programme is designed around, we have to find a way to measure, our impact has to be demonstrable, we have to be able to go back and say, okay, well, we put this amount of effort in here, and this is the outcome. And then when I have impact change in there, that shows kind of this is where we are from this emergency situation and you know, that’s point A and point B is okay, well, actually, there’s a sustainable population of x. This is how far we are along that journey. So we just try really hard to make it understandable to the layman.

Nick 

And do you find people are quite open and receptive to those sorts of ideas? I mean when you’re having discussions with influential non-conservationists, you know, do you feel like you’re banging your head against a brick wall or do you feel that actually, you know, there is momentum and we’re moving in the right direction now?

Nick Bubb 

Generally, I’m a pretty positive person. That’s why I’m in the role. And at FFI we have some fantastic I’ll use the word assets, but I want to be appropriate, but some fantastic people that are on board. David Attenborough is one of them, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall who I also work very closely with. I say these sorts of people, there aren’t that many of them but now we’ve got a lot of great ambassadors, vice presidents, as we call them, and they really open an awful lot of doors. We’ve got a very active and well connected Council for Board of Trustees. So we really work within those networks to sort of broaden our sphere of influence. So we’re rarely kind of cold calling if you like. So people have generally expressed some type of interest. And then yeah, I or someone else within the, sort of the team will be going along and just filling in the gaps really.

Nick 

In terms of your role, and what you do right now with the business development director role what’s it like working in conservation? We’re going talk about your background in a minute, you’ve had kind of a varied background, and you sort of switched into conservation, which is really interesting. But is working in conservation what you expected it to be in the first place?

Nick Bubb 

Oh, yeah, I mean, the first thing to say is that I’ve done quite a few different things throughout my life; I’ll come onto it in a minute. But fundamentally, when you walk into FFI’s head office in Cambridge there are about 100 people there and they just run it. I mean, without exception, lovely, motivated, focused, smart people you know. It’s such a nice working environment. And I think that’s probably similar in many NGOs, you know people are there because they really want to be there. They care about what you’re doing. So I wasn’t quite expecting that if I’m honest, when I started six years ago. So you know, whenever I’m in Cambridge, I kind of I just want to chat to everyone you know, because I learn stuff all the time. So many different ideas and different nationalities and cultures and rules so, a diverse mix of people. So that side of work in conservation is amazing. I suppose it’s pretty frustrating sometimes the lack of funding for certain fundamental things that we do. We also have some frustrations around everybody wants to collaborate and work together, which is fine in theory. In practice, I guess we’re a little bit competitive over some areas of funding and support, which is only natural. But it’s pretty much what I expected when I started.

Nick 

So what were you doing before then? What has been your kind of career highlights to date prior to the six years, you’ve now had FFI?

Nick Bubb 

A mechanical engineer, so engineering degree from University of Exeter, but I’ve always been a lifelong sailor, and I love Offshore Sailing. And then when I left university, I sort of mixed the two and started doing composite engineering. So building some race boats and doing a lot of offshore sailing, and then I ended up doing, I guess, nearly 10 years of around the world yacht racing. So pretty amazing, adventurous life when I look back on it. And then during that I started to work with marine conservation organisations. I guess in some sort of Ambassador role, but really just a kind of keen, enthusiastic, had a bit of a platform in a certain sectors to talk about what was important. Yeah, did that and then 2008 – 2009, global financial crisis became very hard to raise kind of millions of pounds to go sailing. And at the same time, I think I was starting to realise that all this money we were spending on sport could actually be used for better. My mindset was kind of changing. At that point, I wasn’t really that focused on going to work for an NGO, I still had a lot to learn. And I wanted to go into the finance sector to really understand business and I guess really to understand what had happened with the global financial crisis. What was this sort of thing that had destroyed my sailing career? So I ended up working in finance, you know, a lot of studying, exams, etc. Did four years of that, which really interesting, good stepping stone certainly left me well placed to be able to speak the language of the kind of people that I now work with quite closely. And slightly tangentially, I suppose, I got approached to go down to Antarctica and retrace Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Voyage from Elephant Island to South Georgia, which was a big thing arranged by his family but it was a Discovery Channel documentary celebrating this incredible voyage a 100 years ago, but also looking at the impacts of climate change in the intervening years. So for me, that was another kind of oh, this is super interesting. So when we did the trip and the whole expedition was partnered with FFI, so there were many sponsors. FFI was the sort of charitable partner, so I got to know the CEO, Mark Rose, sort of at the end of the expedition and started doing a few talks on sort of what we’ve done and why we’ve done it and what we’d seen, I guess, raised few funds for FFI and long story short, Mark said, look, I’m really looking for somebody to come out and help me and help the team to promote the importance of FFI’s work to do some fundraising. And just to as I said win support for the organisation. So it was a pretty brief conversation. It was an amazing opportunity, which I jumped at. You know, it’s been an interesting journey because there was a very broad remit and I suppose kind of a long leash but with a clear, required delivery.

Nick 

Was it a new role that was being created at FFI, that you were then forming from the beginning or were you replacing someone else?

Nick Bubb 

Yeah, that was a new role. I think there are a few other personnel changes so, kind of recruited some people with some slightly different skills. And I think in the past, the sort of role that I do has typically been done by somebody that sort of managing a whole fundraising team or the comms. team or development team have you want to, whereas I, you know, I didn’t manage anyone. I very much work on my own but connected to all the other if you like, the team leaders and the development side of the organisation.

Nick 

What was your approach to it then? You had a great clear goal, raising awareness, raising funds, but you know, what day one, what was the strategy, you know, where did you go?

Nick Bubb 

So the strategy for me really was now I know from all the kind of sponsorship work I’ve done in the past that you tend to win support from those closest to you. It’s far easier to develop existing contacts than to start fresh. So we had a couple of key themes. I suppose really it was to use the existing membership network of FFI especially amongst their sort of high net worth network. So spend time with them, make sure they were getting everything out of supporting the organisation that they could. So that’s, you know, access to different specialists or the ability to go and see projects or you just feel like ensure it was a special experience for them. And then, by going through that process, I quickly realised that the average age of sort of the typical FFI supporter would be in their late 70s or something. So we set up something called the Conservation Business Club, which was around recruiting young professionals into the organisation as supporters. And that was a London based thing because we had support from various different clubs and restaurants, etc. So in the end, we pulled together something like a sort of membership of about 350 people, and the idea was they were paying a pound a day to support FFI so you’re not inconsiderable finance but more the fact that we built a network of young professionals, future leaders within their sectors. So pretty influential group and I suppose there was some sort of targeted invitations to our little gatherings and then they sort of multiplied. And then from that some of those people grew into our conservation circle, which is our kind of high net worth sort of membership group. And then as time went on and things like I guess I spent a lot of time on our partnership with People’s Postcode Lottery. It’s taken a lot of work because PPL generally likes to support charities with big profiles because when they support the charity, a lot of their members will then play the lottery and ultimately it sort of builds the builds the pie, whereas for us, we are didn’t typically fit into that model, that profile. So they’ve helped us to build our profile and built our communication side and they are now one of our major funders. So I look after those kinds of relationships that need a lot of work. And then a lot of the private families, where they have maybe family offices, where you really have to work hard to prove that you’re the right organisation, the right fit. So you spend a lot of time with these people. And then taking what I would call sort of fairly serious donors, to really major donors, that typically happens by taking people out to the projects to seeing stuff firsthand, meeting the people who are working in the field, to really making them kind of fall in love with it. So, that’s something that’s probably developed in the last three years for me, the last two or three years. So I probably spend about two or three months a year, taking people on these sort of incredible two-week trips. And they’ve actually been really successful both in terms of the groups. It is typically just one family at a time they’ve really enjoyed it. It’s been educational. It’s been a good mixture of adventure, expedition fields, and they’ve all ended up funding the projects they’ve been to see. So if you get your hands on, if you get maybe not physically but if you get close to all the stuff, then you really become part of it.

Nick 

Yeah and that’s how to engage and to sell and how to nurture. I was kind of made aware of the work that you’re doing, I have been aware for FFI for a long time but specifically what you’re doing through a TED talk that you did a while back, ‘Modern Day Wildlife Conservation‘, and we’ll link to it in the podcast notes because it’s such a good talk and it talks about the modern wildlife conservation movement really and the sorts of people required working within it. I just thought it would be interesting to kind of talk around that as well because you’ve had a, we just talked about your role how you’ve moved from engineering through the ocean yachting and into banking and now FFI so you kind of switched across an into wildlife conservation. There are lots of people out there listening right now. I think also you know, working in something unrelated to conservation, but they’re looking to and they’d love to work in the movements. I mean, you see many opportunities within wildlife conservation for people to find roles and to create impact you know, from outside of the classical you know, zoology background or whatever it might be.

Nick Bubb 

For various reasons, many which we definitely want to celebrate, it’s a growing industry, you know, kind of a lot of the problems that we work to address are becoming more significant. And I suppose crucially, people are becoming more aware of them. So there’s a lot more going on. And typically the sector has probably been quite leaky I would say. And you know, there’s a lot of people who all went to the same university or did the same zoology degrees or, and those people clearly have a central role to play in our future. However, as these projects become bigger you need more sort of practical teams, maybe based around them as well. Certainly your typical conservationist 20 years ago would probably tell you if he was trying to or she was trying to fundraise for something, that I need this money because it’s important because of X, Y, Z. I find the focus is very much on why this project needs funding not what you would get out of supporting it. So because my background is more in from the other side of that negotiation, so it’s you need to tell people why it’s important, how they can help and what they will get from it. And that might just be you know a warm, fuzzy feeling, or it might be well, actually, your family office can help protect this entire landscape and in five years time, this is what we think it will look like and these are the species that are here that you could help protect you know. If you want to get really serious, there might be a chance for you to name a species at some point, there might be. You know, there’s all of this stuff which you have to be a bit more creative with it. So you’ve got that kind of almost marketing side. Certainly the communications game is constantly evolving. There are new skills and we can always do with people who understand the latest ways of communicating. And I said I think in the beginning, we work in over 40 countries so there are significant language barriers at times. So certainly there are roles for people, for people to play in any kind of, it could be a logistical or management, having language skills is vital in the conservation sector. You know, as the funds increase, it flows into the sector, then the teams of accountancy and that’s a huge growth area. We also need to be more accountable for what we’re doing. So at the same time, whenever we take funds in everything has to be properly structured. We need formal grants agreements so therefore, you need lawyers. The more you bring these skills in house, when you’re on a certain scale, the cheaper it is obviously. You know, I think some NGOs are maybe a little bit, if you take pro bono support ultimately, fantastic. It saves you money but typically, it means you’re the last job on the list and you’re done by the least experienced person. And I think at FFI and I wouldn’t say we’re in a great position of luxury, no. We don’t have the capital reserves or anything but I think certainly the senior management team and the trustees, you won’t get top quality trustees and you won’t get great ambassadors if they don’t think that the organisation is rock solid. And for it to be a rock solid organisation you’ve got to have great compliance structures and you’ve got to have the finance team. You’ve got to have the audit team really well set. As these organisations grow the need for those kinds of professionals is growing. And people recognise that you know, you have to pay decent salaries to get good people. And you can demonstrate that later down the line. No, you’re not going to win the big kind of multimillion dollar fundraising deals if you don’t have all that in place. So and then engineers, scientists, I mean, you always need these practical people. And then a lot of our projects when you actually go and see them, it’s just like, it’s a giant logistical puzzle. You know, a lot of very physical work, there is a lot of work I think for the ex military people and maybe not so much with FFI but certainly other conservation organisations depending on their style of management. There’s a lot of work training ranges and scouts. And now there is huge opportunity for creative minds as well. Yeah, for instance, in up in Northern Mozambique in Niassa now we’ve got our sort of scout team there, very much anti poaching team, but also you’re managing this huge expands, and within it you want people who are skilled in wildlife monitoring so that as we develop the tourism industry there, so a very kind of niche tourism industry. Then the scouts can tell us they typically know the patterns of certain animals. They know where the animals would be at different times of year. So that’s very much us investing in the skills of the people we employ, and also the local organisations to build their capacity. So there’s this whole sort of livelihoods piece that comes into it too. Yeah, there’s an awful lot going on.

Nick 

It sounds like a really exciting time actually in the conservation movement, if you like as it got so professionalised is actually as it starts to bring in people from outside the traditional movement in to help take it forwards even more quickly. If people are listening and you know, they are a career switcher you know, they are a banker or a lawyer or, you know, working in PR, media, whatever it might be accountancy, what career’s advice would you give them to help them to kind of make that transition?

Nick Bubb 

I suppose you can do the straightforward thing of, there’s a whole variety of websites where you can find jobs advertised in conservation but for some people, I think you can also be a bit more creative. You can look at maybe family offices that are heavily working in the environment sector. Because one thing I come across quite often is you’ve got sort of certain individuals running family offices who have a specific skill set or knowledge in it you know, in a certain sector and if you’ve got a family office where the environment is the top thing they’re interested in, then no doubt they’ll be looking to recruit people that maybe can cover both areas.

Nick 

What do you mean by family office? Do you mean like a trust fund or something like that?

Nick Bubb 

Yeah. So typically a very wealthy family that’s handing their wealth down through generations and they do it through a sort of private office that will do a certain amount of investment and certain amount of philanthropy. In September, I spoke at something called the institutional investor, which is a publication family office wealth conference, which is in LA, only had something like 55 different family offices there. A series of people talking about saying the section I was involved in talking about the different charities we work in and try and get across, how much more professional we are now and much more accountable we offer, what we do and what we deliver, that would be a logical way to go. And then you’ve also got the sort of the other mega organisations. I mean certainly if you want to go and work for the UN, then you have to have an awful lot of academic and professional qualifications but there’s a quite high turnover of jobs there. You know, when you’re talking about the UN, you’ve obviously got the Sustainable Development Goals and that’s been a really powerful tool for people like me to talk about because if you go to the World Economic Forum, they understand that sort of language, they kind of go okay, UN yeah, get it. Okay. SDGs, right. Okay. Those are the things that a bunch of other people have recognised are going to be important in the next 10 years. And then I can say, and this is how FFI contributes and this is where our work fits in to those goals, which helps you have the overriding objective of making the world a better place. And everything is far more professional now, there’s far more easily understandable links to kind of hang your kind of this is where we fit.

Nick 

Okay. I’d like to kind of move towards the final stage of the podcast then where I’d like to ask you some fairly open questions actually, just to kind of have your take a little bit. Super easy ones too, just to kind of you know, hear about your experience so far and part of that is you spent 10 years, the best part of 10 years at sea actually, what’s been your most memorable encounter with nature or wildlife? Have you got any moments that stand out for you?

Nick Bubb 

So when I was 25, I was fortunate enough to do this nonstop around the world race. 75 days at sea, and a lot of time in the Southern Ocean and you just got endless hours with kind of albatross, just you know, flying next to you and incredible and you’re in this remote, remote wilderness, and then to have this sort of majesty next to you and to see orcas coming out of the water. I mean yeah, that’s pretty hard to beat.

Nick 

Sounds pretty good, sounds lovely. The TED talk that you did, not many people get to do TED Talks and I’ve watched it a couple of times now. I think you’ve delivered brilliantly you know, as many TED Talks do. What’s the process of preparing for a TED Talk? They’re always very polished, very slick presentations, behind the scenes you know, what goes into kind of getting you on stage and delivering as you do?

Nick Bubb 

So first of all, I guess I should say that I felt very fortunate to be invited to give one. Slightly sort of nervous and a bit surprised, but it’s a long process. And so…

Nick 

So you were picked. Stage one, someone picks you.

Nick Bubb 

Yes. So what happens is people they typically had some involvement in TED or TEDx talks somewhere elsewhere in the world and they decided they want to organise one within their community. So they get together a sort of a committee that has this sort of a TED central involvement. And then yeah they’ll have a team that goes and select speakers and they try to cover a bunch of different themes and try to come up with stuff that is a bit unique. And I knew a couple of people who happen to be involved in this group. So we had a few phone calls. And it was interesting because they said, you know, interesting background, we really love it if you could talk about what you do now and kind of how you got into it. But I struggled a bit to frame it for a while because with Ted Talks you can’t promote anything, you don’t promote organisations or corporations or anything. And then they quite clearly wanted me to talk about this sort of diverse background to logically became a careers talk really. So I put together a bunch of ideas and we you know, we did, had like a Skype call where I ran through my presentation and they pretty much just rubbished it all. I felt emotional but actually you know, it’s just objective criticism. So I think I pretty much did the presentation about five or six times in the buildup. And each time they help you refine it and make it shorter. You know, when I look back on it, not that I do look back on it very often, but you always wish you done it better. There were other things you’d included. But at the time I was pretty happy with it and it really helped me both in terms of my delivery skills and obviously the research that’s required to go with it. You know, I still get a couple of emails a week from people who watch it and sort of say, oh, can you help with this? Or you know, I’ve probably helped locate, I don’t know 15, maybe 20-25 people into either jobs or voluntary roles, made some good friends, people I’ve never met who just got in touch. It’s a great thing.

Nick 

It obviously works. Yeah, that’s great as I said we will, we’ll embed it within the blog post too. So if you’re watching or listening, scroll down. It’s well, well worth a watch. You talked also really well about how you have this quite privileged and close relationship to you know, people like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Sir David Attenborough. What’s it like to work closely with well particularly Sir David Attenborough? He’s such a hero for so many people in the conservation movement. What’s it like to be so closest to Sir David?

Nick Bubb 

I should caveat that and I work with David a lot. I’ve been not that close to him but he’s very good friends with Mark Rose the CEO of FFI and David’s been a member of FFI for 60 years, Vice President for 30 years. So huge, long association and I mean my main role with David is whenever he’s sort of working on FFI duty is I look after him. Stopping being asked for too many photos and too many questions, kind of make sure he gets in the right place almost feel like a bit of a bouncer sometimes. And then a lot of the time it’s sort of explaining to him why we would like him to come and do something to attend some dinner or a lunch, or why he’s going to speak at some conference and really, it comes down to what’s the value in it for FFI, for conservation more broadly. He likes to know what we’re trying to achieve. It’s a very sort of functional relationship in that respect, which I really admire. Clearly it’s a bit surreal when he starts talking especially when some of the anecdotes come out because it’s really most of the time you’re sort of, I mean, you might spend the day with him going to various different things and you sort of think, well, you know, lovely, nice guy, very interesting conversation. But when the anecdotes come out he really comes alive and it’s a wow, that’s David Attenborough. Sometimes it gets a bit daunting but a great sense of humor. And I think the thing that is really quite staggering even though you do expect it, is the way that everybody stops in their tracks when they see him. Now, if you’re walking down the street, everybody just starts walking into lampposts and bumping into cars. I mean, it’s incredible.

Nick 

He is universally loved, isn’t he? And I remember hearing somewhere and he agreed to it actually, it was on Desert Island discs that he is the most well traveled human that has ever existed. 

Nick Bubb 

Yeah I can well believe that. There aren’t many stories of travel that somebody you know might be talking about when I did X and David always has something to add to it. So an interesting thing that many people don’t realise is Sir David’s daughter Susan, is a retired school teacher is a very much is sort of his manager and you know keeps him in the right place at the right time and you know lovely lady in her own right, who I suspect she’s partly the sort of unsung hero of everything really.

Nick 

Nick, it’s been really nice talking to you, getting to know you, your career, hearing about FFI and everything that’s going on. If people want to find out a bit more about FFI and perhaps get involved help support your movement, where should we send them?

Nick Bubb 

Well then come straight to me. So you can put my email address maybe on the link > nick.bubb@fauna-flora.org. I’m a pretty sociable guy. That’s why I do the job I do. And funnily enough, we’re not completely flooded with people. So if offering to help say, I’m sure we’ll manage to get back to everyone. And for me it’s a wonderful part of the job is, is helping people to develop the same sort of enthusiasm and interest. It’s a very rewarding job. And it’s a real privilege.

Nick

Fabulous. Well, thanks again for talking. Good luck in 2020.

Nick Bubb 

Thank you very much.

Nick 

Okay, well I hope you enjoyed that everyone. If you did, then please do hit that subscribe button to get notified when new episodes are live. And also give the ratings it really helps us to get in front of more people. If you enjoy the interviews we’ve collected the best advice from over 400 professional conservationists into a free eBook, which you can download from the bottom of our website. And finally, if you’ve got any questions or suggestions for the podcast, please tweet them to @ConservCareers. We’d love to hear from you. Okay, till next time guys, this is Nick signing out.

Careers Advice, Podcast, Senior Level, Organisational Manager