OUR TRUSTEES

PAUL JACKSON

Chair of Board of Trustees

Paul Jackson’s fascination with fish was sparked when his family relocated to Greece for six months when he was just 9 years old. Snorkelling with his father in the warm waters of the Mediterranean, he was taken with the abundance of marine life he saw every day. A further holiday to California brought him his first sighting of a shark and he was smitten. Years of tropical fishkeeping were to follow!

 A gap year trip to Australia in 1989 provided an opportunity to dive the Great Barrier Reef and that, in turn, led him to undertake his PADI qualification.

 Whilst Paul’s education (BA in Economics and Politics and MSc in Charity Finance) took him to London, where he is Group Chief Executive of The Hospital Saturday Fund (a charity), each holiday is spent exploring the reefs and oceans of the world. Desperate to dive with manta rays but with a young family, Paul made a solo trip to the Maldives in 2011. Fate played a hand and Paul ended up spending his entire holiday on Guy Stevens’ research boat in Hanifaru Bay.  A week of observing and snorkelling with mantas and whale sharks made up Paul’s mind; he was determined to use his knowledge of the charity sector to help these magnificent animals.

 In December 2011, Paul was appointed Chairman of the Manta Trust. Recently, Paul has spent some time in Cancun, Mexico snorkelling with the large numbers of mantas and whale sharks that aggregate there in the summer. Paul has also returned to Hanifaru Bay a number of times since 2011. In fact, in 2018 he experienced the amazing spectacle of 200 manta rays cyclone-feeding in the Bay. This wonderful experience has made Paul even more passionate about supporting the Manta Trust.

JONATHAN DIAMOND

Trustee

Despite spending most of his working life in the financial industry, Jo has had a varied life. He has spent six years in the British Army, worked for an automotive technology company providing diagnostic equipment for the F1 teams, played bass guitar and saxophone in various bands, rallied a 1957 race-car across the Alps and acted in a feature film, amongst other things.

Having retired from the heady world of finance in 2018, he and his wife, Camilla, now run a motorcycle tour company called Mad Hatter Motorcycle Adventures, taking clients all over the world on their Harley Davidson or Indian motorcycles to ride the most exhilarating roads in the most beautiful places they can find! He has never been busier...!

DR. EMILY HUMBLE

Trustee

Emily first volunteered for the Maldives Manta Conservation Programme back in 2011 and has since worked closely with the Manta Trust through her work on manta and mobula ray genetics. Emily completed her Masters in Biodiversity genomics at Imperial College London and her PhD on fur seals at the British Antarctic Survey and Bielefeld University. She is currently a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh where she specialises in the use and development of genetic tools for informing conservation management. Emily works on a broad range of species including some of the world’s most vulnerable sharks and rays. 

PROF. MARTIN ATTRILL

Trustee

Martin Attrill is Professor of Marine Ecology at the University of Plymouth and has been working for 30 years to understand patterns of life in our oceans, and how human activity impacts those patterns.

His research over the last decade has been particularly focused on marine conservation and how we can manage and restore our seas, in particular the role of Marine Protected Areas and, more recently, National Marine Parks. Throughout his career, Martin has been a passionate advocate for the oceans and believes we should provide the opportunity to as many people as possible to experience the wonders of our seas, find out about the extraordinary life beneath the waves and how we can manage, conserve and restore marine systems.

As part of this he has set up several degrees in marine biology, including the latest – MSc in Marine Conservation on which the Manta Trust is a partner and aims to produce the next generation of marine conservation practitioners.