ORCA
7 Ermin Close
Baydon
Marlborough
Wiltshire
SN8 2JQ

Telephone: 0845 108 6454

Chairperson: Kelly Macleod Kelly Macleod is a 32-year-old marine mammal scientist and the chair of Orca. Kelly’s day job is as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the internationally acclaimed Sea Mammal Research Unit, University St. Andrews, where she coordinates a 3m Euro cetacean research project. Her expertise is in assessing population abundance and monitoring and this has enabled ORCA’s science to be put on a firm footing. She has many national and international links within the science community, which are beneficial to ORCA. Her project management skills are especially important in her new role as Chair. She has a degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford, a Masters with distinction in Environmental Science and a PhD, which she completed in 2002. Her doctoral research focused on cetacean abundance and habitat preferences off the west coast of Scotland to see how such information could be used to aid the management of anthropogenic activities in these waters for the benefit of cetacean conservation. Her research was achievable only through her initiative and drive to use platforms of opportunity, such as fisheries research and patrol vessels to collect her data. It was this connection between the means of collecting data, that drew her to ORCA and she formally joined the team in 2000 as their Scientific Officer and then was voted Chair in 2005. Click here to E-mail.
Secretary: Val Elmes Val has been involved in the computer industry all her working life and is currently employed by Fujitsu as a computer support analyst in the retail sector. She has led support teams, been a member of her local golf club committee and was secretary of a social club for many years, so brings various organisational and computer skills to Orca. Val is concerned with conservation of animals in their natural habitat and was introduced to Orca on a whale watching trip in the Bay of Biscay in 2002. She has been an active committee member ever since, being initially the membership secretary and currently secretary. Her travel in search of wildlife has taken her to Tanzania, Nepal, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, Japan and New Zealand. Her current priority is to keep members informed of the changes taking place within the organisation and notify them of forthcoming survey opportunities. Click here to E-mail.
Treasurer: Colin Williams Colin is 31 and joined the organisation relatively recently in 2006. He has a degree in Public Health and Epidemiology from Westminster and his professional background is as a Senior Manager in the NHS so he’s used to dealing with tight budgets. He could be found outdoors exploring nature from a very early age and he hasn’t lost his love of wildlife and has long since been committed to the ideals of conservation. His biggest passions are guitars and birds and when not playing shows with his band he can be found birding on the North Hampshire Downs and regularly assists the British Trust for Ornithology in their surveys. He joined Organisation Cetacea because he wanted to fuse his highly developed professional skills of problem solving and financial acumen with his passion for wildlife. Click here to E-mail.	Photograph to be added.
Fund Raising Officer: Neil Walker Neil Walker is 54 and a lifelong committed conservationist. He joined Orca’s Executive Committee four years ago, taking up the new post of Fund Raiser. Neil was a journalist for thirty years, and an award-winning broadcaster with the BBC but now works as a property developer. Neil says that raising money for Orca is one of the most challenging jobs he has ever had, but he is determined to succeed. He has influenced the organisation’s agenda by convincing members that financial stability is the only way the charity can succeed in the long run. He sees his next set of priorities as 1) securing a conservation director for the next two years; 2) Expanding the number of routes and volunteer observers; 3) establishing a self-financing headquarters/office building. Click here to E-mail.
Trustee: Phil Coles Phil Coles is 31 and has spent the past decade working as a wildlife film maker. He is one of the founders of ORCA and remains a trustee, committee member, and manager of the Beaked Whale Resource. Phil brings to the team a wide range of skills, particularly in writing, illustrating, the presenting of ideas, a wide knowledge of wildlife and good people skills. His greatest passion is the poorly known family of beaked whales. Most of his whale-watching and surveying has targeted these secretive animals. He now manages the ORCA project, ‘The Beaked Whale Resource’ which aims to build a better understanding of the beaked whales that might one day contribute to their conservation. Phil has a BSc hons degree in ‘Biological Imaging’ at the University of Derby and has always had a keen interest in all wildlife, especially marine mammals, which probably began with a trip to see the blue whale model at the Natural History Museum, aged 3, and reinforced eight years later by the chance discovery of a dead porpoise caught in fishing gear. At 16 he put together a minke whale photo-ID catalogue on the Isle of Mull. He regularly writes and illustrates for a number of organisations and publications, including the now discontinued Whale and Dolphin magazine and two field guides to marine mammals. Click here to E-mail.
Committee Member: Dave Smith David Smith is 27 and has been a keen naturalist since primary school. He gained first class honours in Ecology from the University of East Anglia, undertook a six-month contract as a seabird observer for the Falkland Islands Fisheries Department and is currently conducting a PhD in Agro-ecology. He joined ORCA’s Executive Committee in 2002, when he initially took the role of Publicity and Communications Officer. With no previous experience and in a relatively short time he successfully secured press coverage in a number of national and international magazines. He is currently the charity compliance officer, survey coordinator and is co-managing ORCA’s new online magazine. His vision of ORCA is to be an international version of the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology), within the whale and dolphin conservation world. Click here to E-mail.
Education Officer: Aimee Felus Aimee Felus is 24 and works in Environmental Education, a job which she is passionate about, inspiring others with her enthusiasm for the natural world. Winning an Earthwatch Fellowship gave an opportunity to study basking sharks off Cornwall, and she has led school pupils across Biscay, and researched cetaceans in the Hebrides, where she fell in love with the islands. Aimee became Education Officer for Organisation Cetacea in 2004 but has been fascinated by cetaceans since studying ethology and sociobiology at university. From the first real encounters with bottlenose dolphins in the Aegean and a minke whale in the Channel she has been hooked! She relishes the opportunities this brings for introducing more people to the wonders of cetaceans and the marine environment, and encouraging a desire to protect this superb habitat through instilling curiosity and captivation. Click here to E-mail.
Publicity Officer: Ian Rowlands Ian Rowlands is 43 and has been committed to whale and dolphin conservation since the age of 6 (it was that life-size Blue Whale model at London’s Natural History Museum again!). He joined Orca’s Executive Committee a year ago, taking up the post of Publicity Officer – a position that makes the best use of his presentation and organisational skills. After working for the RSPB and wildlife trusts for many years, he spent 16 years building and promoting his very successful wildlife-watching eco-tour company Speyside Wildlife, which employs 18 people and operates around the world. He now works as a consultant, tour-leader, writer and lecturer, passionate about wildlife, conservation, and the eco-tourism business. As well as boosting the profile of Orca, Ian sees the major challenges ahead as: 1) to develop and publicise the organisation`s USP - observers at sea using increasing numbers of ‘platforms of opportunity’; 2) to build working partnerships in the world of science, commerce, and conservation; 3) to develop self-sustaining, commercial and corporate support for the organisation`s vital project work. Click here to E-mail.	Photograph to be added.