Ben Garrod

Why organisations work with Ben Garrod

• Two decades of frontline conservation work across Africa, Asia, South America, the Caribbean and the Arctic, including several years running a chimpanzee field site for the Jane Goodall Institute, give him direct evidence of ecosystem collapse that most ESG briefings lack.
• A tenured Chair at a Russell-adjacent research university (Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement at UEA) places him inside the scientific community rather than adjacent to it, which matters for boards scrutinising sustainability claims.
• A long BBC broadcast record alongside David Attenborough, plus his own series Secrets of Bones and Secrets of Skin, means he can carry a main-stage room without the usual trade-off between scientific credibility and audience access.
• Trustee of the Jane Goodall Institute UK and Vice President of Norfolk Wildlife Trust, so the conservation positions in his talks are backed by governance roles in the organisations doing the work.
• Can also chair and moderate science, sustainability and innovation programmes where the host needs genuine subject fluency rather than generic presenter polish.

Biography highlights

• Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement, University of East Anglia
• PhD from UCL and the Zoological Society of London on island-primate evolution in the Lesser Antilles
• Presenter of BBC documentaries including Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur, Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard, Secrets of Bones and Secrets of Skin
• Trustee of the Jane Goodall Institute UK; Vice President of Norfolk Wildlife Trust; Fellow of the Linnean Society
• Author of the Extinct series and the Ultimate Dinosaurs series for Head of Zeus; author of The Chimpanzee and Me
• Regular contributor to BBC Radio 4’s The Infinite Monkey Cage and Inside Science; columnist for The Guardian and The Conversation

Biography

The chimpanzee population in the forest where Ben Garrod once ran a Jane Goodall Institute field site has fallen within a single professional lifetime. That kind of data point, drawn from direct fieldwork rather than a secondary report, is what a conversation with him tends to start from. It is also why leadership teams working through ESG and climate exposure increasingly want him in the room.

His academic base is the University of East Anglia, where he holds the Chair of Evolutionary Biology and Science Engagement. The PhD, completed at UCL and the Zoological Society of London, looked at how primate species diverge on Caribbean islands, a question about the mechanics of evolution that connects directly to how ecosystems respond under pressure today. The published work, including the Extinct series and the Ultimate Dinosaurs series for Head of Zeus, extends that lens across deep time.

The broadcast profile matters for the room he can command. He has presented alongside David Attenborough on Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur and Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard, and carried his own BBC Four series Secrets of Bones and Secrets of Skin. On radio he is a familiar voice on The Infinite Monkey Cage and Inside Science, and he writes regularly for The Guardian and The Conversation.

The governance roles are worth reading closely. He is a Trustee of the Jane Goodall Institute UK, Vice President of Norfolk Wildlife Trust, a Fellow of the Linnean Society and a Patron of the Natural Sciences Collections Association. For buyers assessing the difference between a broadcaster with an environmental hobby and a scientist with genuine standing in the field, those are the signals that settle the question.

Key speaking topics

• Biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse
• Climate risk through an evolutionary lens
• Extinction science and what deep time tells us about current pressures
• Great ape conservation and the economics of protecting megafauna
• Sustainability and ESG reporting grounded in field evidence
• Science communication for non-specialist audiences

Ideal for

• Sustainability, ESG and CSR leads briefing boards on biodiversity and nature-related risk
• Corporate offsites and industry conferences where the climate session needs to land with scientific weight
• Financial services, insurance and asset management teams assessing nature and biodiversity exposure
• Science, innovation and R&D events needing a chair or keynote with genuine subject fluency

Audience outcomes

• A clearer line between biodiversity loss in the field and the risk categories that now appear in ESG and TNFD reporting
• Specific evidence from African, Asian and Caribbean fieldwork rather than the familiar stock of climate statistics
• A sharper sense of how extinction and ecosystem science inform current corporate sustainability decisions
• For mixed audiences, a scientific voice that holds the room without retreating into jargon or headline generalities