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Meet the Team
Senior Management Team
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Mark has worked in the environmental field since 2007 and joined the national marine regulator, the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) in 2010 as an enforcement officer. During his twelve-year career with the MMO, he worked across enforcement, investigations, training and Brexit, and latterly, headed up their Training and North West Operational Teams. After leaving the MMO for a brief stint with Ribble Rivers Trust as their Head of Conservation, Mark joined the Authority in April 2023 as our new CEO.
Mark is passionate about the marine environment and the coastal communities of the North West of England and is always seeking to lead the Authority towards new, innovative ways of delivering its statutory responsibilities. He loves working with such a dedicated, talented group of colleagues, and relishes the opportunities to engage with our wide variety of members and stakeholders.
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Joe has been an employee of NWIFCA since 2012 when he joined as an IFCO. Since then, he has fulfilled roles as Communications Officer and Intelligence Officer as well as being on patrol around the coastline and at sea.
In 2017, Joe was promoted to the role of Head of Enforcement and now leads the Enforcement Team in ensuring regulatory compliance across the district. When time allows, Joe still enjoys getting out on patrol and meeting stakeholders.
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Anna leads our Science Team, who deliver all our scientific research and monitoring work across the district. The team of technical specialists regularly devises and applies a variety of bespoke survey methodologies to assess the state of our various fisheries and marine environments.
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Prior to joining NWIFCA in March 2021, Alison spent over twenty years at a national builders merchants, starting on the trade counter to and working her way up the ladder, spending over ten years as a Senior Operations Manager.
Alison joined NWIFCA as our Clerk. In 2023, she took up the role of Head of Administration where she oversees all the work of the Admin Team. The team delivers our finance and HR functions, organises our various committee meetings, manages and maintains all our assets, runs our fisheries permit schemes and processes all our enforcement and fisheries data.
Enforcement Team
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Andy has been an enforcement officer within NWIFCA since its inception in 2011. Prior to this he worked as a Fisheries Officer with North Western Sea Fisheries Committee. Before joining NWSFC he spent 25 years in the Royal Marines. Outside his present role within NWIFCA he is a Major within the Royal Marines Reserves.
As SIFCO, Andy oversees the work of the Enforcement Team in the southern part of the district, from the Dee Estuary all the way up to Arnside.
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Ian is the senior officer in charge of the middle part of the district, from the River Kent to the River Duddon, which includes the one of Europe largest mussel fisheries at Foulney and the major cockle fishery off Flookburgh.
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Hugh has been with the Authority and its predecessor organisation, Cumbria Sea Fisheries Committee for over twenty years. As a highly experienced officer, he leads the crew of our main patrol vessel, North Western Protector as master, as well as overseeing the work of IFCOs covering the northern part of the district, from the River Duddon up into the Solway Firth.
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Erik was a trawler skipper in the 1980s and 90s before before joining Cumbria Sea Fisheries Committee (CSFC) in 1999. He was Deputy Master of CSFC’s old patrol vessel Solway Protector and also senior shore officer.
Erik now fulfils a dual role covering shore-based duties in the northern part of the district whilst also acting as the Deputy Master of North Western Protector when it goes to sea.
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Alex started as an IFCO with us in 2023. He has a background in marine environmental science and ecosystem management. He has been lucky enough to work on surveys around the world, but believes nothing beats the Cumbrian coastline on a sunny day!
He likes boats and dogs!
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Chris started with NWIFCA in 2023.
He previously worked as a consultant, in the roles of scientific officer and fisheries observer with international fishing fleets in the Antarctic Ocean.
He participated in conservation work with local and international NGOs, including project and scientific monitoring management over the last two decades.
He has also worked in arboriculture / forestry, completing projects in Northumberland to promote species conservation and regeneration and habitat protection.
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Mark has been an enforcement officer with NWIFCA since 2017. Previously he’d been a member of the Royal Marines for 27 years, and after leaving the marines he took a three-year sabbatical before joining us.
Science Team
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Jon has been with NWIFCA since 2015, where he joined as a Science Officer. In recent years, he has fulfilled the role of Senior Science Officer.
His previous employment has included environmental and scientific officer for NEIFCA, a benthic technician for an ecological consultancy, a marine graduate with Cumbria Wildlife Trust, as well as working for Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust on conservation land management.
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Gemma joined NWIFCA in 2022. Prior to that, she worked in the Environmental Team at Menter Mon, a not for profit organisation in Anglesey. There, she worked on interesting projects safeguarding local water vole populations and working with local communities to improve their local natural environment.
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Lucy joined NWIFCA in 2024 after graduating from University. During a summer break she completed an internship at Save the Med in Mallorca as part of the MPAs team.
Administration Team
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Kate has worked here since 2021, joining us from a chartered accountancy firm where she worked in the Admin Team for 13 years.
Kate leads on all our fisheries permit schemes and processing of all our enforcement and fisheries data.
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Steph joined NWIFCA in early 2024, before which she worked as a primary school teacher in Leigh, London and, more recently, Morecambe.
Steph works across all areas of administration, but in particular oversees our assets and equipment maintenance, training arrangements and clerking of our Technical, Scientific and Byelaws Sub-Committee (TSB).
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Catherine joined NWIFCA in early 2024. She had previously worked in education in teaching, pastoral and administerial roles. She has also worked in hospitality for many years, including living and working on the Isle of Iona.
Catherine plays a vital role acting as clerk of the Authority, as well as covering all aspects of our health and safety administration, and providing specialist support to our two operational teams.