Toby has over 20 years professional experience of nature conservation gained in the commercial, public and voluntary sectors. Toby founded UES in 2007, after leaving United Utilities where he worked as a Project Ecologist.
In his current role as Managing Director of UES he leads and manages a team of ecologists, as well as conducting protected species and habitat surveys and ecological impact assessments. Between 2018 – 2022 Toby was seconded to ARUP as the Lead Ecologist for HS2 Phase 2a (Birmingham to Crewe), where he was responsible for survey design, sub-contractor management, survey dataset quality assurance, digital development, and support and direction to the species leads.
Toby holds Natural England, Natural Resources Wales and Nature Scot survey licences for bats and great crested newts (GCN), which allows him to legally disturb and handle these species. Toby holds level three and four bat class licences in England, which allows him to use mist nets, harp traps and acoustic lures. He is also a registered consultant under Natural England’s bat mitigation class licence, HS2 bats in buildings class licence, and HS2 bats in trees class licence. Toby has also prepared and secured over 120 European protected species (EPS) mitigation licences for bats and GCN.
Toby is passionate about studying bats and has attended a number of research trips in France and Greece. He also led a research trip in Costa Rica in 2016, where the team processed 25 different species of bat.
Toby holds a level six field identification skills certificate (FISC) from the Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland (BSBI). Level six is only awarded in exceptional circumstances where the surveyor is a very competent professional field botanist and is of national status. Toby is an active botanical recorder and has recorded several species outside of their known range.
Toby is a full member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM), who promote the highest standards of practice through a professional code of conduct and continuing professional development (CPD). Toby is also a practitioner of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA), a lead environmental auditor, and has produced environmental management systems to ISO 14001:2015 standard.
In addition, he is a CS38 certified tree climber, holds a valid CSCS card (professionally qualified person), and is trained in asbestos awareness and emergency first aid at work.