The Landscape Institute (LI) has announced Robert Hughes as its new permanent Chief Executive with immediate effect.
Robert brings a wealth of commercial experience with him from a career spent largely in the education and technology sectors across the last 20 years, as well as a solid reputation for building inclusive and successful management teams.
Robert first joined the LI as Commercial Director and then served over the past seven months as Acting CEO. He has developed a positive and progressive agenda focused on people, membership and systems, instilling a culture of collaborative working and putting our members, volunteers and staff at the heart of decision-making. His enthusiastic approach, strong financial mindset, and two-way engagement are already making a significant difference.
With a clear direction to modernise the organisation, his strong and consistent leadership has led to the establishment of frameworks to stabilise and futureproof the LI, such as Project Kestrel (the LI’s new digital home) and a New Ways of Working programme. His inclusive, supportive and approachable management style is welcomed by staff, volunteers and members alike.
As the LI enters a new chapter and continues to lead the way in connecting people, place and nature, the shared vision of both the newly appointed permanent CEO and President-Elect, Carolin Göhler FLI is to build a more open and inclusive organisation, focused in the coming 12 months on developing its education and public policy agendas and providing a first-class service to its membership. We will also be building strong partnerships across industry, government and the public to raise the importance and value of the profession, and its skills.
Carolin Göhler FLI, Chair of the Board of Trustees and President-Elect of the Landscape Institute, said: “The Landscape Institute’s Board of Trustees is pleased to appoint Robert Hughes as the new permanent CEO of the LI. Working with Robert and seeing the wide and positive impact he has made over the recent months during his time as Commercial Director and Acting CEO, has been a delight. With his passion for landscape and hands-on experience in managing land, combined with his strong business acumen and immense people skills, he is taking the LI to new heights of collaboration and inclusion. I look forward to continuing to work with him, as we embark both on the challenges, and the many opportunities ahead.”
Robert Hughes, CEO of the Landscape Institute, said: “I am deeply honoured to accept the role of permanent CEO of the Landscape Institute, at a pivotal time for action on the combined emergencies of climate, biodiversity, and health, as well as the green skills agenda. We’re taking positive steps towards becoming a more open, inclusive, and future-orientated organisation, putting our members at the heart of everything we do, and collaborating with partners across the built and natural environment. Our potential to make a difference will be founded on the partnerships we build, both as an Institute and as a society, and I look forward to leading this important work in close collaboration with our dedicated membership body, volunteers, and staff.”
