King Charles III has appointed four new Commissioners to the UK Forestry Commission by Royal Warrant, with a trained forester and the chief executive of Clinton Devon Estates among the four taking up posts from 1 April. That is according to a joint announcement from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Forestry Commission, which confirmed four-year terms for Rebecca Heaton and Mike Kapur and three-year terms for Pamela Abbott and John Varley under the Governance Code on Public Appointments.
Heaton is a trained forester with a BSc and PhD in forestry, and holds honorary degrees from Bangor and Loughborough universities for her climate policy and corporate sustainability work in major UK corporations, where she has embedded sustainability into business strategy and overseen compliance, reporting, and auditing. She sat on the UK Climate Change Committee from 2017 to 2021, advising on the 2050 net zero target, and served on the Natural Environment Research Council from 2020 to 2024.
Varley, chief executive of Clinton Devon Estates, oversees 1,900 hectares of multi-purpose woodland that delivers biodiversity, recreation and landscape benefits alongside commercial timber production, having moved into estate management after senior positions at BT plc in its global and field operations divisions. He has also served on the Environment Agency and Natural England boards, contributed to the Lawton Review on habitat and ecological networks and the Independent Forestry Panel, and chaired the Varley Review on how the UK’s railway can deliver for nature and people safely.
Kapur, a Chartered Accountant, previously chaired audit and risk at the National Forest Company, Leicester Royal Infirmary, the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust and De Montfort University, and sits as an Independent Panel Member at Defra. He served as the SME figurehead at the Confederation of British Industry and is a trustee of the National Space Centre and the Leicester City Football Club Trust.
Abbott chairs the Ecosystem Restoration Working Group on the IUCN UK Executive Committee and is the founding Chair of Citizen Zoo, after previously directing Natural Cambridgeshire and co-chairing the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Local Nature Recovery Strategy Steering Group. Her earlier career includes a stint as chief executive of Norfolk Wildlife Trust, director of programmes at the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre, and Norfolk and Suffolk area manager at Natural England.
The Forestry Commission operates as a non-ministerial government department responsible for protecting, expanding, and promoting the sustainable management of England’s woodlands, working alongside Forestry England on the Public Forest Estate and Forest Research, the principal tree and forestry research body. Established in 1919, the Commission enters its 107th year with a board now refreshed across forestry, finance, sustainability, and conservation credentials.
All four terms commenced 1 April 2026, Defra confirmed, with Heaton and Kapur serving four years and Abbott and Varley three, every appointment made strictly on merit under the Governance Code on Public Appointments.
