![](https://debatingmatters.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/JaneCooper300.jpg)
CEO, Countryside Education Trust
Jane is chief executive of the Countryside Education Trust, an environmental education charity in Beaulieu in the New Forest. A jack of all trades, she has worked as a banker, a fundraiser, and a business consultant in corporate social responsibility, with a wide range of organisations including NatWest, The Prince’s Trust, BP, WWF, IKEA and Vodafone. With degrees in English from Oxford and London, Jane is a poet and playwright, the founder of Bareknuckle Shakespeare, and a member of the RSA. She has served as a trustee for a number of organisations, including Centrepoint and the National Lottery Board (South), as a school governor and as a co-opted local councillor. She is a passionate believer in the power of words, freedom of speech and respectful debate.