Andy Atkins

Andy Atkins (b. 9 Oct 1959)^[1] is CEO of the environmental charity A Rocha UK.^[2] Prior to that, he was Executive Director of environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth (EWNI), from March 2008 until July 2015. He replaced Tony Juniper and was succeeded by Craig Bennett. Atkins was previously policy and campaigns director at relief and development agency Tearfund. He was part of the original group of charity campaigners who started the high profile Make Poverty History campaign in 2005.^[3]

Personal

Atkins is married to Sarah, a solicitor, and they have three children: Racheal, Ben and Jessica. He is an amateur painter.^[4]

Education

Atkins studied Economic Geography and then Latin American Development at University College London, and is fluent in Spanish. He subsequently studied NGO management with the Open University. In 2006 he participated in the Cambridge University Business Programme course on sustainable development.^[3]

Work history

After his degree at UCL, Atkins worked in Argentina for nine months as a volunteer community development worker in the aftermath of the Falklands War. Through this experience, he was convinced for the need to address the injustices of western countries' economic and political relationships with developing countries, which had been supporting despotic regimes and fueling mounting international debt.^[3]

Between 1985-1988, he was General Secretary for the Chile Committee for Human Rights. Atkins campaigned for human rights and a return to democracy in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship, working with the small but effective Chile Committee for Human Rights, first as local campaign groups coordinator and then, as the general secretary.^[3]

He has also worked at CAFOD and at the Catholic Institute for International Relations, (CIIR), where he was Latin American Desk Officer between 1990-1997.

References