Barbara Young, Baroness Young of Old Scone, has been Chief Executive of the Environment Agency since December 2000.

Barbara Young’s early career was spent in public relations and in health services management. She was Chairman and then President of the Institute of Health Services Management from 1986 to 1988, and A King’s Fund International Fellow in 1985-86 and 1990-1991.

Prior to taking up her post at the Environment Agency, Barbara Young was Chairman of English Nature and Vice Chairman of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). From 1990 to 1998, she held the post of Chief Executive of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

Barbara Young is a Life Peer in the House of Lords as Baroness Young of Old Scone, and a Trustee of the Institute for Public Policy Research. She is President of the British Trust for Ornithology and the Wildlife Trust (Cambs, Beds, Northants, Peterborough), and Vice President of the RSPB, Birdlife International, Plantlife and Flora and Fauna International. She holds a number of Honorary degrees and is an Honorary Fellow Sydney Sussex College, Cambridge and a Chartered Environmentalist. (CEnv)