Chief Executive of the Wildlife Trust for Beds, Cambs and Northants (2009-present); previously Conservation Director (1997-2009). He introduced landscape-scale conservation to this Wildlife Trust, launched the Great Fen project and helped establish landscape conservation and climate change adaptation as underlying aims of all 46 Wildlife Trusts.
Until 1997, he was Head of Zoology and Research Co-ordinator at the national Biological Records Centre, CEH Monks Wood, specialising in invertebrates. He is author of over 250 scientific papers and reports.
Brian has specialised in peatlands for most of his career, having known the two largest lowland raise bogs in Britain, Thorne and Hatfield Moors, for over 40 years, and chaired the Thorne & Hatfield Moors Conservation Forum for 22 years. He has published 33 scientific papers on lowland peatlands, and has studied peatlands throughout Britain, Ireland and mainland Europe.
In 2018, he was appointed a visiting professor in the School of Water, Energy and Environment at Cranfield University.