Non Executive Directors
Our Non Executive Directors
NCEO’s Non-Executive Directors play a vital role in shaping the centre’s strategic direction and ensuring accountability.
They bring a wealth of experience from across academia, government, and industry, offering independent perspectives that help guide decision-making and strengthen NCEO’s impact. Their diverse backgrounds in science, policy, innovation, and leadership enable them to challenge and support the Executive Team, ensuring that NCEO remains responsive to national priorities and global environmental challenges. By fostering external partnerships and championing NCEO’s mission, our Non-Executive Directors help connect our work to the wider world.
Professor Mary E Black
Mary Ethna Black is a medical doctor from Northern Ireland. She has held senior posts in medicine, social care, academia, government, and the UN and her experience spans Asia, Australia, Central America, Europe and USA. Her career has included clinical and public health work in Australia, Ireland, and the UK, and staff roles with WHO and UNICEF in Balkan countries. She led the public health response to Covid-19 in Scotland, established a medical school in far North Queensland, and designed the medical evacuation airlift from Sarajevo during the 1990s war. She is a founder of two successful technology businesses.
Mary holds a medical degree and a research doctorate in global household surveys from Trinity College Dublin, a masters in Health Policy & Management from the Harvard School of Public Health (as a Harkness Fellow) and a masters in Creative and Life Writing from Goldsmiths, University of London. As a senior physician, she is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians UK and the Faculty of Public Health UK. An award-winning writer, she publishes fiction and life-writing.
In addition to NCEO, she is a non-executive director of the UK National Centre for Atmospheric Science, a general member of the Thames Regional Flood and Coastal Committee, an elected board member of Patient Classification Systems International, and a Trustee/Director of the MCS Foundation. She is a founding Fellow of Chapter Zero UK, and an honorary Professor in the School of Medicine at St Andrews University.
Alexandra Bolton
Alexandra Bolton is an engineer, systems thinker and strategic leader whose work has helped reframe how we understand and manage the built environment. Her broad career spans infrastructure, the City, climate governance, and organisational transformation.
She is a Founder of the Built Environment Connective, a movement dedicated to advancing systems thinking across the built and natural environment. Through this work, she continues to connect, coordinate and convene, promoting outcome-focused approaches to complex challenges.
Alexandra has consistently championed collaboration, innovation, and resilience across complex programmes. Her previous roles include founding Executive Director of the Centre for Digital Built Britain, Deputy Head of the National Digital Twin programme, and Director of the Climate Governance Initiative.
As well as serving as non-executive director of NCEO, she holds various board and advisory roles, including serving on the International Advisory Board of the Digital Twin Cities Centre and as an Ambassador for the Climate Governance Initiative. She helps organisations navigate complexity and deliver outcomes that matter for business, for society, and for the planet.
Awarded an OBE for services to the built and natural environment, Alexandra remains an advocate for long-term value, inclusive leadership, and collaboration. She is committed to shaping a future where people and nature can flourish together for generations to come.
