Tim O’Riordan

Tim O’Riordan (HF 1963 - 65) OBE DL FBA graduated in Geography from his home town University of Edinburgh. His undergraduate research explored why the small burns of East Lothian dried up every summer removing all of the richly diverse invertebrates. This extermination was due to excessive abstraction for the irrigation of potatoes, unimpeded by the lack of any regulation or pricing. He received a MS in water resources management from Cornell, leaving sufficient time to drive to Berkeley to read natural resources management. Tim returned to Kings College Cambridge where he divided his time between studying the governance of the Norfolk Broads for his PhD and playing classical double bass. He spent seven years in Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and returned to the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia. He served on the Broads Authority for 20 years, sat on the Dow Chemical Sustainability Board, advised Asda and Eastern Electricity, and was a faculty member of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Tim received the awards of Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Norfolk, a Fellowship of the British Academy, and an OBE. He is currently President of CPRE Norfolk and the Norfolk Association of Local Councils where he is actively involved with the localisation of sustainability in the County.