TANYA STEELE | GRADUATED 1990 DEGREE | MARKETING COLLEGE | CARTMEL


PROFESSION | CHIEF EXECUTIVE FOR WWF (WORLD WIDE FUND FOR NATURE) UK


Striking a Balance


Tanya Steele is very aware of striking a delicate balance in her role as the UK Head of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) - on the one hand she must draw attention to the way climate change is threatening the world’s most precious places and eco-systems, while on the other inspiring individuals with a hope that they can make a positive difference.


The Lancaster University marketing graduate thinks that stories are key to achieving change: “Ultimately, it’s really important for us to inspire and encourage all sectors of society including individual citizens on the journey. If people feel powerless then policies and businesses are not going to change.”


Her work - which can see her talking to members of the UK’s Climate Change Committee or the UN one day, and meeting members of indigenous communities from the Amazon another - brings her stories daily, to back up the science and policy governments, business and banks require.


Tanya received her alumni award in 2024


Based in London, she’s been to the Amazon several times. “The thing about standing in the Amazon rainforest is the sheer scale of it,” she says. “I was lucky enough to visit with a TV crew, and it was mind blowing, seeing both the scale and the Amazon’s vulnerability. You could see both the deforestation and the incursions (such as roads and the expansion of agriculture).” And Tanya’s focus will be on the Amazon again later this year, when the annual Climate COP summit is hosted in Brazil – WWF is calling for action to end deforestation to be a central priority there.


4 | STEPS 2025


Closer to home, she has worked with David Attenborough, including on 2023’s BBC Wild Isles series, which was co-produced and supported by WWF and showcased the beauty – but also the fragility – of UK nature. Connected to that, WWF and partners set out what our political and business leaders and others need to do to restore the wildlife and wild places we value – and ensured all political parties heard those messages loud and clear ahead of last year’s UK General Election.


Tanya is clear that all of us can make a difference:


“The decisions and actions of individual people can have an extraordinary impact. I find this talking to business leaders and politicians.” While the challenges facing the natural world are huge, people power will have a huge role to play in solving them.


All this work has brought Tanya a CBE and a Lancaster University alumni award. As well as her engagement work to rally support, she coordinates teams of scientists, policy makers, advocates and communicators in a bid to combat climate change and restore nature.


She considers it a privilege to be working in such a crucial role, with such breadth. She arrived at Lancaster as an 18-year-old from a Macclesfield comprehensive, with a desire to work in social justice, but without any idea how to get there.


Her then boyfriend (now husband) was coming to a northern university, so Lancaster seemed a good choice. He later studied at Lancaster too.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24