Meet the Senior Team
CEO
Jamie Cook
Jamie joined the Angling Trust and Fish Legal as CEO in January 2020. The son of a mad keen coarse all-rounder Jamie learned to fish on the Kennet, Thames and surrounding gravel pits as a child. His experience developed into specimen hunting with roach his favourite species. After a brief foray into match angling he turned his focus to carp fishing and has spent a decade targeting large carp across the South of England.
As a parent of two young children his time on the bank is now more limited and this has led Jamie to diversify in turning his hand to lure fishing in both salt and freshwater. He describes fly casting as his weakest suit but something he is looking forward to improving.
Jamie has based his career within the commercial sector with over 15 years experience of leading teams and developing brands in the media industry. He views angling as a gateway to the outdoors and is passionate about the benefits and wellbeing fishing can provide to individuals. Jamie is focused on ensuring more people fish more often and that the environments that anglers spend their time within are healthy and diverse.
Head of Finance
Paul Gant
Despite coming from a strong family angling heritage, Paul is not an angler but was an early environmental activist at 6th form in the late 80s. This was at the same time as working in a local fishing shop, so joining the Angling Trust and Fish Legal in 2023 was not a complete learning curve from scratch.
Enjoying time in the great outdoors as a hiker and more recently cycling and mountain biking, Paul has a firm appreciation of the value of time spent outside, and partly joined Angling Trust and Fish legal because of the environmental drum beat we have been so successful at in recent years.
Having spent 30 years helping others make more profit in various commercial finance roles in food, optical retail and wholesale, joining a not for profit NGB is a big step change for Paul, but his Finance and IT skills sharpened through prior roles bring helpful relevant experience to his role leading the Finance and IT team based in Ilkeston.
Head of Fisheries
Mark Owen
Having been taught fishing by his grandfather in the canals around Derby, Mark followed a career in international finance and commodity trading but always continued fishing across different disciplines. Having become fascinated by the aquatic environment over this period and eager to learn and understand more he read for a degree in Environmental Management at the University of Derby. Upon graduation he applied for the role of Environmental Campaigns manager at the Angling Trust shortly after its formation and has now become the Head of Fisheries.
Mark is responsible for a diverse range of teams in the department which include the Fisheries Enforcement Support Service, the Regions Engagement team, Fisheries Management Advisors, Environment team, Sea Angler Engagement and the Angling Improvement Fund team.
He also represents the Angling Trust on a wide range of government and non-government organisational bodies from the National Drought Group, GB Non-Native Species Secretariat’s specialist working groups, Director of the European Anglers Alliance with a responsibility for freshwater policy to Blueprint for Water’s working groups lobbying for better protection of our waterways. Mark also sits on the external steering group of a number of UK and European funded research projects focussed on improving fish populations.
Head of Delivery
Stuart Sharp
Stuart joined the Angling Trust in 2011 as our then Finance Manager, providing a critical financial eye over Angling Trust and Fish Legal in those early years. Prior to that Stuart had spent over 20 years working in personal and corporate insolvency, latterly specialising in the enforcement and investigation of wrongdoing by company directors. Since then, Stuart has seen and overseen significant changes of the Trust through the merger with the Angling Development Board, successive bids for Environment Agency and Sport England contracts and organic growth.
In 2016 Stuart reduced his hours and changed his role with the Trust to allow him to fulfil every angler’s dream of owning his own fishery. He purchased a holiday site and five lake coarse fishery in Devon which he developed into a successful small business focused on holidaying anglers and the local club match scene. In that time, he gained valuable first-hand experience of the challenges fishery managers face from day to day. Stuart has since sold his business and returned to the senior management team working on various structural changes.
Stuart now leads the Operations team delivering the Governance, HR and Safeguarding work of the Trust including monitoring operational performance of all our outputs and overseeing a range of issues from our member insurances to our gambling activities.
When he is not building something – Stuart is currently renovating his own home – he can be found fishing local club lakes but still occasionally ventures back to fish the rivers he grew up on.
Head of Competitions
Steve Fitzpatrick
Steve joined the Angling Trust in Spring 2022 following 26 years working on the Angling Times and its sister publications, latterly as the group’s longest-serving Editor-in-Chief.
His passion for match fishing started at in the late 1970s as a schoolboy and he competed in both junior and adult open matches and Winter Leagues on his favourite venue, the River Dee around Chester.
He completed a six-year stint in a tackle shop while studying for his degrees at Liverpool and then moved to Cambridgeshire in the mid-90s to take up the position of Match Editor on the Angling Times.
This role saw him work with many of the World’s greatest anglers and team managers as he reported back from World and European events for over a decade.
Domestically, Steve was involved in running the Winter League for many years and launched and ran the popular Maver Pairs and Clubman Supercup events, building lifelong friendships with anglers from all backgrounds and abilities.
Steve loves fishing his local River Nene in the winter, dabbles in carp and shore fishing, and is a passionate photographer and videographer – he reckons he takes as much camera kit as tackle to the bank these days!
Head of Marine
Hannah Rudd
Hannah Rudd is Head of Marine at the Angling Trust, working at the interface of science and policy to support sustainable marine fisheries, ensure recreational angling is effectively represented in decision-making and provide a voice for recreationally important species.
She grew up fishing with her dad on the shores of the Blackwater Estuary in Essex, sparking a lifelong connection to the sea. This led her to a career in marine biology, which she began in South Africa, studying great white sharks. Hannah is a published author with Bloomsbury and Sustainable Fisheries Editor for Oceanographic Magazine, combining scientific expertise with hands-on angling experience to bring a well-rounded perspective on the marine environment. Hannah is a TedX speaker and is regularly featured on the BBC as a marine and fisheries expert.
Hannah is actively involved in the international fisheries community, contributing to the European Anglers Alliance, the International Science Board for the World Recreational Fishing Conference, and the ICES Working Group on Recreational Fisheries Surveys. She is passionate about championing the value of recreational fishing and increasing the representation of women within the sector. In 2025, she was shortlisted for the Bob Earll Award, recognising her as one of the most impactful professionals under 30 in the UK marine sector.
HEAD OF COACHING
Graham Mabey
Graham has worked as an outdoor educator all his working life, both here in the UK and in the United States. Through his work delivering more traditional outdoor activities such as climbing, mountain biking, caving, archery and tutoring outdoor development programmes, Graham started to combine his passion for angling with his experience as an outdoor tutor in 2006.
Starting work at the Angling Trust as a Development Officer for the South East, he used his own experience and knowledge to help inspire and encourage many projects. His move into the role of Head of Coaching will allow Graham to bring this experience to a national level, driving forward an ambition to develop, train and promote our licensed coaches. This will ultimately ensure members of the public can find quality, safe and suitable events to get into the sport or develop skills, and ensure an interest in angling is converted into a hobby for life.
Although a carp angler by trade, and having been part of a very successful England Carp Team for 10 years, Graham enjoys all forms of fishing. He is also a big advocate for the mental health benefits of angling.
Head of Membership and Fundraising
John Cheyne
John’s early fishing life centred mainly on fly fishing on the Water of Leith that runs through urban Edinburgh and the council run reservoirs around the city. Having moved to England as a student he soon found himself coarse fishing and switched his focus to chub and barbel on the rivers Severn and Teme. Then 20 years ago a trip to stay in an idyllic log cabin on the shore of a lake in Finland with his family, resulted in a new passion for lure fishing that lasts to this day. John is the former editor of the Lure Anglers Society’s “Lure Angler” magazine and is President of the Lure Anglers Canal Club. He has served on a number of club committees and is very much involved with the day to day running of grass roots angling clubs. A true all-rounder, John is just as happy catching wrasse off the rocks, float fishing for crucians and tench, battling with barbel and chub on the Wye or hunting for big perch with lures.
John has based the majority of his career in Sales & Marketing and has worked in the publishing and manufacturing sectors as well as running his own business for over a decade. His passion for angling and the environment led to a career switch and he began working for the Trust running our Regional Fisheries forums right round the country back in 2013. He passionately believes that angling is a key way to connect people to the environment and that it leads naturally to a better understanding of our freshwater and saltwater ecosystems and a passion to protect our rivers, lakes and oceans.
Head of Communications
Peter Devery
Peter is a communications professional with 30 years of experience at global, industry-leading enterprises, including Sony, Microsoft, and TATA. He has expertise in corporate communications strategy and direction, reputation management, media relations, crisis management, social impact programmes and campaign management.
A keen angler since childhood, Peter enjoys fishing for barbel in the Loddon and Thames and lure fishing in the sea during summer. He is also the Secretary of his local fly-fishing syndicate on the River Pang. In recent years, Peter has been actively campaigning to help the Pang recover from decades of sewage pollution, participating in the river’s Catchment-Based Approach meetings, and is currently planning a restoration project for the fishery.