THE DIRECTORS
Richard Clarke, MSc BSc
Managing Director
Laura McLean, DVM MRCVS BA
Finance Director
Our Founder and Managing Director, Richard Clarke is a British-born conservationist. He founded Highland Carbon with a genuine passion for conservation and for the environment as a whole.
Highland Carbon focuses on the supply of authentic UK climate projects with exceptional credentials, and on curating impactful international projects. This distinguishes us from those carbon brokers that have spun-off from the commodity trading, pension fund and venture capital arenas, with the latter perhaps being focused more on margins than on the quality of outcomes.
Richard was educated at Michigan State University in the United States. As an undergraduate he read Zoology with emphasis upon ecology, forestry, conservation, wildlife management, marine biology, fisheries management and animal behavior.
During University as an undergraduate, Richard co-lead the Project Recycle campaign at Michigan State University. This campaign entailed collecting 5,000 student petition signatures and giving talks to the University leadership to successfully encourage the launch of University-wide recycling for paper products. Also during University, Richard launched an Earth Day Festival on campus, with live music and stands for a dozen environmental charities and associated student groups: Audubon Society, Sierra Club, Greenpeace, etc.
During summers as an undergrad, Richard held roles with conservation and environmental charities including Chester Zoo (UK), Clean Water Action (USA) and Michigan United Conservation Clubs (USA).
Richard's post graduate degree was also in Zoology and continued the within the discipline of animal behaviour. Allied to his Masters' dissertation, Richard studied the impacts of agricultural chemicals upon wellbeing and behaviour. During his post-grad education, Richard worked for The Recyclers charity. The charity launched and managed the second kerbside recycling programme in the USA.
Following university, he worked in business development with The Nature Conservancy in Washington DC (world’s largest land charity). At the same time, he became a Trustee of Urban Options, a charity promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy in the context of building construction - then a nascent field.
Richard then held senior roles in business development and communications with veterinary colleges at two major universities, the Environmental Defence Fund in New York City (the leading US environmental pressure group), and the Woodland Trust near London (UK's largest woodland creation charity).
Today, Richard is the Managing Director of Highland Carbon, an award-winning business that he founded in 2017. He was inspired to bring a landscape conservation framework to the UK carbon market where it was lacking. He was also keen to ensure that nature restoration projects would complement other land uses, rather than clearing farmers and crofters off the land, for example. So doing, he established the company to successfully pioneer the supply of ethical, conservation-grade UK carbon units.
Highland Carbon partners with estates in the spectacular wilds of Scotland, Northern England and Wales where it restores vast native forests, undertakes peatland restoration projects and supports rewilding activities. It then sells the carbon credits arising from those projects to more than 100 ethical businesses who have committed to actively reducing their carbon footprints.
The business has won the award for the ‘Best UK Carbon Credit Supplier’ in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 – each year that it has applied. Highland Carbon won the 2024 award for 'Natural Landscape Restoration Expertise'. It has been lauded by the British Chambers of Commerce for its ‘inspirational approach to innovative green solutions’ during the lead up to the 2023 COP.
In the context of Highland Carbon, Richard has been interviewed by The BBC, Sky News, The Scotsman newspaper, Carbon Pulse magazine and Business Network magazine. He has delivered podcasts to the Global List in New York, NQA Global Certification Body in Scotland, the De-Carbonisation Training Centre, Wester Ross Biosphere and Aberdeen Science Museum. He has given talks to various organisations and forums such as the UK Sustainability Summit, the UK Association of Sustainability Professionals, Hull Eco Fest, Yorkshire Sustainability Festival and a virtual seminar allied to COP26 in Glasgow.
Richard was recently appointed as the first member of the Board of Directors of Mind Wellbeing and as a Trustee of Tickhill Community Connections. Richard donates his time and support to a number of charities and community interest companies including: Doncaster Business for the Community (DB4C), See It Be It Sheffield, Earthself, Fuel Change, Highlands Outdoors & Wilderness Learning, the Rothiemurchus Trust, Beyond Borders Festival, Traquair House Charity Trust and Doncaster Arts (DARTs).
Dr Laura McLean's ancestors hail from the Scottish Highlands and Islands. Her family holds reunions at the McLean hunting lodge on the Isle of Mull located off the West Coast of Scotland.
Prior to undertaking her veterinary degree, Dr McLean completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Finance. She worked at Senate Finance and then in banking in the USA.
Her childhood dream had been to become a veterinarian. She started over in University, taking a biology (pre-vet) curriculum then attending Michigan State University - College of Veterinary Medicine.
Today, Dr McLean has twenty-five years experience as a veterinarian working in both the USA and UK. She is the Clinical Director for Pinfold House Veterinary Clinic in Misterton, Nottinghamshire, UK. Her role includes chief responsibility for business strategy, financial performance, personnel management and clinical excellence.
Laura regularly undertakes professional development during conferences in London and New York. She previously undertook three quarters of an Ophthalmology Certification and is currently undertaking an Internal Medicine Certification specialism.
In her spare time Dr McLean has volunteered in wildlife rehabilitation and has provided free surgeries to animal rescue centres. She provides Pro Bono veterinary care to the local hedgehog rescue centre. It is very common for her to be rehabilitating wild animals at any moment: hedgehogs, rabbits, collared doves, pigeons, thrushes, crows and jackdaws.
Laura previously volunteered on a committee that saved the old trees in her village from being arbitrarily felled by a Council subcontractor as they had been in the tens of thousands in nearby Sheffield.
During summers whilst in university in the States, Dr McLean worked for NGOs, Clean Water Action and The Recyclers. She has a passion for wild places, rare species conservation, habitat restoration and mitigating climate change.
Laura is an equestrian, having owned several horses over the years. She currently owns one horse, an Irish 'Connemara' named 'Shealany'. In her youth Stateside, she rode dressage and showjumping. She has spent many years riding cross-country and on along beaches with friends. She still rides dressage but not competitively.
Dr McLean is married to our Founder, Richard Clarke.