Team

Nestor Montagu

Luke Montagu

Luke manages Mapperton Estate with his wife Julie after taking over from his parents in 2016. After graduating from Columbia University, Luke founded a series of technology, education and media businesses. In 2003 he co-founded the Met Film School, which he led as CEO until 2009. Luke leads the Secretariat for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Prescribed Drug Dependence, is chair of the trustees for the Dalai Lama Centre for Compassion and the charity West Dorset Wilding.

Prof Tom Brereton

Tom is Head of Ecology at Mapperton. He is a highly experienced ecologist with a lifelong interest in natural history. He has an MSc in Conservation and a PhD in Butterfly Ecology. Tom has worked for the Northumberland Wildlife Trust as an RSPB Warden and Reserves Ecologist, as Associate Director of Research at Butterfly Conservation, and more recently as co-founder of Marinelife, monitoring cetaceans and seabirds in Lyme Bay. Tom is currently a Visiting Professor at Bournemouth University and Visiting Researcher at Exeter University, as well as an ecotourism guide, leading bird, butterfly, mammal and botanical tours.

Claire Kingston

Claire is the Estate Manager at Mapperton. Claire joined Mapperton 2015 having spent the previous 13 years working as a farm & rural business consultant to a number of farming and food businesses across the south and south west.  She has a BSc (hons) in Agri-Food Business Management and grew up on a 1500 acre mixed Estate in Somerset.

Ben Padwick

Ben is the Ranger at Mapperton. Ben studied Game and Conservation Management at Sparsholt for 3 years before working on a 4,800 acre estate in Norfolk. This focused on the conservation of ground nesting birds such as grey partridges, stone curlews and many other species. He then went to live and work in Australia for 2 years on a thoroughbred horse stud before returning home to England in June 2021, with the aim of working on a rewilding project. He joined Mapperton in April 2022.

Tom & Sophie Gregory

Tom and Sophie Gregory are first generation farmers who milk 360 organic cows across just under 1,000 acres. They run a low input, low output system, aiming to produce milk while running a sustainable business environmentally, socially and economically. They farm using regenerative principles which focus on soil health. Tom in particular is soil mad and is currently studying an in depth soil course. They also run the herd of White Park cattle on Mapperton Wildlands.