Professional Biotechnologist specialising in the production of electricity from food and farm wastes, with organic fertiliser as a by-product, a keen environmentalist.  Les was a co-founder of the International Environment Forum and the Spires Integrated Primary School in Northern Ireland where he lives with his wife in the first passive solar house in Ireland that they created together in 1995. Les was a secondary school teacher in 1968-69 in Botswana returning to the same village to assist the local community in 1978.  In 1995 he attended the UN World Summit on Social Development in Copenhagen as an NGO assistant. Keen on cradle to grave education Les ran an annual Summer School Science course for 14 years in Kilkenny that only ended with the Covid lock down in 2019. He has been a trustee of the WRI since Jan 2023 and is currently the Treasurer.