Stephanie Hilborne

Stephanie Vera Hilborne OBE (born 3 March 1968) is a British scientist. She became chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts in 2004. In 2010 she received an OBE for her services to nature conservation.

Hilborne has a first class degree in Biology (1990) and an honorary doctorate in science (2015) from Bristol University.She earned a Master's in Biology/Conservation from University College London in 1992.

As of 2010, Hilborne joined the Board of Trustees of the UK Green Building Council.She later became vice chair of the UK Green Building Council.

She joined the Wildlife and Countryside Link, a national coalition of environmental organizations, in 1998.In 2000 she joined the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, serving as its Chief Executive from 2000-2004. In 2004, she became Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trust, a collective of the 47 local Wildlife Trusts. As a group in 2015, it manages 2,300 wildlife reserves, with over 2,000 staff, 35,000 volunteers and 800,000 members.

Hilborne has been successful in campaigning for the Marine and Coastal Access Act (2009); contributing to Sir John Lawton's review, which was published as Making Space for Nature (2010); and working on a White Paper on the Natural Environment (2011). The White Paper pledged that theConservative Party would be “the first generation to leave the environment in a better state than it found it”.

Hilborne was one of the members of an independent panel on forestry which was formed in December 2010 and reported on 4 July 2012.Hilborne served on the Smarter Environmental Regulation Review of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairsin 2014-2015.

In June 2019, Hilborne announced that she would be leaving the The Wildlife Trusts in October, to start a role as chief executive at Women in Sport.