African Mountain Research Foundation is a UK charity which aims to safeguard southern Africa’s mountain systems by generating high elevation hydro-meteorological data and nurturing an active community of regional mountain science practice.
Our Mission
To install automatic weather stations and research centers in the remote mountain regions of southern Africa
To share the data that these stations generate to anyone who may need them
To grow a community of practice around the southern African mountains
To work with partners in the region to safeguard biodiversity and water security.
Trustees & director profiles
- Alex Hickman, ChairmanAlex has a background in journalism, business and political campaigning, and worked as a special adviser to the UK Prime Minister (2020 – 2022). He is a Senior Managing Director at Teneo, a global consulting firm. Alex spent 20 years as a volunteer, staffer and Trustee of Restless Development, a UK-based NGO with operations across Africa and Asia. He is co-founder of Plant For Our Lives, an award-winning community tree planting initiative in Wiltshire.
- Professor Ralph Clark, TrusteeRalph is Director of the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) and Professor in Geography (University of the Free State: Qwaqwa Campus). The ARU is located at the foot of the highest mountains in Africa south of Mt Kilimanjaro: the Maloti-Drakensberg. Other than driving a competent, multi-disciplinary mountain research team and international collaborations, Ralph’s personal research expertise focus is on southern African mountain plant diversity and endemism.
- Dr Tamuka Magadzire, TrusteeTamuka is an agrometeorologist with over 20 years’ experience working in southern Africa as a regional scientist for the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network and working closely with the Southern Africa Development Community. His activities primarily involve data analysis for policy and action, software and system development, data science and applied research. He regularly analyses agrometeorological and satellite data to support early warning for food insecurity. He has worked closely with climate experts and agrometeorologists from over 12 SADC countries and provides training. Tamuka has also co-authored several scientific articles in the fields of climatology and food security. He has led the development of software applications that support climatic and agrometeorological analyses. He is interested in promoting initiatives that strengthen sustainable development in Africa.
- Professor Alistair Clulow, Chief Technical AdvisorAlistair is an Associate Professor in Agrometeorology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. He has worked in consulting and research with environmental monitoring equipment for over 20 years with expertise in setting up and running complex systems to measure micrometeorology, energy and radiation balances at the earth’s surface, water and carbon fluxes, tree transpiration, water levels, soil water and lightning.
- Graham Thomas, TreasurerGraham has over 30 years of investment banking and private equity experience and currently runs Stage Capital, a private equity firm specialising in secondary direct transactions. Graham serves as the Chairman of the Investment Committee of Menhaden Capital Advisors, the manager of Menhaden Capital PLC. In addition he is a member of the investment committee of Apis Partners, a firm which backs growth financial service innovators who create transformative impact in their communities. He is a Fellow and Trustee of the Rivers Trust.
- Clara Hickman, DirectorClara has a background in TV production, working on numerous programmes as a producer for Channel 4 and BBC2 on subjects as varied as the archeology of human origins to the architectural history of the UK's tallest buildings. More recently she worked in project management and community organising for Community First, a Wiltshire based charity. Clara is a Foundation Governor of Woodborough Church of England Primary School and has been the Director of African Mountain Research Foundation since 2019.
Help us on our mission
Mountains Matter. They are home to 15% of the world’s population, host about half of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, provide freshwater for everyday life to half of the global population and help to sustain agriculture and supply clean energy and medicines. Help us to protect them.