Simon Pepper was founding director of WWF Scotland 1985-2005, awarded an OBE for services to sustainable development in 2000. He has served as an external appointee to the Cabinet Sub-committee on Sustainable Scotland (chaired by the First Minister), on the Deer Commission and the National Committee of the Forestry Commission Scotland, and on the board of the Scottish Wildlife Trust. He is currently chairman of the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund panel, and a board member of Scottish Natural Heritage, as well as operating as an independent adviser on environmental policy matters.
Simon was founder and vice-chairman of Millennium Forest for Scotland, a £30m project funded by the Millennium Commission, and is now a director of the Scottish Trust for Underwater Archaeology, also acting as a part time guide at the Scottish Crannog Centre on Loch Tay.
In 2005 he was elected Rector of the University of St Andrews for a three year term of office.
He and his wife run a small farm/woodland property in highland Perthshire.