I was born and raised in rural North Norfolk, which meant farmland and empty skies but also amazing nature – although I didn’t take much notice of it at the time. Until I came to university, I didn’t realise that it wasn’t very normal to have a barn owl screech on your windowsill, hear a bittern boom when you went for a walk, or see at least one seal nearly every time you went for a swim. Five minutes at the end of a lecture in the second year of my undergraduate degree in biology changed that, opening my eyes to the beauty of ecology and biogeography and the rigor of conservation science. Through this, I became interested in large levers of change for sustainability and conservation, like policy-making and investing, which lead me to a master’s in environmental economics & policy and professional experience in sustainable finance. This happened to coincide with the emergence of biodiversity finance as a topic of interest to science, finance, and policy-makers. Feeling my background might let me contribute something of use, I was able to move into a DPhil and maintain a part-time role in a sustainable investor – burning the candle at both ends to try and shift capital away from nature-degrading businesses.