Alex is the chair of the BOU Records Committee (BOURC) and Reader in Biodiversity at Manchester Metropolitan University. He works principally on the impacts of land-use change on bird populations but has long maintained an interest in avian vagrancy and with James Gilroy (former BOURC Chair) recently authored the first book on the subject. As well as serving as BOURC chair he is a member of the steering committee of the Sustainable Amazon Network (RAS), the United Nations Science Panel for the Amazon, the IUCN Species Survival Commission Red List Authority and the Manchester Biodiversity Action Group. He recently retired from the Brazilian Ornithological Records Committee.

Dawn has been a keen birder since she was a child, and a trained bird ringer for over 30 years. She lives in Thetford (Norfolk) and enjoys local birding and other wildlife, photography and occasional trips further afield. Dawn has worked for the BTO since 1992 on a wide range of census, fieldwork, ringing and online bird recording projects.  She was the Atlas Coordinator for the Bird Atlas 2007–11 project and is now Head of Surveys. Dawn is also Chair of the Rare Breeding Birds Panel and Secretary of the European Bird Census Council. In her spare time, she is a voting member of the British Birds Records Committee, a Director and on the Editorial Board of British Birds and a Trustee of the Eric Hosking Charitable Trust.

Leila has responsibility for the day to day management and running of the BOU including conferences and events, the business side of our journal IBIS, communications, website development and servicing BOU Council and its Standing Committees.