Stuart Reed

Stuart Reed - IT maestro since 2020

When I met Stuart Reed for our interview he told me he knows very little about trees. However his role is vital to the efficiency of the charity. He introduced and now manages the Smartsheet software in which our tree data is stored and shared, and trains fellow-volunteers in its use. He loves this. “You can’t put a price on my colleagues’ passion for their roles".

By profession Stuart is an IT project manager. A former rugby player and front man of a surf punk band, he's now a keen cyclist and “a family man who plays far too many board games”. He has been resident in Lee Green since 2010.

Apart from his role for the charity, Stuart enjoys the camaraderie. He likes the opportunity to socialise with other volunteers “especially seeing the whites of their eyes after two years of lockdown". These meetings have also made him realise “the amazing complexity of the behind-the-scenes activity of the charity, and the sheer variety of roles covered by so many different teams.”

I was struck by Stuart's principles - he nearly didn’t make our interview which followed a torrential rainstorm. He told me he hasn’t owned a car for several years, preferring to get around using a bicycle and public transport. “Not having a car makes your world smaller, but we have reduced our carbon footprint and taken one more car off the road. It’s a sacrifice but the whole family feels better about making a difference, however small”.

Stuart told me he thought trees are “symbolic”, which is an unexpected idea from a volunteer whose work for the charity is entirely defined by the online spreadsheets that enable its tree planting. He quoted the old and lovely idea voiced by Ricky Gervais’s character in After Life about “a society growing great when old men plant trees whose shade they'll never sit in”.