In our 50th year, the Chair of our Board of Trustees, Peter Jennins OBE, has announced he is stepping down (sideways?!) and has handed over the reins to fellow Trustee Nick Coslett. The Trustees took the opportunity at the recent AGM at GroundsFest to heartily thank Peter for his Chairmanship over the last 13 years and presented him with a gift and all of our gratitude on behalf of the UK landscape industry.
New Chair of BALI Chalk Fund Board of Trustees: Nick Coslett
Incoming Chair Nick Coslett has been a BALI Chalk Fund Trustee for more than 10 years. Happy to take this next step in his long and illustrious career, including his tenure as BALI Chairman, Nick states he is “privileged” to take over the mantle from Peter, who stepped down after 13 years at this year’s AGM in September 2025.
Nick’s landscape career began in Landscape Architecture at Cheltenham in 1974. Recognising that design was not his primary strength, he transitioned into Landscape Management, taking on positions within parks departments in Liverpool, Stevenage, and Canterbury. Shifting his career focus more towards growing than planting and procuring, Nick took on sales and marketing roles at Coblands and later Palmstead Nurseries where he felt he could better leverage his experience to better understand and serve customers’ needs.
With notable career milestones include establishing soft landscape workshops that regularly attracted over 300 customer delegates and became key events in the industry calendar; securing the plant supply contract for the Olympic Park; and receiving the Horticulture Week “Sales & Marketing Person of the Year” Award.
Nick is ready to take the BALI Chalk Fund strategy and action plan forward and states:
“For over three decades, I have enjoyed actively contributing to BALI, serving as an Awards judge and witnessing some outstanding landscape projects. Having served as a BALI charity trustee for more than ten years, I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to chair the BALI Chalk Fund and take this forward to encourage training and professional development opportunities for the future of the UK landscape industry.
Thanks to Peter Jennins OBE
We have documented every step of Peter’s “journey through landscapes” here, and want to take this opportunity to wish him all the best as he steps a little closer to full retirement (but know he will continue to offer his invaluable input to help us continue to deliver training and professional development through the Fund’s work).
BALI Chalk Fund: Celebrating 50 years in UK landscapes
Over the next few weeks, we will also be sharing commentaries from some of the Trustees and the team involved with the administration and promotion of BALI Chalk, its awards, funding and enrichment programmes. Together, we are celebrating where how far we have come, how we have changed over the last half century, where we have learned from others in our careers and what we can take forward into the next phase of BALI Chalk Fund.