The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in west London has seen the appointment of Mr Marcus Agius as chair and Dr Geoffrey Hawtin, Professor Nicola Spence and Sir Ferrers Vyvyan as trustees.

The unpaid posts run until October 2012. Marcus Agius is chairman of Barclays plc and senior independent director on the Executive Board of the BBC, while Geoffrey Hawtin is an expert in the conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources and was the founding director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust.

Nicola Spence is the chief scientist in the Food and Environment Research Agency and Sir Ferrers Vyvyan is the owner and manager of Trelowarren Estate chair of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, which owns and runs the Royal Cornwall Museum.