Charles Stirton was born in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa in 1946. He was educated at the Universities of Natal (cum Laude) and Cape Town winning the South African Association of Botanists - Junior medal for Best Botany PhD in South Africa (1989). He has been very active on numerous Trusts and charities and is currently a Trustee of The Gateway Gardens Trust (www.gatewaygardenstrust.org). He is a Non-Executive Director of Fleet (Holdings) Ltd – a Property and Mezzanine financing company (www.pimentogroup.com).

From 1996 to 2002 he was the Founding Director of the National Botanic Garden of Wales (www.gardenofwales.org.uk). Prior to this he was Deputy Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (1992-1996) and before that a Chief Professional Officer at the Botanic Research Institute (South Africa), as well as Associate Professor at the University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg). He left the National Botanic Garden of Wales in September 2002 to set up a Preferred Futures Consultancy called Contextua and worked out of Wales and England.

Professor Stirton is a professional plant taxonomist. He is the author of four books and 125 scientific publications on weeds, arid plants, plant nomenclature, conservation, economic botany, plant taxonomy, Amazonian and Mediterranean plants, history, pollination ecology, natural history, and the plant families Leguminosae, Rosaceae,and Verbenaceae. He has been a University Professor and has supervised 6 Honours, 4 Masters and 2 Doctoral students. He is currently a Mellon Foundation Mentor at the University of Cape Town. Plant identification is a special interest.

He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Wales (1997-present) and is a recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Glamorgan for his contributions to botanic gardens. He was an Honorary Research Fellow at Birmingham University and an Honorary Professor at Reading University. His hobbies are gardening, postcard collecting, philately and postal history, writing, books, travelling and cinema. He is currently completing two monographs on Psoraleoid and Sophoroid Legumes and is writing four books entitled Emerging Wisdom, African Megaliths, The History of Seven and Shards of Silence. He has had two plant genera named after him: Stirtonia & Stirtonanthus. He has a particular interest in ancient wisdom and was a founding trustee of the Ouroboros Trust (www.ouroborostrust.org).

Charles Stirton has many skills and competencies in fundraising, and scientific and general management. These are recognised in his having been elected a Chartered Biologist, a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute, a member of the Institute of Directors, and a Fellow of the Linnean Society. He has been a professional member of the World Futures Society and of the Association of Professional Futurists. He has managed or stimulated a number of visionary projects in Wales and England. He is currently an Honorary Research Associate and Mellon Foundation Mentor at the University of Cape Town. He is an enthusiastic and successful public communicator. He lives in Bath, England.