Recovering lions requires dedicated, collaborative, innovative, thoughtful, and experienced talent from around the world.
The individuals below are valued colleagues working above and beyond their already demanding conservation roles to advance the goals of the Lion Recovery Fund. Their contributions give all of us hope that lions will recover and rebound.
Founder Niassa Lion Project
Dr. Colleen Begg was raised in South Africa. She earned her Master’s Degree (with distinction) assessing the translocation of problem cheetah into Matusadona National Park in Zimbabwe and her PhD in Zoology on the first in-depth study of the honey badger. Colleen is a well published scientist and is also a professional photographer with articles and images published worldwide in National Geographic Magazine and Africa Geographic among others.
In 1996, Colleen joined forces with Keith Begg to start the first in depth study of the honey badger in the Kalagadi Transfrontier Park in South Africa. In 2003, Colleen and Keith, left South Africa for Mozambique and founded the independent Niassa Lion Project in the little known Niassa Reserve in Northern Mozambique where they work in collaboration with local communities and Mozambican management authority (co-management between Wildlife Conservation Society and Ministry of Tourism).
The goals of this project are to secure lions, leopards, wild dogs and spotted hyaenas in Niassa Reserve by finding practical, community based sustainable solutions to human induced threats like unsustainable sport hunting, retaliatory killing and bushmeat snaring. In 2007, Colleen received a Rufford Innovation Award for Niassa Lion Project’s lion conservation work in Niassa Reserve.
Chief Executive Officer, Wildlife Conservation Network
JG has always been passionate about animals. With over two decades of experience in the non-profit sector, his focus has been at the interface between wildlife conservation and development issues. He joined WCN in 2012 and provides strategic leadership to enhance WCN’s overall impacts, sustainability and growth. Originally from Paris, France, JG started his career working with inspiring ecologists studying chimps, gorillas, and mandrills and dodging the occasional elephant in Gabon. At the World Resources Institute, he managed an NGO network to monitor logging companies in Central Africa. He returned to Gabon with the Wildlife Conservation Society to help the development of national parks and ecotourism. For his Ph.D., JG studied the effects of tourism on people’s wellbeing around protected areas in northeastern Namibia. JG is thrilled to combine all of his interests through his work at WCN. When not at work, he tries to keep up with his wife and two children.
Director, Lion Recovery Fund Wildlife Conservation Network
Peter joined WCN in 2017 as the Conservation Initiatives Director and brings a lifelong passion for African wildlife conservation to the organization. He has been working on and with African wildlife since 1993, when he started out as an apprentice in Save Valley Conservancy in Zimbabwe. Peter went on to study at Oxford and ultimately graduated with a PhD from the Mammal Research Institute at the University of Pretoria.
Developing an early expertise on African wild dogs, Peter went on to work on a broad array of conservation issues ranging from predator conservation, to the threats facing them and other wildlife, to wildlife ranching and community conservation, and most recently to Africa’s vast protected area network. Peter has worked in Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe and brings a unique ‘big picture’ perspective to our African conservation efforts. Prior to joining WCN, Peter worked for Panthera’s Lion Program as the policy coordinator and completed some major overviews of the issues facing the conservation of lions in Africa’s protected area network.
Director/Vice President, Board Member Wildlife Conservation Network
After 20 years in the private sector in Silicon Valley, Rebecca joined The Nature Conservancy in 2001 to pursue her life-long interest in conservation. As a Regional Director, she oversaw conservation programs in many parts of the world, from China to Peru to the western United States, and developed a deep appreciation for the importance of community-based conservation. Then as the Chief Conservation Strategies Officer she led TNC’s global policy and science initiatives. She joined WCN in 2010 to contribute her experience to WCN’s innovative and effective model for wildlife conservation. She is on the boards of several other conservation organizations, and in her free time, she also enjoys hiking adventures.
Director of Conservation Programs Wildlife Conservation Network
Paul specializes in highly threatened and endangered species, incubating conservation startups, and building leadership capacity in the environmental field. Paul oversees WCN’s Crisis and Recovery Funds Strategy, including the Lion Recovery Fund. Prior to WCN, Paul was a director of Ewaso Lions and helped build and run the project. In addition to his work with WCN, he runs Save Pangolins, a project he co-founded to address the illegal trade of the little-known pangolin, the world’s most illegally trafficked mammal.Paul is an alum of the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders program and now serves on the board. Paul holds a BSc from the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources & Environment and received his Master’s from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. He was raised in the Bay Area.
Executive Director, Kenya Wildlife Trust
A landscape ecologist with over fifteen years of experience in field ecology, GIS, and project management, Irene has worked in academia, government, and the private sector in Kenya, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.
She holds a BSc in Zoology, an MSc in Environmental Assessment and Management, and a PhD in Landscape Ecology, and she is passionate about bridging the gap between science and policy formulation in the conservation sector. Her research focuses on the interface between wildlife, people, and emerging land uses, looking at practical and sustainable ways to mitigate and adapt to adverse impacts, particularly in fragile ecosystems.
Irene is a 2022 Eisenhower Fellow and serves on the boards and advisory councils of several national and international conservation organizations.
Founder Niassa Lion Project
Dr. Colleen Begg was raised in South Africa. She earned her Master’s Degree (with distinction) assessing the translocation of problem cheetah into Matusadona National Park in Zimbabwe and her PhD in Zoology on the first in-depth study of the honey badger. Colleen is a well published scientist and is also a professional photographer with articles and images published worldwide in National Geographic Magazine and Africa Geographic among others.
In 1996, Colleen joined forces with Keith Begg to start the first in depth study of the honey badger in the Kalagadi Transfrontier Park in South Africa. In 2003, Colleen and Keith, left South Africa for Mozambique and founded the independent Niassa Lion Project in the little known Niassa Reserve in Northern Mozambique where they work in collaboration with local communities and Mozambican management authority (co-management between Wildlife Conservation Society and Ministry of Tourism).
The goals of this project are to secure lions, leopards, wild dogs and spotted hyaenas in Niassa Reserve by finding practical, community based sustainable solutions to human induced threats like unsustainable sport hunting, retaliatory killing and bushmeat snaring. In 2007, Colleen received a Rufford Innovation Award for Niassa Lion Project’s lion conservation work in Niassa Reserve.
Director of Marketing and Communications Wildlife Conservation Network
Stephanie’s two biggest passions are telling great stories and helping animals. In 2003, she was able to bring these passions together by managing communications projects for WildAid, an organization focused on ending illegal wildlife trafficking. Inspired by this experience she went on to get her M.A. in geography, studying human-wildlife interactions in marine mammal rescue and rehabilitation. Most recently, Stephanie was a Communications Officer at The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation where she worked on communications strategy and developed print and digital content on a variety of issues—including climate change, education, women’s empowerment and the arts.
Executive Director Wildlife Conservation Society’s Big Cats Program
Luke Hunter is the Executive Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Big Cats Program, where he helps to coordinate the strategies and activities of WCS’s conservation efforts on big cats in more than 25 countries. His doctoral and post-doctoral work assessed the effectiveness of translocating wild lions and cheetahs, and developed reintroduction protocols which have contributed to the recovery of lions in over 50 newly-restored populations. He is a founding member of Panthera and its former President & Chief Conservation Officer, leading the organization’s field conservation programs, and supervising its scientific research program from 2008-2018. His chief interests are devising and scaling up solutions to retaliatory killing of large carnivores by rural communities, improving the status and management capacity of protected areas, and reducing impacts on cat populations of legal hunting. He has authored/co-authored more than 180 articles in scientific journals and popular media including for BioScience, National Geographic, New Scientist and Slate. He has written eight books including Cats of Africa: Behavior, Ecology, and Conservation (2006), Wild Cats of the World (2015) and Carnivores of the World (2018); and he is writing the forthcoming Princeton Encyclopedia of the Cat Family. Hunter lives just outside New York City on the urban outskirts of bobcat range in the state.
Director, Lion Recovery Fund Wildlife Conservation Network
Peter joined WCN in 2017 as the Conservation Initiatives Director and brings a lifelong passion for African wildlife conservation to the organization. He has been working on and with African wildlife since 1993, when he started out as an apprentice in Save Valley Conservancy in Zimbabwe. Peter went on to study at Oxford and ultimately graduated with a PhD from the Mammal Research Institute at the University of Pretoria.
Developing an early expertise on African wild dogs, Peter went on to work on a broad array of conservation issues ranging from predator conservation, to the threats facing them and other wildlife, to wildlife ranching and community conservation, and most recently to Africa’s vast protected area network. Peter has worked in Botswana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe and brings a unique ‘big picture’ perspective to our African conservation efforts. Prior to joining WCN, Peter worked for Panthera’s Lion Program as the policy coordinator and completed some major overviews of the issues facing the conservation of lions in Africa’s protected area network.
Wildcru, Oxford University
Claudio Sillero is the Founder of the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Program (EWCP). He grew up on a cattle ranch in Argentina, which shaped his desire for a career in wildlife conservation. In 1985 he travelled to Kenya following his dream, and after cutting his teeth studying spotted hyaenas and rhinos he was invited by the New York Zoological Society to the Bale Mountains of southern Ethiopia, to unveil the mystery of the rare Ethiopian wolves. What began as an academic pursuit turned into a lifelong career, with Claudio’s work in Ethiopia spanning four decades. Claudio has been a partner of WCN since its origin, and holds a number of other positions, including Associate Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of Oxford, Chair of the IUCN Canid Specialist Group, and Chief Scientist at Born Free Foundation. He is married to Jorgelina Marino (EWCP Science Director) and has three children.
Director of Conservation Programs Wildlife Conservation Network
Paul specializes in highly threatened and endangered species, incubating conservation startups, and building leadership capacity in the environmental field. Paul oversees WCN’s Crisis and Recovery Funds Strategy, including the Lion Recovery Fund. Prior to WCN, Paul was a director of Ewaso Lions and helped build and run the project. In addition to his work with WCN, he runs Save Pangolins, a project he co-founded to address the illegal trade of the little-known pangolin, the world’s most illegally trafficked mammal.Paul is an alum of the Emerging Wildlife Conservation Leaders program and now serves on the board. Paul holds a BSc from the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources & Environment and received his Master’s from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. He was raised in the Bay Area.
LanMar Fund
Lance C. Williams has over eighteen years of strategic marketing, communications and philanthropic experience. From 2006-2014, Lance served as the Executive Director of Brand Development at Condé Nast Traveler magazine, responsible for promoting the brand internationally through events, conferences and charity partnerships. Since 2002, Lance has served on the board of directors of the Fred B. Snite Foundation as Vice President. This Chicago-based family foundation provides grants to a variety of societal, medical and educational causes. Lance has championed the foundation’s significant support of several causes, including The Wildlife Conservation Network. In 2012, Lance co-founded The LanMar Fund, a charitable fund that supports awareness, research and action in the field of wildlife conservation, including leadership gifts for Save The Elephants’ Elephant Crisis Fund. Lance lives in New York City and Los Angeles and is an avid traveler. His frequent visits to Africa inspire his continued commitment to preserving endangered species.
WILDCRU, OXFORD UNIVERSITY
ZAMBIAN CARNIVORE PROGRAMME
EWASO LIONS
IUCN CAT SPECIALIST GROUP
IUCN CAT SPECIALIST GROUP
HOUSTON ZOO
WILDCRU, OXFORD UNIVERSITY
LION GUARDIANS
PANTHERA
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON
LION GUARDIANS
PANTHERA
WILDCRU, OXFORD UNIVERSITY
WILDCRU, OXFORD UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS/TOMPKINS CONSERVATION
HOUSTON ZOO
WILDERNESS SAFARIS LIONSCAPE COALITION
LABORATOIRE D'ECOLOGIE APPLIQUÉE, UNIVERSITY OF ABOMEY-CALAVI
WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY
THE UNIVERSITY OF DSCHANG
FRANKFURT ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY
LANMAR FUND
