Damien Mander is an Australia-born, Zimbabwe-basedenvironmentalist. In 2009 while travelling through Africa post-military, he wasinspired by the plight of wildlife. Liquidating his life savings, heestablished the non-profit Akashinga, formerly known as the InternationalAnti-Poaching Foundation (IAPF), to usher in a new era of community-based,results-driven conservation in which all life can thrive.
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Damien is also the co-founder of LEAD Ranger — an innovative, ISO 9001certified, internationally recognised leadership training programme whoseclients include some of the most reputable conservation organisations in Africa— as well as the Conservation Landscape Alliance (CLA), a collective oforganisations working together to achieve landscape-scale conservation in thecommunity owned wilderness areas of Africa.

He is the winner of the 2019 Winsome Constance Kindness Gold Medal, aprestigious international recognition for services to animals and humanity.Past recipients include Sir David Attenborough and Dr Jane Goodall. He wasfeatured in the James Cameron documentaries The Game Changers and NationalGeographic’s Akashinga - The Brave Ones about his work with the all-femaleAkashinga Rangers.  His TEDx talk at the Sydney Opera House on speciesismhas been translated into 27 languages. He is a resident on the NationalGeographic Live Speakers Bureau and has spoken at the United Nations as well asHarvard University. He was featured in June 2019’s National GeographicMagazine, three times on 60 Minutes, and has been recognised by the DutchGovernment as a Gender Champion.