**NEWS RELEASE**

OL PEJETA CONSERVANCY WELCOMES NEW CEO

March 9, 2022 - Ol Pejeta Conservancy is excited to announce the appointment of its new CEO, Justin Heath, with effect from 01 April 2022.

Justin has extensive leadership experience in conservation, community engagement, commerce, and renewable energy. He is a Kenyan citizen who has lived and worked across four continents, and is married with two children.

During his career, he has been responsible for tourism operations globally and exponentially scaled growth in rural renewable energy in Africa. He led the management of three community conservation areas in the Greater Mara Ecosystem, working in partnership with tourism partners and landowners where he juggled the needs of both community and tourism operators and developed wildlife and livestock integration programs.

During the onset of the pandemic, Justin secured significant and much-needed resilience funding for conservation in the greater Maasai Mara region.

“We are delighted to welcome Justin Heath as the new CEO, after what has been a highly competitive and thoughtful process. He has a broad and unique sphere of experience in the sectors important to Ol Pejeta. We know that he’ll be very valuable for both Ol Pejeta and the wider Conservation community. We are confident that he will be a force in developing and driving Ol Pejeta forward – in a very exciting but also challenging time”, says Chair of the Board at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Philip Coulson.

The Board would once again like to take this opportunity to thank Richard Vigne for his incredible and invaluable contribution to Ol Pejeta Conservancy. Additionally, the Board express their gratitude to the interim management committee comprised of Moses Muthoki (Chief Operations Officer), Joseph Kariuki (Chief Finance Officer), and Ken Kimani (Chief Commercial Officer), who provided support to the organisation and the Board, since Richard’s departure in November 2021.

“I am excited to be joining such an accomplished and capable team. Ol Pejeta has become a front runner in conservation, social-economic development, and innovation. I am certainly looking forward to developing the organisation further with a clear ambition to drive Ol Pejeta’s recovery, relevance, and reach,” says Justin Heath.

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Media Package
Justin Heath's photographs can be found here

Contact
Ol Pejeta Conservancy
communications@olpejetaconservancy.org or call +254 / 706 475737

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Ol Pejeta Conservancy
www.olpejetaconservancy.org

Ol Pejeta is the largest black rhino sanctuary in East and Central Africa, and home to the last two remaining northern white rhinos on the planet. It is also the only place in Kenya to see chimpanzees, in a Sanctuary established to rehabilitate animals rescued from the black market. It has some of the highest predator densities in Kenya, and still manages a very successful livestock programme. Ol Pejeta also seeks to support the people living around its borders, to ensure wildlife conservation translates to better education, healthcare, and infrastructure for the next generation of wildlife guardians. Now more than ever, wildlife conservation is inextricably linked with the livelihoods of local communities. Ol Pejeta seeks to support the people living around its borders, to ensure wildlife conservation translates to better education, healthcare, and infrastructure for the next generation of wildlife guardians.