Yussuf Adan Wato

Board Director at Wildlife Research & Training Institute & Head of Biodiversity, Research & Innovation at WWF-Kenya

A visionary and inspiring leader with 24 years of experience in the Nature Conservation sector. I have served in senior management roles with key responsibility of providing strategic direction at respected and impactful Governmental and, both local and Global Non-Governmental conservation organization. I am currently a Board Director at the Wildlife Research & Training Institute providing oversight to the CEO and the Senior Management team. I also lead a senior team of experts at the Worldwide Fund for Nature – Kenya who are responsible for Biodiversity, Research & Innovation Programs at the National, Regional & Global level. I have an extensive people management experience having led over 300 staff in my previous role where I managed to mentor, up-skill and coach many to become star performers and grow in their career to assume leadership roles. I have excellent fund raising skills and strongly believe in program sustainability. I am passionate about Nature Conservation and aspire to lead people and organization whose mission is to conserve nature to underpin sustainable development in Kenya, Africa and the World

I graduated with a PhD in Production Ecology & Resource Conservation from Wageningen University, The Netherlands. I have published a number of peer reviewed papers in various high impact scientific journals.