John Scanlon

CEO, EPI Foundation; Chair, Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime

John served as Secretary-General of the CITES Secretariat from 2010-2018, and was founding Chair of the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC) in 2010. He then joined African Parks as its first Special Envoy from 2018-2020. John is now the CEO of the Elephant Protection Initiative Foundation, Chair of the Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime and Chair of the UK Governments’ IWT Challenge Fund. John has worked in the private sector, in government and in senior positions with the World Commission on Dams, in Cape Town, South Africa; IUCN in Bonn, Germany; and UNEP in Nairobi, Kenya, where he served as Principal Adviser on Policy and Programme to the Executive Director and Team Leader of the Strategic Implementation Team. In Australia, after starting his career in private legal practice, John served as Chief Executive of the Department of Environment, Heritage and Aboriginal Affairs, Commissioner on the Murray Darling Basin Commission and as an adviser to State and Federal Environment Ministers. He established the Environmental Defender’s Office in his home State in 1992 and served as its founding Chair. John holds a Bachelor of Laws, Master of Laws (Environmental), and is an accredited mediator. In 2019, he was awarded the prestigious Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for distinguished service to wildlife conservation and protection through roles with international organizations.