Richard McLellan

CEO at NACC (Northern Agricultural Catchments Council)

I have had the most amazing life and working career since I left UWA, and while a large part of that is due to having “that piece of paper” – my UWA BSc degree – I’d also rank highly the inspiration and confidence that I got from my fellow students and lecturers. There’s never been anything, ever since, that I thought I couldn’t do.

That confidence has manifest in my working career, encouraging me to take advantage of a myriad of opportunities that have come my way – particularly since I joined WWF, the global conservation organisation, in 2000. Since then I’ve worked in Australia, Cambodia and Switzerland and, at one time, managed staff in 30 countries when I was the Director of the Global Forest and Trade Network. I got to see a lot of the planet during that time … and the trouble it’s in.

My passion is environmental conservation. I pretty much live and breathe it, and try to live by the conservation mantra of “think global, act local”.

Over the years I’ve been fortunate to work in a variety of fields, but it is my years in conservation that have given me the most satisfaction. Working for a global conservation organisation was a constant source of inspiration in itself, providing daily opportunities to work with passionate and committed environmentalists – from field staff to farmers, foresters to astronauts. (The astronaut was Andre Kuipers – with whom I conducted the first-ever book launch from space: the 2012 edition of the Living Planet Report, from the International Space Station, in collaboration with the European Space Agency and NASA).

Now back in Australia, I work a bit closer to Earth, catalysing community-based natural resource management in mid-west WA to achieve conservation and sustainable development outcomes.

Read more about Richard's story here.