The College is both proud and excited to advise on the appointment of Dr. Joseph Okori who will be joining the Southern African Wildlife College as Executive Manager, Business Operations following a rigorous interview process. Dr. Okori will officially take up his position on site on 1 November 2022, under the leadership of CEO, Theresa Sowry.
His network base covers the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), the Greater Eastern African Republics and Asian States (India & Nepal) where he has supported enabling policies, regulations and guidelines, programme management and coordination, capacity building, and communications on biodiversity conservation.
Having qualified as a wildlife veterinarian, Joseph brings with him a wealth of experience to the College both as a seasoned conservationist and as a project manager by profession. He has worked in government departments and parastatals, non-governmental organizations, and engagements at international policy forums in both technical and management capacities.
All of these attributes are well suited to the role as is his management experience in providing innovative team leadership as well as organisational strategic and financial budgetary controls designed to meet overall institution outputs and targets. Moreover, he has a strong and keen ability for team building, teamwork and motivation of members, promotion of institutional values, strategic planning, policies, and collaborative linkages to upscale both organisational operational performance and efficiency in a cost-effective manner.
“I am excited to be involved in actively contributing towards biodiversity conservation, environmental management, and organisational processes through a regional, inter-disciplinary and sustainable team approach,” said Dr Okori. “I’m also looking forward to being part of a team dedicated to uplifting livelihoods while engaging in driving integrated holistic strategies that harness latent potentials of students and staff,” he added.
“Joseph’s ability to get people of diverse skill, varied interdisciplinary backgrounds working together to address a common challenge, will stand him in good stead in his new role, as will his ability to bring different strategies together for a common objective. He is also well versed in the management of operations and processes for the programmes and projects under his ambit, and as such we are extremely happy to have him on board,” said Theresa.
Dr. Okori will work closely with the other two Executive Managers, Jeanné Poultney, Executive Manager: Marketing, Fundraising and Media Relations and Sharmain Hanekom, Executive Manager: Finance. Reporting into Dr Okori will be the Head: Compliance and Quality Management, the Head: Operations which includes Maintenance and Hospitality, as well as the ITC department.
