Patrick Bergin found his love for Africa while serving in the Peace Corps in Tanzania and initially joined African Wildlife Foundation as a Community Conservation Project Officer in 1990. Within AWF, Patrick pioneered initiatives that forge linkages between conservation and human well-being. Patrick was appointed Chief Executive Officer in 2001 — a position he held until 2017 — and under his leadership, AWF saw significant growth and change, including the formulation of AWF’s successful large landscape approach to conservation, the establishment of our Nairobi-based headquarters, internationalization of AWF’s Board of Trustees, and a tripling of AWF’s operating budget. Patrick holds an MS in the management of extension systems from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a PhD in development from the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom. He also served on the Advisory Council to the U.S.  Presidential Task Force on Wildlife Trafficking.