UK-Based Board Members

Professor Phyllis Lee

Phyllis Lee (BA, Human Biology - Stanford; PhD, Zoology - Cambridge) is a professor of Psychology at the University of Stirling. She specialises in environmental psychology and animal behaviour, and has been working with elephants for the past thirty years. She has traced the development of individually known elephants in Amboseli, Kenya from birth through to their middle age, and has watched many of her cohort die due to human activities. She and her students and colleagues work on human-wildlife interaction in monkeys, apes, and Asian elephants (conflict, competition, ecotourism, and habitat conservation issues) from Brazil to Indonesia, as well as across Africa. In addition to her role as a trustee with Space for Giants, she is the Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Amboseli Trust for Elephants (Kenya). Phyllis joined the board of trustees for Space for Giants UK in 2011.

Lord Clement-Jones

Lord Clement-Jones was made a life peer in 1998 and until July 2004 was the Liberal Democrat Health Spokesman. Thereafter until the General Election 2010 he was Liberal Democrat Spokesman on Culture, Media and Sport in the House of Lords. Tim was Chairman of the Liberal Party from 1986 to 1988 and played a major part in the merger negotiations with the Social Democratic Party to form the Liberal Democrats. He was the Treasurer of the Liberal Democrats from 2005-2010. He introduced and ensured the passage through the House of Lords of the 2003 Tobacco Advertising and Sponsorship Act. He is now sponsoring the Live Music Bill designed to deregulate the licensing of live music performance in small venues.

He is Vice Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on China, Turkey and the UAE and Ovarian Cancer. He is an Icebreaker fellow of the 48 Group Club and a member of the Liberal Democrat Friends of India. Tim is also the Honorary Chairman of the China Economic Policy Research Centre in London. 

Lord Clement-Jones is the London Managing Partner at DLA Piper and heads up International Business Relations. He runs various international desks including China, Korea, Middle East and Germany.

Dr Jane Galton

Jane Galton holds a PhD & MBA and has been working as a senior development manager and professional fundraiser in the international health & development sector for many years. Jane is a founding member of the UK board of trustees and aims to bring her considerable experience in grant development to help Space for Giants resources its conservation programmes.

Tom Brunner

Tom Brunner is senior marketing executive for Microsoft. He has played a key role in the strategic development of brands for major international corporations, in addition to helping Microsoft ensure its brands remain some of the most competitive in the world. Tom has spent many years travelling to Kenya where he has built up direct experience of the conservation challenges that Space for Giants is now planning to tackle. Tom is a founding trustee of Space for Giants.

Michael Count

Michael Count (Cambridge University BSc, BA, MA, Maths & Economics) is currently a fund manager for Canada Life Investments and is based in London. Mike captained Cambridge University at the 2001 Varsity match, after which he went on to play professional rugby in Italy & the UK. He has since built up major experience in international finance which he is drawing on to help with developing and managing Space for Giants' UK fund & accounts. Mike's family has a long history of work & adventure in Africa, mainly in and around Malawi. He is currently the treasurer for Space for Giants.

African-based board members

Josep Oriol

Josep (Spanish, 39) has majors in Law from the Universidad Internacional de Catalunya and Political Science from the Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona in Spain and an MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business in the USA. Josep’s experience as a corporate attorney and venture capitalist spans Europe (Banco Santander), the USA (Aurora Funds) and Africa (Ciel Capital). He also spent 3 years as the CEO of the Spanish and Portuguese subsidiary of WNI, a publicly-listed Japanese multi-national. He has been actively involved in conservation since 2001 and been working full-time in conservation and private equity in Africa since 2006. Josep heads the Kibo Fund ($45m private equity fund) in East Africa, Conservation Capital’s partnership with Verde Ventures ($20m+ debt fund for conservation enterprise). Josep joined the board of Space for Giants in 2011.

Dr Boniface Kiteme

Dr Boniface Kiteme is the founder & director of the Centre for Training and Research in ASAL Development, a Kenyan-based institution that was bilaterally created & funded by the Swiss & Kenyan Governments. Boniface is a senior research associate of the University of Berne and has worked in the field of sustainable development for most of his professional life. He brings considerable experience to the board of Space for Giants. He was a key figure in the creation of Space for Giants' predecessor, the Laikipia Elephant Project, and has greatly helped provide a national and international platform and voice for Space for Giants with a view to improving the policy and practice of wildlife conservation in East Africa. Dr Kiteme joined the board of Space for Giants in 2011.

Dr Anthony King

Dr Anthony King holds an MSc from the London School of Economics & Political Science and a PhD from the University of Warwick. Anthony has over 20 years of on the ground experience in community-based natural resource management in East Africa (both in marine & terrestrial environments). He recently stepped down as the executive director of the Laikipia Wildlife Forum (www.laikipia.org) where he transformed the organisation into an internationally respected voice for Laikipians and Kenyans, improving the policy and practice of wildlife conservation across the country. Anthony became a trustee of Space for Giants in 2011.

David Gachuche

David is a Kenyan software development entrepreneur & business executive specialising in spatial tracking & interactive "real time" mapping. He is the founder and executive director of Rivercross Technologies, providing tracking solutions for major transport companies in Africa. David has also been closely involved in the development of cutting edge innovative wildlife tracking software solutions in Kenya. He is a founding trustee of Space for Giants.