Jon Hutton took over the role of WWF Executive Director, Global Conservation Impact and WWF International SMT member in December 2020, after five years as Director of the Luc Hoffmann Institute in Gland, Switzerland. Previously, he spent 10 years as a Director in UNEP, leading the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) in Cambridge, UK. Before UNEP, he worked for 25 years on nature conservation and rural development issues in Africa.
An ecologist who trained for a first degree at the University of Cambridge followed by a doctorate in African wildlife management at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare, Jon went on to work in Africa in a range of leadership positions directly linked to nature, natural resources and rural development in government, NGOs and the private sector.
Jon has strong academic qualifications and interests covering issues such as conservation policy, wildlife and protected area management, community-based natural resource management, the sustainable use of natural resources and the relationship between conservation and poverty. In recognition of his academic interests, he was elected Professor of Sustainable Resource Management at the University of Kent in 2007 and a Fellow of Hughes Hall College, Cambridge in 2017.