The Team

Johan grew up in Pretoria and even though he spent most of his school and university years in the city, he fondly remembers many a holiday to the family farm in Natal.  This sparked his love for nature, wilderness and wide open spaces.  Johan worked in his early career as a legal assistant, director of a specialist travel service provider, and later as a business development manager for a global retail travel group.  Throughout his career in business and the corporate sector he always nurtured his love for nature and wildlife by means of regular visits to many of the wilderness areas, parks and game reserves around South Africa.  In 2005, Johan pursued his passion for South Africa and established a unique volunteer tourism organisation which provides manpower and funding for conservation efforts in the region.

As a Founder of this organisation he realized the need for an effective platform whereby stakeholders in conservation can engage with the international scientific community and first world travellers to further conservation and research aims in local areas of ecological importance.  WEI was birthed in 2008 to foster such collaboration and resulted in many applied research projects between game reserves, conservation managers, university students, academic researchers, land owners and reserve managers.

Ian comes from a town not too far from Johannesburg.  As a child he was introduced to all the wonders of the natural world and fell in love with the African bush, where after he took every opportunity to spend time in our game reserves and parks.  After school Ian could not immediately pursue his dream of living in the bush but waited for the right opportunity in conservation.  Ian became a field guide at the age of 21 and ever since the bush has become his home.  He started his guiding career in a private game reserve, where after he moved to WEI where he is the Camp Manager at the Predators camp in Greater Kruger National Park.  Ian pursues every opportunity to learn something new about conservation ecology and enjoys hobbies such as rifle practise, fishing and hiking.

Dr. Teren’s role as Research and Training Manager of WEI is to ensure the scientific research at our multiple project sites is of the highest quality and to communicate with reserve managers to implement programmes which support the reserve’s immediate and long-term needs.  She is also responsible for designing the academic content for educational programmes and supervising dissertations and post graduate research.  Dr. Teren did her PhD on elephant impact on biodiversity at Wits University in Johannesburg and remains an honorary research associate at this institute.  Her main research interests are savanna dynamics and disturbance, remote sensing, biodiversity conservation, and fynbos restoration.  In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, playing with her dogs on the beach, and enjoying the cape wine lands. 

Eugene grew up exploring the countryside of Johannesburg and going on expedition trips into the South African wilds with his parents during holidays which set the scene for a career in conservation.  After leaving school, Eugene studied Nature Conservation and began a career as Field Guide in the world renowned Kruger National Park.  After achieving FGASA Level 3 with Specialist Knowledge Skills in Advanced Rifle Handling and Dangerous Animals he started training and assessing field guides.  Eugene left the field guiding industry in 2010 to move to Cape Town with his wife and 2 sons and took up a position in Environmental Impact studies.  Missing the excitement of the bush and his passion for sharing his knowledge on African wildlife, birds and ecology, Eugene returned to the conservation research field as Operation Unit Manager for WEI.  Eugene has supervised numerous field guides, managed several game lodges and lead scientific expeditions over that past 15 years.  Between his travels, Eugene spends time with his family (2 sons) by exploring the Western Cape coastline and photographing the spectacular fauna and flora it has to offer.  

Stephan was born in the city of Johannesburg, but his heart has always been in the bush.  Stephan has always had adoration for the gift of life, whether it is animals or humans. His passion had always been to share and enjoy creation.  Naturally all forms of adventure sport that gave him more exposure to this became hobbies.  The African bush had made enough of an impact that conservation had become the natural career choice.  This led him to complete his bachelor degrees in Theology and Ecology at The University of Pretoria.  Later on he completed a BSc Honours in Ecology from the University of the Witwatersrand.  Stephan has worked in all areas of conservation including research, fire regimes, reserve management, problem animal control and anti-poaching.  In 2015 Stephan joined the team at WEI to continue with the organisation’s goal of applied ecological research.  

Arno Kilian was born in Johannesburg but moved to Empangeni a small town in northern Kwa Zulu Natal.  He grew up spending most of his life in or near the Indian Ocean on the East Coast of South Africa.  Arno has been diving since 2005 and loves diving in Sodwana Bay especially because of the diverse marine life in this region.  He has a Sport Science Degree and was intensely involved with the South African Rugby Union for 8 years.  Arno’s passion is to teach and guide people into the aquatic world of the Indian Ocean at Sodwana Bay Marine National Park.  Marine Conservation is very close to his heart and he believes teaching scuba divers an appreciation for the biodiversity of our oceans is an effective way to conserve our marine ecosystems.  Arno also enjoys surfing, boxing, free diving and anything that allows him to be outside in nature.

Emilia Murcott was born in Johannesburg but her heart has always been with the ocean. City life holds little appeal to her and, while not without its challenges, the simple, small beach town life is the one for Emilia.  For Emilia her role as Camp Manager of WEI’s Sodwana Bay Camp is like a dream come true.  You won’t find better diving on the east coast of Africa, and being able to share our natural wonders with students and volunteers from around the world is truly fulfilling.  Emilia has learned from experience that understanding the reef ecosystem, its components and interactions, greatly increases enjoyment as a diver, but also better equips them to spread a message of conservation.  Emilia is proud to be able to share her knowledge and passion, and also to be continually learning more!  Emilia have a BSc Honours degree in Zoology from Wits University and has also volunteered and worked at a marine conservation centre in Mexico on the Caribbean Coast. Other than scuba diving Emilia enjoys reading, dancing, cooking, and lazy days in the sun.

Quintin grew up on a farm and from a young age loved nature and wildlife.  After school he completed his Nature Guide training qualification and Professional Hunter certification.  Quintin worked as a professional hunter for a number of years before he moved to Malelane to pursue a career in the corporate world.  He progressed rapidly in his career but his longing for the African bush remained constant.  Quintin joined WEI in 2016 to pursue his passion to work in wildlife conservation.  He is much loved by all his students and enjoys sharing his intuitive knowledge of nature with students and volunteers at our camp in Greater Kruger National Park. 

Norman has been a Student Coordinator at WEI for a number of years.  He started out in the countryside town of Bela Bela in the game rich Limpopo province.  After completing his National Diploma in Nature Conservation and field guide training, he continued to work as guide on a number of private game reserves in the region.  Norman has an exceptional skill to engage with many different personalities which has made him very popular with students at our camp in Dinokeng Game Reserve.  Norman has a particular interest in teaching young people from our neighbouring communities around the reserve, and how their actions affect conservation into the future. 

Pieter has always had a passion and love for nature and from a young age he wanted to follow a career in the wildlife industry.  After school he obtained a Nature Conservation, Field Guide, Game Lodge and Reserve Management qualification.  During his studies he gained extensive practical experience in game lodge management, working in a big game environment and professional field guiding.  Pieter recently joined WEI at our camp in the Greater Kruger National Park where he lives out his passion to work in the wildlife industry and share his love for conservation with people from around the globe.  He is having a lot of fun while learning more about conservation ecology every day.

Tomos was one of the original WEI team, leading the research and training programme development up until 2015. Now the Head of Conservation & Development for WWT and an Honorary Research Associate at Oxford Brookes University, Tomos maintains an interest in WEI's work, and offers advice on conservation strategy and project development.

Dr. Nkabeng Maruping-Mzileni completed an Advanced Major in Biology at St Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada. She returned home to southern Africa to follow her interest in Conservation Ecology. Nkabeng holds an Honours and Masters in Wildlife Management from the University of Pretoria. In 2015 she obtained a DTech in Nature Conservation from Tshwane University of Technology. Her dissertation topic, bovine tuberculosis in African lions, addressed ecological knowledge gaps while stimulating new research. During her studies she had the African bush as her home, including the Kruger National Park. Nkabeng 's lecturing experience includes Game Ranch Management, Nature Conservation and Eco-tourism. In her current position as Research and Training Manager with WEI, Nkabeng has spread her focus to cover a wider ecological range.