Leif Cocks is the founder and President of The Orangutan Project, an international charity that has raised over $22 million for orangutan conservation since 1998.
Beginning his career as a, ZooKeeper, Curator and small population biologist at Perth Zoo, Leif has worked hands on with orangutans for more than 25 years, including establishing the most successful breeding colony of orangutans in the world, facilitating orangutan rescues and successfully reintroducing orangutans to the wild, including the first ever zoo-born orangutan.
Leif is highly regarded as a world-renowned expert on orangutans, publishing several papers in peer-reviewed journals on captive orangutans and also serving on numerous boards and technical advisory groups.
He is the author of a number of books including Finding Our Humanity and Orangutans My Cousins, My Friends.
In 2019 Leif was awarded the Order of Australia Medal from the Australian Government, and his university's highest award, the John Curtin Medal, for his dedication to species conservation.
The Eco Fight are so proud to be able to spend some time with Leif and cant wait to spend more time sharing the great work The Orangutan Project are doing in the future.