About our Founder

Allan Ward is the Founder and President of Lead Manage Conserve, a 501(c)(3) organisation dedicated to strengthening leadership and governance in conservation settings across Africa.

His work in leadership and management began long before the organisation existed. After starting his consultancy career in 2003, Allan worked with clients across the UK, Europe, Asia, and Africa, eventually basing himself in Nairobi. Over the past two decades he has supported national and international organisations and built a team of trainers who now work across the continent.

Raised in rural coastal Scotland and originally trained in biology, mathematics, economics, sociology, and psychology, Allan’s early professional years were spent in marine mammal research in the UK and Antarctica. Leading multinational teams in tough field conditions shaped his practical, people-centred approach to leadership. His research contributed to global discussions on issues such as the commercial whaling ban.

He later spent more than a decade with GlaxoWellcome and Bristol-Myers Squibb in sales, training, marketing, and business development.

Allan has a relationship with Kenya that spans more than thirty years. Since 2014, most of his work has focused on community conservancies in northern and coastal Kenya and Tanzania—supporting senior leaders in conservation organisations as well as elders and community boards. One conservation director recently remarked that the impact of the training on newly trained boards is “transformational.”

The approach used by Lead Manage Conserve is the result of Allan’s three decades of practical experience in leadership, management, adult learning, and behavioural change. This grounded, field-tested methodology continues to shape the organisation’s work and its impact in conservation communities.