University of Natal, South Africa: B.Sc., Zoology & Psychology
University of Natal, South Africa: B.Sc., Honours, Zoology
University of Cape Town, South Africa: M.Sc., Conservation Biology
Conrad leads CI’s Ecosystem Safeguards & Stewardship program, focusing on promoting, developing and implementing key safeguards, guidance and decision-support tools to improve business practices while delivering significant net positive impacts for healthy ecosystems, particularly in the extractive sector. Conrad is CI’s technical lead on a range of private sector development planning and mitigation best practice, representing CI on the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT) Coordination Committee, High Conservation Value (HCV) Technical Panel, Business and Biodiversity Offsets Program (BBOP) Advisory Group and IUCN-Rio Tinto Net Positive Impact Partnership. He has worked closely with the IFC on their update to Performance Standard 6 and is CI’s in-house advisor on development bank safeguards. Conrad has been a senior science advisor to a number of large corporate projects in the mining, oil & gas, hydropower and oil palm sectors within developing countries and served as interim biodiversity coordinator to the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil, based in Malaysia. Conrad has also acted as technical advisor to CI’s engagement on biodiversity related policy platforms, working closely with CI’s policy team on the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) and Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
Before coming to CI, Conrad lived in Tanzania where he lectured wildlife and natural resource management as part of a national capacity-building program. Before this, he worked with a South African consultancy dealing with natural resource economics, biodiversity action planning, fisheries, ecotourism and conservation farming. Conrad began his career as a scientific ranger on the Aldabra Atoll World Heritage Site in the Seychelles, home to the last wild populations of flightless birds and giant tortoises in the Western Indian Ocean. His Master of Science at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, investigated the role of opportunity costs, attitudes and incentives in driving conservation on agricultural land in South Africa. He has a Bachelor of Science in Zoology and Psychology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Conrad speaks Afrikaans, Kiswahili and Seychellois Kreol.