AZZEDINE T. DOWNES
President and CEO of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) since 2012, Azzedine had worked closely with experts from across the sciences and decision makers from around the world. Working together, IFAW’s eclectic network is now helping animals and people thrive together in more than 40 countries. Azzedine has influenced international policies to create positive change on the ground. For years, he has served as the Head of the Delegation to the CITES Conference of the Parties. And recently, he directed IFAW’s successful campaign for membership to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In 2015, Fast Company named Azzedine one of the “The Most 100 Creative People in Business,” and he has been listed among The NonProfit Times’s “Power and Influence Top 50.” He is a member of the Global Tiger Forum Advisory Council, and he currently sits on the U.S. Trade and Environmental Policy Advisory Committee. Named to the prestigious Council for Hope of the Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation in 2023, Azzedine joins a group of prominent global thought and business leaders committed to using their influence to improve the world around us. A graduate of Providence College and Harvard University, Azzedine is fluent in Arabic, English, and French. His personal memoir, The Couscous Chronicles: Stories of Food, Love, And Donkeys from a Life Between Cultures, was published in June 2023.
NEHA PANCHAMIYA
Neha Panchamiya, Founder and President, RESQ.
Neha Panchamiya is an animal rescue specialist and conservationist with over 15 years of experience in working with animals at grassroots level in Maharashtra. She is the Founder and President of RESQ, Pune whose rescue and rehabilitation work has provided direct aid to thousands of animals of over 200+ different species since 2007. Neha runs a wildlife rehabilitation centre in Pune which receives over 2000+ wild animals annually. Additionally, the organisation provides rehabilitation and medical aid to over 10,000 abandoned animals annually. She leads a team of 60+ full time team who dedicatedly works towards the organisation’s vision of conservation and coexistence between wildlife, communities and their animals through their response and prevention verticals.
Neha’s work is focused on coexistence between animals and communities living in human-dominated landscapes, and her efforts are largely driven towards reducing negative interactions between communities and wildlife, developing animal emergency services, community education initiatives, building capacity to raise captive wildlife welfare standards and bridge gaps between public policy and its implementation in India.
PHILIP J. LYMBERY
Philip Lymbery is Global Chief Executive of the international farmed animal welfare environmental organisation, Compassion in World Farming (CIWF). He is visiting Professor at the University of Winchester in the UK, President of the Brussels-based umbrella body of nearly 100 leading animal welfare societies in Europe, Eurogroup for Animals, and is a founding Board member of the World Federation for Animals (WFA), a global membership organisation to represent the animal protection movement at intergovernmental level. Philip Lymbery has played leading roles in many major animal welfare reforms, including Europe-wide bans on veal crates for calves and barren battery cages for laying hens. Described as one of the food industry’s most influential people, he has spearheaded Compassion’s engagement work with over 1000 food companies worldwide, leading to real improvements in the lives of more than a billion farm animals every year.
His awards include Recipient of the ‘Outstanding Campaign’ award by Brussels based Eurogroup for Animals and the 2015 ‘International Golden Dove’ peace prize in Rome. His first book Farmageddon was listed as one of The Times Writers Books of the Year.